Research & Writing
Research
When it’s time to dive into research, where do you start? Here are some of my favorite resources for conducting research. I hope you find them valuable for your own research projects as well!
- Smithsonian Learning Lab (and here’s a writer’s blog article describing this resource)
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
- Washington State Digital Archives
Biographies
- The Biography Clearinghouse – interesting site for educators dissecting specific biographies for use with students
Sites for archival footage and pictures:
- Library of Congress Newspaper Navigator (more than a million free historical newspaper images for download)
- Critical Past
- British Pathe
- Foto Search
- Flikr Creative – Includes Getty Images, U.S. Government Works and images from Flikr users made available with no or some restrictions
Writing
Are you a writer, too? Do you want to learn more about what it takes to get published or how to send a query to a literary agent? Or maybe you want to dig deeper into the process of developing a story. If any of these apply to you, here are some resources you might enjoy!
Web Resources About Writing and Story Development:
- Need some story inspiration? How about a list of 500 things that kids like?
- Need more story inspiration? How about a list of things kids don’t like?
- 7 Tips for Writing About Places You’ve Never Been
- Using a Revision Grid to Break Down a Story
- List of 350 Character Traits
- Web tool to generate random character motives for story inspiration
- Random Word Generator site to spark ideas (has multiple cool types of generators)
- NY Times Picture Prompts for writing and literacy
- Using the SCAMPER technique to improve writing
- Worksheets for Writers (multiple tools collected by author Jamie Gold)
Web Articles About Being a Writer and Publishing:
- 3 Things You Need to Become an Author
- Author Rick Riordan blog challenging the perception authors need connections
- Picture book author/illustrator Arree Chung shares his failure resume
- Pub Rants blog by Nelson Literary Agency
- Some writers swear by time blocking as a method to stay productive. What do you think?
- Children’s authors reading bad reviews of their books
Resources in Western Washington:
- Bellingham Writers Group
- Epic Group Writers, Edmonds
- Hugo House
- Pacific Northwest Writers Association
- Red Wheelbarrow Writers, Bellingham
- Shack Art Center (includes writing classes in its roster)
- Skagit Valley Writers League
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Western Washington Chapter
Handouts
Here are a few resources I’ve created for you!
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