Awesome Free Tools for Writers

If you're reading my blog right now, you're prob'ly procrastinating. I mean, just sayin', if I'm reading a blog about writing, that means Microsoft Word is open and I'm bored. And that's fine, for the purposes of this discussion. Writers are professionals at procrastination. We've turned it into an art form: we scroll Pinterest for ideas, read articles about the craft, type up our marketing plans, and skim long lists of editors, agents, and publishers. All of this makes it look like we're writing when actually, we're avoiding writing with every nerve in our bodies.

So, here are a few ways to make your procrastination time more productive! Yes, I know I'm suggesting new ways to procrastinate. Yes, I know I'm enabling you. But what do you think I'm doing right now as I draft a post about procrastination? Not editing my manuscript, that's for sure.

In no particular order, awesome free tools I've discovered for writers:

• Hemingway Editor. I used to go through my first draft and highlight all the adverbs so I could decide which ones to take out. For a fantasy writer, that means reading over 70-120,000 words. That's pretty time-consuming. Imagine how delighted I was when I discovered there was a tool that would do this for you. It's called the Hemingway Editor, and all you have to do is type or paste in your work, and it will highlight adverbs, overcomplicated phrases, instances of passive voice, and difficult sentences automatically. It keeps a tally of reading time, words, sentences, paragraphs, and characters for you. And this amazing editing tool is free. Check it out.

• Zotero. If you are a college student, or even a high school student, this is a must-have. Zotero is free citation software. It can generate in-text citations and bibliographies if you input a book's metadata. You can choose what style of citation you want, and it will do it for you. Raise your hand if you know all the rules to MLA citation! Yeah, I thought so. All you do is download Zotero and an extension for your browser. You will automatically get add-ons for Microsoft Word and Google Docs. It's completely legit--my college recommends using it.

• Milanote. For those of you who have plot, character, and setting details pinned all over your ceiling and connected with strings like some conspiracy theorist: this is basically an online bulletin-board. (I know this explanation is really short compared to the ones above, but Milanote is a lot easier to explain. 😂)