Playground of my whims

Hello everyone! I’m beginning a project, and I want YOU to be involved. Don’t worry, it won’t be much work—you don’t even have to get out of your chair/bed/bath/etc. And guess what? This project is for you!

We all have worries that tug at our brain. Perhaps they’re personal worries, or larger, societal worries. They may be small things, or HUGE things. Or perhaps we want to apologize for something—to someone we did something to in the past, or to a group of people, or someone we no longer have contact with.

What I want you to do is to send these worries/apologies to me. You can send them anonymously or not—it’s up to you. I will then write your worries/apologies on a piece of paper, and fold it up into a little star. It will then be added to one of two jars. The first jar will be taken to my church every Sunday and placed by the alter, where we will send out our prayers to you and the individuals you are worried about.

If you are uncomfortable, for whatever reason, with having your worries/apologies thought of/in a church, I completely understand, and just let me know! I will then place yours in the second jar, which will remain in my room, where I will meditate over them and simply send positive thoughts your way.

No one other than me will read anything you send me. The only reason I will read them is to write them down onto the pieces of paper. Your secrets will be safe between the two of us, and they will never go into anyone else’s possession. Part of this project is for me to humble myself and realize how many other people are struggling with things out in the world. Another part is for you to get things out that you need to—to tell someone what you are worrying about, or what is bothering you, and know that they are thinking about you daily and listening to you. Sometimes something just that simple can really help—I know from first-hand experience.

An overwhelming number of apps and online tools exist to help you increase your writing productivity, but which ones are the best? There are so many different apps aimed at specific needs or approaches to writing that it could be difficult to choose any single best one for all writers, but I’ve done some research to help you:

Draft

Draft is an enormously powerful tool. Among other features, Draft makes it easy to share documents with others and accept or reject comments and suggestions from them while maintaining version control, but it also allows a writer to share a document with editors. It is easy to publish documents from Draft to a number of platforms including Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress and Twitter. Furthermore, Draft includes audio and transcription tools.

One of Draft’s most interesting options for writers is Hemingway Mode. Riffing on the writer’s famous comment that you should “write drunk, edit sober,” Hemingway Mode forces you to keep writing that awkward first draft by not letting you go back and delete anything you’ve written. You can switch back out of Hemingway Mode when you’re ready to edit.

Focus Writer

Focus Writer is a free tool you can use if you have trouble focusing while you’re writing. I often find myself browsing the internet or checking tumblr instead of writing. When you download Focus Writer, you are able to create a distraction free environment so that you can focus on your writing.

I use Focus Writer, so I can tell you that it definitely comes in handy when you can’t concentrate.

Website Blockers

Here’s one exception to this list of apps restricted primarily to those designed for writers, but website blockers are worth a mention because productivity and focusing can be such a challenge for writers. If you’ve downloaded all of the above apps and set aside some time for writing only to find yourself distracted once again by Facebook or some other site, all of those efforts are wasted.

The worst thing about the distraction of other sites is how easy it is to get caught up in them. You think you are only going to check one thing for a minute or two and literally before you have realised it, ten or fifteen or more minutes have passed. If your writing period is only an hour long, that’s a significant chunk of it gone right there.

There are a number of tools that will block websites for you, and many work in a similar fashion in that they allow you to choose sites to block at certain times of day or for certain periods of time. The one that you choose will depend upon the type of device you are using as well as the browser. LeechBlock, StayFocused, and Cold Turkey are among the most popular.

Writer Pro

Word processing programs can be overly complex for the needs of fiction writers, but writers generally need to be able to convert their documents into standard word processing formats for submission. Writer Pro provides a simple, streamlined work environment for writers at the notes, writing, editing and reading stages, and then allows that document to be converted to .docx files. Microsoft Word .docx files can also be converted into documents for Writer Pro so that writers can move their manuscripts back and forth between platforms with ease.

The app’s lack of distraction does not mean it is without innovative features, and these include Focus Mode, which allows the writer to concentrate on one sentence at a time while the rest of the text fades out, and syncing with iCloud and Drop box.

Hemingway App

The Hemingway App is free and easy to use when you need to do editing/revision. I have used the website multiple times, and there are many occasions it has helped me. There are plenty of websites that can do the same thing as Hemingway App, but I feel like it’s easier to understand.

Scribophile

I know the name sounds weird, but I have been using this website for a while now and can say that Scribophile helped me so much. The point of the website is to read and critic others work to earn karma points, then use these karma points to post your own writing and get feedback. Scribophile ensures you get at least three critics. I love this website mostly because of the really kind people there.

Cliché Finder

This neat tool will find and uncover hidden clichés in your writing — phrases that have been used so much by so many people that they’ve lost their original punch. I haven’t used this website yet, but plan to.

Write or Die

Ok, I’ll be honest…. I’m to big of a wuss to try it out but I’ve heard great, scary things about this website. For those of you who need a gun to the head in order to start writing, try it out. I warn you though, it’s evil.

For now, that’s it. If you have any other websites or apps you use (preferably free) send me a message, and I’ll add it on!

approve of it

am romanticizing it

have a kink with regard to it

think it is okay for anyone to ever do ever

because sometimes my character does things that I absolutely cringe at and which are almost painful to write.

but my writing a villain does not make me a villian

Change the background colour of the pages to a mint green shade.

It is said that green is a calming colour, however, the main reason why I like this, is because I can write for a much longer period of time now, as a white background I used before made my eyes dry and exhausted after just a few hours of working.

It is basically much more soft and careful to the eyes. I can’t precisely explain why that is. I think it’s that by making a pinch softer contrast of the text and the background, your eyes does not get exposed to as much light.

Just make sure to not make the background too dark, or else your eyes will get exhausted do to over-fixating the lack of contrast between text and background.

And maybe you find a nice pastel/light background shade that fits you; give it a try.

Different things work out and fits for different people. And I just felt like sharing this.

Here’s the shade numbers I used to get my preferred colour:

 here’s some of my favorite things to use when writing!! several of my friends and prob lots of my followers are writers/fanfic authors, and maybe you’ll find some of these to be super helpful!

Apps/Programs

Evernote: a great notebook app that keeps short notes handy! you can tag them them to keep them organized, so this is useful for jotting down ideas or scenes for different stories!

Hiveword: an amazing online novel organizing program! it lets you organize characters (and input all kinds of misc info about them like hair/eye color, religion, aliases, and goals), scenes, plotlines, items, and settings! I recommend this 100% to anyone writing a novel-length work or anything with a long plot to keep organized!

Write or Die: an app that forces you to get thoughts down as a rough draft. you can set a timed word goal and various levels of reinforcement: the kindest mode just gives you a popup warning reminding you to keep writing if you pause for a while, but the strictest mode will delete your writing letter by letter if you stop! this works great for getting creativity flowing without the intrusion of an inner editor!

Prowriting Aid: this is an AMAZING tool for editing!! it catches adverbs, diction, style, homonyms, sentence length, eloquence, you name it, and even gives suggestions for correcting the errors! (you have to sign up for a free membership for editing over 1000 words, but still, free!)

Internet Typewriter: a simple but fantastic typing program! you can choose from several fonts, text and background colors, and set word goals for yourself! there’s also the option to give your typing that nice clacky sound of either a manual or electronic typewriter! (you can also save your documents directly on the site after signing up)

editMinion: another simple but useful program! it searches your text for common errors such as passive voice, cliches, weak words, and adverbs. bonus: highlights words of latin, greek, and germanic origin!

Hemingway Editor: an incredibly useful online editor! not only does it catch adverbs and passive voice, it also measures the grade level readability of your writing and estimates how long it would take to read!

Yarny: an easy-to-use novel software! lets you organize notes for “people,” “places,” and “things,” and also keeps “snippets” of your story organized!

PenZen: an incredibly distraction-reducing text processor! activate the full screen option, and all there is is a white box in which to type. no tempting toggles or buttons to play around with!

Creativity Boosters

Writing Prompts: offers not only prompts, but lots of generators such as random words, random subjects, character names, and others! really great for challenges and/or sparking ideas!

Creative Writing Prompts: prompts from all different categories including children’s, easy exercises, practical, abstract, and prompts that can be finished in 5-10 minutes for a quick jump into the writing mood!

Rainy Mood: the comfy sound of rain is pretty, non-distracting background noise that helps keep attention on your work!

Coffeetivity: offers the white-noise ambiance of coffeeshops, universities, and diners! good for when you need some noise to keep you alert, but not distracted!

Other Useful Sites

Phrontistery: a dictionary full of unusual/obscure words. not only does this increase your vocabulary, but a lot of these words can also be used as prompts!

Reverse Dictionary: here’s where to go if you know the meaning of a word, but can’t think of the actual word! just input the definition or related concepts, and it will show you a list of similar words!

BUT HE HAD 7 KIDS AND A WIFE TO FEED SO HE ENDED UP OWNING A GROCERY STORE AFTER SERVING IN WW2

TODAY MY DAD WAS CLEANING THE HOUSE AND FOUND SOME PENCIL DRAWINGS THAT MY GRANDPA DID AND ASKED IF I WANTED TO HAVE THEM AND I

CAN WE JUST LOOK AT THIS

MY BAD WEBCAM PICTURES DON’T EVEN DO THEM JUSTICE LIKE LOOK AT THESE

MY GRANDPA NEVER BECAME A FAMOUS ARTIST

♥︎ Daily Writer Positivity ♥︎

#229

There are no shortcuts to writing. Ultimately it all boils down to a lot of hard work. Not talent, but hard work. Remember that.