Useful writing tools

Hey guys, I know it’s not Thursday but I just found some really cool websites that I wanted to share with you. If you are a writer you will find those sites very useful and for everyone else these links could help you improve your paragraph writing skills or whatever piece of writing you want to polish.

So without further ado, here is the first website:

It’s called Thesaurus and you can easily access it over the following link: http://thesaurus.com/

To give you an idea how the website looks here is a screenshot of my last search on it:

For all of you who have no idea what a thesaurus is, I’ll shortly explain its concept and functions to you: Well first of all, a thesaurus is a collection of synonyms and connected words. The website itself is pretty easy to use – you just type in a word and then you get a list of other terms with a similar meaning. Further down there are also listed words with the opposite meaning and on the right hand side you get a little bit of information about the words origin.

The next ones are both tools which I especially was looking for a very long time because it happens to me all the time that I’m searching a word which I can perfectly describe but I just can’t recall it. This phenomenon is also called tip of the tongue syndrome and so is the first website that helps you conquer it.

Here is the link and an image:

http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/

The page is divided into four blocks with three search fields each. If you know which letter the word you’re searching starts with type it in the first box and so on. Other search categories include ending letter, containing letters as well as letters which are definitely not in the word and a scrambled version of it. You can also type the meaning of the word and its length in those fields. Afterwards your results appear on the right side of the page.

The other website that deals with a similar concept is called OneLook. It may not have as many features as the previously mentioned site but I still like it because it is somehow easier to use and comes with a manual on how to get the best out of your search. Additionally, it looks very organized and refers you to the definitions of the results from reliable online dictionaries.

Here is the link and another screenshot:

http://onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

I also discovered a link to a page that gives you tips on how to start off your story in a better way. This page is part of the website writersdigest.com which is in general very helpful if you want to improve your writing skills.

Here is the link to the article I was talking about: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/10-ways-to-start-your-story-better

If you have other questions about writing or you are curious how to write a special genre of story there are quite a few useful links on the top beneath the title.

If you want to write a story but you have no idea where to begin with, what you want it to be about or which title to give it writing exercises is the right place for you. Like its name already suggests this website provides you with a lot of different exercises to practice writing. From plot generators and character generators to random names and dialogues you can find pretty much everything to inspire you and helps you kick off your story.

You can reach the website here: http://writingexercises.co.uk/index.php

Another source that mainly focuses on improving your writing skills and gives your stories more authenticity is writers write blog. This website can help you in many ways but the most practical information I came across is the compilation of characters and their archetypes. This section lists 12 archetypes with their traits, weaknesses and goals and makes your characters more relatable and believable.

To access the collection of personalities click this link: http://writers-write-creative-blog.posthaven.com/the-12-common-archetypes

For other material from writers write blog just click on the link to the main blog on the left side of the page.

The last one, I want to introduce appeals more to the poets and songwriters among you since it mainly focuses on detecting rhymes. However, you can also look up synonyms, antonyms, definitions and similar sounding words with this tool.

Here is the link: http://www.rhymezone.com/

As I like to write myself when time allows it, I can highly recommend all of the websites mentioned above because they really helped me out a great deal.