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Saving this for later

Ok here is a compilation of all the software and useful tools I’ve come across whilst writing. Some of them I’ve reviewed on here already, more coming soon. 

Got an idea? Well get planning! Here’s some useful outlining, brainstorming and mind- mapping software:

Coggle 

Lucidchart

Mural.ly

Blumind

MindMeister

Mindmaple

Mindomo

NovaMind

Popplet

Scapple

Tree Sheets

Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)

XMind

FreeMind

Oak Outliner

Work Flowy

The Outliner of Giants

Just want to get writing? You want a word processor:

Gedit

Google Docs

Kate

LibreOffice

Microsoft Word

My Writing Spot

NoteTab

Open Office

Quabel

Ted

Vim

yEdit

Making notes? Here you go:

CintaNotes

Evernote

KeepNote

Memonic

MS OneNote

Scribe

SuperNotecard

Tomboy

Timelines giving you a headache? Try these:

Aeon Timeline 

Dipity

Preceden

Tiki-Toki

Timeglider

Timeline

TimelineJS

TimeToast

Now perhaps you want to organise those notes. Got a lot of research? Character sheets? Images? Well here’s some tools to keep all that together:

Liquid Story Binder XE

LitLift

PangurPad

Scriptito

Scrivener

Writer’s Café

Yarny

yWriter

Are you easily distracted? The following tools will keep you on track:

Dark Room 

FocusWriter

JDarkRoom

Momentum Writer

OmmWriter

Q10

Writemonkey

Zen Writer 

Even more productivity tools to help keep you focussed on your task:

Cold Turkey 

FocalFilter

Freedom

InternetOff

Keepmeout

Nanny

Productivity Owl

RescueTime

SelfControl

SelfRestraint

Simple Blocker

StayFocusd

Strict Workflow

Time Doctor

Waste No Time

Website Blocker

So you’ve got something down? Need to edit? 

AutoCrit

EditMinion

Grammarly

LyX

SlickWrite

SmartEdit

After the Deadline

All done? Perhaps you’d like some e-publishing tools:

Acrobat

InDesign

Calibre

CutePDF

Jutoh

Mobipocket Creator

PagePlus

PageStream

PDFCreator

Scribus

Sigil

I’m feeling generous, have some more cool stuff:

750 Words

One Page per Day

Oneword

Penzu

Write or Die

Written Kitten

Focus Booster

Spaaze

AutoREALM (Map building software)

Enjoy! I may update the list as I find more, or I’ll make a second list.

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Saving this for later.

Looking for a random cause of death for a character? Click here.

Looking for a random city? Click here.

Looking for a random city that people have actually heard of? Click here.

Need a random surname for a character? Click here. (They also give prevalence by race, which is very helpful.)

Helpful writing tips for my friends.

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I've been working on a story for the past 8 years. I wrote it back in 2012 for the first time, but I noticed it could be improved: I worked on it and then wrote it from scratch during these past 2 years. I'm at the second re-reading now, but it doesn't satisfy me. Some scenes are really bad, the characters are flat, the story has lots of fillers. I want to start it again from scratch. But it feels like I failed. All these years, and still no story. Do you think it's okay to start it again?

It’s 100% okay to start over. It’s 100% not okay to say you failed. You haven’t. You’ve grown as a writer and that’s what you’re supposed to do.

-G

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tbh I've NEVER heard #5. In fact, all the advice I hear is the exact opposite. "Use said. If you're a good enough writer, the reader will know how they said it."

5 of the Worst Writing Advices

by Visionofwriters

The following article was graciously submitted by one of our followers when we called for it. If you would like to submit an article, please check out this post.

On Tumblr, it is very easy to find posts called “Writing Tips” or “Writing Advice”. While most of these posts are trying to help you, some of the advice can be badly researched and will end up damaging your writing. Therefore, I’ve composed a list of 5 of the most popular (and worst) writing advice, to help you clear out some misinformation. Enjoy!

1. If it’s not relevant, cut it.

If you look closely into this one, it might actually be good advice. But most new writers take this as a sign to cut every single scene where their characters are talking/not talking about the plot.

Now imagine if J.K. Rowling had done that. The seven books would be short, and they would just contain Harry worrying about Voldemort. We would’ve never known Ron and Hermione tend to argue, or that Harry liked Cho. When you cut “irrelevant” scenes, you cut subplots and character development.

If you really feel like a scene doesn’t have a point, ask yourself: Why did I write this scene? Why did I feel that it contributes to the plot?

Keep reading

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I can't speak for anyone else, but everything you mentioned? That's all I got. That one scene, a few characters, and a general idea of plot that doesn't extend much beyond "Antagonist do this. Protagonist do a not like. They fight."

And that's about where I leave it for 1-2 years, constantly stewing in my mind until the elements either coalesce into a cohesive whole, or inspire characters and settings in other projects.

excuse me writeblr but how do some of you plot so fast I swear I keep seeing posts like ‘this idea came to me a couple hours ago’ and then it goes into a fully fleshed word with a full cast of characters a beautifully moving excerpt that makes the muses cry and at least 1 moodboard while i’m over here like ‘it’s been 4 years and i still haven’t named the city where the story takes place’

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you know what i love? established apocalypse aesthetics

leaves and flowers and trees growing out of abandoned houses and cars, smashing glass windows, invading and reclaiming the spaces humanity took from them

warning scrawled hastily on the sides of buildings in spraypaint or in blood; don’t come here, it’s not safe. turn away, go back. we died here. you will too.

notes and messages scattered across the world, addressed to people who never saw them or never lived to reply to them. rachel, we’re alive. david, don’t look for us. amy, dad got bit, please come home, we need you. kim, i love you. 

people broken into tiny groups. society shattered. they are past the anger, past denial, past trying to fix any of it. now there is only begrudging acceptance, and the knowledge that nothing is ever going to get better. the only thing they can do is survive.

a skeleton lying at the foot of a tree, flowers blooming in its ribcage. a bloodstained note in its front pocket. ‘sorry, mom’. travelers see it and barely spare a thought; such things are commonplace.

roaming packs of dogs and cats still wearing their collars, centuries of domestication breaking down under the need to live and to keep living

families born of blood and sacrifice. trading stories over campfires about who they used to be, who they might have been, what they could have become if none of this ever happened. looks of understanding when someone loses a sister, a brother, a father. it happened to me, too.

abandoned bedrooms combed over for supplies, but the faded posters still hanging on the walls and the useless knickknacks on the shelves tell the stories of the people who lived there years ago

moss covering television sets, water lapping up into backyards, tree limbs shooting up through collapsed roofs, evidence of humanity being eroded one day at a time

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Me: I am a writer, creator of worlds!

Inner me: You sit on a throne of unused notebooks!

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The Original Meeting for The Prince and Snow White, from the original 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comic strip, released weekly, beginning December 14, a week before the film’s premiere.

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Writer’s Guide to Prologues, Flashbacks and Stories within Stories

Sometimes a story is held up by other stories like scaffolding holds up a building. Memories, Flashbacks, epilogues and prologues are all tools writer’s use to plump up their stories and enrich the reasons for characters’ behavior and actions.

Memories and Flashbacks

I love a good memory sequence. Whether they be flashbacks of sunny days or horrific torturous hours at the hands of the villian, done right a flashback sequence can save and make a story. Flashbacks are usually used when a character is traumatised by an event in their past and can explain character’s backstories. Usually they are triggered by smells, people, sights and similar occurrences. These flashbacks can be just as traumatic as the events that triggered them.

Prologue

Prologues are introductory chapters to a book. These chapters are set up to be used like a letter of recommendation, to ease you into the world. Prologues can either befall main characters, side characters or are a quick account by the protagonist introducing the story.

In all the Saga of Darren Shan books, Darren introduces each book by summarising the last one or contemplating how he could have changed the course of the book.

In A Game of Thrones, we are introduced to a party of Night’s Watch men under Waymar Royce’s command who battle the true threat facing Westeros, The White Walkers.

Epilogues

These are ending chapters, a sort of sentimental sign off. Sometimes we get to know how the characters grew up and popped out kids or it is a look at how the world has changed. Epilogues are like Targaryens, they are either mad or great. Harry Potter’s 19 years later epilogue, has divided the fandom because it has both good and bad qualities. The Hunger Games epilogue is touching but so unneeded. Epilogues are like powerful medications, only use them when you need them. Unnecessary epilogues can ruin and undermine your entire story. Yes, we like to catch up with a character or a world but some things are best left unsaid.

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Brain: I don’t wanna write anymore. I wanna read something. 

Me: Alright, I guess we could do that for a bit. What do you wanna read? 

Brain: Don’t know. Wanna read. 

Me: There’s a lot to choose from. How about this? 

Brain: No. Not that. I wanna read a thing that fits these exact specifications. 

Me: Uh, alright, wow. Those are really exact specificatio-

Me: …

Me: Are you telling me you want to read the exact thing we were writing? 

Brain: YES! I wanna read that. Let’s read that. 

Me: …

Me: I don’t know how to tell you this, but we have to write it first. 

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Going back to fix a plot problem

…While trying not to mess anything else up:

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I think most of us [writers] would rather have an audience than countless riches. If we wanted to be rich, we’d be doing something else.

John Green (via writingdotcoffee)

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How to write your book step 209

Rehash old ideas. 

 Is there an idea that you started to write out a while back but it just sort of bled out into nothing?  You never finished it, but it never really went away? It’s still there occasionally popping into your mind, even though you haven’t given it any real thought? It’s totally okay to use that idea. To open it back up. You could completely re write it.  You could incorporate it into whatever you are working on right now. It might not be the best idea  you’ve ever had, but on the other hand, it won’t go away so you might as well put it to use. 

Maybe you’ve completely forgotten about something and then one day you will be rummaging through your old stuff and find a story you wrote in primary school about you and your best friend of the time. Maybe it’s terrible. Maybe it should be left to rot under your bed. Or, maybe, it might be harboring brilliant secrets that one more rewrite will unleash. 

It’s okay to do the same thing over and over again. It’s okay to use the same ideas in different ways. You will get different results each time. Don’t be afraid to look back at your old writing. Just don’t get stuck there forever. 

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Rewrite.