WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Best of the Best: Free Resources to Power Up Your Writing

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Links to some of the very best writing resources available. If you like free help for writers, save this list!

It doesn’t take many visits to see that providing writers with what they need to succeed is pretty serious business around here.

And because the ‘ol pocketbook can be a bit flat this time of year, we wanted to shine a light on some of the great FREE knowledge-building resources we know about.

Story Structure Database

Chances are, you’re familiar with Helping Writers Become Authors, run by the brilliant K.M. Weiland. But you may not be aware that she has this amazing database that breaks down the story structure of hundreds of popular movies and books. If you find yourself struggling with 3-act structure and the turning points of a successful story, visit this resource because it will help you grow your knowledge exponentially.

A Year of Creative Writing Worksheets

Eva Deverell challenged herself to creating a crazy-huge amount of worksheets on all different sorts of writing topics, and she’s kindly linked to many of them so writers can access them.

Stop by and find what you need, and then give her a big thank you for her generosity!

Jami Gold’s Worksheets for Writers

If you like worksheets AND struggle with story structure, you will especially love Jami’s Beat Sheets. She helps you through the turning points and stages that can often trip writers up, and there’s a ton of other terrific advice on this site, too. Definitely make her blog a regular pit stop.

LitCharts

After going on a writing retreat with Margie Lawson, I sort of fell hard-in-love with Rhetorical Devices. (It is amazing how they add sophistication and can deepen the meaning of your writing!) Litcharts is made by the creators of SparkNotes (another excellent site) and it’s filled with examples and descriptions of figures of speech and literary terms. Well worth prowling through.

Take one of your scenes and try inserting an Anaphora, Asyndeton, or play with Parallelism. I bet you’ll like the result!

The Writers’ Knowledge Base

This impressive search engine for writers is the brainchild of Mike Fleming and Elizabeth S. Craig and has curated over 40,000 writing articles to date. Searching by topic just got a whole lot easier, so give it a whirl!

Reedsy Learning Courses

Reedsy is dedicated to making writers successful, and they have a great collection of free courses to help you do just this. You can not only brush up on your writing craft through a series of free email-delivered mini-courses, you can also learn the ins and outs of design, marketing, publishing, and more!

One Stop for Writers Tip Sheets

Originally these tip sheets and checklists were hosted on Pinterest, but they became so insanely popular we moved them to a special page at One Stop for Writers (our other site).

Need help with showing emotion, character motivation, plotting & pacing, body language, or meaningful setting description? You’ll find it here. Or if you want ideas on choosing a character’s secret, need to know how to write Deep POV, or even the best ways to juice up a scene with conflict, we have a checklist for you. Download, print, export, share these sheets. We hope they help and while you are at One Stop, make sure to check out the Free Trial, too.

Writers Helping Writers Tools Page

If you are looking for truly unique finds like a Reverse Backstory Tool, a Character Arc Progression Tool, or a Backstory Wound Profile, visit our Tools for Writers page. We specialize in bringing you tools you can’t find anywhere else so we can help you in new ways. Everything is listed as a PDF so you can link-share, pin, or download and print as needed. (You’ll find many marketing handouts and other goodies there, too.)

We hope these links lead to some new favorite knowledge-building resources. And please, if you have a particular area of struggle, let us know. We might be able to guide you to a great article or resource!

Angela & Becca

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. DJ Smith says

    Oh my, it’s 3 a.m. here in Las Vegas and I just discovered YOU! I have many stories to tell but don’t have the slightest idea how to put it all together. So many resources here, I wish I didn’t have to sleep. I see I have lots of homework to do. Thank you so much.
    DJ

  9. Linda Juliano says

    I once heard about a website where writers can go to get information from any number of professionals about specific jobs/professions. For example, if your character is a nurse, you’d go to this site and find information posted by a nurse(s), and so on. I know you have an exciting resource for these things in the works (and I can’t wait for it!!), but have you heard of a site like this before? I hope I’m not being too unclear in what I’m looking for.
    Thanks for anything you have to offer. You guys are a blessing for writers!

  10. Debbie Erickson says

    Angela, thank you so much! I just found Reedsy a few weeks ago, and I love them! I wish I would’ve found them years ago! I love their free lessons that I find in my box each day on topics I’ve struggled with. And, of course, One Stop for Writers is so awesome, too! Happy New Year! Thanks for the tips!

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      Good to hear you’ve been using Reedsy and getting good value from the lessons! Their blog is really good too–well worth subscribing to. 🙂 And thanks for the kind words about One Stop! More writerly goodness in coming over there, I promise! 🙂

    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      Glad you like them. I have a sniffer for resources, and all of these are great sources of knowledge to help writers get themselves to the next level. Happy exploring!

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