100+ Tools to Amplify Your Writing
ProofreadingServices.com offers several manuscript development and editing packages to help authors prepare their work for publication. Whether brainstorming ideas for a new novel or putting the finishing touches on an ebook cover, authors can benefit from websites and software designed with their unique challenges in mind. To that end, we've created a list of online resources for authors, divided into six categories:
- Brainstorming
- Inspiration
- Productivity
- Writing
- Editing
- Publishing
Brainstorming
The resources below offer mind mapping, notetaking, and other collaborative tools to help authors organize their creative processes.
Share these tools with your friends: 
bubbl.us
bubbl.us is a brainstorming tool that allows authors to create mind maps they can save, export, and share via email. Free membership includes the creation of three mind maps, while paid memberships are unlimited.cherrytree
cherrytree is a hierarchical notetaking application featuring rich text and syntax highlighting, allowing authors to store data offline in a single xml or sqlite file.GoodNotes
GoodNotes allows users to create searchable handwritten notes and annotate PDF documents. Documents in GoodNotes will synchronize between iPad and iPhone automatically.HT Professional Recorder
HT Professional Recorder allows writers to record and edit notes or narrative with their Apple devices.Mind42
Mind42 is a collaborative online tool that allows authors to organize their ideas through mind maps, which can be made completely public or shared with other users when seeking feedback.MindMeister
MindMeister offers tools for authors to create shareable mind maps completely online, with multiple formatting options and the ability to include interactive videos and images within maps.MindMup
MindMup is a free mind-mapping tool that offers users the option to share their maps with others or embed them in a website for up to six months. Paid users can share their maps indefinitely.OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle is an app that uses shape recognition to allow writers to create precise graphics and templates.Scapple
Scapple is a freeform text editor that helps authors get ideas down as quickly as possible and make connections between them using straight dotted lines or arrows.SimpleMind
SimpleMind is a mind mapping tool with several formatting options, including the ability to add voice memos to a map. It also allows authors to sync their maps across multiple devices.Squarespace Note
Squarespace Note helps writers record their ideas on the fly. Notes can be sent via email or synced with a range of popular services, including Squarespace, Evernote, Dropbox, and more.The Literary Machine
The Literary Machine is a dynamic archiving tool that allows users to organize information in networks and hierarchies to help them generate ideas.TiddlyWiki
TiddlyWiki provides a unique nonlinear notebook for capturing, organizing, and sharing complex information. With it, authors can record their ideas or build a flexible and responsive website.Tomboy
Tomboy is a desktop notetaking application that allows authors to synchronize their ideas across various devices. It also offers several formatting options and add-in features.TreePad Lite
TreePad Lite is a personal information manager for Windows and Linux. It can be used to store, edit, search, organize, and browse any type of textual data, such as notes, emails, articles, links, phone numbers, addresses, scraps pasted from the web, etc.wikidPad
wikidPad is a private wiki application where authors can store and organize their ideas in a searchable, cross-linkable database.Wridea
Wridea is an online idea management and collaboration service through which authors can store ideas, organize them, and collaborate with friends using several brainstorming tools.Zim
Zim is a desktop wiki, a collection of files on the local file system that can be edited with a GUI application. Authors can use it to organize, search, and cross-link plot ideas, chapter outlines, and other brainstorming products.
Inspiration
These websites provide writing prompts in the form of short phrases, images, and unique scenarios to help spark authors' creativity.
Share these tools with your friends:
Creative Writing Prompts
Creative Writing Prompts provides several ideas to help authors create stories, poems, and other creative pieces. The writing prompts can even help authors come up with creative content for blogs or short stories.Creative Writing Solutions
Creative Writing Solutions offers several prompts to help authors get started with a new story or develop characters, settings, and points of view.Imagination Prompt Generator
Imagination Prompt Generator provides writing prompts at the push of a button.
The Writing Prompt Boot Camp
Writer's Digest offers this free download, which provides two weeks' worth of writing prompts designed to spark authors' minds and help them flex their creative muscles.Writer's Block Buster
Writer's Block Buster helps writers of all genres by providing prompts and resources designed to inspire, answer common writing questions, and help authors keep track of new ideas.Productivity
The following resources are meant to help authors stay on task by blocking out distractions and scheduling writing time effectively.
Share these tools with your friends:
Anti-Social
Anti-Social targets and blocks any distracting websites so authors can be more productive.Cold Turkey
Cold Turkey allows authors to block distracting sites like Facebook so they can concentrate on writing.keybr.com
keybr.com is a web application that helps users learn touch typing, which is the ability to type with all fingers without looking at the keyboard.Personal Information Manager
Personal Information Manager allows authors to manage appointments, tasks, notes, contacts, password entries, and email messages across multiple devices and cloud applications.
Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk is a task management app that allows authors to create to-do lists and set customized reminders.StayFocusd
StayFocusd increases writers' productivity by limiting the amount of time spent on time-wasting websites.TeamViz
TeamViz is a planning and task tracking tool that uses the Pomodoro technique, helping authors collaborate on projects via desktop and mobile devices.Tomatoes
Tomatoes allows authors to track their writing time in short increments using the Pomodoro technique.Toodledo
Toodledo offers a set of tools to help authors increase productivity and organization through long notes, custom lists, and outlines.Unstuck
Unstuck is a digital coaching app that helps authors see and solve situations with fresh perspective through provocative questions, targeted tips, and action-oriented tools.Writing
These resources help writers create an encouraging creative environment so they can make the most of their writing time. Some offer tools to help with plotting and organization, as well.
Share these tools with your friends:
Byword
Byword is a writing app that provides just the tools writers need to create Markdown and rich text, with the option to sync documents across devices.Celtx
Celtx provides an all-in-one system for video and movie planning. Authors can work together to write a script, prepare a shoot, and take the cast and crew into production.Compositions
Compositions is a minimalist text editing app for Apple devices that allows writers to focus on their work.Dark Room
Dark Room is the Windows alternative to Write Room. It offers a full-screen distractionless writing environment.Dragon Dictation
With Dragon Dictation, authors can narrate and automatically transcribe ideas, chapters, or entire novels.Evernote
Evernote helps authors share and collaborate with one another by allowing them to collect notes, manuscripts, and other material in one secure location.Final Draft
Final Draft is a screenwriting program that includes over one hundred templates that format and paginate screenplays, teleplays, and stage plays, with navigation features to help writers easily search through and organize long documents.FocusWriter
FocusWriter offers a simple writing environment that uses a hideaway interface accessed by moving the mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing authors to immerse themselves in their work.iA Writer
iA Writer is a word processing app that offers several features for authors, including Focus Mode, which fades all but the sentence being written.ilys
ilys is a subscription service that encourages authors to set a word goal and prevents them from editing until they meet it. It also offers several options to protect writers' privacy, including data encryption and Ninja Mode, where words are invisible until the author chooses to reveal them.Journalite
Journalite offers several formatting and organization tools to help writers keep a daily password-protected journal.
Marked
Marked is a previewer for Markdown files. Writers can use it with any text editor to see updates with every save, with robust features for previewing, reviewing, and exporting documents.MarkMyWords
MarkMyWords is a comprehensive markup writing tool that supports a variety of markup languages, uses plain text, and offers a live preview feature.Newnovelist
Newnovelist is a Windows program that helps authors complete their novels. It includes creative writing advice and other elements to spur creativity.OmmWriter
OmmWriter is a word processor that creates a distractionless writing environment, allowing authors to concentrate and be productive.oTranscribe
oTranscribe is a free web app that provides several tools to help authors transcribe recorded audio.Penultimate
Penultimate is a digital handwriting app for iPad that combines the natural experience of pen and paper with Evernote's sync and search features.Plotbot
Plotbot allows users to write automatically formatted screenplays in their browsers and collaborate with other writers using tracked edits so changes can be reverted at any time.Q10
Q10 offers a simple text editor designed and built with writers in mind, with live word count and page statistics and multiple customization options.Script It!
Script It! helps authors create a screenplay step by step and includes a screenwriting glossary as well as story breakdowns and analyses of several popular films.Scrivener
Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool that allows writers to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives authors complete control over formatting, its focus is on helping them complete a first draft.Storyist
Storyist provides a powerful writing environment for novelists and screenwriters. Unlike conventional word processors, Storyist helps authors track plots, characters, and settings and provides several options for accessible data storage.StoryMill
StoryMill is a Mac word processing and story development program for fiction writers, with several tools to help authors keep track of characters, scenes, and edits over time.TextRoom
TextRoom is a free full-screen text editor developed with writers in mind. It provides a distractionless environment with a familiar set of keyboard shortcuts to control its behavior.Write or Die
Write or Die is an application that aims to eliminate writer's block by providing consequences for procrastination and rewards for accomplishment. It also allows authors to create an encouraging writing atmosphere using images and custom playlists.Writer
Writer is a writing app that offers a distractionless environment with word count and writing goals. It saves writing automatically and works both online and off.Writer's Café
Writer's Café offers a set of tools for fiction writers, including StoryLines, a powerful but simple story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of novels and screenplays.WriteRoom
WriteRoom offers a full-screen word processing environment for Mac meant to help authors focus on writing.yWriter
yWriter is a word processor that breaks novels into chapters and scenes, helping authors keep track of their work.ZenWriter
ZenWriter is a meditative text editor that provides an uncluttered writing interface to encourage productivity.Editing
Self-editing can prove a challenge for even the most disciplined of writers. These resources include dictionaries, online spelling and grammar checkers, and other tools to help writers transform first drafts into finished manuscripts.
Share these tools with your friends:
Acronym Finder
Acronym Finder is a comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.APA Style
The online guide to APA Style offers sound guidance for writing with simplicity, power, and concision. APA Style has been adapted by many disciplines and is used by writers around the world.AutoCrit
AutoCrit is an automated online manuscript editing tool enabling fiction writers to quickly and effectively self-edit their work.
Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style Online provides completely searchable recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices for the digital age. It offers the full contents of the sixteenth and fifteenth editions.Cliche Finder
Cliche Finder is a simple tool to help authors locate cliches and other overused phrases in their work.Copyscape
Copyscape provides a free plagiarism checker that finds copies of web pages online, as well as two more powerful professional solutions for preventing content theft and content fraud.definr
definr is a fast, free dictionary based on Princeton University's WordNet.Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com provides millions of English definitions, spellings, audio pronunciations, example sentences, and word origins.Draft
Draft offers a suite of tools that provide version control, copy editing and other feedback, and easy publishing to various social media platforms.GNU Aspell
GNU Aspell is a free and open-source spell checker that suggests possible replacements for misspelled words.Graviax
Graviax is an English grammar checker for XML files containing regular expressions.LanguageTool
LanguageTool is an open-source proofreading program for English, French, German, Polish, and more than twenty other languages. It finds many problems that a simple spell checker cannot detect.MediLexicon
MediLexicon offers a comprehensive free online medical dictionary with over one hundred thousand medical terms. Search results display an exact match for the search term as well as phrases that contain the whole search term within a medical context.OneLook
OneLook offers several search options and operators to help writers find words according to various criteria.OneLook Reverse Dictionary
The OneLook Reverse Dictionary lets writers describe a concept in a few words or a question and retrieves a list of words and phrases related to that concept.ProofreadingServices.com
ProofreadingServices.com (the people who bring you this list) offers several packages for authors, providing constructive feedback on narrative, character development, and plot as well as editing and proofreading.Purdue OWL
The Purdue OWL resources provide an overview of journalistic writing with explanations of the most important and most often used elements of journalism and the Associated Press style.Readability-Score
Readability-Score measures the readability of written material according to several reading ease and grade level scales.RhymeZone
RhymeZone allows writers to search by word and find rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.Symbols.com
Symbols.com is a unique online encyclopedia that contains everything about symbols, signs, flags, and glyphs arranged by categories such as culture, country, religion, and more.Tech Terms
The Tech Terms Computer Dictionary offers definitions for various IT terms alphabetically, by category, and by tech factor.Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary is a crowdsourced online dictionary of slang words and phrases.Visual Dictionary Online
The Visual Dictionary Online is filled with stunning illustrations labeled with accurate terminology in up to six languages to help writers find the right word at a glance.Visuwords
With Visuwords, an online graphical dictionary, writers can look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts.Word Counter
Word Counter is a word and character count tool. Writers simply copy and paste prewritten text or begin typing in the given field, and Word Counter will automatically count the number of words and characters entered.Wordcounter
Wordcounter ranks the most frequently used words in any given body of text. Writers can use it to see which words they overuse or to find keywords in a document.WordWeb
WordWeb offers a full dictionary and thesaurus for American, British, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and global English.Write rhymes.
Write rhymes offers an interactive dictionary that provides rhyming matches for words typed into a given field.YourDictionary
YourDictionary provides tools to help writers choose their words precisely and confidently and avoid usage pitfalls.Publishing
These resources offer tools for authors to convert their manuscripts into ebooks, create compelling covers, and track sales and other metrics after publication.
Share these tools with your friends:
calibre
calibre is a free and open-source ebook library management application developed by ebook readers for ebook readers.FastPencil
FastPencil is a writing and publishing platform that offers authors multiple tools to preview print and ebook formats, track sales and revenue, and promote their titles.Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing is an Amazon service that allows authors to self-publish their books on the Kindle Store.Markdown
Markdown converts plain text written according to its formatting syntax to structurally valid HTML.MyEcoverMaker
MyEcoverMaker is an intuitive point-and-click online tool to create ebook covers without the need for expensive software like Photoshop.Penflip
Penflip is a collaborative writing platform that offers a minimalist editor, document sharing and version control, and ebook formatting tools.
