Top Websites for Aspiring Writers
Higher Education Articles November 22, 2012Are you an aspiring writer seeking advice on the internet on how to write, including help with grammar and peer reviews? Then, this article is for you, these are top websites that aspiring writers like yourself can visit and improve on your writing skills. This has a mixed of sites that aim to boost creativity, some that offer grammar assistance and others that have written communities and courses.
Websites for Aspiring Writers
About Fiction Writing (http://fictionwriting.about.com/) – The About.com Guide to Fiction Writing aims at providing creative inspiration to writers as well as advice for newbie fiction writers.
About Freelance Writing (http://freelancewrite.about.com/) – This site offers freelance writing assignments to adult writers apart from writing tips and advice.
AutoCrit (http://autocrit.com/) – You can check for clichés, and grammar and other mistakes with the AutoCrit Editing Wizard, there are other useful writing resources here.
Bartleby (http://www.bartleby.com/) – Young writers can use the free online books here to master grammar rules, including The American Heritage Book of English Usage.
Book-In-A-Week (http://www.book-in-a-week.com/) – A place where writers write together and comment on each other’s work.
Chomp Chomp (http://www.chompchomp.com/) – This is a great destination if you want definitions to grammar terms, videos, interactive exercises, handouts and grammar rules.
Claremont Review (http://www.theclaremontreview.ca/) – This online magazine highlights works of young adults who can access writing tips devised by eminent authors and participate in an annual writing contest for teenagers.
Daily Grammar (http://www.dailygrammar.com/) – This site gives free access to five hundred quizzes and grammar lessons. It has glossary and workbooks.
First Writer (http://www.firstwriter.com/) – Professional writers use this site to find publishers and agents, and to take part in writing competitions. Some features are available only to paying members though there is a free trial.
Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/) – Get grammar tips from Mignon Fogarty, a.k.a. Grammar Girl. Readers can submit their specific questions on grammar.
Guide to Grammar and Style – Young writers can use Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style to get usage suggestions and to read about grammar rules in detail.
His Creative Writing Prompts (http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/) – This site provides inspiration to writers with over three hundred creative writing prompts.
Ink Pop (http://figment.com) – This is a Harper-and-Collins site offering advice and tips to young writers who if lucky enough can meet a Harper Collins editor.
Ink Provoking (http://inkprovoking.com/) – As the name suggests, this site is all about creative prompts, with a new prompt added every weekend.
Language Is a Virus (http://www.languageisavirus.com/) – Writers can use the automatic prompt generator on this site for ideas. They can access information on many authors apart from writing exercises.
Literary Marketplace (http://www.literarymarketplace.com/) – This site provides contact information for several small presses as well as Canadian, US and International publishers.
Media Bistro (http://www.mediabistro.com/) – This is popularly rated as the best place for freelance writers to find work. There are event listings, forums and blogs among other resources, at this site.
Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/) – This is an easy-to-use online dictionary and thesaurus, including features such as free downloads, word games, podcasts, and a Word of the Day.
MIT Writing OCW (http://ocw.mit.edu/) – Many free college-level writing courses offered by MIT via their Open Course Ware program that are listed on site.
NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) – NaNoWriMo is an acronym for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, children under 12 are challenged to write a novel of 50,000 words by the site’s young writers’ section. Aspiring participants over 12 should join the adult avatar of the program.
Newbie-Writers (http://www.newbiewriters.com/) – New writers can learn the ropes on this site and get publishing assistance, apart from an 85 page ebook when they sign up for a free newsletter.
Pomegranate Words (http://www.pomegranatewords.com/) – This one has a magazine dedicated to adolescent authors, free lessons in fiction and poetry, and critiquing services.
Reach Every Child (http://www.reacheverychild.com/) – Aimed at encouraging writers of 12 years and under, this site lists over 40 publishers that accept works in art, poems and stories.
Scholastic (http://www.scholastic.com/) – Kids and teachers alike can learn the basics of writing and look for other inspiration here.
Story Spinner Online (http://www.bonnieneubauer.com/storyspinner.shtml) – Bonnie Neubauer instructs writers with millions of ideas via her Online Story Spinner.
Syntaxis (http://www.syntaxis.com/): You can test your grammar knowledge by answering the (constantly changing) ten-question quiz here.
Teen Ink (http://www.teenink.com/) – This site accepts works of teen writers and provides community forums to facilitate submission for peer review.
Teen Voices (http://www.teenvoices.com/) – Similar to Teen Ink, this site accepts writing work from teen writers.
The Dabbling Mum (http://thedabblingmum.com/) – This site offers 30 days of prompts that all types of writers can use to create articles of 500 to 1,000 words.
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/) – This is the ideal place to learn rules of usage and grammar.
The Story Kitchen (http://www.brucevanpatter.com/storykitchen.html) – At this site, a story is started for you to finish employing elements of your choice.
The Story Starter (http://thestorystarter.com/) – the site employs an automatic generator to create over one billion creative writing ideas.
The Writer’s Workshop (http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/) – The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Center for Writing Studies runs this site that offers a grammar handout including basic rules of grammar.
U.S. Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov/) – All writers regardless of age can benefit from this site that guides with all the knowledge you need about copyright while providing a section for registering your work.
Writers Market (http://www.writersmarket.com/) – This site helps young writers who wants to learn where they can sell their work. A yearly subscription of $29.99 and comes with a 7-day money back guarantee.
Writer’s Digest (http://www.writersdigest.com/) – This site is for all writers regardless of their age and who aspire to write well, with guidelines to get work published, creative writing prompts, writing tips, forums and blogs.
Writing (http://www.writing.com/) – Offer free membership to writers, which allow all writers from novices to masters to display their talent on the Internet.
Young Writers Online (http://www.youngwritersonline.net/) – This is a young scribe’s community with a forum for submission of work to be critiqued and another forum for general chat about writing.
Young Writer’s Society (http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/) – This is ideal for writers between thirteen and twenty-five years old that aims at exclusively helping members to become better writers.
