Jon Thomason's Top Ten
Resources for Writers
Rather
than give a list of books about writing, the following are a set of
tools and resources that will let you work faster and better, and get
that award-winning novel finished and ready for publication! You supply
the story.
10. The Style Guide for the Economist (http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction). Learn to write precisely, concisely, and well. From the best-written news periodical ever.
9.http://translate.google.com. In case you want some foreign language text. Make sure to have someone fluent double check it!
8. The Chicago Manual of Style (online or print edition): http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.
Seriously. Look up how quotes work, em dashes, or anything else you
have a question about. It's all there and perfectly authoritative.
7. Roget's Thesaurus. Still the best. Or you can go to thesaurus.com, but I prefer Roget's. Seriously, don't repeat words. Learn some new ways of saying things.
6. Wikipedia (duh!). It's so much easier to do novel research now than in the "old days."
5. Google maps (ditto). Satellite maps, and especially street view! Much faster (but much less fun) than traveling there.
4. Apple Maps on iPad. Though often panned, their 3D view gives you an almost unmatched ability to visualize the places you might be writing about.
3. MacBook Air:
the ultimate writer's computer, especially in 11": take it anywhere and
write. Good battery life, full-sized keyboard (don't even think about
trying to write on an iPad), plenty of horsepower for daily writing.
Plug it in at home to a big monitor!
2. My favorite writing software, Scrivener (for Mac and Windows): http://literatureandlatte.com.
I couldn't live without it: plot with "index cards", write a scene at a
time, reorder and reorganize, then use their "compile" feature to build
a manuscript or e-book or both! My favorite obscure feature? The "name
generator." Generate a list of random names. Even lets you choose
nationalities, alliteration, etc. Amazing!
1. iTunes. Enough said.
Max Xylander and the Island of Zumuruud
Jon Thomason lives with his family in San Diego, after many years living in the beautiful Seattle area. He has a successful career in high tech where he's been fortunate enough to participate in many big-name industry releases.
Storytelling permeates everything he does. In the moments when Jon is not helping build the story of the tech world, he can almost always be found working on a project: writing, photography, videography, graphics design, or 3D art.
And he's always careful to conceal his jinni magic abilities, though perhaps might slip one day and be discovered...
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