Writers On Ao3 - Blog Posts
A list of some of the things I use every day for writing and worldbuilding tasks!
I've been thinking about a post with this info for a few weeks now, so here it is! A note that I am not affiliated with any of these sites or services--I just use them :)
WordHippo
Until late last year, I had been using thesaurus.com to handle my never-ending hunt for the perfect word. I switched to WordHippo because it is much more friendly to searching phrases in addition to just words. It also includes rhymes, translations, word forms, and pronunciations. For non-English speakers, the word forms section could be particularly helpful.
Fantasy Name Generators
This site has just about anything you could need in relation to generators, including ones specific to pop culture and fandoms like Stargate, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and more. There are sections to create simple mockups of character armor, solar systems, languages, and even find some royalty-free music.
PhotoPea
As a graphic designer, I often find myself needing to visualize my characters, environments, and book covers to really immerse myself when I'm trying to write a scene. PhotoPea is a free alternative to Photoshop that even uses many of the same keyboard shortcuts (meaning you can often follow Photoshop tutorials while using PhotoPea). If the Adobe Creative Suite is out of your budget, PhotoPea is, in my opinion, the best free alternative.
Seventh Sanctum
This was the first generator site I used back in my days on FanFiction and FictionPress, and I still like to use it for its slightly less daunting interface when compared to Fantasy Name Generators. I also find it loads faster.
Descriptionary
I stumbled across this site not long ago, and I've become a bit obsessed with it. It's a bit clunky to navigate, but there's a lot of information and helpful tidbits to be found including color symbolism, body language, and words to use/not use and why.
No Man's Sky Photo Galleries
While this isn't a specific site, and the one I've linked here is just one example of many that are out there, I've found No Man's Sky to be one of my biggest inspirations when writing sci-fi and environmentally focused scenes. The sheer scale of No Man's Sky and its procedurally generated worlds make it easy to find inspiration for everything from planets, to fauna, wildlife, ships, and structures.
Inkarnate
This site stands alone if you need something that allows you to build beautiful maps for your stories. It has a free and a paid version, and the free version is fairly robust. If you're someone who writes anything that involves large-scale worlds or anything involving military strategies, it can be really helpful to have the lay of the land right in front of you as you write.
Autocrit
While the free version of this is pretty limited, I've really enjoyed having it accessible for identifying adverbs, story beats, and to compare my original pieces to genres and authors.
Cap That
If you need high resolution screen captures from your favorite shows, this is the place to find them!
Star Trek: Voyager, J/7: The Measure of Logic - Chapter 7 Posted
https://archiveofourown.org/works/62063797/chapters/161560423
Fandoms: Star Trek: Voyager x Star Trek: Discovery
Relationship: Kathryn Janeway / Seven of Nine
Rating: Mature
Synopsis:
After Captain Janeway contracts an illness during an expedition to an uninhabited planet and orders USS Voyager to leave her behind, a certain hardheaded Astrometrics officer isn't so keen on abandoning her Captain. As Janeway and Seven learn to navigate the strange new dynamic forming between them, it becomes apparent that the planet they now call home has a much deeper story to tell--one that seems to defy logic, reality, and even the natural order of time itself. ----- This is a standalone fic but can be read as additional worldbuilding to my "For the Optics" series. Timeline runs about a year prior to the events of "A Binding of Stars."