7 Favorite Tools and Resources for Writers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig 

I thought I’d share a few of the sites I refer to often in the hope they’ll help some of you, too. They’re a variety of different types of resources, but they have one thing in common–they help with living the writing life.

IWSG: I recommend the Insecure Writer’s Support Group for all writers for a variety of reasons. They offer information on craft, conferences and events, and, perhaps most-importantly, provide a community for writers looking for support.

Dave Chesson’s Book Description Generator:   I use this free generator every time I load a book on Amazon. I used to try and use basic programming to make my book descriptions look better on Amazon’s site. This used to be a hit or miss thing, mostly because of my lack of talent at basic code. This tool makes things much eaiser.

AuthorTube (YouTube) sprint playlist: If you’re looking for chances to fit a few minutes of writing into your day, try one of the writing sprints on YouTube. This playlist each day showing upcoming sprints. You can go through the list, find times that will work best for you, and even set up reminders for when the sprint goes live.  Free.

Basic Pomodoro Timer:  This free timer is about as basic as it can get. What I like is that it runs quietly in the background, has a pleasing chime when it goes off, and doesn’t show how much time is left (when I see a timer counting down, I will spend far too much time watching it instead of writing).

Power Thesaurus: I used to use thesaurus.com, which is also a good resource. But I find that the crowdsourced Power Thesaurus (free online) works better when I have a word on the tip of my tongue but just can’t seem to get hold of it.

The WKB: Forgive the bit of self-promo here, but this is a free site that I often use both for blogging and for looking up craft help in areas where I’m weakest. I provide the content and Mike Fleming of Hiveword makes the magic happen.  :)

Canva: The free version offers plenty for most writers. I use the site to help design blog post images, social media, and more.

Do you have any favorite writing tools or resources? Let me know what I’ve missed in the comments below!

Image by free stock photos from www.picjumbo.com from Pixabay