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Free & cheap creative writing software
MSE_Laura_F
Community Admin 1.2K Posts
I'd love to get a little list of free/cheap resources for hobbying and jobbing writers going. Do you have any recommendations?
To start, here are a couple I've used:
Scrivener: 30-day free trial
Helps with organising ideas, creating plots, structuring your stories/scripts/articles etc. The good thing about the 30-day free trial is that it only counts the days you actually use it, so if you only opened Scrivener a few times a week, you could eke out the free trial for weeks. Other bonuses: you don't need to add card details, and when the free trial's over, you don't lose the file/s you've created.
Write or Die
This free online tool prompts you to write and not stop. You can add perils that punish you for stopping, like the sound of screeching violins, as well as sounds that reward prolonged writing, like the sound of a cat purring. Or for real jeopardy, activate 'kamikaze mode': then if you pause typing for a certain period, it begins deleting words you've written.
To start, here are a couple I've used:
Scrivener: 30-day free trial
Helps with organising ideas, creating plots, structuring your stories/scripts/articles etc. The good thing about the 30-day free trial is that it only counts the days you actually use it, so if you only opened Scrivener a few times a week, you could eke out the free trial for weeks. Other bonuses: you don't need to add card details, and when the free trial's over, you don't lose the file/s you've created.
Write or Die
This free online tool prompts you to write and not stop. You can add perils that punish you for stopping, like the sound of screeching violins, as well as sounds that reward prolonged writing, like the sound of a cat purring. Or for real jeopardy, activate 'kamikaze mode': then if you pause typing for a certain period, it begins deleting words you've written.
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https://blog.reedsy.com/writing-apps/
Really depends on what aspect of writing you need assistance with and what you are writing... tools to track plot etc for a novel wont be much use if you are trying to write a factual reference book just as citation and indexing apps useful for those dont help much with novels.
Good for playwriting and scriptwriting. I use the free basic plan. There's a limit to how many projects you can create with the basic plan, but in the past I've just set up more than one account.
For creative writers running low on ideas, this tool throws out prompts. A few examples: 'Animal Crossing' (what happens when two creatures cross paths), 'Favourite Number' (how does this number affect a person's life?), 'Silly Sports' (what happens when characters take a sport way too seriously?). If the prompts don't spark anything, you can keep on generating until they do.
https://zcmag.xyz/zine-idea-generator/