Improve Your Writing

September 9, 2007 8:47 PM

Writer's Links.Write better, or at the very least, more authentically, with this list of hundreds of resources for writers of all shades. For example, writing a jazz age screenplay? This guide to 1920's slang will be handy. Need help getting your procedural legal drama accurate? Try the Jurisdictionary. Enjoy tormenting your readers? This list of Tom Swifties will do the trick nicely.

Found (once again!) via.

posted by jonson (14 comments total)

I tried to resurrect Swifties once before, but alas ... they seem moribund.

Rob said mournfully.
posted by rob511 at 9:01 PM on September 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

(the via is very nsfw)
posted by empath at 9:04 PM on September 9, 2007

I don't get what a Tom Swifty is, I said darkly.
posted by jiiota at 9:05 PM on September 9, 2007

"The Electric Eclectic" had been one of my favorite meta-sites for years
posted by growabrain at 9:06 PM on September 9, 2007

jiiota, you mean "dimly."
posted by jonson at 9:15 PM on September 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

jiiota, you mean "dimly."

actually, that's correct if he really doesn't get it.
posted by mr_book at 9:22 PM on September 9, 2007

AuthentiWriting.com. Highly recommended.
posted by nickyskye at 9:27 PM on September 9, 2007

I suppose asking for a the pony of being able to add a Tom Swifty after the "posted by [username]" would be too much...

...it would be the bomb diggity, yo. I can just see it now, posted by Kattullus wistfully at 12:39 AM

God I loved Tom Swift when I was a kid.
posted by Kattullus at 9:39 PM on September 9, 2007

two that were missed...

"This rocket came from outer space," Tom said exorbitantly.
"Look under the green Jell-o," said Tom sublimely.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:27 PM on September 9, 2007 [4 favorites]

Exploring that extraordinary treasure of links, wow. Thanks jonson.
posted by nickyskye at 10:55 PM on September 9, 2007

Write better

Write much more better!
posted by vbfg at 12:01 AM on September 10, 2007

Hey, I use about two-thirds of that "20s slang"! Mind you, here in Australia it takes a while for us to get all the latest American lingo. Only 60 more years to go then before we start saying "bodacious" and "kaa-waa-bunga!".
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 5:04 AM on September 10, 2007

Still my all-time favorite Tom Swifty: "I'm experimenting with homosexuality," Tom said, half in earnest.
posted by alms at 7:29 AM on September 10, 2007 [7 favorites]

Since it doesn't seem to have been put here yet, a repository of links about writing for comics from a just-deleted post by kittens for breakfast. Thanks, kittens! And for this post, jonson.
posted by Drexen at 8:00 AM on September 10, 2007