Writer’s Toolbox

 

A writer needs a toolbox as much as any other occupation. When building a house, for example, the right tool speeds up the progress and can shave time off your goal. Listed below are my top picks for a writer’s toolbox.

Feel free to bookmark this page and come back as needed. Instead of fishing through the internet on your own, it’s all compiled here for you. The list ranges from free research websites to handy services. Make sure to keep checking back for more links! I’ll be adding periodically.

 

 

Self-Publishing:

• Unicheck is a plagiarism detection tool that finds similarities in texts. Thanks to its multiple checking options, you can scan texts across online sources in real time or compare them to each other. What’s more, it has a free version too.
• Prose is a library where writers of all skills steadily improve their craft while people of all walks authentically express and connect.
• Self-formatting tips on Youtube.
• A “hot or not” website on rating book covers.
• A website where you can submit your book cover to be critiqued.
• How to make your own free book trailer.
• The Audiobook Creation Exchange is a way to get your book converted into an audiobook. It’s an Amazon-backed service open to indie authors in the US and UK currently.
• KBoards is great forum for authors and readers. Check out the writer’s cafe for tips and insights into the self-publishing world.

 

Traditional Publishing:

• Literary Rejection’s take on word count.
• Audiohoop offers free audio downloads of literary works by emerging writers or public-domain classics. The site is also a networking resource for writers to connect with producers, actors, voice artists, directors, sound engineers, musicians, and other media artists to create audio versions of their written works.
• Catch the eye of a literary agent on Twitter via the #PitMad event.
• Get query tips from Query Shark.
• Examples of successful queries.

 

 

Promotion:

• Mail Chimp is a free service to create a newsletter list to spread the word about your newly published books.

 

 

Thinking Up Ideas:

• A random inn generator (fantasy/medieval setting)
• A random plot/setting/theme/story hook/climax generator. I found it great for getting the wheels turning on story ideas.
• Here’s a book title name generator—quite handy
• A periodic table for storytelling. It includes a description (with examples) of quite a few types of plot, character, structure, and tropes. The site also has a story idea generator.
• This website helps you decide what to write next by integrating social media to “vote” on your next novel, book, or blog idea.

 

Research:

• If you’re curious how popular turn-of-phrases were created (especially helpful for historical writing), this may shed some light.
• 178 ways to describe clothing for your female characters.
• NovelRank is a free service that tracks your books sales rank in different Amazon stores around the world.
• eBook Rank Tracker tracks your own books and others to see which promotional tools are working.

 

Author Website Resources:

• Author Website Guide offers free articles on how best to set up and grow your author’s website.

 

Name Generators:

• Name generator for coming up with just the right name.
• Another name generator that has awesome visual elements.

 

General Tools/Resources:

• Thesaurus for variety of words
• Google images could be helpful to picture a person, building, or setting before describing it.
• The music I often listen to while writing: the LoTR soundtrack and Celtic music.
• A great video about Dan Wells’s 7-point story structure.
• If you’re looking for a visual of facial expressions, this may help. Move the sliders around to change the expression.
• 100 words for facial expressions.
• 41 flavors of body language.
• Find out what words you’re over-using by creating a neat visual word cloud of all the words you use. Enter in a short story or a full novel to find out.
• Receive daily email reminders to write 750 words via this website, as well as track analytics of your writing speed, length, consistency, and even number of distractions.
• Omm Writer is a distraction-free writing environment tool.
• Evernote is a free tool to keep track of your writing notes. You can sync with all your devices so if you come up with an idea while out, you can type it in your phone and then access it on your computer later on.
• WriteOrDie is a writing platform that puts the “prod” in productivity.
• National Novel Writers Month is a great way to get motivated to write your next book.
• Ambient Music has sound effect tracks ranging anywhere from thunderstorms to coffee shops.
• Written? Kitten! is like Write or Die, only with positive reinforcement. And kittens.