Free Writing Resources for Every Stage of Your Project
I use these to brainstorm, draft, revise, find critique partners, and submit work — maybe you can too
If you missed it, this past month or so has been an intense period for me in terms of writing. I’m writing lots, sending out lots, and (generally speaking) having a blast doing it.
All that to say, it’s hard for me to post anything other than more ‘writing on writing’, and one thing I’ve wanted to do for a while is put together a list of resources that might be helpful to other writers like myself out there.
While I think it’d be great to get a list like this into a larger Medium publication, I know many of them have restrictive rules on ‘promoting’ resources (for good reason) so I’m treating this a little bit more like a living catalog of personal resources, which I might come back to and update as more tools get added to my toolbelt.
One last reminder — when it comes to the act of writing, the ‘tools’ you use are about as important as the average bass player is to the average high school jamband (which is to say, not at all). Tools help solve the problems that surround writing, but they will never ‘solve’ for writing itself — so write first, and don’t convince yourself that you need a tool to write in the first place.
Needless words of cruelty against bassists everywhere notwithstanding, here are a few free tools that I’ve found hugely inspirational and helpful.
Brainstorming & Drafting
These resources help me create new concepts, set goals, do research, and put them words on paper
Obsidian: A Worldbuilding Essential
For a long while, I tried to keep track of a very complex/dense catalogue of information for my fantasy world in Google Docs. This was stupid. Obsidian is free, uses Markdown (but doesn’t require it), and makes it easy to build, interlink, and explore massive amounts of information.
Aside from allowing you to create and catalog all that info, this is hugely helpful for outlining — using its canvas filetype (the topmost view in the window above) allows you to visualize, rearrange, and then build out content elements as individual pages, which can then be interlinked, exported, or whatever works for you. Honestly, I could see this becoming a primary drafting tool for myself at some point, but would need to think through that usage a bit more before making the jump.
There are other (more costly, slower, and specialized) worldbuilding tools out there, and Obsidian is really more of an outlining, visualizing, and cataloging program, but I don’t think you’ll find a better free solution for the essential brainstorming and worldbuilding tasks.
Inkarnate: Mapmaking & Visualization
I find myself building out maps as inspiration for my world, but there’s one more huge use case for a map maker like Inkarnate: planning and visualizing action sequences. When I set out to create a fight sequence or need to solve some other spacial problem, this program (and its to-scale grids) helps me figure out how a space might ‘feel’, how many people a space could fit, how long it might take a traveler to go a certain distance, what someone might see from x location, and so on.
I’ll note that, as with Obsidian, I’ve tried out a few alternatives to Inkarnate and it just stuck with me as the best option among its peers.
Google Docs: Drafting…With Limits
I’ve really enjoyed using Google Docs as my primary drafting tool. But, there are limits here. In comparison to a platform like Word, I find that Docs allows for additional interlinking/collaboration/cloud storage solutions that are more helpful — you can link to other documents using shortcuts, commenting and suggesting revisions feels very intuitive, and its formatting tools and overall organization structure get the job done quickly.
At the moment, though, I’m currently wondering whether pivoting to an open-source drafting solution might be a better long term fit for my needs. Google Docs does slow down once we breach the 80k or so word mark in a single document, and images slow that down considerably as well, making it a less-than-perfect fit for large projects; on top of that, privacy concerns and my own over-dependence on Google’s infrastructure continue to nag at me. I may consider swapping to another drafting solution at some point.
But if you’re looking for something free that makes writing anywhere easy, this is what I’d call the most intuitive solution.
OneLook: A Better Dictionary & Thesaurus
I don’t know about you, but I feel like Miriam Webster & Thesaurus.com are just terrible to use. Sure, they have helpful and authoritative definitions, but I find that they’re hard to navigate , and more about providing a quick, singular, easy-to-understand resource than they are about expansive knowledge linking. That’s well and good for most, but is it the best solution for writers?
Enter OneLook (which I just discovered today!). This online thesaurus is way better suited for my needs — providing tons of (filterable!) synonyms, even those that are barely related to the original term. When I’m drafting and doing preliminary edits, I want to understand every possible interpretation or alternative to the vocabulary I instinctively jump to — this is where I’ll be doing that from now on.
Months-Later Update: I’m using Onelook quite literally all the time.
Internet Archive: Free Books! Free Books! Free Books!
If you haven’t been library-pilled yet, you should be.
Apps like Libby and visits to my local library have been essential in building better reading habits this year, as well as in developing my writing by facilitating genre research. The Internet Archive (creator of the Wayback Machine) has an Open Library, which is another fantastic resource in that vein.
Disclaimer — I’ve only used the Open Library for, like, one or two reads (pretty sure it was At the Mountains of Madness? Which is great, by the way). But I have a writing friend who absolutely swears by it, and I plan on using this more in the near future to familiarize myself with classic lit that I’d otherwise be buying on Amazon (ew), getting in hardcover for $40 from a local bookstore (nothing against local bookstores, but I don’t know if I even like [insert classic literary work here] yet), or waiting for library copies to become available.
Tired of seeing people name some ancient author you’ve never read as the end-all-be-all of the genre you’re trying to write in? Check the Internet Archive and see what they’re all about.
Reddit: Research, Feedback & Insight
I put Reddit at this point in the article because I think it serves as a decent hub for writing information, timely conversations, industry guides and updates in general.
Before you start on your next big project, I’d head here and start perusing various subreddits’ introductory resources (like this one from r/writing) to get an idea of industry conventions, norms, or expectations you might not otherwise be aware of.
That being said, Reddit (like any online platform) is, in large part, a writhing cesspool of our worst desires made hideously manifest. I can’t just give you a blanket invitation, so: for your own psychological well-being, stick to the major writing subreddits, and whatever you do, don’t use an emoji in a comment.
Good Writing Subreddits:
- r/writing
- r/writers
- r/books
- r/pubtips
- r/publishing
- r/literarycontests
- r/creativewriting
- r/literature
- r/worldbuilding
- r/selfpublish
Editing, Critiquing, & Formatting
These tools are what I use when I’m polishing my work or seeking feedback
CritiqueMatch: Beta Readers, Editors, Critique Groups
Once you’ve drafted, head over to CritiqueMatch. I tried out a few different critique platforms and felt this one had the most meat on its bones while still being the most accessible. You can a) create a post where you put an open call out for anyone who’s interested to come critique a specific piece, or b) search for other members in your genre, add them as a critique partner, chat a bit, and swap pieces of interest to both of you from there.
And there’s no weird point system where you have to critique a bunch of stuff to get started — granted, you should be critiquing other works as people critique yours, but there’s no obvious startup cost to getting work critiqued here, unlike with other platforms.
I’ve met a few great people on this platform and have had a lot of fun critiquing all sorts of work, with okay results from my open posts and better results from reaching out to a few critiquers directly. If you’re looking for an easy way to hire an editor, proofreader, or critiquer outside of Fiverr or wherever, you can also do that here. If you don’t already have a critique group/beta readers on hand, this is a great spot to find them!
Grammarly: One More Layer of Typo Protection
I know, the ads are everywhere. Heck, I even know a guy who acted in one. So now, whenever I read ‘Grammarly’, it’s shouted out in his voice. Terrifying.
Beyond the marketing, Grammarly is a genuinely useful tool, simply inasmuch as it catches errors that Google Docs and Microsoft Word currently don’t (that day is probably fast approaching, though). I will say that it doesn’t play well with Medium, but I send pretty much everything I write through a Grammarly pass to catch double words, extra spaces, misused words and so on.
You can use it as a browser plug in or log into their site and paste your text, so even on a platform where it doesn’t work seamlessly, you still have options.
Shunn.net: You Have to Format Your Manuscript
Woe be unto me, it took me a little too long to figure out that many publications expect this format for submissions, even when unspoken. William Shunn is a popular short fiction writer (he writes on Medium too!), and pretty much any time a market (meaning a magazine/anthology/publisher) asks for ‘standard formatting’, they’re referring to Shunn Standard Formatting.
Note that any given market may have different expectations: I’ve run into plenty who emphasize anonymity (in which case you delete your name, address, etc., but maybe leave page count/word count, and leave the spacing the same), some who just say to have 12 pt, double-spaced Times New Roman, but in any event, I’d say you should default to Shunn formatting for novels, short stories, and poetry, to stay safe, and revise your formatting only if specifically requested by the market itself.
Real People: People in the Real World
If you’re finished with your piece, I can’t recommend enough that you go out into the real world and find someone to chat about it with. Scour your local library, coffee shops, bookstores, and schools for writing groups and events you can be a part of. Talk to folks. Critique their work, and have yours critiqued.
You can find communities like these online (CritiqueMatch and Reddit perhaps being especially helpful!) but nothing quite beats being able to talk to other writers in real time. Do whatever you can to make that happen.
Submitting & Publishing
Once you’ve run your draft through a beta reading phase, and an editing phase, and then maybe 3 more of both of those, here’s where you go
Submittable: Submit Short Fiction, CNF & Poetry
If you’ve got a short story or poetry and you’re ready to submit it somewhere for publication, you’re going to end up on Submittable whether you like it or not.
Submittable is an industry standard at this point, used by literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and other publishers the world over. There are alternatives (Moksha’s on the rise, for instance, and maybe Oleada), but Submittable is just about ubiquitous.
It does a pretty good job of standardizing the submission process (walking you through providing your query letters, manuscript, address, etc.) and depending on your browser, I think a lot of that information can be stored for later. You can use its search feature to find open submissions that match your work, but if you’re really looking to discover publications that suit you, I’d recommend other platforms. Like…
Chillsubs: Find Short Fiction & Poetry Markets
Chillsubs is a fairly new and way-user-friendly platform that hit the scene in recent years and, from my point of view, blew up super fast.
It’s a free, intuitive way to look for all sorts of markets, prioritizing filtering by ‘difficulty level’ and genre. Submittable, in contrast, is helpful for finding just about any open submission in a ‘genre’ (which they use to refer to formats: short story, poetry, etc.).
Chillsubs, on the other hand, is far better for narrowing your search down to the genres you’re thinking of (horror, fantasy, literary) and the ‘vibes’ of the publication (experimental vs. high-brow, for instance), on top of approachability levels that make it easier to avoid (or target) highly selective markets. I’ve used it on and off again for a while.
QueryTracker: Start With Traditional Publishing
If you’re out of the short story world and looking to traditionally publish a long-format manuscript, neither Submittable nor Chillsubs are what you’re looking for.
QueryTracker, like Submittable, is an industry standard, just on the other side of the publishing coin (less literary journal markets, more for books).
If you have a novel manuscript and want to go the traditional publishing (‘trad publishing’) route, QueryTracker is the best place to find agents that fit your manuscript needs. You can filter by genre and whether the agent is open to queries or not, which is hugely helpful.
One note — while QueryTracker and QueryManager (its sister software, used by agents themselves) are used by many agents and have tons of agent profiles, it’s not exhaustive. I have agents I’ve queried who use QueryManager but aren’t visible in QueryTracker, and vice versa, so be sure to diversify your search a little bit…though that goes for all tools on this list, really.
RejectionWiki: Insight Into Form Rejection Tiers
Sad truth: most literary journal rejections come as ‘form responses’, where your name and your piece’s title are copy-pasted into a template reply from the market you submitted to. The golden ticket (apart from an acceptance) is actually just a personalized rejection that shows, without a doubt, that they read your work.
However, form responses aren’t one-size-fits all. A single journal may have different tiers of responses, with some just saying ‘thanks for sending, good luck,’ and others saying ‘we look forward to seeing more of your work’, for instance, even if both rejections are still technically copy-pasted/templated.
Rejection Wiki shows tiered form responses submitted by its users and helped me hugely in prioritizing certain journals over others for resubmission.
Duotrope [PAID]: Find Short Fiction & Poetry Markets
Lastly, we have one paid resource that aims to do everything Submittable, QueryTracker, and Chillsubs do in one little package — added to the end here just because it’s my most-used tool.
Duotrope is about $50 a year, but honestly, it might be the most intuitive and exhaustive database I’ve found thus far for finding and reaching out to publications according to genre/by project.
I’m working on this platform currently, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ultimately decide that moving back to free platforms like Chillsubs and QueryTracker alone would be a better fit for me, so the jury’s still out on that one.
Thanks for reading! If you have other resources that have helped you in your writing workflow, I’d love to hear about them. At the moment, I’m using tools like these to query for a novel and submit short stories — you can follow that journey if you like.
