Websites for writers
Last fall I shared some websites that I feel would assist people who are obtaining an education. After a few conversations, I’ve decided to follow it up by sharing a few websites I feel might be of assistance to aspiring fiction writers.
#1 – Hero Machine 2.5
http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-2-5-character-portrait-creator/
Of the different versions of the “Hero Machine” character designer I’ve used, I prefer version 2.5 the best. How it works is that you pick one of six blank body types (by “blank” I mean “imagine a 12-inch Barbie or Ken doll”) as the basis for your character, then go from there. You can select their physical appearance, their clothing, their accessories, and other bits as well, then color them up as you see fit. Yes, there’s a bit of a learning curve. We also have a few other issues, such as some items not displaying well with others, having to save code if your “print screen” function isn’t working right, and having to do some mixing to get any decent East Asian skin tones. But building characters does get easier in time, and it provides reasonable enough character designs for you to have reference pictures of what people look like. PS: If you know where to look, you can find the pieces for a Star Wars Stormtrooper.
#2 – Seventh Sanctum
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
Seventh Sanctum is about 90% random generators, with commentary and other resources appended. If you want a generator type, all you have to do is click on “generator types” at the top of the page, select a category from the drop-down menu, and scan through the page that opens up. I mostly use their character name generators on the “Names and Naming” page, particularly their “Quick Character Namer” which randomly pulls first, middle, and last names based on census data. But the fun of Seventh Sanctum emerges when you see the “Magical Legend Pony” generator on the same page. That’s right: it’s a stealth “My Little Pony” character name generator. Most of the other pages have one or more generators that are meant to be at least a little silly as well, and even some of the more straight-forward generators, such as the “Song Challenges” bit under “Writing”, can toss out rather amusing bits (“This speed metal song is about a banana”).
Now parents, do keep in mind that a few bits might be inappropriate for younger users, such as various generators intended to create random love interests. So I do recommend that you be aware of what your kids are doing if you let them use this site.
#3 – Springhole’s “Mary Sue Litmus Test”
http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm
A legitimate concern in writing is whether or not a character is a “Mary Sue”, that is, “a character who is too powerful or perfect, almost to the point of stretching believability or negatively impacting the creative work”. As a result, a series of “litmus test” quizzes have come up over the years; this one, so near as I can tell, has been around the longest. How it works is that you’re shown a series of statements, and you check a box if it applies to your character. A score is tabulated based on your totals, with the score determining how that character is likely to be perceived. Following the scoring is articles offering tips and suggestions for balancing your character back out.
There are other websites out there of course, but these are three I regularly use. Feel free to have fun with them.