Here are some writing tools and resources I’ve personally found useful and wish to share, along with documents that I created for my own use when designing worlds and characters. I hope these serve you well.
As with anything, when it comes to world building and plotting make sure you do your own research! There are tons of help and resources out there.
World Building Resources
The first rule of world building is to not get too carried away. It’s very easy to get lost in worldbuilding and catch what is known as “world builders disease” – if you’re creating a fantasy world for a story, then remember the story is the most important part and the worldbuilding just creates the setting, atmosphere, and flavour. Spend some time on this to bring your world to life, but don’t spend months and months crafting a whole world to the point you neglect your plot and characters. When you start drawing maps of sewers, you know you’ve gone too far – unless of course this is key to your story!
That said, here is a document I use as a checklist for my own worldbuilding which covers the basics. You can download it as a .docx file. If you would like this in any other format, please contact me:
Here are some websites and other resources you may also find useful:
- Inkarnate – Map Building Software (Free & Paid Versions)
- Sanderson’s First Law of Magic
- The SFWA BIG List of Worldbuilding Questions
- World Anvil – World Builders Community with Tools
Character Profile Resources
As with world building, creating your characters needs to be detailed enough to bring them to life, but don’t spend too long going over every fine detail. The reader doesn’t need to know your main character’s shoe size unless it happens to be vital to your story!
Here are two documents that I created for building character profiles that you may find useful. The first is quite long/comprehensive. But, if like me, you don’t have time for all that, I’ve also created a shorter version which I now use.
You can download either as a .docx file. If you would like this in any other format, please contact me:
Here are some websites and other resources you may also find useful:
- Baby Names – Tips on Choosing Names and to Search for Names
- Family Echo – Create Family Trees
- Fantasy Name Generators – It has EVERYTHING
- Mary Sue Traits – And how to Avoid Them!
- The 16 MBTI Personality Types
- Writing with Color – For Writing People of Color
Other Writing Tools
Here are two more gifts: a word count tracker that I created for myself and a chapter outline which breaks down each chapter. They’re both very basic spreadsheets made in Excel without the bells and whistles you may find in writing apps.
You can download either as a .xlsx file. If you would like this in any other format, please contact me:
Here are some websites and other resources you may also find useful:
- Dabble – Free Word Processor
- Evernote – Note-Making Software
- Google Docs – Free Word Processor
- Open Office – Free Word Process (Like Microsoft Word)
- Scrivener – Popular Word Processor (Free Trial & Paid Versions)
- Trello – Kanban Board for Project Planning
- Twine – Free Interactive Story Creator
- Write or Die – Motivational Writer
- yWriter – Free Word Process/Scrivener Alternative
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash
