Five Online Tools to Help You Plan Your Novel

If you’re an old-fashioned type writer who plans their novels in the old-fashioned way with a paper and pen, this article is not for you.

However, if you’re looking for some great online tools that will help you plan and develop your writing, here are some of the best…

Scrivener is a popular writing tool by Literature & Latte that helps you plan your story,­­­­ organise your thoughts, write up character descriptions and much more. It’s inexpensive and, once you get the hang of it, relatively easy to use.

Scapple, also by Literature & Latte, is an online mind mapping tool. I love mind mapping for planning and the great thing is you can use it with Scrivener, just drag and drop.

Xmind another mind mapping tool that will help take your book through from the beginning little nugget of an idea to a full plan.

Trello is an organisational tool which is great for story outlining and character planning. You can also use it for collaborative projects across various devices.

Finally, Squibler is great for outlining novels and it’s easy to use.

For editing, ProWritingAid is great for picking up mistakes with grammar and spelling. It will also point out overused words and pronouns, and provides 25 different analyses of your writing. I use it for fiction and non-fiction.

For note taking, you could try Evernote an app you can use over various devices to jot down your notes. Put it on your phone and when you get an idea, just open the app and write it down. You can then pull up your notes on your laptop or desktop.

My other articles:

How to Get Started with your Writing | by Dawn Nelson | May, 2021 | Medium

Ten Top Tips for Writers — D A Nelson | by Dawn Nelson | Medium

How to Overcome Writers’ Block. “The secret of getting ahead is getting… | by Dawn Nelson | Medium