Awesome Websites 2

Back in the long gone days of last July, I made a blog post all about websites I frequented and would recommend to other people. Obviously the list wasn't exhaustive and a lot of websites I'm very fond of weren't on there; some because I forgot about them, others simply because I only started using them after I wrote that post. I always intended to do a follow up post sometime, and as it's been nearly a fortnight since my last blog entry, I might as well do it now. So here are some places around the net that are worth checking out.

NaNoWriMo: I've mentioned NaNoWriMo more than once on this blog before, but for the sake of clarity; NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, an event which occurs every November wherein people across the world attempt to write a 50 000 word novel in 30 days. I took part in 2011's NaNoWriMo (and scored just over 16 000 words, so it wasn't exactly a roaring success) and hope to take part in 2012's event as well. The official website has forums where you can talk to other participants, but its main use during the event is to update your progress; the satisfaction you get when you watch the bar chart that represents your word count climb slowly higher is a great motivational tool.

Fanfiction and FictionPress: If I haven't made it obvious enough already on this blog, I love writing. Books, short stories, pretty much anything to do with the written word is my kind of thing. Fanfiction and FictionPress are two partnered websites that allow amateur writers to get their work onto the web, to be noticed and read. Fanfiction, as the name might have informed you, is all about fanfiction - works based on pre-established stories and worlds, ranging from Harry Potter and Doctor Who to pretty much everything else. FictionPress, meanwhile, publishes original stories in a variety of different genres. It's completely free to sign up and you can publish whatever you like. While this does mean there's a lot of sub par work on both sites that you'll have to sift through, it's worth it for the hidden gems you may find.

Tumblr: I won't go on about Tumblr too much, because I already did a post about it, but essentially it's a great microblogging platform that let's you share content created by other users, quickly and without hassle. It's also a great way of noting down quick thoughts that aren't really substantial enough for a proper blog post, but are too big to fit onto twitter.

Bulbapedia: Most of the independently run Wikis are quite low quality in comparison to Wikipedia itself, but this Pokemon Wiki is of an extremely high standard. It has over 20 000 articles, and is pretty much the go-to place for all Pokemon information and knowledge.

FutureMe: This is one of those websites that takes a really clever idea and runs with it. The concept of FutureMe is simple; you type up a message to your future self, set a time delay, and the message is sent to your own email address at that point in the future. As a result, you can write emails to yourself one year on, two years on, ten years on - or maybe just to the you of next week. Regardless of how far forward you send the email, it's a very clever and intriguing system that allows you to create a 'letter to the future you' without the risk of losing it or damaging it.

Nuzlocke: The Nuzlocke challenge is an immensely interesting idea that revolves around the Pokemon games. When playing any Pokemon game, you can take part in a Nuzlocke challenge by following the two rules; you can only catch the very first Pokemon you see in each area, and if any Pokemon on your team faints, it is 'dead' and gone for good, and you cannot use it again. While the challenge was devised to make the games more challenging, it also has the side effect of making you care much more for your slapdash team - the thought that you could lose a team member, permanently, is quite the ominous cloud that hangs over your head as you play. I tried a Nuzlocke challenge a while back on my copy of Platinum, and I actually did start to worry about my team member's safety. The Nuzlocke website is home to the Pokemon: Hard-Mode webcomic, a series of stories set in the Pokemon world following a character running through a Nuzlocke challenge, and they're drawn by the person who conceived the original idea of the challenge.

Rare Candy Treatment: Okay, this is the last Pokemon one, I promise. Rare Candy Treatment is a great, funny little website that infrequently publishes a Pokemon webcomic, filled with in-jokes and references to the games that make it a lot funnier if you're a big Pokemon fan.

Write Or Die: This website is a great way of boosting productivity while you're writing. The site tries to fight procrastination and distraction by punishing users who aren't writing. When you open the online version, you are given a blank text processor on which to type, after setting yourself a word count goal and a time limit. You are also allowed to pick from three different settings; gentle mode will pop up a box whenever you stop writing for longer than an allotted time period, telling you to get on with it; normal mode plays a really annoying noise out of your speakers at full volume whenever you stop; kamikaze mode will actually start to delete what you've written if you pause for too long. It's a really good way of getting first drafts done quickly and efficiently, though obviously it can sometimes be annoying if you need to stop momentarily to fact-check.

And with that, I'll wrap up on this edition of Awesome Websites. I realise that it's not a very content-heavy blog post, but in my defence I've been pretty busy recently, trying to get next month's story for Doctor Who: Re-Incarnated finished on time. Once February comes I'll be able to relax a bit and do something bigger, like a book review or something. Until then, thanks for reading, and please do check out some of those websites I've recommended.