Free Tools for Fiction Writers

Ten tools for the parts of writing fiction that happen before and around the drafting. They are grouped by the job they do. Characters is the cast: who is in the story, what each of them wants, and what it costs them. Plot and structure is the shape: where it starts, what turns, and when. World and continuity is the memory: the chapter rows, the names, the rules and the dates a long story has to keep straight. Length and pacing is the schedule: how long a chapter, and how long a book.

All of them work immediately. There is no account to create, no email to hand over, no trial, and no card. Most of them run entirely in your browser, which means they are unlimited and nothing you type is sent anywhere: the character profile sheet, the questionnaire, the beat sheet, the outline, the story bible and the chapter planner are all just software on the page in front of you. The four that use AI — the character generator, the villain motive button, the backstory generator and the story prompt generator — give every visitor 6 free runs an hour so the pages stay open to everybody. Sign up for 20 an hour, or go Pro for no limit, if you are planning a whole cast in one sitting.

They are built for two kinds of writer. The first is planning a novel and wants the parts of the plan that actually change a scene: a want and a need rather than an eye color, a turn per chapter rather than a summary, a word target that tells you when the middle is late. The second is already twenty or forty chapters into a long serial and has hit the real problem of long-form work, which is not inspiration but memory: which hospital was it, how was that word spelled, what did you promise in chapter eleven that you have not paid off. The story bible, the outline and the profile sheet are for that writer specifically.

Nothing here is a novelty generator. There are no name lists you scroll through for twenty minutes and no personality quizzes. Every field on every tool was chosen because it changes what you can write next, and anything that only decorates a document was left out.

We claim no rights in what these tools give you. Use it in published work, commercial or not, with no credit and no claim from us. Download it, print it, paste it into whatever you write in, or carry it into DreamPress, where a finished character or outline becomes the premise of a story you can keep writing chapter by chapter, with fifteen free credits daily and no card.