Blogtober: Writing tools

Now, these are just writing tools, not blogging tools. Maybe I will get into that later in the Blogtober blog-a-thon

I am a simple, simple, simple girl. I think I used one too many ‘simple’s there. I may have given the wrong impression by that. I am not going to bog myself down with apps and programs and detailed thought out plotlines, and character drawing, and an interview with my character. None of that.

But I do have some things I use other than my plethora of notebooks, stickies, and notepads. I love a good clean notebook. I have had a lot of those moleskin ones… which at by far my favourite for book notes. I love stationery. But that is beside the point.

I never write a book handwritten because a) I can’t even read my own writing b)Then I’d have to type it all in the computer anyway and I could have saved a lot of time by doing that the first time. So stationary obsession aside, I use things on the computer to write.

d an interview with my character. None of that.

But I do have some things I use other than my plethora of notepads.

WorkFlowy

I love this program. It is a simple way to take notes on everything and anything. Without ever having to search for it. It is like a bullet outline. But for every title like ‘worldbuilding’, you can click on it and it expands to a new page. You write down a list of things, but for a few of them you need more detail so you click onto them and it opens and another window. And deeper and deeper you go to infinity and beyond. I have more than one novel set of notes in there.

Behind the Name

A great name resource for all over the place and cultures. I write fantasy. I make up names or put a twist on a known name. But sometimes I want something specific so I look up this resource.

Grammarly

Does a basic grammar check and it can be used for blog posts, in word, or in google docs. So everywhere I write really. It catches all those stupid random typos and helps me put commas in the right places because when I am in the ‘flow’ of writing apparently I just skip them all. I just use the free version because, well, I am broke and cannot spend money on anything at all really that isn’t essential, and even that is a massive issue. So free it is. And the free version is quite nice.

Hemmingway

I use the free online version of Hemmingway to help with that infernal passive voice. But it does a lot more than that. I do not use it all the time but I have it in my repertoire

Google Docs

I write only in Google Docs. It means I can write on any device I have and it is stored in there. I do download and back up, of course, but this is the program of choice for me. I do not need much. Just the basics. I don’t do character profiles and such… any novel information is in WorkFlowy. And I keep all my writing in here. Like works in progress. New ones I am testing out. Poetry I write. All sorts.

Canva

I use canva all the time. I actually do have the paid version, accidentally, but that is another story. For writing, I will use this for ebook cover design if I am going to self-publish.

I have made a few covers with it some for books I have no published or took down and some for currently released self-published books and one a mock-up for Nano :

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So you can see that it is very versatile and you can create some great covers by yourself, if like me, you cannot pay for it.

Others you can give a go that I have never tried by cause I am stubborn and set in my ways

Focus writer cost is 5 bucks. Has a lot of features and things you can add for notes
Stay Focused so you are in the grove…. but what is going on in twitterland? I need to know now. Will this will prevent those distractions. I actually think I might find this one useful. It is available to be installed into Chrome for sure.
The Most Dangerous Writing App do you like deadlines? Do you like crunch time for writing. Are you aiming to win NaNoWriMo this year? Well this one will delete some of what you have written if you stop for 5 seconds.
ProWritingAid I have heard of this as being better than Grammarly.
Grammar Girl This is a blog with a massive amount of Grammar info if you are stuck on something
Word Counter I love the idea of this. It tells you words you are using too much. And we all do that sometimes, eh?
Idea Generator Portent I don’t know, maybe this would be good for new blog ideas
A Soft Murmur Some people like to write with music. Some in silence. This makes ambient noises in the background. I think I have to check this out… I like silence but I also like a little background noise.

So there are a lot of tools that can be very interesting to help us write and help us write well. Check them out.