Links for Writers in South Africa
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News Sites for Journalists
- Google News – top stories of the day.
- Mail & Guardian – current affairs.
- Noseweek – SA investigative journalism magazine (now discontinued).
- iol – SA’s top news site.
Online Dictionaries
- Princeton’s Dictionary and Thesaurus
- One Look Reverse Dictionary – enter a word, phrase, description or pattern in the search bar to find synonyms, related words and more.
- The Free Dictionary – another excellent dictionary and thesaurus.
International Writing Markets and Writing Competitions
- The Short Story – short story collections, tips, articles, events, competitions, workshops and projects.
- Duotrope – a subscription-based service listing over 7,000 active fiction, poetry, non-fiction and visual art publishers and agents.
- Worldwide Freelance – one of the largest online databases of freelance writing markets. Plus, writer’s guidelines for 2,000+ publications.
- Firstwriter – writing competitions.
- Writers’ Forum is a high-quality monthly UK magazine for writers of all genres, fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They run frequent competitions. Issues can be purchased here.
- Flash500 – flash fiction, short story, and novel opening competitions.
Fiction Writing Links
- Creative Writing Now – writing tips, ideas, articles and courses to get you going.
- The Story Starter – randomly generated writing prompts.
- Timeline Generator – generate a timeline of events for your story.
- Reedsy plot generator – randomly generated plot combinations to inspire you.
- Oneword – a great online writing exercise.
- The Snowflake Method for Designing a Novel – Randy Ingermanson’s innovative approach to novel writing.
- Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes – a quick exercise designed to sketch out the major events of your novel.
- PBW Stories – novel outline templates.
- Holly Lisle’s Create a Character Clinic
- … and Create a Culture while you’re at it!
- But I don’t Know How to Critique! – a guide to critiquing writing.
- The Theory of Critiquing
- Overcoming the Fear of Writing a Synopsis – tips and advice on writing a synopsis.
- Proper Manuscript Format – a formatting guide and example manuscript.
- Ten Things About Novel Proposals, Queries and Synopses
- How to Find a (Real!) Literary Agent – some advice on finding the right agent.
- Duotrope Publishers and Agents – a huge list of poetry, fiction and non-fiction publications.
- Creative Commons – licensing and copyright.
- Flash Fiction Online – a flash fiction e-zine.
- Creative Writing Prompts
- FictionAddiction – resources for fiction writers and readers.
- https://allpoetry.com/ – allows members to post and read poetry; provides a forum and publishing services; hosts contests.
- https://www.poetry.onl/ – online journal where people can submit their poetry for publication. Also runs a fellowship.
Search Engines for Research
- Semantic Scholar – a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – find open access journals and articles.
- Lukol – an anonymous internet search engine.
- Ask.com – search engine.
- FactBites – blog encyclopaedia.
- Mojeek – web, image, news and other search functions.
- Bing – Microsoft’s search engine.
- CORE – open access research papers.
- Google Scholar – Google’s academic search engine.
Directories
- SA Web Directory
- Curlie – search for websites by category.
- Yellow Pages – business directory.
Writing Resource Sites
- Bartleby – browse this archive for over 11,000 searchable quotations.
- Writer’s Relief – a literary submission service.
- Internet Writing Workshop – free online writing workshops/critique.
- The National Library of South Africa
- Poetry International – poetry and news about poets from around the globe.
- The Guardian: Authors A–Z: an alphabetical list of famous authors with links to related articles.
- American Press Institute – a resource centre for journalists.
- Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa – a member-driven association to uphold and enhance the status of authors in South Africa.
- Turnitin – plagiarism and AI-writing detection.
- Wikipedia – the online knowledge library for when you need to know more about any subject under the sun.
- ProfNet – a service that connects journalists to expert sources for interviews.
- The South African Yearbook – the official reference guide for South African politics, tourism, sports, agriculture etc.
- Snopes – a site that conducts extensive fact-checking research on popular topics.
- Wordorigins – an etymology site.
- com’s Frequently Asked Questions
- South Africa Online – comprehensive information about South African life and culture.
- Write It Sideways – information and inspiration for writers.
- Writing-World – useful resources for writers.
- net – writing resources, news and discussion.
- Writers Write – information about books, writing and publishing.
- WritersWeekly – a freelance writing e-zine.
- Writers on Writing – a podcast featuring interviews with authors from debut to Pulitzer Prize winners.
- Writers Guild of America
- Writer’s Digest – enhance your writing career.
- Make a Living Writing – information, inspiration and resources for freelance writers.
- Winning Writers – resources for writers and poets.
- Visual Thesaurus – discover the connections between words in a visually captivating display.
- Vision – a resource for writers.
- Verse daily – a daily publication of poetry.
- The Writer’s Almanac
- The Writers’ Group Blog – four women share how they create their unique literary lives.
- The Writer Magazine – advice and inspiration for writers.
- The Scriptorium Webzine – a virtual room for writers.
- Jess Michaels – a resource for romance writers.
- The Authors Guild– a community for professional authors.
- The Academy of American Poets
- Susan Orlean – staff writer for The New Yorker.
- Creative Life Writing – tips, techniques and published stories from an indie author.
- Poets & Writers – tools for writers.
- Writing and Publishing News
- co.za – news on Journalism.
- Freelance Writing Jobs
- Priya Krishna – some useful info for food writers.
- Duotrope Listings by the Numbers – a list of publishers and agents by category, medium and country.
- Bookwire – new books and authors.
- The American Journalism Review
- Absolute Write – a comprehensive informational site for writers.
- Medium – a community of readers and writers.
- The Writer’s Circle – a blog for writers.
- The Time Is Now – writing prompts and exercises.
- Literary Mama – a webzine specifically for writing mothers.
- Vocal – an all-in-one platform where you can share your stories, build an audience, and earn money.
- Writing – a diverse, thriving, bustling online community of creativity.