Welcome to my monthly post in participation of the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG). If you have never heard of it, check it out!!!
I have embarked on my first fiction book. I will fully admit, this is hard. But, I am totally committed to finishing what I have started! I have launched myself completely into this, and have scoured the resources out there. I have read books, taken classes, and asked for advice from the many talented authors that I have been so fortunate to meet.
The main result is that I have learned a lot, and I have built myself a writer’s tool box. I am so excited to share with you what is in my tool box. I hope that you find something here that will help you, no matter where you are in your writing journey.
Today, I will share with you tool #1. Tool #1 is amazing. This tool completely enabled me to start. For me, it opened up a whole world of guidance as to how to even put a story together. This tool is incredibly affordable. They even send you reminders every month that your membership will renew, in case you want to cancel it. But no-one ever cancels once they start! It provides a plethora of templates, thesaurus’s, examples, ideas, suggestions, advice and further resources. The one, the only, One Stop for Writers
Just a few of the life changing things that I have experienced with One Stop for Writers:
- How do I even begin to build a character? Open up the character templates and just follow along.
- How do I keep track of all my ideas for different scenes? And then be able to organize them later? Use the timeline templates.
- How do I keep all of my work organized? One Stop for Writers provides you with your own workspace!!
This tiny list barely scratches the surface … emotional wounds, setting, descriptions …
I have learned about all that things that go into building a character. I have learned how to build a story. I have been able to brainstorm and let it all come out, and save it for later. And, I can even export my work and import it into other things (such as Scrivener).
And…you can try some of the functionality before committing.
Good luck to all of you writers out there! As one of the authors I recently connected with told me, PERSEVERANCE is the key!!!
Just a Girl and a Bike 
Aw, you are so awesome for blogging about One Stop! Thanks so much for doing that. ❤ And I am so glad you found the IWSG. Isn't that such a terrific community? I love all you guys there! We writers are not alone. 🙂
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We are NOT alone! And people like you have shown me that. I believe it was a post by you that lead me there. And seriously, your service at One Stop is just mind blowing 🙂
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Aw, you are so awesome for saying so. I love knowing that what we are trying to do there is resonating with what writers need. That’s very exciting for me!
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Angela, it IS!!! I have been using more and more of the online service (and have also blasted through a couple of your books – those will be featured later in this toolbox series). I find that all of these tools supplement the writing process so much, while naturally supporting the spontaneous creative process. 🙂
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Sounds like a great writing tool.
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It is really amazing. I have been using so much of the functionally over the last couple of months, and there is still more I haven’t tried. If you go to the website you can try some of the stuff to get a taste 🙂
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I highly recommend trying it out. Low cost. You can unsubscribe anytime.
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I’m so intrigued–and interested to see how using this tool works for you. I work off intuition/instinct/laziness and so I am not an outliner, and I kind of discover my characters–along with plot and everything else–as I write. Then, I go back and shuffle things around and flesh out character development, etc. I think it’s fascinating how the process of writing works so differently for different people. I hope you’ll keep us posted on your progress!
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Rebecca, thanks for your comment! Yes, it is fascinating how the process is so unique to each writer. I am actually finding that I am using a combination of outlining and going with the flow. For the first chunk of my newest fiction book, I really developed the main character a lot through the templates. But then he changed as I was writing – so I went back to the templates. Also, another very important character just surfaced through the writing and I haven’t even used the templates for her. I think they are a tool that helps as needed, but they don’t stop the creative process 🙂
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I am also really leveraging the thesaurus section (for emotions, color, scenery, etc…). Just a good boost when you need some extra pump to your descriptions.
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It’s amazing how individual the process is, isn’t it?? I am actually doing a combination of outlining and going with the flow. I go back and forth. But mostly my process is a layered approach. I work on a scene in ‘layers’ as I call them 🙂 The progress thus far has been good. I have a first ‘chunk’ done, and had it reviewed. Now I just have to trust my instincts and go forward!!!
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I wish I would have had a fantastic tool like this when I started my first novel. Sigh. I’m so excited you found something to help you. I agree with you. Perseverance is definitely the key and the mindset that no matter what, keep writing. Don’t give up. 🙂
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Thank you !!!! And really, it is never too late to start using One Stop for Writers!!!
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