Google doesn’t always deliver.
If you want to search for information on POV, try plugging the term into Google.
The top sites returned for POV are a video that PBS made (which isn’t on writing POV), a couple of definitions by Wikipedia (several of which have to do with automobiles), a racy YouTube video, and some freeware.
That’s right—nothing to do with the craft of writing.
When I started subscribing to writing blogs, I did it to access in-depth information on the writing craft—written by working writers and industry professionals.
After amassing a huge (1587 and growing) number of writing blog subscriptions, it occurred to me that other writers might be interested in the same type of information….and that maybe they didn’t know where to look.
That’s when I started tweeting the info I found.
Realizing that not everyone was on Twitter, I started sharing the links, weekly, on my blog.
Still, the fact that the links weren’t easily searched bothered me. What if there was a writer who didn’t need that great link on book marketing now? Maybe they needed an agent post on penning the perfect query. Would they just miss out on the marketing link since they wouldn’t need it for a while? Would they bookmark it for later and end up with a ton of bookmarks?
I put a couple of pages up on my blog to try to archive the links and make them, to some degree, searchable. Still, the searching wasn’t particularly efficient.
I mentioned on my blog one day, “I’m sure there’s got to be a better way to do this, but I can’t think of it.”
Enter Mike Fleming, software engineer.
Mike knew exactly how to make the links searchable—create a specific search engine for writing links. He emailed me to bat the idea back and forth with me (actually, it was more of a one-sided tennis game, since he’s way over my head in terms of technology.)
But I loved the idea of a free resource for writers. A way for writers to access information that would help them write better books or articles.
After a lot of work on Mike’s part, the Writer’s Knowledge Base was created.
The search is done instantly over thousands of writing-related articles ranging from character development to author promotion on social media. Unlike Google, all of the results are relevant to you as a writer. They may not all interest you, of course, but at least searching for “plot” will bring back articles on how to plot your story and not news articles on terrorist plots.
Mike has also included a fun feature where a writer can browse the links and find random writing-related articles.
Who are the authors of these blog posts? Writers, agents, editors, book marketing experts. Some of your blog posts may be included, too. Writers won’t only be accessing the information they need, but they’ll also be finding new and helpful blogs to follow. And Mike will continue adding the links that I uncover each week.
When you have a minute, we’d love for you to give it a try. What do you think? Please tell us what you like, what you’d like to see added, and any ideas or thoughts you have. You can comment on either of our blogs, email me at elizabethspanncraig (at) gmail.com or Mike at mike.fleming (at) hiveword.com.
And feel free to spread the news. I’d love for this to be a real resource for writers.
This is beyond awesome! Thank you both so much for this! I’ll definitely be using it and spreading the word.
That’s a great service. I’ve bookmarked it >:)
Cold As Heaven
Elizabeth – This is wonderful!!! Thank you!!!! I am definitely going to spread the word!!
What a great thing! I will use this much.
T
Elizabeth, this is totally incredible. I will definitely post something on my blog about this. Thank you and MIke for doing this.
Karen
Very cool! I’ve put it on my sidebar.
My brain aches just thinking about the effort that went into this. Thanks to both of you.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Well done, Elizabeth and Mike! Your good Karma points just increased!
Can’t wait to give this a whirl. It looks great!!
Brilliant! I bookmarked this!
Coming out of Lurkdom to thank you and Mike for this awesome resource. I’ve been stymied way too often by Google while searching for writerly information.
Like Cold as Heaven, I’ve bookmarked it and will spread the word :)
Excellent!!
Heather–Thanks for spreading the word! I’m really excited about it. :)
Cold As Heaven–Glad you liked the site!
Margot–Thanks so much! I appreciate it. :O)
Janet–I’ve felt the same with Google. From time to time I’ll search something that I *know* I’ve seen a great blog post on…and Google would pull up a college assignment on setting or something. Not even a PDF of a lecture, but an assignment! And because all of the professors students would be pulling up that site to get the assignment, it would be ranked higher than anything. Just an example, but it’s driven me crazy in the past.
Teresa –Hope it’s useful for you!
This is too awesome!!! I love it! What a great idea. Thanks so much!
I searched two topics I’ve been working on for a revision of my middle-grade novel and the results were remarkable. I could have spent the rest of the day reading and learning. Thank you for this. About to blog about it myself!
What a wonderful and helpful idea. My thanks to you and Mike. I am on my way over to check it out now.
Amazing!! This is perfect! Thank you both so much!
I can’t think of anything I want to look up right now, but that was a fabulous idea. I do have tons of bookmarks from many of your Friday links, but most I don’t need right away. Much better to have an excellent database for them. I bookmarked the site for later and will go share it with my friends on FB.
And big thanks to your code-writing friend who helped create it from your ideas.
Thank you! Fantastic service. I’ll pass it on!
Thank you! Fantastic service. I’ll pass it on!
So grateful for this…telling all the word smiths I know. =)
Edge of Your Seat Romance
Laura–Thanks for coming by!
Augusta–I’m so glad it’s working well for you!
Jane–Hope you’ll find it useful and fun. :)
Karen–I really appreciate that!
Deb–Wonderful! Thanks. :)
Colene–Thanks for coming by!
Jaleh–That was my worry with the bookmarks–I tend to end up with so many bookmarks and they end up disorganized and I can’t access them easily (this is me being Type A, I think.) So the search engine idea was really exciting to me when Mike mentioned it to me.
CypherFaerie–Thank you!
Terry–For me there’s definitely a fun aspect to it, since I enjoy finding writing blog links. Mike’s part I definitely wouldn’t have either been able to do or have wanted to do! I think it involved math. :)
Raquel–Thanks so much!
Alan–I can definitely use some good Karma!
Does this mean that writers need better SEO for their content? Regardless, thanks for doing this!
Love the search engine. I typed in high concept and WOW was I impressed. Thank you so much for developing a much needed one stop shop for all my crafting questions.
Wow, that is fantastic! Tell Mike thanks.
This is amazing, Elizabeth! What a great tool! I think I need to share it with the world, so there.
(THANK YOU MIKE!)
Shawn–I think many writers (obviously not freelancers, but novelists) need to also understand what SEO even *is*! I’ve tweeted a couple of blog posts in the last few months on SEO for writers, but they weren’t RTd as much as they should have been…and I think that’s because the subject matter is something most writers aren’t familiar with.
Judy–Hope it’ll prove useful for you!
Thanks so much, Paul!
Dorte–Thanks!
Diane–Will do!
Hart–Thanks so much!
Fabulous! I’ve bookmarked this for sure and will spread the word. Thank you.
Wow! Genius idea! Can’t wait to tell my friends about this. Thank you!!
This is so great! Thanks so much for putting it together. I’ll be sharing.
What a fantastic website. I just bookmarked it! Thanks so much!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m linking it on my sidebar so I can always find it and to share.
Elizabeth and Mike – this is utterly genius. Thank you so much – I’m going to sidebar it and shout about it (in my…ahem…quiet ladylike way) I’ve been – I’ve already been fooling around on it – it works and it is totally brilliant. If there were golden globes for the smartest blogger, Elizabeth, you’d win hands down!
A Certain Book–Thanks for coming by!
Jill–You’re so welcome!
Jessica–I came up with the content, but Mike came up with everything else. :) Thanks!
A.B. Fenner–Thanks for visiting!
Lisa–Thanks so much!
Jan–Mike was definitely the genius and now I understand a lot more about what software engineers do…they see a need and they design for it. For me? I just saw a need and kept stumbling around looking for a solution. :)
Glynis posted about this today as well! I’ll mention it Friday, Elizabeth.
Thanks so much, Alex!
I’m thrilled that all of you are finding the Writer’s Knowledge Base useful. I can assure you it does a programmer’s heart good!
If you’re on Facebook you might want to check out the WKB fan page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/WritersKB/128813660518131). What I plan on doing there is giving tips on getting better results, announcing new features, and providing behind-the-scenes info.
Thank you to all of you who are spreading the word!
Shawn — Regarding your question on SEO… Like Elizabeth alluded to, working on SEO in general is a good idea for you to get better ranked by Google, Bing, and the like. It matters in the WKB, too, but we have plans on getting exposure to articles which might not naturally rank as high as others in the search results.
Elizabeth wouldn’t have included the articles if she didn’t think they were useful so we need to provide alternate access mechanisms. The “Random” link was a quick-and-dirty approach to exposing articles out of the normal flow but other techniques are in the work queue, too.
Thanks for putting this together. I can’t wait to explore it further!
Mike–Thanks so much again…you can see from the response that you’ve created a winner! And thanks for sharing the Facebook link, too.
Travelin’Oma–Hope it’ll be a useful tool for you. :)
Elizabeth, this is a fabulous idea. Thanks to both you and Mike! Wow.
Helen–Thanks!
WOW! WOW!! WOW!!! This is such a fantastic resource and you two are such wonderful people to share it all for free when so many others would use something like this as a chance to make money–I echo the good karma post from before; y’all are angels in disguise for those of us just starting to wind our way thru the “craft” of writing…Thank you!!!!!
I’m hyperventilating here! I’m SO thrilled for this. Thank you Elizabeth and Mike (my hubby’s name is Mike, LOL)!
I’m going to do my best to spread this to everyone I know.
As of now, I feel as if I’d spread myself out too thin if I join Twitter, what with me holding 4 blogs and Facebook. I’d have to really think about Twitter, though.
Have a great weekend!!
♥.•*¨ Elizabeth ¨*•.♥
This is a great thing. Thanks so much to you to Mike. I went over and looked earlier, then got sidetracked and didn’t get back here to leave a comment. The site is officially bookmarked :)
Wow, what an incredibly thoughtful thing to do *sends good karma your way* :) Off to try it now!
Linda–Thanks! For me, I’ve just been frustrated by the lack of easily accessible information for writers. For Mike (and I’m speaking for him but I think I’m expressing it right), he’s a problem-solver…and a writer. So he was interested on a couple of different levels.
Elizabeth–I’m so glad you like it! And thanks for spreading the word.
Carol–Thanks so much for letting me know! I’m glad you got sidetracked. :)
Girl Friday–Hope you find it helpful!
Elizabeth and Mike, this is a great idea and well-executed! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
I have written a post about it on my writing blog, placed a link on the sidebar of that blog and tweeted it to my writer friends.
Thanks again.
Elizabeth thanks for having the idea and Mike for bringing it into reality! I’m sooooo impressed. Have already tried it out and it’s awesome. I’m blogging about it NOW! Using most of your post Elizabeth. Hope that’s okay.
Denise :)
Oh! This is FANTASTIC! Thank you!
This is absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much.
SO AWESOME. I routinely use StumbleUpon, but I suspect this will so much better!
Thank you both!!
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
Angela — I don’t know if you noticed but you can sort of stumble through the WKB content by using the Random link. The difference is that you have more control since you see the titles before you click. Hopefully, that’ll save you some time…
Great idea, well done in bringing it to fruition
What a great idea! Thank you. I’ve already tweeted it, and will spread the word to my children’s writer friends
Elizabeth, this is such a great resource. Thanks to you and Mike for setting it up. I put the widget on my blog to help spread the word.
This is great! It’s definitely getting bookmarked. Now I need to find more writers to spread the word to!
Great job you guys, this is a big help, thank you!