otterandterrier sonicenvy
Sep 23
  • sonicenvy

    Updated Useful Resources For Writers

    Programs To Download:

    Cold Turkey Writer -- A writing program that you can download to your computer for distraction free writing sessions. It is especially good for initial word vomit writing. Features of this program include: an ability to block out ALL other things on your computer until a certain amount of time passes, or until a certain number of words have been written. The program also does not have many different distracting extras. It is free with an optional donation of a single $9 USD payment for the extended features (soundtracks and night mode afaik). When I'm really stuck trying to write something I like to fire this up and set a 500 word word count. You can get this for Windows and Mac OS.


    StimuWrite -- A simple writing program that has little sounds, encouraging emoji animations and a progress bar for whatever word count you set. Fun and funky. Also Free. Available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.


    LibreOffice -- Want to have a word processor on your computer but don't want to pay for microsoft office? Look no further, LibreOffice is the top tier free opensource office suite out there. Available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.


    Scrivener -- Paid, but a great option for those who want to write novel length things (whether your fic or you actual novel that you plan on publishing). A lot of professional writers I know use this. It has features for integrating your research, re-arranging chunks and more. Read about all the features here.


    Audio:

    mynoise.net -- the internet's best infinite sound generator, offering water, nature, white noise, cafe sounds, and more. You can also get their app for iOS or Android. The sound generators are customizable, have the ability to be used to set timers and more.

    Purrli -- the internet has a cat and you can listen to it purring infinitely. The sister site to mynoise. Headphones are best for this, but listening to infinite cat purr sound is nice.

    RainFor.me -- a simple infinite rain sound generator.

    Coffitivity -- infinite coffee shop sound generator.

    RainyCafe -- a combination rain and cafe infinite sound generator.

    RainyMood -- another infinite rain sound generator.

    lofi hip hop radio infinite YT stream -- infinite stream of soft, instrumental lofi hip hop beats to listen to.

    tabletop audio -- get into the mood for a scene by listening to different themed fantasy/sci-fi ambience sounds. Also great for your D&D group's sessions.

    radio.garden -- use a 3d globe to find and listen to real radio stations from around the world.

    Resources on the Web:

    CRD Reading Room's World Building Checklist -- though this is obviously geared towards GMs inventing worlds I think it is also a really useful tool for writing any kind of AU world building. Very thorough and has a lot of questions for you to think through.

    Online Etymology Dictionary -- like the paid Oxford English Dictionary, but free. See examples of words in context throughout time, look at graphs about usage trends, learn the history and etymology of words, and of course their definitions.

    Word Hippo -- A useful, free online thesaurus.

    OneLook Reverse Dictionary -- Can't think of a word but know the meaning? This is the site for you! Pop in a meaning or similar concept and get a list of words that mean your thing.

    Vulgar Conlang Generator -- We can't all be jrr tolkien (conglangs georg). This website helps you generate your own conlangs.

    Last Name Generator -- Generate last names for characters when you can't think of one.

    Google Ngrams Viewer -- Will the word I want to use in this period piece be anachronistic? Find out the history (and frequency) of words in English (various versions) and a number of other commonly spoken languages like Spanish and French.

    US Social Security Archives -- Find out which names were common in US census records between now and the 1880s.

    Polygon Map Generator -- Good for fantasy writing and GMs alike, generate random island maps with a variety of land features.

    Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator -- Generate a map of multiple continents with labels and multiple kinds of land features. Again, originally a GM resource but for those of us who are writing fantasy AUs or something this might be a cool add on.

    Internet Sacred Text Archive -- Learn about all kinds of world religions and historical mythologies and read their texts for free.

    Random Word Generator -- Generate a random English word. Great for random one word prompts!

    Rhyme Zone -- Doing a purple prose challenge or have a character who writes dreadful poetry? For all your rhyming word needs look no further. Enter in a word and get a list of words that rhyme with it.

    ScholarPedia -- An open access, peer-reviewed encyclopedia. Great for doing research about stuff.

    Springhole.net -- Hard to explain but it's a weird site of writing tips, resources and roleplaying advice.

    Written Kitten -- Simple site for writing where you set a word count and when you hit it, the site serves you a picture of a kitten.

    Google WeWearCulture Project -- Learn about (and see pictures of) fashion around the world and through time.

    AO3 Workskin Guides:

    Adaema's Messaging Skins -- Learn how to use the AO3 custom workskin options to create mockups of iMessage, Whatsapp and Snapchat chats in the body of your fic so you don't have to use images (which are bad for screen readers)

    Social Media AU Workskins -- Learn to use the AO3 custom workskin options to create interactive and clickable social media pages within an AO3 work for sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit and more.

    Misc Fandom Specific Stuff:

    Star Wars Galaxy Map -- A map of the GFFA, with systems, sectors and hyperspace lanes.

    Explore the X-Files -- An interactive map of all of the locations that Mulder and Scully investigated an X-file in, complete with information about what episode(s) this happened in.

    Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 1920s Money Meta -- Lots of really well researched information about the hard money numbers that might be attached to everyone in the series.

    Veritascara's Star Wars Fic Writing Resources -- A bunch of useful resources for enterprising star wars fic writers.

    Twi'lek name List -- names for Twi'lek characters with their meanings.

    Star Wars slang, and vocabulary resource -- A spreadsheet of star wars slang, vocabulary and the phonetics of aurabesh.

    I just like collecting interesting internet resources, and what not, and to that end, I have a huge spreadsheet of general internet interestingness, weirdness and useful stuff which you can find here.

    If any of you fine folks have some more interesting resources for writing, fic specifically, research and more, please drop a comment, as I'd love to know! Especially if you have good resources that are fandom specific, since most of mine are just, uh, star wars specific.


    ❤️💚 from your local internet crazy lady!

    • #resources   #writing  
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