This post contains some great resources for fiction authors to help with regional words, idioms, and other tools for your writer toolbox!
Do you have dinner or supper?
Do you drive on a highway or a freeway?
Do you drink pop, coke, or soda?
Personally, I have dinner, drive on freeways and highways interchangeably, and drink coke. Unless I remember that I’m actually drinking Diet Dr Pepper, never Coke.
All that’s fine–until you go to write a character who lives in a particular state where they would drink pop where you are writing soda. Or they might say y’all when you say you guys.
This post chock full of resources for fiction authors will not only address regional variations (those are all in the United States) but other helpful things we may need to build our characters and stories!
RESOURCES FOR FICTION AUTHORS
Map of Regional Words by State
Y’all, have a Coke while driving down the highway.
This is SO important to consider. Idioms are familiar, yet we don’t always know the connotations or associations.
I love these so much! A murder of crows is my favorite. For the record, we decided for our family, we are a horde of Oliphants.
British Swear Words in Order of Offensiveness (this is super helpful to those of us NOT in the UK)
I’m not sure if these are ALL accurate in their order, so you might want to ask a British person. I know we don’t want to talk about our fanny packs or our wind pants unless we’re hoping for a chuckle.
How to Write Skin Tone (from Writing with Color–this WHOLE Writing with Color site is great)
If you’re writing diverse characters, this is hugely helpful. The whole site is fantastic.
Have legal questions? This is a great Facebook group to ask some of those questions!
Have questions about police procedure? Guns? Crime scenes? This is where you go!
100 Most Commonly Spelled Words
Who DOESN’T need this?
75 Most Commonly Mixed-Up Words
Compliment or complement? Everyday or every day?
I am not left-handed…
I encourage–neigh, I DEMAND that you read this before writing horses.
681 Cliches to Avoid in Your Writing
Don’t jump the gun and put all your eggs in one basket with an overused phrase.
For all intensive purposes, you should drink an expresso while reading this.
This one without swords…
How to Write a Great Sex Scene
No explanation needed for this one.
How to Write a Perfect Kissing Scene
When sex is just too much…
How to Write Different Religions
Find out about the faiths you may not be familiar with.
Good things to know from the start…
How to Vary Sentence Structure in Your Writing
Because you don’t want them all to be the same–do you? Huh. Maybe I’m wrong.
A Writer’s Guide to Flowers and Herbs
This is a short list but will get you started!
To make sure you’re not using a floppy disk when you should be using a compact disc.
I hope these are some helpful links to save you time researching those little (but important!) details in your books!
