Are you ready to start writing a fantasy novel? Well, nothing is stopping you with these free fantasy writing tools.
It is a fantastic writing genre because you can let your imagination run totally free.
Another good reason is that fantasy stories are very popular with readers, especially young adults.
If you are eager and ready to go, you will need some apps to help you. Here are some of the essential fantasy writing tools to help you write an epic fantasy.
Creating your fantasy world
World-building is at the essence of fantasy literature. It applies to all fantasy genres, including sci-fi, paranormal, and urban fantasy.
Very often, world-building is at the heart of a book series. So getting it right is crucial.
You can read well-known authors of fantasy books.
Try Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Strange to see how they do it.
You need to create a fictional world that is realistic, believable, and at the same time, logical.
When you create your characters, they will need to fit within the context, geography, and culture.
Your imagination is at the heart of writing a fantasy novel.
But you have to bring all your ideas together to create a fantasy story that readers will find believable.
The best way to collect your ideas, and find new ones, is to use the best writing tools you can find.
Luckily for you, most of them are free.
10 Fantasy writing tools
1. Your writing software
The very first thing you should do is forget about using a word processor like Microsoft Word.
It is not up to all the tasks you will need to work with when you write your fantasy book.
You need to keep track of events, facts, relationships, locations, and the profiles of your characters.
This is why you should consider using one of the many free book writing software programs that you can find now.
You can look at Novlr, Shaxpir, yWriter, or the Reedsy book editor, which are free to use.
Or you might consider Scrivener.
It is not free but is one of the most popular programs for authors.
These programs and online apps will give you many more writing tools than what a word processor can offer you.
All of them will help you write a better story.
2. Coggle
A mind mapping tool is a terrific way to bring your ideas together when you are outlining your story.
Coggle is the perfect tool for this and has a free version that works perfectly for authors.
You get three private diagrams with the free version, and you can download them in pdf or an image.
3. Deviant Art
When you want to visualize your fantasy world, Deviant Art is the perfect site for you.
You can search for images from thousands of talented artists.
There is a special section for characters and settings. It is perfect for writers to browse through fictional worlds and paranormal characters.
As a bonus, you might also find an artist who can help you design your book cover.
4. World Building
World Anvil is a great site and free resource for fantasy and paranormal authors.
With the free version, you get 25 world-building templates to get you started on your new fantasy novel.
It covers so many facets, including maps, buildings, languages, spells, and myths & legends.
The interactive maps are one of the most popular features of the site.
Take a look and see if it’s the perfect fit for you and your writing.
5. Pomodoro Timers
When you write, there will be times when the words fail to arrive.
It’s not necessarily writer’s block. It could be that you are tired and have been pushing yourself too hard.
A lot of writers use Pomodoro Timers to help overcome the problem.
With this app, you can set your writing time with breaks to keep yourself fresh and improve your writing productivity.
6. Plot Generator
If you are stumped for ideas for your plot, an online generation can sometimes help.
One of the best is the Reedsy Plot Generator. It claims to have one million plot combinations, so you should have no trouble finding one that suits you.
Then you can modify or change the idea to suit your story and your fantasy world.
You can also find a book title and character name generator from the same site.
7. Reverse Dictionary
Sometimes, you know you need a better word to express yourself perfectly. You can try a thesaurus, and even then, often, it doesn’t help you.
Well, you can try a reverse dictionary.
All you need to do is enter a phrase, and it will give you a lot of word suggestions.
It’s a handy little tool. You supply the definition, and the app gives you lots of words you can use.
8. Hemingway
Yes, it’s an app every writer uses. So it’s not going to help your fantasy creation.
But it will help you tidy up your writing as you go.
The Hemingway app is not suitable for a long manuscript. But it is extremely useful for doing a quick check of your daily writing output.
All you need to do is paste your text.
The app will immediately highlight your passive voice sentences and any overuse of adverbs. Then you can quickly correct your drafts.
9. Cliché Finder
Every writer falls into the trap of using overused expressions.
Cliché Finder can help you avoid the trap. It can quickly locate redundant expressions in your text.
Then, you can get on with re-writing some expressions to improve your text.
It’s not fancy, but it does exactly what it says it can do.
10. Checking your manuscript
Writing a book is one thing.
But making sure that your writing is up to standard before you publish is another thing altogether.
The best way to polish your writing is to use a top-quality online writing checker.
From my experience, the best tool to use is Prowritingaid.
The one significant advantage for fantasy authors is that it has a custom dictionary.
This is a must for fantasy writing because you can add your specialized vocabulary for your places and character names.
There is a free version. But the modestly priced premium version comes with over twenty reports. With these, you can analyze your writing in so many ways.
Summary
You might not write the next Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or Harry Potter.
But you have so many fantasy writing tools available now to help you write a fantasy novel.
Above all else, it will be your imagination that wins the day.
Fantasy writing is special.
But it is the one genre of fiction that needs an incredible amount of detail and planning.
When you read Patrick Rothfuss, Susanna Clarke, or Brandon Sanderson, you will know how much attention to detail you need.
The fantasy writing tools and apps in this article will help you.
But at the end of the day, it is about what is in your mind.
Then it is a matter of how you can find the right words to tell your story to readers.
Related reading: How To Use Google Reverse Image Search To Your Advantage
