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i would suggest ellipsus! it's currently in beta, and entirely free. it's somewhat similar to gdocs in that it is a personal document platform that syncs across devices (there's no app as of writing this, but it's very accessible on mobile browser! i write a decent amount on my phone), but unlike gdocs it does not have any AI, and prides itself on its security and privacy functions (i have a friend who works in tech privacy/security fields who has given it her stamp of approval after learning that it's based in germany). you can create "chapters" within individual documents, organise the documents within folders, all entirely private to you, but you can also share with others if you want to get feedback (they have a comments function!), and there's a decent amount of formatting and font variation available. while it does have a slightly annoying trait of forcing you to enter a verification code every time you log in (they send it to the email you registered with), i honestly think that it isn't that big of a hassle.

Does anyone know of any good, free, and accessible writing applications or websites? I'm trying to get back into writing, but I need a website that is:

- Mostly, if not completely, free.

- Able to organize per chapter, something like wavemaker.

- Not required to post, as most of what I want to write is personal, which means Wattpad, AO3, and any other write to post websites are not optimal.

- NOT AI run, or inhabited. Any and all recommendations of AI websites will be ignored, and the recommender will be blocked, so fair warning.

- Able to sync across clients, examples: Google Docs, wavemaker.

Any and all recommendations are appreciated! I've attempted to do my research, but haven't found anything that I am fully comfortable with using.

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I just finished First You Write A Sentence by Joe Moran & I loved it (so much so that I procrastinated on the last chapter for like a month bc I didn't want it to be over). in no particular order, are some of my favourite things about it/reasons why I think it's great for writers to read:

It really feels like a nice guy is gently but enthusiastically nerding out about sentences and creative writing, in a non-preachy way

encourages writers to think about their voice! Moran isn't a prescriptivist. He talks about why certain styles of writing sentences feel more natural to read, psychologically and linguistically, but also explores lots of ways in which the writing "rules" have been (successfully) broken and explains why these worked

and, similarly, explores different pieces of advice from multiple angles – e.g., instead of "you should avoid the passive voice", Moran's approach is "here's what the passive voice does well, why it's sometimes necessary, and why it weakens our writing at other times"

Little anecdotes that kept it interesting. A lot of "how to be a writer" books wear me out because the focus is so heavily on writing that I get over-saturated with advice, but Moran goes on well-timed and relevant meanders that both reinforce and let you take a lil break from the advice

Takes you through from the small, mechanical level of What Is A Sentence (i.e., nouns & verbs), to word order, to sentence length, to the effects of different punctuation marks, to how to connect sentences seamlessly, to the larger scale of fitting everything into paragraphs and prose

It put into words so many things that I do semi-intuitively bc I've been writing for so long now, but never really thought about. And now that I'm actually thinking about them, I can feel the skills getting stronger!!

Like, you can shift where your reader's attention falls by placing a word or phrase at different points in a sentence. Which i realised I'd been doing anyway, but now I can consciously think about it when I write and revise, and it's really fun to play around with :D

Big focus on clarity and conciseness, but not at the cost of voice and personal style. Really helped me see how to find a balance between the two, especially in my academic writing.

The writing of the book itself feels so graceful and easy to read that it's like you're in safe, knowledgeable hands. this is someone who absolutely practises what he preaches (although, as I said, it doesn't feel like you're being preached at)

There's probably more, and if I get the time and mental space I certainly want to summarise my favourite points from this book, but for now my parting endorsement is that I already want to read it again, this time with a notebook and page markers on hand.

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🧃 How to Develop a Vibe AND a Plot (aesthetic doesn’t cancel arcs. let’s balance them.)

hey you. yes, you. the one with the moody playlists, the 73-tab Pinterest board, and a half-written draft that just keeps…vibing in circles.

if you’ve ever written 10k of immaculate vibes but couldn’t tell anyone what your story is about, this post is for you. because here’s the thing: ✨ aesthetic is not a substitute for stakes. ✨

let’s talk about how to keep your ✨vibes✨ and actually have a plot that moves. no ✧ fluff ✧ just structure, character arcs, and some lovingly blunt advice from your local writeblr gremlin (me).

🌊 1. aesthetic is a result, not a premise

the most common mistake i see is starting with a vibe as the story. like:

“sad girls on the beach in 1996”

“a cursed forest full of dead gods”

“a pastel academic rivalry with secrets and sexual tension”

cool. great. love that for you. but… what’s the story? what’s happening?

✨vibes = setting + mood + tone. ✨plot = choices + consequences + change.

your aesthetic can inspire the story (please keep making playlists. i love them). but don’t confuse the feel of your world with the function of your plot. start with tension. stakes. character flaws. emotional damage. that’s the engine. the aesthetic is the paint job.

🎯 2. define your “emotional throughline”

okay, so you’ve got an aesthetic. what’s the emotional core of it? your plot should orbit a single emotional question, like:

will this character ever let themselves be known?

what does it take to unlearn loyalty?

is love worth destroying something sacred?

start with that. then attach aesthetic scenes to it.

🧩 pro tip: aesthetic scenes are more powerful when they contradict or complicate your emotional throughline.

ex: your story’s about loneliness? show them at the loudest, busiest party. story’s about grief? show them smiling in photos while everything breaks behind the lens.

aesthetic is stronger with irony. contrast. juxtapositions. don’t just bathe the reader in vibes. weaponize them.

💥 3. let your aesthetic hurt your characters

whatever your aesthetic is--soft academia, vaporwave horror, regency witchcore, don’t make it just a backdrop. make it an obstacle.

your setting should create problems. friction. conflict.

if it’s a sleepy coastal town: what’s festering beneath the quiet?

if it’s a hauntingly beautiful forest: what does it take from people?

if it’s a cursed mansion: what happens to the girls who stay too long?

every time you design a pretty place or moody visual, ask: ❓ how does this setting test my characters’ beliefs or desires?

because then your aesthetic drives the story forward instead of just decorating it.

📚 4. develop plot like a playlist: structure the escalation

your aesthetic playlist has structure, right? (don’t lie. i know you’ve got a specific song for act 3 heartbreak.)

plot works the same way. it’s not a mystery. it’s escalation.

you want a structure? here’s a dead-simple one:

give your main character a desire (internal & external)

give them a reason they can’t have it (flaw, fear, lie)

make them try anyway (rising stakes)

make it cost them something (midpoint shift)

force them to change or break (climax)

let that change play out (falling action / resolution)

that’s it. apply that structure to your vibey little story and suddenly it’s a book.

👁‍🗨 5. plot is what they do - vibe is how it feels

don’t choose one. you can have both.

you can have a soft lighting scene on a rooftop and the secret betrayal reveal. you can have dreamy prose and broken character dynamics. you can give me worldbuilding so lush it smells like petrichor and rot and still give me a plot twist that leaves me feral.

you just need to be intentional.

every scene = a purpose. every aesthetic = an angle. every image = tied to stakes, desire, or change.

✨ that’s the difference between “ooh pretty” and “oh my god i can’t stop thinking about this story.” ✨

💌 so in conclusion:

start with an emotional arc

let your aesthetic scenes earn their place

make your world fight your characters

escalate, escalate, escalate

and stop hiding a lack of plot under “vibe” like a glittery throw blanket over a broken chair

you’ve got this. now go write the beautifully messy, aesthetic and emotionally devastating story you were meant to.

i believe in you.

🧃rin t.

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

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Hi, I'm a fellow writer on Tumblr, and I wanted to ask, where do I start on my writeblr journey. Like what to post, et,c so far, I've only posted my writeblr introduction and my books first chapter. Plz help!

Hey there, thanks for the ask! (And also, welcome to writeblr :D)

The main point I wish to emphasise above all else, is that writeblr is a community, a lovely community, and reblogging is our life blood. Reblogging other people's posts (especially their writing) is a surefire way to make friends and mutuals here (as well as adding posts to your blog, especially if you're running a bit dry on ideas for original posts.)

Anyway, here's some ideas for posts you could make:

1. OC Introductions

These are a great way of showcasing a good summary of your character in one post. You can populate it with as many or as few details as you want, and also feature things like the stories/posts they're in and/or the art that was made for them.

I'm going to pull a dose of cheeky self-promotion and put two of my character introductions as a reference.

Eshani, protagonist of A Healing for the Birds Claudia, the same wip's antagonist

2. WIP Introduction/Masterpost

A great way to summarise your wip, tell people what it's about and embellish it with links to chapters, snippets, lore, characters, whatever you want.

3. Lore posts about your worldbuilding

Self-explanatory, a great way to showcase aspects of your lore (especially the parts that don't get mentioned explicitly or at all in your projects.)

4. Tag games

For those who are into them, they're a fun way of interacting with people and getting to post snippets of writing, delve into character lore/do silly things with them, etc. Usually if one is tagged, they would make a separate post for their response (especially for writing snippets and longer posts; reblog chains are usually for 'get to know me' tags and stuff like that.)

5. Ask games

A similar vein to the tag games, though there are themed day ask games too, like Storyteller Saturday (for any/all questions relating to one's characters, wips, writing process, etc), and Worldbuilding Wednesday for example.

6. Inspiration/aesthetic reblogs

Some people will reblog things, like images of clothing, actors, aesthetics, etc and put in the tags 'oc: (put name here)' 'oc inspiration' '(insert wip) inspiration/aesthetic' etc if said image matches/reminds them of a character or wip.

7. OC Question blogs

There's blogs out there that post oc questions for people to answer in the tags/reblogs, such as these (they're just the ones I know of):

@characterbabble

@oc-questions

@ocquestionnaire

@taguroc

(put oc question in the search bar, loads of results will pop up)

8. Writing Question posts

Sometimes people will have a writing related question in a post and people can answer in the reblogs/comments (such as the Writers' Chat and Share an Excerpt posts by @/cwritesfiction every Monday, and the handful of questions posted on the 13th of each month by @writeblr-live )

9. Writing Prompts

If you're into writing prompts, there's a plethora of those type of blogs with loads of prompts (I will give a special shoutout to @/flashfictionfridayofficial, they post a flash fiction prompt every Friday and if you post your response within 24 hours of the prompt being posted, your piece will be reblogged by them with a nice compliment! Personally I do these prompts, it's benefitted my writing a lot in terms of practice and giving me a platform to develop characters and lore that aren't otherwise featured in my main projects.)

10. Writeblr Events

Sometimes, someone will go and host an entire event aimed at getting people writing and/or talking about their stuff. There's a good few events throughout the year, here's some that are coming up (as of writing):

Writeblr live — On the 13th of each month, the organiser (@/dyrewrites) will post the questions and also be giving the respondents asks based on/inspired by their responses. People are also encouraged to send each other asks, even if/when the live hour is up.

Writecamp, by @/agirlandherquill — a set of prompts posted daily from the start of June through to the end of August

Writeblr Summerfest (@writeblrsummerfest ), run by @/acertainmoshke — a number of questions (relating to writing, wips, characters, lore, etc) posted throughout each day during August, with a theme running through it (this year's theme is 'airport terminal')

11. You could also literally just put your thoughts on a post and send

—

These are just some ideas, you can also peruse other people's blogs and get a feel for what type of posts they make :D

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in a turn of events unlikely to shock any other writer, the tentatively planned wip idea has been tossed aside in favour of a cast of ocs i came up with as a joke

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em dash they could never make me hate you

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writing is so funny because i could write nonstop for 9hrs and then hit a block where im like "how do i transition between this moment and the next?" and then i just dont touch it for 6 months

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i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.

Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

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i have the beginnings of a new novel percolating in the back of my head which i will hopefully make progress on this summer! my first order of business is a lot of research so i can make the setting historically accurate(ish) but i'm quite excited about it, since it's a fantasy novel and that's a genre i'm not super versed in writing ^-^

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A first draft is supposed to be shit. It’s supposed to be barely intelligible garbage. It’s there for you to get a feel for what you’re writing. You don’t have to write a whole story in one go, you can write it out of order you can use placeholder names you can write notes to yourself in it. It’s supposed to be like that, don’t hold yourself to such high standards all the time, write a shitty first draft

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happy pride and welcome back! very excited for your new novel also!!!

BUSTS FROM MY GRAVE (again god i have to dedust this thing) IM NOT DEAD! IM WORKING ON A NEW NOVEL AND IM 51K INTO IT. I AM DOING MUCH BETTER THAN I WAS BEFORE!!!! HAPPY PRIDE!!!

MUTUALS I HAVE MISSED YOU. WORRY NOT MOON IS BACK!!

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writers who make playlists before writing anything scare me. how are you setting a mood for something that doesn’t exist yet. are you conjuring it. are you a witch.

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JUPITER - A NOTION TEMPLATE

A handy little template for character organization and developing characters in more detail.

Features:

A database allowing for several different groups of characters (different families, different fantasy species, etc.)

Built in template with an in-depth character page

Several images and callout boxes for personalization

🌿GET HERE🌿

click duplicate in the top right corner

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honestly i kind of forget how Much writing i've done re: original works because those just stay in my drafts and i don't see the wordcounts anywhere. but like. i wrote ~100k in original novel writing in the last two years! it doesn't feel like it though.

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I control the narrative, I whisper to myself like a lunatic while the characters in the story I'm writing are not following my orders.

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what if i gave them sex pollen.

deeply tempted to write silly non canon au fanfic for my novels. oh yes i wrote ~50k for each of them already. but what about a non canon version with vampires.