Resources for Writers

Writing & Reference Tools

• Allreaders.com: A site that categorizes and reviews books by plot, character, setting and writing style. A free, useful service.
• Ask-a-scientist type pages: astroweb, astronomy (Cornell), high-energy astronomy (NASA), biology, engineering, general science (New Scientist), general science (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), general science (Scientific American), general science (Washington State University), geology and geophysics, hurricanes, marine science, plant and pest problems, plasma physics and fusion energy (Princeton), radiation and radioactivity, and volcanoes.
• Bartlett's Quotations
• A Brief Guide to Internet Resources in Theatre and Performance Studies
• Canadiana -- The Canadian Resource Page
• Citing Electronic Materials with New MLA Guidelines
• WFNS' Competitions
• Electronic Publishing: Guide to Best Practices for Canadian Publishers, posted on the National Library of Canada website.
• Essays on the Craft of Dramatic Writing.
• Explore Writing: A UK-based site with general tips on writing/editing/submissions.
• Finding Data on the Internet: A Journalist's Guide: Includes "Statistics Every Writer Should Know."
• History of Science/Science Studies Reference Sources.
• History: The Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts. Not much Canadian content, but lots of information here.
• The Human-Languages Page
• Infomine
• Indispensable Writing Resources Page: Aimed at college and university-level students, but contains lots of links and some really good basic material.
• Internet Public Library
• WFNS' Issues of Interest to Writers
• Media Link: A computerized directory for journalists connecting the media with experts representing business, government, associations and academia.
• MIRLYN: University of Michigan's Research Library Network
• WFNS' Markets Listing
• New Dramatists: Workshops, exchange programs and script distribution.
• Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
• Parliamentary Procedure
• PedagoNet: Learning Material and Resource Center.
• Peter's Place of Freelance Journalism is one of the largest journalism sites on the Net.
• The Playwriting Seminars
• The Purple Crayon: Archive of articles on children's writing and writing in general.
• Quality of Course, Inc.: Writing instruction (fee)
• Questel/Orbit Patent and Trade Mark Server
• resAnet: Web-based interface to the National Library of Canada's catalogue.
• Roget's Thesaurus
• Strunk and White, Elements of Style
• Theatre Central: Comprehensive directory of theatre online.
• WFNS' information on Upcoming Events
• Webster's Dictionary
• Wordwrights Canada: Editing & author services (fee).
• The World of the Vikings
• Writer's Block Magazine
• The Writers Home: For-profit site with some excellent articles on writing and marketing your work, links to markets, and industry news. Mostly free, but charges fees for some services (such as resumé service, which we can't recommend).
• WFNS' FAQ: submission procedures, listings, books on writing, and the law.

Literature

There are now so many books on-line that we have limited this listing to only large works, anthologies, and lists.

• Abbey's Web
• Alex: A Catalog of Electronic Texts on the Internet
• The Atlantic Monthly's Fiction and Poetry Pages
• The ETEXT Archives
• The Internet Archive
• Literary Kicks (The Beat Poets)
• Oxford Book of English Verse
• Rare Books and Manuscripts from the ALA
• Turkish Poetry Home Page
• Walker Percy Project
• University of Virginia British Poetry Archive

Organizations

For further information about writers' organizations in Canada, consult our Organizations list.

• Access Copyright: Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (formerly Cancopy)
• Association of Canadian Publishers
• AWP: Associated Writing Programs
• BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
• Canada Council for the Arts
• Canada Post: Postal code listings and other philatelic information.
• Canadian Literature Archive, Writers' Organizations and Resources
• Canadian Museum of Civilization/Musee canadien des civilisation
• Children's Writing Resource Center
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• CultureNet
• Falcon: Science Fiction & Fantasy society in Nova Scotia.
• HTML-Writers Guild
• IBBY-Canada: The International Board on Books for Young People.
• National Library and Archives of Canada
• The National Writer's Union (UAW/AFL-CIO)
• Natural Resources Canada
• Nova Scotia Provincial Library
• Online Writery (University of Missouri)
• Sources: Directory of contacts for over 1000 organizations. Includes a copyright tutorial, list of journalism awards and a list of embassies in Canada.
• Stratford Festival
• Texas Center for Writers
• WritersNet

News and Information Sources

• Broadcast and Print Media: Associated Press, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Canadian Press, CBC, CBC Radio, Halifax Daily Metro, The Chronicle Herald, The Telegram (St. John's NF), and The Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick).
• CIA World Factbook
• Columbia Journalism Review
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, a media watchdog organization.
• Finance (for financial/business articles, or what to do with that Public Lending Right cheque): Business Wire (public and private company press releases), Carlson Online's Today's Headlines (press releases), Marketwire (those dang press releases again), The Motley Fool (daily investment information, opinions and advice), Reuters and Reuters Canada (financial information and news), Telenium Canadian Quote Server and Yahoo! Finance.
• NATO Press Releases
• Space exploration and research: Canadian Space Agency, Canadian Space News, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• Search Engines: Alta Vista, Excite, Go, Google, HotBot, Lycos, Microsoft Network, Webcrawler, and Yahoo!.
• Statistics Canada