James Stryker: Aspiring To Walden WWi-Fi
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Writing Resources

Where would we be without tools and tricks to keep our heads straight throughout the writing/querying process? Below are a few documents and links I've found helpful. I hope you find them useful as well!

Writing Competitions and events

For most events, I've tried to leave the corresponding website in the description. If there are any I'm missing on the calendar, please let me know!

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I'm pretty anal when it comes to organization, and I have multiple manuscripts I'm currently querying. I put together this tracker to help me keep tabs on progress and plot future agents/publishers to query (standard abbreviations in the Action column).

Query Tracker

blank_query_tracker.xlsx
File Size: 25 kb
File Type: xlsx
Download File


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This workbook has been invaluable to me in prepping for the Twitter pitch contests. I tinker with potential tweets in column B while it counts the characters for me :) I then load them all into Tweetdeck in advance. No frantic last minute posts for me :)

PitMad Workbook

blank_pitmad_workbook.xls
File Size: 31 kb
File Type: xls
Download File


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An awesome resource for literary agents. This website can also be used to track query status, but I mainly use it to reference comments and get a feel for agent response times.
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A thesaurus is a thesaurus, right? Wrong! I love Power Thesaurus because users contribute to the synonyms. I then receive a diverse range on words you wouldn't typically find in a thesaurus.
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I'm on MS Wishlist all the time to see what agents are specifically looking for. There's also "Ask Agent", "Pub Tips", "Queries", "Agents", and "Word War."
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Two reasons I love Wordle: When I paste in my full MS, overly used words stand out right away. And it's also beautiful :) I'll re-run it until I find one I love and save it.
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I don't choose character names only based on meaning, but I'm often curious about what the names I choose mean. This is one of my favorite sites to check it out.
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Not a duplicate of above - This is for the surnames! My favorite feature - the advanced search based not only on first letter, but syllables.

Other Links

Click on the images to the left to be linked to websites I frequently visit when planning/editing a book.

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Writing Books

To the left are books about writing that I've found particularly helpful. By clicking on their covers, you'll be linked to Amazon.com