Fun Writing Tools

I don’t know about you, but I love finding fun and funky stuff, not to mention when it helps with my writing, so I thought I would share a few I found here with you before the new year arrives. J  A while back, I read on a newly self-published author’s site what different things got her through the writing process of her book. She listed several online critique groups, articles, and books, but she also shared a link to a particular site called the EditMinion. It sounded kind of funky so I had to check it out. As it turned out, the site was built as a sort of personalized editor. You enter a chunk of text and check the boxes above for what types of thing you want it to look for and it shows you where you’re particular bit of text could use some help in those areas. I’m not very good at explaining it, so I won’t go into too much detail, but if nothing else, check it out. I find I have a lot of trouble figuring out when I’ve lapsed into a passive voice and the EditMinion pinpoints that as one of the things it looks for.

Also by the same creator of the EditMinion, is a program called Write or Die. It sounded a little extreme to be sure, but after I tried it out, it turned out to be kind of cool. The purpose of the program is to teach you to avoid writer’s block by using negative reinforcement. You select a time and/or word limit for which to follow and type until you exceeded one or the other. If you sit idle long enough, depending on which version you’re using (you may set the forgiveness and annoyance less of the punishment), the screen may start turning redder and redder, or start emitting irritating sounds. The free online version, which is the version I tried, only turns the screen darker shades of red until you start typing again. There’s also a kamikaze mode which sounds scary. It will start to erase what you’ve already written if you aren’t careful. Yikes! He he. J

Either way, these two tools were kind of fun to play around with. Check them out and see what you think. Or if you have some cool funky tools, share them below in the comments.

EditMinion                              Write or Die

Happy New Year’s everyone!!! ^^ :D