The following links have come from my bookmarks and Google Reader subscriptions. I can’t promise that these are “The Best Writing Sites You’ll Ever Find!”, or even that they’re ones I visit much. The truth is, I don’t browse the web for this sort of thing nearly as much as I should. What I can promise about the following links is that at some point, someone, or some site that I respected recommended these sites. I can also promise that I have given them at least a cursory once over to determine that they have some useful content (otherwise I would not have added them to my list o’ stuff).

Anyway, here they are! Please enjoy and share, and add your favourite links to the comments.

General writing sites

• WriteMindset
• Daily Writing Tips
• Writing Forward

Sites on grammar and writing technique

• The Economist style guide
• Grammar girl
• Wikihow – How to use English Punctuation Correctly
• Sparknotes Grammar Guide
• Nathan Bransford – literary agent

Site on self-publishing

• The Creative Penn
• myebook
• smashwords
• Authonomy
• eHow – How to self-publish a book

First off, “On Writing” is an excellent book, and you should read it. I don’t know why I didn’t read it much much earlier.

The chapter in question concerned grammar (it’s only a short bit, and still interesting, so don’t let that put you off). Recently I had been a bit worried about whether to use adjectives or not, and especially in dialogue attribution (he said, angrily, for example). I’ve never liked using it. It always felt wrong and looked childish. But there was a nagging feeling that maybe I should be using it sometimes. After all, the words were invented for a reason.

But Stephen King says otherwise, and as soon as I read it I knew I was being stupid all along. Of course I was right! It didn’t even warrant the slightest bit of worry. Still, it’s nice to have your thoughts confirmed by a master.

I knew it already because Stephen King knew it. I read loads of King when I was younger,  so it’s no surprise that I should pick up good habits from his writing, and others. And that’s the second point of this post. It sounds obvious, but we should all be reading. Read read read read read. You probably don’t read enough – I know I don’t.

Do you sometimes have a crisis of confidence over silly little things? Maybe you disagree about adjectives. Any good examples of where they work really well?