So, Hi! I Really Like Your Blog And I Have A Question: Do You Know Some Apps Or "programs" (idk) For

So, hi! I really like your blog and i have a question: do you know some apps or "programs" (idk) for writers?

Hey, nonny! I’m glad you like the blog, and thanks for your question

Here’s a huge list of some writing programs I found: 

FREE

FocusWriter

-designed to keep you focused and distraction-free

WriteMonkey

-writing and editing software to keep you focused

LibreOffice

-free alternative to Microsoft Office

Scribus

-formatting and publishing software

FreeMind

-mind-mapping and organizing program

Trello

-idea organization

Pocket

-pin pages to reference later

Twerds

-reminds you to write daily and tracks your writing

oTranscribe

-transcribes audio quickly and conveniently

Coffitivity

-a white noise player to help you focus

ZenPen

-minimalist writing software so you don’t get distracted

Power Thesaurus

-a crowdsourced thesaurus

Twinword Writer

-writing software with a built-in thesaurus

Cliché Finder

-finds the cliches in your writing

Calmly Writer

-an extremely simple interface to help you focus when writing

The Most Dangerous Writing App

-if you stop writing for more than about three seconds, it deletes everything you’ve written

Ilys

-an interface where you can only see the last letter you wrote, to help cure writer’s block

PAID

Daily Page

-sends you a prompt every day to get you writing

ProWritingAid

-reviews and evaluates your writing for grammar and other mistakes

Blank Page

-a simple writing program that allows you to set goals for yourself

750 Words

-a writing interface that encourages you to write 750 words (about three pages) every day, and allows you to analyse your writing. my personal favourite. 

I hope that helped you out! (Side note: most of the paid programs have free trials.) If you have another question, feel free to ask us! 

-Mod Gen

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

someone in a fanfic: s-stutters in embarrassment

me, closing the tab: sorry I must go

50 Magical Origins...

You touched a strange rune-covered stone and was engulfed by its glowing energies.

You were bitten by a strange creature that then disappeared into the wilderness.

You hugged a tree that was attuned to a place of great power.

You ate a immortal insect that still sits in your stomach.

You accidentally transported yourself to the Astral Plane after consuming a strange magical substance.

You spoke to a phantasmal being while you slept.

You accidentally entered the ceremonial chambers of a lost temple.

Your ancestor claimed to be a powerful medicine man, but in fact worked with otherworldly magics to heal others.

Your skin became fused with a strange alloy metal dust, which was actually the ground up scales of a metallic dragon!

You found an ancient idol of unknown origins buried in an old field.

You took part in an arcane military experiment to develop a humanoid war machine.

You were exposed the strange energies of a glowing meteorite.

You breathed the magical spores of a prehistoric mould recovered from an amber chunk.

You fell ill from a mysterious illness that rode to earth on the surface of an alien space capsule.

You discovered a cave filled with giant crystals that released pulsating, glowing energies.

You were stung by several transmuted wasps that had been warped with a new form of magic.

Your father or mother was secretly an inter-dimensional traveller.

You were born of a failed cloning experiment and escaped the grounds before being destroyed.

Your grand-father was a performer who made some dark deals to gain fame and fortune.

You survived a magical explosion!

You were exposed to wild cosmic powers while picking through the remains of fallen space junk.

You accidentally breathed in the dust of a King’s tomb while exploring a ruined structure.

Your body was transformed after breathing in a toxic alchemical smog.

You consumed some unknown fruit found deep in a savage jungle.

You came into contact with a strange sludge flowing out of a flooded ditch near an old alchemist’s shop.

You participated in a strange experiment involving man-made magical fields.

You performed a magical ritual found in a strange, dusty old book.

You drank the waters of a mystical fountain.

You had a strange, almost allergic reaction to an experimental magical potion.

You consumed a strange tasting herbal tea while visiting an cackling old fortune teller.

You great grand-mother was the high priestess of a savage tribe.

You were taught ancient secrets of mind over matter by an elderly mage.

You survived a fall into a vat containing a strange new alchemical substance.

You were struck by lightning while visiting a historical site during a brewing storm.

You were bitten by a lizard while visiting a series of old magically ruined towns located far away from any modern civilization.

You were exposed to a previously unknown mineral ore during a mining accident.

You were kidnapped by strange creatures and forced to participate in bizarre experiments.

Your latent magical powers activated when you were accidentally electrocuted.

You snorted a bizarre looking ash while getting high on street drugs at a dive bar.

You consumed a bizarre tasting elixir purchased from an old alchemist’s shop.

You fell into a bizarre, dream-filled trance when visiting an old medieval tower.

You rode in a boat that was in engulfed with strange energies from a magical sea storm.

You survived the accidental release of a magical modified disease.

You purchased a mysterious ancient war mask from a back alley antique store.

You survived being struck by a falling crystalline meteor, with a shard still buried in your back.

You were once an Imp, but a strange surge of magic during your “Promotion” trapped your Soul in a Mortal Humanoid body.

You were once part of an illegal gambling ring, winning a Wizard’s Spellbook in a Game of Chance. Sometimes you find yourself writing in that old Wizard’s hand-writing.

You were grievously wounded by a powerful Dragon, but not before landing a blow on the creature. Your bloods mingled and some of its powers were shunted into you!

Your Soul wandered the depths of the Shadowfell, before arriving at the Fortress of Memories, where pity was taken upon you and you were reincarnated as a second chance at life.

You worked at an old clock tower. One day time seemed to stop for just a moment while you stood before the gears, but then it ticked along once more…

Writer's Guide: Writing about Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails

Or how to write believable bar and nightclub scenes. I often find myself helping friends with their WIPs and often it as a bartender, I find myself having to correct them on bar and mixology terminology. So here's my quick guide to keeping your lingo on the straight and narrow.

Terminology

DASH/SPLASH: a drop of a mixer such as juice or flavouring.

MIXER: non alcholic beveraged served with the measure of alcohol in the same glass.

NEAT: Plain, without any addition of ice or a mixture. Just the alcohol.

ON THE ROCKS: Served over Ice.

STRAIGHT UP: The cocktail is chilled with ice and strained into a glass with no ice

DIRTY – if somebody asks for a dirty martini, you add olive juice, the more juice the dirtier it is

DRY- A dry martini includes a drop of vermouth and an extra dry martini contains a drop of scotch swirled in the glass and drained before adding the gin

BACK – a ‘back’ is a drink that accompanies an alcholic beverage such as water or Coke, but isn't mixed.

GARNISH – something added to a drink such as a lime or lemon or orange.

TWIST - a twist is literally a twist of fruit skin in the drink.

BITTERS – a herbal alcoholic blend added to cocktails.

RIMMED - the glass is coated in salt or sugar to enhance the taste.

VIRGIN- non alcoholic

MOCKTAIL- a virgin cocktail

DOUBLE - Two measures of the same alcohol in the same glass. A bartender can only legally serve a double in the same glass. They cannot serve you a triple.

Equipment

COCKTAIL SHAKER - it is a metal cup that fits into a glass, used to shake the components of your drink together with ice to chill it.

STRAINER- used to seperate ice in the shaker from the liquid within as you pour it into the glass.

MEASURES- these are little metal cylinders meant to measure out the pours of the alcohol. You pour the alcohol from the bottle into the measure and then put it into the glass. It's imperative that the right measure goes into the glass or the drink will taste of shit.

BAR SPOON – a long spoon meant to mix the drink.

OPTIC- it is a mechanism that attaches a bottle to an automatic pourer. The bartender usually fits the glass under the spout and pushes up to release the amount which cuts off at the single measure.

SHOT GLASS- a shot glass is a small glass to contain one measure

PINT GLASS- a glass used for serving pints of lager or ale

HALF PINT GLASS - a tulip shaped glass half the measure of a pint glass

SPEEDWELL/TAPS/DRAFT: are the taps used to pour beer from kegs stored under the bar floor.

SLIM JIM/HIGH BALL GLASS- It is a tall straight holding 8 to 12 ounces and used for cocktails served on the rocks such as a Gin and Tonic.

ROCKS GLASS - or an old fashioned glass, it is short and round. These glasses are used for drinks such as Old Fashioneds or Sazerac

COUPE GLASS- Are broad round stemmed glasses used for cocktails that are chill and served without ice such as a Manhattan, Boulevardier or a Gimlet

MARTINI GLASS - a martini glass is that classic stemmed "v" shaped glass, used to serve drinks without mixers such as Martini and Cosmopolitans

MARGARITA GLASS - is a large, round bowl like glass with a broad and a tall stem used for Margaritas and Daiquiris

HURRICANE GLASS- a tall tulip-like shaped glass with a flared rim and short stem. It holds 20 ounces which means it is the perfect glass to serve iced cocktails in such as Pina Colada, Singapore Sling, Hurricane

Alcoholic Drinks

Vodka- Vodka is made from potatoes or fermented cereal grains. It has a strong taste and scent. It is usually consumed neat with a mixer such as Coke or Orange juice or cranberry juice or in cocktails like Martini, Bloody Mary and Cosmopolitan.

Whisky/Whiskey- Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage, made from fermented grain mash such as barley, corn, rye, and wheat. It gets its flavour form being fermented in casks for long period of time. When serving a whiskey, one asks whether they want ice or a mixer. Everyone has their own preference. I prefer mine like myself, strong and Irish. Scotch is Scottish Brewed whisky.

Rum- Rum is made by fermenting and distilling sugarcane molasses/juice. It is aged in oak barrels. It has a sweet taste.

Beer: is made out of cereal grains and served chilled in bottles or pulled from taps/speedwells.

Ale: Ale in the middle ages referred to beer brewed without hops (a kind of flowering plant that gives beer its bitter taste). It is sweeter and would typically have a fruity aftertaste.

Stout- is a darker beer sometimes brewed from roasted malt, coming in a sweet version and dry version, the most famous stout being Guinness.

Poitín- (pronounced as pot-cheen) is made from cereals, grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses and potatoes. It is a Dangerous Drink (honestly i still don't know how I ended up in that field with a traffic cone and a Shetland pony) and technically illegal. Country folk in Ireland used to brew it in secrets in stills hidden on their land.

Vermouth: Is made from infused with roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, spices, brandy but vermouth is classed aromatized wine. It comes sweet or dry

Gin- is made from juniper, coriander, citrus peel, cinnamon, almond or liquorice and grain alcohol. Gin has a strong scent and taste and is usually served in a martini or a tonic water.

Schnapps- refers to any strong, clear alcoholic beverage. It is considered one of the best types of spirits because of its pure and delicate aroma. Lesson: never drink peach schnapps.

Cocktails and Drinks

Irish Coffee: an Irish coffee is adding whiskey to coffee and sugar and topping it with cream. As a bartender, I would honestly rather cut my arm off than make one of these.

Baby Guinness: Is a shot made by pouting Tia Maria or Kaluah into a shot glass and spreading Baileys on the top so it looks like a small pint of Guinness.

Silver Bullet: a shot of mixed tequila and sambuca.

Long Island Iced Tea:  The Long Island contains vodka, gin, tequila, light rum, lemon juice, triple sec and cola. It has a real kick.

Mai Tai: is made with light and dark rum, lime juice, orange curacao, orgeat syrup and rock candy syrup and served with a mint garnish.

Manhattan: The Manhattan is made with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters.

Margarita: The margarita is made with tequila, cointreau and lime juice.

Mojito: a mojito is made with muddled mint, white rum, lime juice, simple syrup and soda.

Martini: a martini is made of gin, dry vermouth and garnished with a lemon twist or olives.

Mimosa: a mimosa is a made with sparkling wine and orange juice.

Mint Julep: Made with Kentucky bourbon, simple syrup, mint leaves and crushed ice

Pina Colada: is made with white rum, dark rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream

Screwdriver: Vodka and Orange juice

Tequila Sunrise: tequila, orange juice and grenadine

Tom Collins: made with spiked lemonade, sparkling water, lemon juice, simple syrup and gin

Whiskey Sour: is made with powdered sugar, seltzer, lemon juice and whiskey.

White Russian: made with vodka, coffee liqueur and cream.

Black Russian: made with two parts coffee liqueur and five parts vodka.

Gin and Tonic: gin served with tonic water

Bloody Mary: made with vodka and tomato juice mixed with lemon juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, fresh herbs, brown sugar and cracked black pepper.

Brandy Alexander: served straight up and made with brandy, cognac, creme de cacao and cream

Cosmopolitan: Made with citrus vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and fresh lime juice

Daiquiri: made with rum, lime juice and sugar.

Gimlet: gin and lime juice

My Top 10 Bartending Rules and Responsibilities

Overpouring is never an option. You can seriously hurt somebody by overpouring, not to mention spoil the drink and ruin your sales. You only serve people what they ask and never more.

When somebody has had enough, you stop serving them. After a while, you know when to cut somebody off.

Never leave bottles on the counter or in reach of customers. Your expensive spirits should never be in reach of anybody but you.

If you tell somebody your selling them premium and top shelf alcohol, you cannot substitute with cheaper licqor. It's illegal.

As a bartender, your eyes always have to be scanning a crowd. You can't leave people hanging.

The golden rule - if you see somebody messing with someone's drink, you chuck it if you can or warn the person. And you get that son of a bitch out of your pub.

50% of the job is cleaning. You have to clean your tools constantly. You cannot reuse measures and spouts, you have to wash everything. Beer traps are clean out every night, rubber mats are washed and anything you have used has to be clean.

You have to hand dry your glasses. You never polish a pint glass as it fucks up the pint. You polish your cocktail glasses, shot glasses and straight glasses.

If someone seems down or on their own, you try make conversation. Often you'll hear some disturbing stuff but always try lend an ear or make everyone feel included.

If you break a glass in the ice bucket, you got to get rid of the ice.

A mini-guide on how to line edit! I’m gonna try and make a big long post later, but for those who don’t want to read a lot of words, here’s some quick tips!

What is line editing?

Line editing is a level of editing focusing on the sentences & paragraphs. It looks at the structure of each sentence to see if it’s conveying the idea the best it can. You want to upgrade the prose and clean up the text.

When do I do line editing?

After developmental (or “big picture”) editing, before copyediting (grammar & spelling). Don’t do line edits before you really workshop your piece, because you might end up getting rid of a lot of sections in developmental edits.

Ok, but Kels, what do I do?

Right, here are the quick-and-dirty line editing tips I use:

Use the “find” tool to search up your crutch words and get rid of them. These are words like: very, definitely, just, kind of, sort of, somewhat, somehow, maybe, enough, really, seem, sudden, guess, etc. etc. Everyone has different crutch words—I personally use “just” a LOT so I went and got rid of most of them! I tend to keep crutch words in dialogue to make it sound more natural, but up to you!

Look at your “that”s. Most of the time, a “that” in a sentence can be deleted. Read the sentence without the “that” and see if it makes sense. for example: “She told me that yesterday was her birthday.” vs “She told me yesterday was her birthday.” You can do without the “that” and it makes for cleaner, more concise writing!

(this is a pain BUT) read every sentence out loud. You might notice weird turns of phrase that you’d be better off changing, or clunky phrasing, missing words, weird pacing etc. if reading the WHOLE thing seems like A LOT (it is) do it one chapter or scene at a time and take a break! this will help u notice all of the weird small things that you just don’t pick up on while reading in your head

look at sentence structure! do you have a lot of long sentences? too many short sentences? a looooong paragraph of description that isn’t broken up? do a lot of your sentences start with the same word/phrase (like “He went upstairs / He called his mom / “Hi mom…” / He thought it was weird….” all in one paragraph, even with some other stuff between it?) make sure you’re changing up the composition so your readers dont get glossy-eyed!

read your dialogue out loud SEVERAL times. each time try for a new inflection. make sure it reads the way you want it to. make sure it sounds like something a real person would say. look at it again, and make sure it matches the character. make sure it’s not too heavy-handed or cliche or obvious to the theme.

look at your metaphors & similes. is there a better, more creative way you can say that?

word choice! word choice word choice word choice. this goes along with the reading aloud and metaphor bit, but pay close attention to the word choice. Are you using strong verbs/adjectives? was that an adverb you can get rid of? can you use one word there instead of two? 

double check plot and character inconsistencies. this goes past just dialogue—look at actions & thoughts, too. while a lot of this might be caught in developmental edits, some stuff is bound to slip by. question EVERYTHING.

Some more resources: 

Line Editing article | ShaelinWrites video | Alexa Donne video | Crutch Words list 

best of luck, writers! 

Screenwriting 101 — a guide for novice screenwriters

Before you start writing your first script, start by reading screenplays, familiarize yourself with the format. It is also advised that you watch TV-shows and study how scenes/characters are built up and presented.

For when you’re writing your script:

Visualize your scenes

Read your dialogue out loud — what reads good on paper might not translate the same way when spoken

Finish your script before you start questioning techniques or rules. Get your script done — it’s better to learn as you go

A script does not need to be written in chronological order — think of it more as a puzzle in which you piece your scenes together

Screenwriting can be overwhelming when you first start out, which is the precise reason why it’s recommended that you finish your first draft before you start looking further into the rules, otherwise you risk never finishing it

I'm more than serious. Googling screenwriting advice as a beginner is going to confuse you even further. I've been there. I didn't understand anything. I made a conscious decision to disregard the articles, and instead, the way I learned screenwriting was from writing and watching TV-shows. And I turned out fine. So. Watch. And write.

More things to keep in mind:

Enter late, exit early

This is a key aspect to screenwriting, and perhaps the most important mindset to adapt. It’s a technique that forces you to focus on what’s crucial to include in a scene. Below are a few questions you can ask yourself to determine whether or not an action is crucial to the scene or not:

• Does it impact the plot? • Does it add invaluable insight into a character’s motivations, goals or personality? • Does it make the scene more memorable? • Is it a payoff to an earlier scene or set-up for a future one? • Does the scene simply not work without it?

(See also: mundane scenes are important). (Seriously! Read. There's some amazingly resourceful articles online regarding this mantra, but they all fail to mention the importance of mundane scenes).

Another thing:

If your slugline reads, INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT, there's no reason for you to write ''character enters the kitchen.'' The slug line already tells us our location, ''character enters.'' will suffice.

Say that you have a character entering the therapist's office. There's no need for introductions. Start the scene by having the character sit on the sofa, already deep in conversation with their therapist. Cut out the chit-chat. You need to save your pages.

Screenwriting VS Writing a Novel

Remember, you’re much more limited writing a screenplay than you are writing a novel. Scripts need to be fast-paced:

You develop your characters through action and dialogue, as opposed to description and internal monologues. All and any emotion has to come across in your characters actions, which needs to be shown on screen, which leads us to another important point:

If something isn’t shown on screen, it doesn’t belong in the script. You only write down what is seen, or heard. Nothing else.

This is a common mistake that novice screenwriters do, especially coming from a background of novel writing, so keep this in mind.

Action lines:

Action lines are just what they sound like, it's where you describe what happens in the scene. Again — only what appears on screen!

Meaning — don’t write what your characters are thinking, or feeling. We can’t see their inner thoughts or feelings, leave it to your actors to interpret the scene. You don't need to direct them, they know what they're doing.

SAME THING WITH CAMERA DIRECTIONS. NO CAMERA DIRECTIONS IN YOUR SCRIPT. NONE. LEAVE THEM OUT.

More on action lines:

Every paragraph of action lines should be between 1—4 lines long

Screenplays are written in present tense. It’s “she arrives at the house” as opposed to “she came to the house.”

Synonyms are important to use for an interesting read — and generally you should avoid generic words (like walk, for example) but less is still more. Make sure not to go completely overboard with synonyms in each sentence you write)

Parentheticals are used to communicate emotion, action or delivery within a script's dialogue:

Parentheticals can also be used to indicate a pause (beat) or (then) in a character's dialogue, but keep in mind that they should be used sparingly.

You only imply tone when it can be misinterpreted (say if the atmosphere of the scene is flirty, but the actor should be snarky delivering the line).

What should be capitalized in a script:

Things that should ALWAYS be capitalized:

Character names above dialogue

Scene headings and slug lines

Transitions

Character extensions, such as V.O (voice-over) and O.S (off-screen)

Headlines and inserts

Always (and only) capitalize a character’s name when they are first introduced on screen/in the script (in your action lines)

Sounds are capitalized, as is anything important that you want to draw attention to, such as certain objects and visual effects.

Use sparingly, though! If something reads better without caps, don’t cap it. Your script should be easy to read more than anything.

More things to keep in mind:

It's said that 1 page in a script translates to about 1 minute of screentime, and while it's a good rule for beginners trying to keep track of their projects, it is not very accurate and the runtime of your movie cannot be determined by the pages of your script.

There's a debate going on regarding whether to bold your sluglines or not. This is completely irrelevant and not something that in any way going is to affect your story.

Writing a TV-show

Start by deciding what type of show it is that you’re writing. Is it a sitcom or a 1-hour drama? Episodic or serialized?

Serialized TV-show: in which each episode builds off previous episodes (examples: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Buffy The Vampire Slayer).

Episodic TV-show: same setting, but a different plot for each new episode (examples: Friends, The Simpsons, Law and Order).

If you’re choosing to write a serialized show, I would suggest that you start by writing down all major events that will occur throughout the season:

What are you working towards? What scenes do you have written? What will happen in the season finale? What needs to occur in the remaining episodes to make that happen?

Character development is also a factor. What about your character arcs?

Where will your characters end up? Come the season finale — what will they have experienced? How will those experiences change or affect them? How will that affect the plot? Think about your characters’ journey and destination — What obstacles do they have to face to reach that point?

Of course, all these things can come to change later down the line, but you need to have a general idea of where you want to go.

Essential elements of a TV pilot (know your starting point)

So you’ve got the general gist of how your season is going to play out, but what about your pilot episode? This is where you establish:

PLOT — establish what your show is about. What themes are you touching upon? What type of genre are you going for? What are your characters going to be dealing with?

When you’re making a TV-show, it’s more than likely you’ll be working with more than one storyline. Start by identifying how many you’re dealing with, and introduce them accordingly.

It's important to come up with a one or two-sentence long line that sums up the entire premise of your show (the logline), but some writers also like to come up with a question that should be answered by the end of each episode.

CHARACTERS — introduce your characters, set up character relationships as well as their wants and needs (but keep in mind: there is no reason to dump a character’s entire life story into one episode. Backstories can unfold throughout the season).

When you’ve got all of that written down, start by asking yourself — how do I most effectively introduce my audience to this new world, as well as its plot and characters? How do I hook my audience, making them want more? THIS IS WHERE WATCHING TV-SHOWS COME IN HAND. STUDY THEM. STUDY HOW THEY'RE BUILT. STUDY HOW EACH SCENE IS STRUCTURED.

Okay… I know what my pilot needs, but then what?

To tie this all up, when you're writing a TV-show, I really wouldn't recommend that you start by separating all your scenes into specific episodes, especially not if you haven't even started scripting your pilot episode yet.

Take it episode by episode. Look over your outline, work through your scenes, decide which scenes work best for the episode you’re currently writing.

If you happen to know that you’ve already got some scenes centered around establishing your world, plot or introducing characters, see if you can work them into your pilot script. Then simply repeat the process for upcoming episodes depending on what is necessary to tell, reveal and develop in the specific episode you're writing.

It is OK to divide scenes into episodes straight away, but it’s better to keep it open and instead have a general idea of if something is going to occur in the first couple of episodes, the middle or towards the end, simply because there is so much material when it comes to writing a show, it’s really not something that can be packed up and compressed like in a movie. Whether something is going to occur in episode 1x04, 1x05 or 1x16 is irrelevant — it doesn’t matter until the episode is being written.

By the way — the more scripts you write, the easier it will be to puzzle your scenes together. You'll learn to see a connection, but you gotta start small.