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WRITING TOOLS:

THE ABERRANT APOSTROPHE.  Written by Hazel Köhler, this document details the use of that most abused piece of punctuation - the apostrophe. also available in PDF Format for easy download.

 

THE BEGINNING WRITER. Helping writers learn and grow! Articles on active voice and passive voice, points of views, story structures, plots, etc. Added March 11, 2017.

 

GRAMMARBOOK.COM.  Because grammar is so darn important for the comprehension of your text!  Amongst other articles, check the one about Punctuation rules!  Added March 11, 2017.

 

NARRATIVE MODE, on Wikipedia, gives definition of the various mode of narration that an author can choose to convey his or her story.  It mentions not only the Point of View of writing, but also, the definitions of the various narrative voices, structures and tenses available to a writer. 

 

SCRIBOPHILE.  Online writing workshop and writer's community. Writers of all skill levels join to improve each other’s work with thoughtful critiques and by sharing their writing experience. Check their Writing Academy section, where you can find articles on speech tags, narrative tense, points of views, and more. Added March 11, 2017.

 

THE WRITE PRACTICE BLOG. Articles about split infinitives, tips for writing with clarity, dialogue, tricks for writing when you're sick or through distractions, how to write a fight scene and much more! Added March 11, 2017.

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DICTIONARIES AND TRANSLATION TOOLS:

AUSTRALIAN SLANG - Self explanatory.  The Captain Scarlet universe does have at least one official character (Doctor Fawn) and some unofficial (Captain Brown, mainly fanfic; and President Younger, according to TV Century 21 magazine).  Words from this 'dictionary' could be useful, but as with almost every slang - at small doses, so you won't lose your readers!

 

DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALIAN SLANG - From Australia Travel Search, another small dictionary of Australian slang that might be useful to writers.

 

A DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH SLANG - Take into consideration that slang is a 'picture of the times' and that it might change in 2068 to become somewhat different to what it is today! Still, this could prove a useful link! 

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE - When all fails, try Google Translate!  Added March 11, 2017.

 

LEXILOGOS - Like WordReference.Com, Lexilogos could be used for online translation as well as for webpage translation, for many langauges. French and English dictionaries are also available. 
 

MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE - You do need a good dictionary.  Not only is it a very good online one, that you can access through their webpage, but there's also other features worthy to check out as well. Plus, you can download a toolbar and/or an access tab to put onto your browser.

 

WORDREFERENCE.COM - Online translation from English to French, Italian and Spanish. Other dictionaries available. A toolbar is also available.
 

 

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CREATION TOOLS:

ANDERSON FONTS & DINGS COLLECTION - Download directly from this website, and straight into your PC, the entirety of our "Gerry Anderson Fonts & Dings Collection".  This compressed file contains font from the original Captain Scarlet title, various Eurostile fonts (the end credits from the original series), Sofachrome (the New Captain Scarlet font), various fonts from other Anderson series (Stingray, Thunderbirds, Supercar, etc.) as well as Anderson-related dings.  Note that these fonts and dings, as they're not installed on all PC, will demand the same requirement as described above.  Enjoy this free gift from us!

 

BEHIND THE NAME - RANDOM NAME GENERATOR - Another generator you can use if you have difficulty naming a character. You even have the choice of a nationality if needed!

 

DAFONT.COM - One of the best free fonts archives you can find online.  Although it is suggested to write a story with clear type, common, easy to read fonts (Arial, Times New Romans, Calibri, Comics, etc... - See the Guidelines above), it might happen that you would want to be creative with your title art. Just don't forget:  if you use WordArt to create your title, you need to transform the said title into an image for it to appear as you want it onto every computer's screen.  If you don't know how, at least inform us of your need and of the name of the Font used, so it might be possible for us to do the transfer to image for you. 

 

HOW TO SURVIVE (ALMOST) ANYTHING - From the National Geographic website.  Check out the many articles on various, potentially lethal situations.  A guide for a would-be Spectrum officer! Added March 11, 2017.

 

MUSICAL TERMS FOR ANGELS CODENAMES - You can actually find A LOT of musical terms online, with a little research! I came up with a few pages that you may find interesting... And for those who are looking for names and cannot think of any (or at least of enough of them...) here's a few links to keep handy:

GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS AND FORMS, from CanTeach.ca

GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMINOLOGY, from Wikipedia

GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS, from Classicalworks.com
 

 

RANDOM NAME GENERATOR - Useful to create names, the Random Name Generator uses data from the US Census to generate random male and female names as well as surnames.

 

WIKIPEDIA LIST OF COLORS - You need inspiration for an original color codename for a Spectrum officer?  Wikipedia is your friend! Added March 11, 2017.

 

WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK -  In PDF format. Step by step instructions on how to fend off a shark, break down a door, jump from a moving train and other situations Scarlet and co have come to expect of a normal day's work. Good for research and plot bunnies... some of them involving the Mysterons.  New link March 11, 2017.

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RESEARCH TOOLS:

GOOGLE EARTH - Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.  It can help you get a geographic and photographic views  of where you want to set your action, calculate distances between spots, and gives you multiple other details you might find useful.  You can even set the height of viewing to see how a specific spot looks from Cloudbase or Skybase. A very interesting option for science-fiction writers is the fact that you can also view the sky, the Moon... and Mars. Google Earth is free to download, so why hesitate?

 

GOOGLE MAPS - Useful for plotting the route characters would need to take if they're going to be travelling from A to B. It also gives an idea of the journey time.

 

WIKIPEDIA - Although admittedly, some information might not seem all that reliable, since the website is open for all to updates with information, Wikipedia still presents a wonderful research tool for any and all subject imaginable.  Its content is endless. Also, it comes in many, many languages. And if you're unsure of your information, you can always double-check elsewhere on the net!  Wikipedia is your friend.  Go for it.

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LINKS TO FAN FICTION WRITING TIPS, MISTAKES AND ERRORS:

BAD FANFIC!  NO BISCUIT! - Here you can find descriptions of common errors made in fanfic - and how to avoid some of them.

 

A FANSPEAK DICTIONARY - Okay... maybe not a dictionary in the traditional sense; but helpful to figure out what all those particular fan fiction terms and abbreviations mean when they come up in discussions.

 

HOW TO WRITE AN ALMOST READABLE FAN FICTION - Written with humour, this page is a fun guide to writing fan fiction - or rather, how to avoid the obvious mistakes.  Many other links are also available.

 

MARY-SUE - Wikipedia's definition of what is a Mary Sue in fan fiction. 
 

THE TEN FANFIC COMMANDMENTS - Although coming from a Gargoyles fan website, this is a very pertinent set of rules - very cleverly put together and fun to read!  Things to do and not to do while writing fan fiction.
 

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WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARES:

OPEN OFFICE - An important tool of the writer is her/his word processing software.  Not everyone can afford a word processing software like Word, Word Perfect, or even Works.  In Windows, you can always use WordPad, as it is a good substitute, albeit, without many of Word's features.  A good option, though, is to download and install Open Office.  It's offered online free, and contains most of the features presented by Word and/or Word Perfect.  You don't need to install all of its features - Writer, the answer to Word, is the one you mainly need for word processing - but the other options effectively replace many of the other features from the Office Suite (like Excel, PowerPoint, Access). The only requirement is that you have Javascript installed on your computer.  If you don't have it, it's not a problem:  you can also download Javascript with the Open Office software!

 

GINGER - Page writing app for desktop and mobile!  And adding to this, the Ginger website comes with all sort of tools, including a punctuation checker! Added March 11, 2017.

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