Sites and Apps for Writers
A few people have asked me before about what programs or tools I use for writing. Personally, I just use MS Word for the actual writing, but there are some apps and websites that I’ve found useful for the overall process so I thought I’d share. (These are all free btw).
I’ve definitely talked about Evernote before (I swear I’m not affiliated, I just really like it). It’s basically like an online notebook and you can have it on your laptop, desktop and phone so that everything can be synched up. It’s always nice to have a notebook of some kind when you’re out and about in case inspiration strikes and jot down ideas. I also use it for on the bus or somewhere else where I’m bored and I can write for a bit and then copy and paste it into the word document easily. Also since you can have different notebooks on the app it’s good to keep things organized for different projects or have one for outlining, character sketches etc. I use the free version but there is a premium version with other features.
This website isn’t specifically to help you write but I’ve found it helpful. Basically you can use it to create customized background noise with sounds like rain, wind, campfire, coffee shop, white noise and others. You can choose the specific sounds you like to mix and the intensity of each one. The reason I like it for writing is that I’m someone who hates silence, but I also find music to be distracting at times so having just random soothing noise playing in the background is really nice.
If you try to tell me that you’ve never sat at your keyboard/notebook just staring into space trying to think of that word, the one that is hiding in your brain but you TOTALLY KNOW WHAT IT IS AND DAMMIT WHAT IS IT…then you’re lying. In this case, wordhippo is a useful website. It can help you find synonyms, antonyms, words that rhyme, words that start with –, translations, and a few other things.
I have a page (on Evernote, actually) where I have a list of all my characters and a physical description of each to use as reference in case I can’t remember a detail. But a while back I found this website (I think it might have been suggested by @maxkirin) where you can make little avatars of your characters. They are quite cartoony so probably not exactly the way you’ve been picturing in your head but I like that there are quite a few categories to customize them and then a few options to choose from. Again, it’s probably not going to get every aspect of your character and it doesn’t give you every option for everything but it’s the best one I’ve seen so far. I like to see a version of my characters to go along with the details that I’ve written out just to help me solidify them in my mind and maybe see if there’s something I should change. It’s also pretty fun 😉
Writer’s Digest is just an all-around amazing place to get resources on…pretty much everything. Competitions? Check them out. Help writing queries or synopses? Complete with examples. Character development, genre help, agent profiles? Go seek the knowledge.
This is an application that came preinstalled on my laptop (MacBook Pro) but I’m sure you can find a version of it for PC as well if you don’t already have it. It’s probably a common application and probably not groundbreaking or anything, but maybe you haven’t noticed it on your computer or thought to use it for your writing, so it’s on the list! Stickies is what it sounds like: sticky notes for your computer. On my version you can choose the colour of the note, resize them, change font and such and choose if they are floating windows. I like to have them while I’m writing as little reminders of things I need to change or check when it comes to editing. I find it can be distracting and time consuming to go back and forth while writing to edit and change things for continuity or because I’ve changed my mind on something, so instead I can keep them written down on the sticky for later. You could also use the comments feature on Word for this but personally I like to have it as a separate list. To each their own of course.
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