I’m in the middle of not one, but two, different projects right now. One is a YA scifi/fantasy crossover with a lot of world building and complex geopolitical elements. The other is a romance novel, and as I haven’t attempted a romance novel before, it’s proving to be full of challenges. So, I’ve struggled.
Lucky, there’s always help (and a whole lot of not help, but that’s a post for another day) to be found on the internet.
ilys is a kickstarter project. You enter your word count, and it takes you to a dark, nearly blank page with a large text box. You can only see one letter at a time as you type, forcing you to turn off your inner editor. It does take me a few minutes to settle into it, to accept spelling errors and just push forward. But I’ve made tremendous progress when I enter small word counts, 250-1000, with this app. And it’s a lot better than similar apps, which will threaten the writer with noises and even the deletion of words. Meep!
Hemingway is my new best editor friend. It is essentially the 10% Solution, in program form. It will review your writing for complex sentences, adverbs, passive voice and more. It even gives you target grade levels. This feature may be completely unhelpful if you’re writing literary adult fiction, but I found it quite useful. I even plugged in this post, et voila, much improved.
Any other writing resources I’m missing out on?