Whether you sat down to write fiction, your autobiography, or an English paper that’s due in six hours, it’s nice to have help organizing your thoughts and staying relaxed throughout the process. There are countless websites on the Internet that are dedicated solely to helping writers in their time of need, but many are dated and offer the same services without much variation. Here I’ve compiled a list of four sites exceptional at helping along the thought process behind every written word you type.
1.) Coffitivity
This site provides calming noises to keep you focused and productive as you write. Coffitivity is a great site for when you’re unable to go out, but you enjoy the bustling coffee shop environment. It offers a myriad of audio tracks spanning from “Morning Murmur” to “Texas Teahouse” for sounds that differ with mood, and volume can be adjusted at any time. Some tracks, like “Brazil Bistro,” require a paid membership with the site, but there are quite a few that are free without an account. They also have an app for Android and Apple to take sounds like this on the go!
2.) Rainymood
Rainymood is a site dedicated to generating the sounds of heavy rain on the pavement. The calming trickle of water from rumbling clouds can sometimes be all you need to get the words flowing from your fingertips. Volume can be adjusted on this site also, and they encourage you to overlay with songs you enjoy, creating an overall zen effect environment that is best heard through headphones. This site and Coffitivity can sound great when they are both opened at the same time!
3.) OneWord
This site caters more toward those who wish to exercise their abilities in prose and fiction. The site generates a word, and allots sixty seconds for you to type as much as you can in regards to that word, be it in the form of a story or breakdown of the definition: this site is great at expanding composition capabilities. Sixty seconds may be all you need to get your creative juices flowing, and it’s absolutely free!
4.) TimelineJS
Although this particular site is enough to make fiction writers everywhere rejoice, it can be useful for those writing a research paper, or documenting events in their own life. This site allows users to create an interactive timeline that can include text as well as pictures, videos, outgoing links, and sources. The timelines move much like a Prezi: smooth, linear, and clean (an example for Whitney Houston’s life can be viewed here!). These timelines are easy to make and even easier to follow; these can be exceptionally useful for writing stories with time travel, or laying out when certain events happened so as not to confuse facts on an essay. And did I mention it’s free?
5.) Charahub
Charahub is exactly what it sounds like: a hub for characters. This site functions mainly for those writing novels, but can assist people wanting characters for movies, art, or even just for fun! The site is dedicated to helping authors outline characters in their stories and giving them a third dimension of personality. The site asks questions about your character from the simple “Name?” to the more difficult, “Does your character collect anything?” It also allows users to upload images (be it art or photography found on Google Images) to portray what the character looks like. It’s free, by the way, and is an excellent outlining tool to help writers discover their own characters.
Overall these sites are exceptional at what they provide, especially considering they all don’t cost anything. I hope your writing endeavours will be successful, whether or not you use these sites!