Free Writing Apps

I recently posted an article for YA Stands about helpful apps for writers. 

Just in case you missed it, I've posted it below.

Twitter is one of my favorite tools for writers. If you're a writer, and you're on twitter, you probably know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the supportive online community for writers, agent pitching contests, book cover reveals, meeting other writers, and so much more.

In fact, recently I met several amazing YA writers through twitter, one of which is Kristen Jett. In case you don't know her or follow her, you should! You can check out her website HERE and follow her blog HERE. What is awesome about Kristen, besides her ever-present positivity and sense of humor, is her her incredible knowledge on all things writing. Which brings me to the subject of my posts.

Kristen and I got to talking about technology and the convenience of having a smart phone with writing apps. I only recently got my first smartphone and I'm learning about all the awesome apps out there. Kristen gave me a ton of them to check out. I want to share them with you in hopes that you find them just as awesome as I do now. Put your feet up and get your phone charging; your phone just got so much better!

FREE  BOOK RELATED APPS FOR YOUR PHONE

Evernote - An app that allows you to capture everything from likes, websites, things you see or hear, and everything in between. You can even save important tweets with it.

Cost: free
Useful for: book research, etc.

Available on: computer and most mobile smartphones

Goodreads - This app allows you to mark books you want to read, review what you have, see what your friends are reading, and get book recs. Goodreads also has a lot of great book giveaways.

Cost: free

Useful for: book research, reviewing, and organizing your digital bookshelf.

Available on: computer and most mobile smartphones

Werdsmith - This is a basic writing app that allows you to sort things into three categories: ideas, projects and portfolios. Not only is the logo super rad, but it's got a clean layout and is easy to use.

Cost: free. Has an upgrade option that costs $2.99

Useful for: quickly jotting down book ideas, writing

Available on: iPhone, iPod, or iPad

Corkulous - This is a wonderful app! It's a digital cork board you can use to plan anything you want. I've downloaded other cork board type apps, but this one is far superior. Your boards update automatically to be able to share between all apple devices.

Cost: free. Has an upgrade option that costs $1.99

Useful for: story boarding, inspiration boards, vision boards

Available on: iPhone, iPod, or iPad

Plaintext - This is a simple text editor that let's you write, edit, and organize your documents. Everything is able to be synced with Dropbox.com

Cost: Free

Useful for: editing

Available on: iPod, iPhone, iPad

A Novel Idea - This is amazing! It's ad free and an invaluable tool for planning your novel. It covers characters, plot, setting, and scenes. Setting up your scenes is as easy as dragging and dropping them into place.

Cost: Free
Useful for: Novel layout, planning, character detail
Available on: iPod, iPhone, iPad

I hope you found something here that you didn't know about before! It's always nice to learn about more resources for writers. Oh, and thanks Kristen for all the awesome recommendations! I know there are a ton of writing apps out there, so let me ask you readers and writers:

What are you favorite writing/reading apps?

Nanowrimo 2012

Is anyone out there doing Nanowrimo?

In case you haven't heard of it, Nanowrimo is an online and in-home event, where you try to write an entire novel, or at least 50,000 words of it, in the month of November. The website can be found HERE.

I've participated the last three years, but I've only been successful one time, completing the challenge of 50,000 words in 30 days. Not only is the event awesome for writers, but there's a great writing community out there that band together and write.

I'd like to challenge all of you, including myself, to try this event and take it seriously this year. A lot of good can come from this, whether it be a complete novel, writing buddies, or great writing habits.

Chuck Wendig, novelist and screenwriter, has compiled an awesome to-do list if you're interesting in participating, if you're so inclined. You can find that HERE.

Alas, add me on Nanowrimo if you are participating. My username is Carniehands. Yep. That's right. Carniehands.

Take this time to start thinking about what you want to write, who your protagonist is, and look up local writing ground in your area. You can do this. I can do this. We can do this.