Recommendations for Writers

On The Web:

• Writers' Market - The comprehensive, continually updated, resource for editors and agents, plus articles and advice. Costs about as much as their equivalent yearly publication in print, but provides a searchable database to easily isolate individual criteria and includes other resources such as a submissions tracker.
• Critters - The premiere speculative fiction (SF, F, and Horror) critique group, requires weekly participation, and provides in return critiques that are thorough, generally substantive, and usually tactful. An excellent way to see if that dubious remark from one reader is just them or a trend.
• National Novel Writing Month - A wild ride for the daring, National Novel Writing Month sets a stringent goal for the aspiring novelist and provides support, commiseration and congratulations along the way. The forums are great for questions and advice if taken with a grain of salt: no one here is The Authority. National Novel Writing Month is November: forums are thus most active between October and December.
• The Encyclopedia Mythica - An excellent resource for the mythology of a multitude of countries and cultures, wonderful for browsing - the folklore section in particular. Though not always comprehensive, this is a great place to start for inspiration.
• Fantasy-Writers.org - An open critiquing site and forum for thoughtful conversation on fantasy writing and (sometimes a bit too much) on non-fantasy life.  Critiques here work on the honor system - you aren't obligated to reciprocate, but doing so (and making friends) will make it more likely that you will receive comments in the future.
• A Naming Language - An excellent guide for creating basic naming languages, for your characters, for your cities, for the heck of it.  There are a number of more complex naming language guides that present an in-depth study of mouth-shape and the basic construction of syllables; this allows the creation of a plausible-sounding mini-dictionary with an easier process. (Maybe it's just me, but I find this an endlessly addictive process.)

On The Shelves:

• The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference by Various (Writers' Digest) - Ever wanted to know the anatomy of a castle? Wanted a fantasy beast to use beyond the usual dragons, griffins and unicorns? This book is chock-full of informative studies on everything from period clothing and occupations to "real world" ritual magic. It's an excellent resource for worldbuilding.
• How To Write Science Fiction And Fantasy by Orson Scott Card - Explore the foundations of the speculative fiction story with veteran author Orson Scott Card, from setting up the groundrules of your universe to choosing viewpoint. This book is a lot of fun, and includes some great examples both personal and drawn from other authors.
• Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood - When we write about glee or sadness, joy or jealousy, we all tend to fall back on the same stereotypical descriptions. This book explores other ways of expressing often contradictory emotions. Exercises for each emotion are included for those who want to explore the concepts further.
• Dialogue by Lewis Turco - A wonderfully entertaining book written as - what else? - a dialogue between the author and a fictional foil, Fred Foyle. It's a light and entertaining discussion of the foundations of dialogue. Because of the format, this is slightly more of a read-through book than a browsing reference, but following the "story" once is worth it.
• The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley - I've spent most of my life buying exercise books and then they never see the light of day.  This is exactly what it says:  uncommon writing exercises, easily adapted to genre, that focus on process and aspects of process rather than producing a specific product. It is interspersed with thoughtful examples, quotes and explanations for the exercises and techniques demonstrated.

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