Comments on: 9 favorite writing tools and resources I can’t live without

By: Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 01:11:26 +0000

In reply to Larada Horner-Miller. Thank you! Sandy

By: Larada Horner-Miller

Larada Horner-Miller — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 17:36:46 +0000

In reply to Sandra Beckwith. Sandra, Yes, but a lot of it is intuitive and they have great training videos.

By: Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith — Mon, 27 May 2024 16:41:22 +0000

In reply to Sue Jaskula. What a fantastic tip, Sue! I definitely need to look into Atticus. I hope people read these comments and see your feedback on that one. Thanks! Sandy

By: Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith — Mon, 27 May 2024 16:39:41 +0000

In reply to Randy.

What a great list, Randy! Thanks! Is Atticus relatively easy to figure out?

I’m also glad you mentioned MockupShots. It’s one of my favorites! For anyone reading this, it’s on sale now for a few days for just $67 with my affiliate link: https://www.mockupshots.com/special/?orid=231507. It’s an amazingly powerful (and useful!) tool.

Sandy

By: Randy

Randy — Sun, 26 May 2024 02:13:56 +0000

I use Atticus Formatting Tool and love it. ProWritingAid integrates through Chrome extension. WordPress, Uniball Signo 207 pens, legal pads, Canva, Shutterstock, Mockupshots after uploading my book covers it creates hundreds of different mockups for my books. Just started using Coverkit.

By: Sue Jaskula

Sue Jaskula — Fri, 24 May 2024 14:04:35 +0000

I write my suspense novels directly into Atticus. After three traditionally published novels, I turned to self-publishing; paid a formatter for the first self-pub novel, but then bought Atticus – one time purchase, no looking back. It automatically formats your novel as you go along.
If you buy it mid-manuscript, you can plop your Word document into Atticus and it will format it. Can also add your cover, save your finished document to your computer if you’re worried about their cloud storage and upload directly to anywhere you publish once you’re done.
Has some lovely fonts for chapter headings and so many other options for both fiction and non-fiction writings. No charge for upgrades and they are adding features all the time.

By: Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith — Thu, 23 May 2024 13:56:03 +0000

In reply to DNav.

Thanks, David! This is great! I had to Google Character Map. How do you use it in your writing?

Thanks for the Grammarly warning. Are you saying that it logs all keystrokes on all software you use on the computer? That would have to be the case if it captures passwords, right?

Sandy

By: Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith — Thu, 23 May 2024 13:52:11 +0000

In reply to Taylor Nieland.

This is such helpful feedback, Taylor! Thanks so much! I think what’s kept me with Word is that I’ve heard from others, too, that it’s more user friendly but something that keeps all research, notes, etc. in one place is really appealing.

Sandy

By: Taylor Nieland

Taylor Nieland — Thu, 23 May 2024 13:44:58 +0000

Scrivener is pretty great if you have a lot of notes or research to keep track of. You can keep it all in one file, which is super helpful for world-building! It’s cool how you can literally just drag web pages into the program. So it looks like a screenshot but you can scroll all the way down etc. it’s helpful when you need to refer back to backstory (to avoid plot holes) or needing reminders of how something looks visually. Word is more user-friendly I think. So I generally write and edit in Word but I’ve used Scrivener for first drafts and will still refer to it after I’ve exported to begin second drafts.

By: DNav

DNav — Wed, 22 May 2024 20:44:54 +0000

I’m going to address tools for WRITING only, not marketing.
1. Not just Word, but MS Office Suite – the whole thing. I use Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Outlook frequently.

2. Google Scholar – I constantly check academic resources published in journals and reviews, and it also cites for me.

3. Search Engines (I like Google, Yahoo, and Bing). Similar results, but enough differences for checking when one doesn’t work. Research on the fly. Along with Google Scholar (which can be trusted for its highly vetted credentials).

4. Character Map – it’s on your computer, use it!

5. Numerous FREE picture sources. Pexels, Pixabay, FreeImages, Unsplash, Freepik and more.

6. Starting to slowly introduce AI as a search tool and image generator. I do NOT use what it writes, but ask it questions and then check sources myself. Also, I tell it to make an image of a diverse group in a library discussing literature and it cranks out a 3D vector image of what I described that I can use.

7. NEVER USE GRAMMARLY: Little known fact, in the user agreement it’s noted that Grammarly records every keystroke you make on your keyboard whether you are using it to check a document or not, so everything you type, passwords, etc., are digitally stored on a storage device somewhere. No need to be paranoid, it’s not like anyone is using the info. But if hackers get it, or the government mandates Grammarly turn over their data, your records are there. Also, who knows when your keystrokes will be sold to companies for use in training AI? Not something I prefer to be involved with. Not alarmist, just not happy with that scenario and choose not to participate.