Top 10 Essential Tools and Resources for Writers
- Scribophile: A fantastic online writing community. Not only the best critiquing interface I’ve ever used, but also a wonderful group of writers who take critiquing seriously.
- Scrivener: I never thought I’d come to like writing on the computer, but this software changed that. Inexpensive, powerful, and open-ended in terms of how you want to organize your work, it’s a worthwhile investment.
- NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month, and its off-season counterpart, Camp NaNoWriMo, are excellent investments in time, where you dedicate yourself to the writing process, and there is a fun and supportive community there.
- The Alliance of Independent Authors: An dedicated to advocating for self-publishers and they provide a range of services.
- Workflowy: An online, mobile-friendly tool for taking notes and just rambling. I’ve saved many spontaneous bits of inspiration from the Muse, thanks to Workflowy.
- Google+ writing circles: I joined a writing circle on Google+ last year, and the moderator started an accountability circle, where we state our goals and reported how/if we met them each week. It’s branched out over time, and you can find the Writer’s Discussion Group on Google+, with a broad range of topics to post in, and a lot of great resources to be found there.
- Stephen King’s On Writing: I’ve read a lot of books about writing, and this has always been one of my favorites!
- George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”: One of the best essays on writing. Ever.
- Karen Elizabeth Gordon’s The New Well-Tempered Sentence and The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: Offers the same guidance as Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, but in a much more entertaining way!
- A journal and a fountain pen: Seriously. As much as I love writing in Scrivener now, nothing beats writing long hand. There’s something about using a fountain pen that summons the Muse like nothing else can.
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