You guys can’t tell through the screen, but Becca, Lee, and I are grinning like crazy today. A year ago, we cut the ribbon and flung open the doors to One Stop For Writers, a site that took a ton of long hours, many lines of code (thank you Lee!), and lots of love to create.
Some of you know what One Stop For Writers is. You may have visited and registered, taking the free side of our site for a spin. Maybe you even went all-in and subscribed.
Or perhaps you’ve just heard the name and wondered what those girls who wrote The Emotion Thesaurus and that guy who created Scrivener for Windows were up to.
(The answer, BTW? Making writing easier than ever.) 🙂
When we started One Stop, we had BIG IDEAS. We imagined a grand library, a beautiful writing home where people could come, quickly find the help they needed, and then boom, get right back to writing their novels. We’ve spent thousands of hours working toward this goal.
A year ago, we started with 11 Descriptive Thesaurus Collections:
- The Color And Pattern Thesaurus
- The Emotion Thesaurus
- The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus
- The Negative Trait Thesaurus
- The Physical Feature Thesaurus
- The Positive Trait Thesaurus
- The Setting Thesaurus
- The Shape Thesaurus
- The Symbolism And Motif Thesaurus
- The Texture Thesaurus
- The Weather And Earthly Phenomenon Thesaurus
As well as worksheets and templates, tutorials, and a one-of-a-kind Idea Generator. It was a good start.
Since then, we’ve jumped into the sandbox with both feet. Story Maps leads writers step-by-step through character arc and story structure so planning a well-crafted novel is unbelievably easy.
(You just can’t go wrong when you start with Michael Hauge’s amazing 6-Stage Plot Structure.)
We also added two Scene Map tools, so all levels of writers to plan stronger scenes that accomplish exactly what they need to within the story.
Don’t worry Pantsers…we thought about you, too.
Timelines will allow you to plan as much or as little of your story as they wish.
Even better, timelines can be used for so much more than times, dates, and events.
Maybe you want to keep track of your character’s progress as he journeys, naming each town he visits and what happens there. Or maybe you need to plot out chronological world building events, like battles during a war or specific holidays and rituals that come into play in your story. Or perhaps you want to capture the order of clues your police detective hero discovers during the course of a murder mystery.
Basically, whatever you want to track? You can. And if you want to rearrange the order? No problem! Just drag the timeline boxes onto a new order. (Fan Girl Moment: I think Lee’s a total genius to have created this functionality.) Think about how this will allow you to apply Save The Cat beats, or other methods of story brainstorming.
We’ve also created new templates and worksheets, and added new thesaurus entries (there are now 98 Emotion Thesaurus entries and a whopping 236 included in our Setting Thesaurus.
We’ve also uploaded a master list of One Stop Lessons on descriptive techniques and devices.
Oh, and we added a new thesaurus, too: Talents and Skills.
We’ve improved site functionality as well, like giving users the ability to organize all their maps, timelines, bookmarks, worksheets, and notes by project in their own private workspace within the library.
More is coming…
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is being added as I type.
A World Building Tool is in development.
And on deck?
A Wordsmithing Tool that will make any writer’s heart palpitate.
Now, can I tell you a secret?
Get a bit gushy, just this once?
*deep breath*
I’m proud. I’m proud of what Becca, Lee, and I have built. 🙂
This site was a leap of faith for us. We wanted to create something that didn’t exist, but we felt was needed: a one-stop destination where writers could grow their craft and find resources and tools that not only made writing easier, it would turn them into more efficient writers.
And now, more stories are being written. More books are ending up in the hands of readers. What could be better than that?
Help Us Celebrate!
We want to send a big thank you out to everyone who has checked out One Stop, cheered us on, and believed in what we’re trying to do. You guys are the very best. We’re giving away some One Stop subscriptions to celebrate!
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED–THANKS FOR ENTERING!
Congrats to Robyn, Melissa, Markus, Loraine, Sacha, Monica, and Sarah!
One entry per person, please. Contest closes Tuesday, October 11th, Midnight EST. As with all of our giveaways, this is free to enter. There are no hoops to jump through, no conditions to enter as long as you are 18 and eligible to enter.
So, have you used One Stop For Writers?
If so, please, tell us how we’re doing. Or hey, blog about it if you like! Either way, we’d love to hear from you, and how your writing journey is going.
To stay up to date on what we’re doing at One Stop for Writers, sign up for our occasional newsletter. But fair warning–we don’t believe in spam, just information and news. And to see more detail on how all these new tools work, visit our Features and Tools page.
You guys are terrific–here’s to many new words on the page, for all of us. 🙂
Angela (and her two better halves, Becca & Lee)
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
You guys rock. Listen, all of the paying it back you’ve given through the years. (Not to mention emergency Facetime session, Ange) I wish I could wrap the biggest present in the world and plop a humongous bow on top to mail to you and Becca. Seriously. You both have made my heart smile a multitude of times. THANK YOU.
Aw, you’re the best Robyn!
Congrats on your Amazing Year! This is a great site, especially for new writers. Thanks for sharing your expertise and looking forward to the next year!
Thanks so much Duane! 🙂 We are having a lot of fun. 🙂
Congratulations on a great year. Your success means my success!
Your books now hold a place of honor next to my other resources as I start each new project.
Thank you!
Mindblowing: story and scene maps and all the new Thesauri. I look forward to trying some of this out this week.
That’s great Laurel–I hope you find them useful!
Happy Birthday indeed!! Fireworks should be going off – you all have done a marvel of a well-integrated ‘library’ for everyone. I’m a newby writer with half a dozen books hiding under my bed, because I struggle with revisions. However, I have hope, and your tools are so very helpful. Thank you so much!
Revisions are a challenge to master, but you will get there, so keep at it! Those books deserve to get into the hands of readers!
Absolutely love your site!! It’s so helpful now that I’m writing an MG novel . . .and participating in NaNoWriMo. Congrats and Kudos to the three of you!
So glad to hear it is helping you 🙂 Good luck in NaNoWriMo!
I never realized this! Your site’s founding coincides with my wife and my wedding anniversary. Two reasons now to make this a special day!
Well how awesome is that–happy anniversary! I hope you guys are doing something special to celebrate! 🙂
Happy happy birthday!!! Love your site and all you guys’ hard work!
Thanks Debbie! Have a terrific weekend!
Happy birthday! OSFW is The Best site I’ve ever used! Thank you all for creating such a fantastic tool for authors!
Thank you for saying so, Allison! I am so glad you’re getting what you need to write more terrific books!
Congrats to the thesaurus geniuses.
You’ve produced great resources for the writing world.
It will be a good day when I lay my hands on a physical copy of one of them.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you for the kind words, Ohita! 🙂
Congrats on your birthday! I love, love your books. I’ve used the Emotional Thesaurus every since I got, which I think was around two years ago. I use it a lot and since I got the Negative Emotional Thesaurus, I’ve been using that a lot as well. Recently I bought the Urban Setting Thesaurus and I love it! I love your website and would use it a lot more if I wrote full time. Thanks, again!
Aw, thank you so much for the kind words, Janice–that just really boosts us up. We are happy to help, however we can, whenever we can.:)
A huge congratulations!! What you have accomplished in one year is amazing!! I have used One Stop and told many others about it. It is so useful, thanks!!
You are lovely, Darlene–thank you so much for that! I’m looking forward to another great year with these two brilliant people. I’m a lucky gal to work with both Becca and Lee. 🙂
Happy Birthday! Or Anniversary, whichever this is. Either way you know how much I love One Stop. I can’t wait to start a new book so I can use more of the templates. You guys rock!!!
Thank you for being such a fan, Carol! This is why we love doing this: finding a new way to help writers. 🙂
Want to hear something funny? I had browsed through the free part of One Stop fairly soon after you launched. I caught another post in my email about it a month or month-and-a-half ago, went to browse again. It had a lot more in the drawers than I had remembered, and I thought, “Wow, I should come back – even the free version has a ton of stuff!” Especially as I’m closing up production on a children’s novel and beginning a romantic women’s fiction series.
Lo and behold, about a week later I got an email saying my subscription to One Stop was getting close to renewal – evidently I had subscribed and completely forgotten! I could have been using it all that time! Of course, since I wasn’t really writing through that month, I still didn’t use it.
So my subscription is up next week, just as I start creating my town, characters and story arcs. Yes, I’m renewing. I can’t wait to start pulling out virtual drawers!
Haha, that is funny! Well hurray anyway–I am so glad you are getting a lot from the site. We hope all these new tools make writing that much easier. Please let us know how it goes, and good luck with your new series!