Thursday, January 10, 2013

Writing tools


I've recently discovered some new writing tools I'm enjoying.

The first is a website called 750 words. If you've ever read The Artist's Way, you're probably familiar with morning pages. It's basically a writing exercise designed to help you clear your mind in the morning before beginning your daily creative work. In the book, Julia Cameron recommends you write three pages long-hand on paper, but in this day and age many people prefer to type their morning pages. 750 words is a private place to write and track your daily morning pages. It's clean and simple, but has some fun features like animal badges you receive for hitting certain milestones. Who doesn't love a little penguin for writing five days in a row? :) I think it's helping me stay more focused and creative when I write. The freewriting helps me clear my head and the accountability of the tracking helps me stick with it.

The other tool I discovered is Ommwriter. You download Ommwriter from the web to your computer. Basically it's a super stripped down word processing program with a calming background and soothing music playing. Scrivener is still the main program I use for writing, but when I'm doing word sprints, Ommwriter has proven to be a good tool for changing the scenery and minimizing distractions.

Best of all, both of these tools are free (or have a free version) and are easy to sign up for.

If getting words written faster is your goal, here are a few more fun writing sites to try out:

Write or Die
Written Kitten

What writing tools do you use?

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for the suggestions, Julie! I'm pretty old school...just use the computer at this point. :P Maybe I'll have to check these out.

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  2. I have never heard of either of these! Thanks for sharing, Julie!

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    1. I probably discovered all these tools while I'm procrastinating. LOL

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  3. Ummm, WOW!!! I need to check these out. My only writing tools right now is Property Brothers on HGTV playing the background. DANG they build some amazing stuff!

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    1. I've been known to use HGTV in the background too. ;)

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  4. Sometimes I still write sections of my WIP novel in long hand. It usually happens if I have a long wait at a doctor appt or a two hour car ride or something of the sort. I always take along my notebook.

    I always find that when I go to put it on the computer, that I have written more than I thought.

    Thanks for sharing this tool.

    Sometimes confined at the computer squeezes my creative juices. Writing while out somewhere gives me a fresh perspective, not chained to the computer.

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    1. I've been using long hand sometimes too, but it's usually because my four-year-old is watching cartoons on my computer.

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  5. I haven't heard of these Julie. Thanks for sharing. I keep hearing awesome things about Scrivener though. It's on my list of things to research. :)

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    1. I've been really happy with Scrivener. It's a great program.

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  6. Ooh, cool, thanks for the suggestions!!

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  7. Awesome! I am going to Written Kitten in a minute--because I'm obsessed with cats and love that name. :)

    I've heard so many great things about Scrivener. I'm thinking about trying it. :)

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