Image credit: Pixabay
With a background in web and software design, I greatly value having the right technology. I’m also aware that there are so many resources out there; you could easily procrastinate away enough time to write a novel, just checking them out.
I can’t claim to have tried them all – not even close, but I have tried a lot. A lot.
And I’ve whittled it down to three digital tools that will have a huge (positive!) impact on your productivity and two bonus websites that are useful for more specific tasks.
1. Thesaurus.com – for vocabulary development
I know Stephen King frowns on them, but I couldn’t get by without a thesaurus, and thank goodness they come in digital format now, rather than having to spend ages thumbing through a book.
I don’t use them to suggest a word to me, so much as locate one that’s right on the tip of my tongue but can’t quite think of.
The advantage of using a digital option is not only that it’s faster, but also it can be constantly updated and improved and new links created.
I like Thesaurus.com because it has an attractive interface with colour, font and size all used to good effect.
2. ProWritingAid – for editing
This is a fantastic tool for editing.
Once you’ve written your manuscript, ProWriting Aid is automated manuscript editing software that uses algorithms to apply a lot of tried and tested rules to your writing. It will highlight if you’re overusing certain words, give you feedback on your sentence lengths, point out ‘sticky sentences’ and so much more.
It’s useful on two levels – firstly to actually go through your writing and make the corrections, but also as a teaching aid. Once you’ve used it a few times, its lessons start to sink in, and you start to apply the best practice without needing to be told.
3. The Novel Factory – for plotting a novel
https://www.novel-software.com/
The Novel Factory is a software program designed to replace Word or Open Office on the novel writer’s desktop.
It’s easy and intuitive to use from the word go (no steep learning curve) and offers loads of useful functionality specifically aimed at novel writers, such as character generation, scene and draft management and the ability to collect notes and images relating to various elements such as locations.
For new novelists it offers a step by step guide (called the Roadmap) to writing a novel, with articles about the key elements of novels, story beats, character development, drafting and editing along the way.
More experienced writers can just close the Roadmap and take advantage of the dedicated tabs for planning, characters, locations, scenes, research and even submissions.
It has a distraction free fullscreen writing and editing mode, and options for customising formatting, and now it exports directly to epub format.
It also includes targets and statistics, to keep writers focussed and to break down the huge task of writing a novel into manageable chunks.
4. Pinterest – for collecting useful web resources
I have a love hate relationship with Pinterest. It’s really useful for saving useful resources you find on the web, and the visual concept makes it feel much more engaging, and it’s easier to locate what you’re looking at by skimming the images. You can set up a board per novel or topic and it’s chock full of other people’s collections to get the creative juices flowing.
On the downside it uses a lot of untoward techniques to try to bind you in – such as not allowing you to even view other people’s boards without being logged in, constantly trying to nag you into downloading their browser button and forcing you through a three click process to log off. It’s a shame, because it would be a much more enjoyable experience if it had faith in the value of its core offering to keep people there.
5. Tiki Toki – for plotting a timeline
Pinning down the exact dates that events happen in your novel is really useful and Tiki Toki comes in really handy for that. It allows you to add events or map out longer time periods. You can zoom in and out to get right into the detail, and zoom out for a larger historical overview.
As well as mapping out the major events of your novel, you might want to use Tiki Toki to sketch out important events in your major characters’ past or even create an alternative world history for a fantasy novel.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/15058703696_106717cdfe_k1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Katja L Kaine is a writer living in Yorkshire. She writes children’s and YA fantasy and the occasional crime novel. She is also the creator of The Novel Factory, software designed to make life easier for novelists.
[/author_info] [/author]