I write a bunch of smutty/angsty/trashy fic (usually featuring Tony Stark). Come for stories and random writerly musing.
Resource Dump: Writing Tools I Love

Occasionally, the muse sings heavenly music and writing comes as easy as breathing. But far more often (for me, anyway), writing feels like what I imagine giving birth might be like: messy and uncomfortable and omg so difficult and I just want it over with already so I can have that beautiful, post-ready final product ready for everyone to coo over.
We've all got our tried-and-true methods for coaxing the muse, so I thought I'd share some of my personal favorite writing tools and resources in the hope that you might find some of them useful.
Some of these I use every time I'm writing and others are reserved for those times when writing block hits hard and I need that extra push to get the creative juices flowing. (And a couple are just-for-fun time wasters writing-related diversions.)
Top 10 Favorite Writing Tools (in no particular order)
1. WriteMonkey (Desktop App): A writing application with an extremely stripped down user interface, leaving you alone with your thoughts and your words.
This app is really useful for those times when you want to get everything else off your desktop and just write. When you maximize the program, it clears literally everything else off your screen (including operating system footers/headers/what have you) so that all you see is a blank writing box. It's the closest experience I've found to writing by hand on a blank sheet of paper.
I don't use this all the time, but it really gives me that calming, focused experience I need when distractions or writers block is really bothering me.
2. The Most Dangerous Writing App (Online App): Designed to shut down your inner editor and get you into a state of flow. Because 'tis better to have written and lost, than never to have written at all.
I have a serious love-hate relationship with this sucker. It's another one of your typical "write or die" apps, but this one gives you no leeway at all. If you stop typing for five seconds, everything disappears and is lost forever. It's dangerous and can be pretty stressful: I once lost over a thousands words using this (and nearly threw my computer across the room).
At the same time, it’s amazingly helpful if you (like me) are one of those writers that compulsively/agonizingly edits and re-edits every three words before you can bring yourself to move on. I find it especially useful to start off a longer writing block with a 10-20 minute session on this to get into the writing headspace. (But seriously: use at your own risk.)
3. Thesaurus.com (Online Resource): Find synonyms and antonyms for words you use all the time.
I know people have different opinions on using a thesaurus, but I personally am an avid fan. Obviously, you have to be very judicious about what words you use (my rule of thumb: don't use a word if it's one you've never said aloud yourself in conversation). But sometimes you just need that list of synonyms so that you're not using the same three descriptors over and over again.
My fic Come Round Full Circle, for example, is 37k (and counting) words of angst, misery and man pain. I cringe to think how it would read if I didn't have a thesaurus to spread out the adjectives a bit.
4. Tip of My Tongue (Online Resource): Find that word that you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember.
This is another thesaurus-type tool, but more useful when you know exactly what word you're looking for but can't for the life of you remember what it is. It lets you search for words by meaning and what letter it starts with, ends with, contains, etc.
(So the next time you're looking for that perfect descriptor for Tony Stark's behavior and you know it starts with an "i" and means something like antsy or hasty... pop those in there and you get: impetuous. Perfect!)
5. Be Focused (iPhone App): Lets you get things done by breaking up tasks into discrete (and imminently do-able) intervals, separated by short breaks.
I'm a big fan of the Pomodoro technique for fighting procrastination (which is a huge problem for me). You can do it with any kitchen timer, but I like this app because it lets you create specific timers for different activities and lets you program in breaks for when you want them.
I've got set timers for brainstorming (10 minutes), non-stop flow writing (30 minutes), and longer writing sessions (2-3 hours with 5-minute breaks every 20 minutes so that I can go Tumblr for awhile relatively guilt-free, knowing Be Focused will tell me when I need to get back to writing).
6. Cold Turkey (Desktop App): Block online distractions for set time periods.
This app will block all kinds of online time-wasters (Tumblr, Facebook, Buzzfeed, or whatever else you program in there) but will still let you access the sites you need to write. Again, a great tool for people like me who have major procrastination problems and a truly tragic lack of self-control.
7. Readability Score (Online Tool): Measure how easy your text is to read and how well it targets certain words and phrases.
I don't know how useful this really is in terms of writing method, but it's super fun for nerds like me who want to overanalyze their writing style.
Run your text through here and it'll give you some random reading grade levels (so you can check how old your readers have to be in order to understand your syntax, maybe?) but also some more interesting things like: text quality (word/sentence syllables, passive voice count, etc.), reading time, sentiment (hahaha this one's my favorite; I usually get something like: "Neutral--Moderately Negative") and keyword density (so you know if you're seriously overusing a word).
8. Profanely (Online Tool): A creative curse word generator. Not an app for the faint of heart, the easily offended, or those younger than... 13?
Okay, I admit there's absolutely no redeeming value for this one--but it's just so much fun. I like to use it when I need creative curse words for particularly colorful characters.
9. Writage (MS Word Plugin): Enables Microsoft Word to create editable Markdown files with all markup inserted automatically.
This is a new discovery for me and it's super useful for turning your Word documents into markup-ready text. (Has anyone else suddenly become a markup expert within a few days of hopping aboard the Imzy bandwagon?)
I save all my stories as Word documents on my desktop, so all I have to do is pull up an existing file and "save as" with a .markdown extension. Then I open up the new file in .txt format and can copy & paste the whole thing directly into Imzy's post box without having to worry about re-editing for Imzy's formatting quirks.
10. Google Docs (Online App): Lets you create, edit, store and share documents online. Files can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.
I know everyone and their mother already knows about Google Docs, but I thought I'd include it here anyway because I've recently re-discovered how awesome it is. I've used MS Word for most of my writing career and it's still (imho) the best document writing/editing software out there, but Google Docs has a couple of advantages that aren't easily available in Word:
a) Sharability--Perfect for interacting with beta-readers without having to email massive docs back and forth a million times, and for interacting with multiple beta readers/cheerleaders at the same time.
b) Accessibility--You can pull up your story and work on it on any computer or tablet, anywhere with an internet connection.
What are some of your favorite writing tools?
Do you use any of the ones that I've listed above? What are some other resources that you just can't write without? Please share in the comments. I'm always on the lookout for useful new writing tools!














*saves the Tip of My Tongue at the speed of light*
Thank you for this post, it's extremely useful! And the swear words tool seems fun :D
I tend to write shorter stuff in LibreOffice, longer in Scrivener. And seriously, Scrivener is awesome. It's the best thing for planning longer stories for me--I especially love how it lets you show all the scenes like post-its on a board. You can colour-code for POV or anything else you like (my current WIP is colour-coded for levels of angst in each scene). And each scene can have a status that you can use to show if it's to do, in progress, first draft etc. It's extremely useful when your draft gets messy. Plus, I'm not a fan of separate apps for writing (I have my shortcuts, I get used to the interface, etc.), so all the fullscreen, no distraction writing apps don't really work for me--I like the no distraction option, but not all the copy somewhere else, write, copy back stuff--and Scrivener offers a fullscreen view that's awesome (here's a screenshot with my settings xD)
Scrivener is amazing! I tried the free one-month trial when I was plotting a very long and complicated thing, and it's the best for organizing. Unfortunately I'm completely broke </3 and a month is not enough to try out all the whistles and bells that it comes with, but it's certainly a fun and useful tool, especially if you specialize in longer fics.
Yeah, it's on the expensive side D: I got the 50% off coupon for completing Camp Nano, thankfully. (And there's also a free version for Linux, which is my main platform, really, but I do still use Windows at times.)
I also tried yWriter--it doesn't have as nice an interface as Scrivener, but I did write my longest story ever in it and it helped me with plotting and managing the draft a lot.
Oh yeah I know yWriter! When I found out that it existed I had already switched over to OneNote though so I never really tried... if I ever find myself struggling with a long draft I'll check it out!
So many new writing tools to try out!! flails in joy
Wow, Scrivener sounds awesome! I'm downloading the trail now to check it out. The post-it board function seems really cool; I'm totally a visual planner so something like that would be perfect for me. (And color coding, omg I LIVE for color coding. :D) Can't wait to play around with it! Thanks so much for letting me know!
Yeah, I hate having to shift around multiple apps/tools/programs to write, too. It's why I've stuck with plain old Word for years and years, but now I'm in a kinda exploratory mood so I want to try out all these new tools and pick one I can stick with.
One thing tho: the Cold Turkey app isn't writing-specific; it just sits on your desktop and blocks distracting websites (so you can use whatever writing program you like while it's on). I think probably I wasn't 100% clear on that above, I'll go back and add a note!
Thesaurus.com is a life-saver! The funny thing is that I used it often in place of Tip of my tongue; I knew of the latter's existence but I promptly forgot to save the url and I never found it again because I didn't remember how it was called... (this is starting to sound like inception). Anyway now I've got it bookmarked thanks to you v.v/ Maybe it's obvious, but another friendly tool for me is wordreference, which is helpful if I don't know how to say something in English; it's less obvious and way more hilarious when I'm writing Italian fic and I can't remember how to say things in my own language because only the English expression seems to fit...
A clean interface can do wonders! I used to write on Zenwriter back when it was freeware, but then my old laptop broke down and I lost all my programs. Now it's way too pricey at $19.95. I also tried ommwriter (way cheaper) and FocusWriter (free), which are both very similar to ZW, but my main problem with writing is that I'm disorganized: I tend to scatter .doc files all over the place and then I lose them and forget about them. OneNote fixed it for me; it's free, it has a built-in organizing system so I can keep all my shit in one place (even the smallest snippets!), it synchs with Microsoft Cloud (onedrive) so I can write on my phone or at a random library's pc, and there's an option to maximize the program, which leaves you with a very clean interface.
I've always wanted to try The Most Dangerous Writing App but I'm a compulsive editor too so it scares the shit out of me. Maybe I really should try it out at some point.
Readibilty Score and Profanely (especially now that I've been feeling like getting back into writing for homestuck...) are amazing founds, thank you so much for sharing them!
Edit: I've tried out Readibility Score and now I'm paranoid because apparently my sentences are REALLY EFFING LONG. EEEP.
Oooh, I hadn't even thought of OneNote. It's been sitting on my desktop forever, I should give it a go for fic writing!
The Most Dangerous Writing App definitely lives up to its name, proceed with caution!! But it is really helpful to breaking out of the over-editing loop--you've got literally no choice but to move on. I don't think I could ever write a full story on it, but if you start off a writing session on there (especially when you're deep in writers block), you typically end up with a few hundred words to start with. Which is always better than staring futilely at a blank sheet of paper... and then wondering off to Imzy (which is what keeps happening to me lately haha).
Readibility Score gives you some wonky outputs sometimes! You gotta take it with a grain of salt. Like, I just ran my latest fluffy pwp through there and the sentiment came out (again) as "Moderately Negative" lolol.
LMAO I just hallucinated JARVIS' voice saying something like: "Sentiment: Angsty Porn"
(speaking of writing tools I FORGOT ABOUT Pacemaker! it's very useful if you need to write for challenges like NaNoWriMo but you have a very packed schedule- it calculates the amount of words you need to write everyday to reach your goal, but you can regulate the amount of work you want to do every day and if you want or need to skip a few days in between. I recently used it to keep track of how many pages of textbook I needed to study before an exam, actually, because it's just that flexible.
I tried this out with my WIP and it's awesome!! I need all the help I can get with getting longer projects done--my pace always slows way down when I'm near the end of thing (whyyyy????) so it's really cool how this tool breaks everything up into manageable chunks! And even if you miss (or, ahem, skip) a day, you know exactly how many words you need to write to make up for it. Thanks for sharing!! :D
I'm forever late but I just remembered about Workflowy! It's pretty amazing if you need a quick to do list. I don't really use it for writing, lately, but I used to plan out structures and stuff using this.
/drops a line because useful stuff
I LOVE THIS. You can create a massive to-do list for LIFE and keep it all organized in one place!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Popping in with ILYS! They used to have a free platform that was similar to The Most Dangerous Writing App, but without the death timer. Since they rebranded their site to something more streamlined, they started charging ~$10/month to use their program (which is all browser based, totally encrypted, and sometimes automatically saves). When I was super prolific with my writing and waaaay into NaNo, ILYS was amazing. If you're not so much of an avid writer, $10/month is a little steep for something like this. But once you're in the flow and have told your inner editor to stuff it, ILYS is absolutely fantastic. I've cranked out 5k+ words in an hour, with the only drawback going back and editing what looks like keyboard smashing xD (But isn't that already part of the process?)
Oooh, sounds intriguing. Like you said, seems like it would be especially useful when you're working on a longer, deadline-driven project like NaNo or a BB. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi! Thanks for all these resources!
One tool I find useful for helping with making up names is Google Translate. It allows me to play around with the ways other languages say things and inspires me to research translations I find interesting.
I love Google Translate too! One of my favorite uses for it is for coming up with titles for stories. Like, taking a phrase or word that works thematically but sounds kind of dull in English & playing around with how it works in other languages. It's surprisingly helpful!