For Writers

Updated: Aug 12 2012

I’m always scouring the web for helpful tips and cool stuff for writers. I got an iPad and I’ll add a section of iPad apps to this page, too. Will update when I can. (I am not affiliated with any of these sites or authors or their products. I make no $$ from this site. I simply enjoy exploring and sharing.)

Tools for Writers

• Scrivener: Extraordinary, exquisite and elegant writing software for Mac, Windows and Linux. Inexpensive. And worth every penny I paid for it. (Including the price of the Mac I bought so I could run it in its native environment.) Life-changing. Yes, I am serious. Scrivener has transformed the way I pretend to write. Er… NaNoWriMo’s receive a hefty discount when they complete their novels in November. Download the free NaNoWriMo trial edition, use it during NaNo and get half off the purchase price when you complete and validate your word count at the end of November. Screenshot below.
• yWriter by Simon Haynes, author of the Hal Spacejock series. For Windows only. Free. I used yWriter for years until I finally took the plunge and bought a Mac. Check out his How to Write a Novel posts. Simon does NaNoWriMo too.
• NaNoWriMo Project Spreadsheets: The designer actually calls this a word count tracker, but it’s much more than that. A beautiful way to keep track of many aspects of your entire project. The included artwork matches NaNoWriMo Wallpapers by the same marvelous artist. Get inspired. And maybe commission her to do a cover or some character art for your novel. She does truly beautiful work.

Books, eBooks and Sites for Writers

I have more links to add here for specific books and eBooks with annotations. (After I take the dawgs to the park, get some lunch, do some work on the novel, do some laundry. Yikes! Laundry! Argh.)

• Writing a Novel with Scrivener: Author David Hewson uses Scrivener to write his best-selling novels. And he’s written a book to show you how he does it. (Well, he shows you about the using Scrivener part, if not the writing a best-seller part.) Check his author site and blog for more.
• StoryFix: I have learned more about writing and structure in the last few weeks by using this site and the author’s books than I had learned in my entire life prior to discovering Larry Brooks. (I also took one of his webinars recently and it was well worth the time and $$.)
• Holly Lisle: I love her novels, short stories, her blog, her wit, her writing guides. Her guides are moving from her web shop (which she is closing) to Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, etc. See her site for more details. (I took the plunge and signed up for Holly’s How To Think Sideways  and How To Write A Series courses before she closed them in their web form. I really like being able to do the course at my own pace.)
• NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in 30 days. The Big Daddy. The Real Deal. The Big Kahuna. The first 30 day noveling site (as far as I know). By using the tips at StoryFix, you might actually write a decent rough draft. A real one. Something you could craft into something you could get published.
• StoryToolz: Progress meter, stats, and more. Free. Web-based.  Although the free version limits you to three meters, I still find it handy to plop a little code on the sidebars of my blogs, then make my daily word count entry on the StoryToolz site and have all the sidebars instantly update. Easy. Reliable (not exactly true with the NaNoWriMo meters). And you can use this outside of NNWM, too, which is another plus.