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Tools

A lot of people have asked about the tools I use for writing, so I decided to put together this resource list. Everything on this list is something I either actively use now or have used in the past, and I recommend everything you see here. Some of the links below are affiliate links, so I might get some money if you buy any of this stuff. Even so, I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t feel like it’s been a valuable tool or resource for me in my own writing!

  • Scrivener – I do all my drafting in Scrivener. It’s the word processing software I use for pretty much everything I do, and it has great organizational tools that help me produce everything from short stories to blog articles to full novels. I can’t imagine being a writer without having Scrivener in my toolkit.
  • Plottr – I started using Plottr while writing the second Teshovar book, and it has proven to be a very valuable resource for laying out my chapters and scenes and being able to view my POV characters through color coded charts.
  • Vellum – I use Vellum to do my book layouts for publication. It’s a Mac-only program, but I was able to get it working under Windows by following tutorials I found online to set up a Mac Virtual Machine. I don’t remember how I did that, so please don’t ask me for help with it, but I do highly recommend Vellum for doing your layouts.
  • Atticus – Atticus is a newer program that still has a lot of features in development. It looks like it’s going to be a promising solution that combines the features of Scrivener and Vellum into one piece of software. I have not actively used this one yet, but I did buy it while it was in development, just because I think it has so much promise.
  • ProWritingAid – ProWritingAid plugs into your word processor and is an extremely effective tool for self editing. I use this on everything I write, and I feel like it regularly improves all my drafts.
  • BookFunnel – I use BookFunnel’s services for distributing my free novella to people who sign up for my mailing list, and I also have used it to distribute beta and ARC versions of my books to readers. It’s also a useful source of mailing list subscribers, through the collaborative book promotions they enable.
  • MailerLite – MailerLite is the mailing list service I use for managing my subscribers and sending out my newsletters. I previously used MailChimp but have found MailerLite to be more economical for individuals like authors to use.

And these are some books I recommend as great resources for writing: