websites to write stories for free

Hi, we're Wattpad.

The world's largest storytelling community, home to 97 million people¹ who spend over 26 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories, wattpad has democratized storytelling for a new generation of diverse gen z writers and their fans..

¹As of July 2023

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Your original story could be the next big hit

Wattpad Studios discovers untapped, unsigned, and talented writers on Wattpad and connects them to global multi-media entertainment companies.

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Wattpad Books aspires to recognize and reflect diverse voices by taking Wattpad stories to published book and onto bookshelves around the world.

Wattpad Books works with partners such as:

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How wattpad works.

Get your story discovered through the power of community and technology on Wattpad.

Share your unique voice and original story on Wattpad. Find the writing resources you need to craft a story only you can tell.

Establish a global fan base as your story gains readership and momentum. Connect with other like-minded writers through storytelling.

Gain Wattpad Star status and get your story published or adapted into film or television with Wattpad WEBTOON Studios!

²Monthly Wattpad Visitors. As of July 2023

Working with Wattpad Studios is like a dream. Not only do they care about your success, but also staying true to your vision.

KARA BARBIERI (@PANDEAN)

Kara Barbieri is a twenty-two year old author with a love for the weird and mystic. Her debut novel, WHITE STAG, will be published by Wednesday Books/Macmillan in January 2019.

When I joined Wattpad, I gained a second family who were as passionate about reading and writing as I am.

ALI NOVAK (@FALLZSWIMMER)

Ali Novak is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's creative writing program. She started writing her debut novel My Life with the Walter Boys when she was only fifteen. Since then, her work has received more than 150 million hits online and My Life with the Walter Boys has been optioned for television by Komixx Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television.

Being a Wattpad Star is the foundation for everything I do as a writer, from the behind the scenes wrangling to the big, game-changing projects.

BEN SOBIECK (@BENSOBIECK)

Benjamin Sobieck is a Wattpad Star and editor of “The Writer’s Guide to Wattpad,” published in August 2018 by Writer’s Digest Books and featuring contributions by 23 Wattpad Stars, ambassadors, and staff. His stories on Wattpad, such as “When the Black-Eyed Children Knock,” have drawn more than 1.5 million reads.

Having been active on Wattpad for several years, I knew it would be the perfect platform for a thriller with lots of cliffhangers for readers to discuss. Teen horror is my passion, so I can’t wait to be able to share Light as a Feather with other horror aficionados on Hulu.

ZOE AARSEN (@ZAARSENIST)

Zoe Aarsen is a graphic designer and copywriter. Her first paranormal YA novel, Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, is being published by Simon & Schuster and turned into a television series on Hulu.

The Wattpad Stars Program gave me opportunities I never thought possible. It connected me to a world that I had only imagined. I don’t know how else to say it. It changed my life!

ISABELLE RONIN (@ISABELLERONIN)

Chasing Red was one of 2016’s most-read stories on Wattpad -- and that was just the beginning for this Winnipeg-Manitoba-based writer. In a single year, her explosive hit has racked up over 127 million reads on Wattpad. Newly edited and expanded, the book was split into two and hit bookstore shelves in 2017.

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Create Your Own Story Online

Create your own story online using our ultimate story creator. Our story creator comes with built-in story starters, artwork and more to inspire writers of all abilities!

Create a story

Useful Resources

Ultimate Story Generator

Generate thousands of unique stories using our ultimate story generator. Just enter some words about your story, and press the 'Generate Story' button. You can create a unique story within minutes to share with your friends. Writing stories has never been so easy! Try out our story generator and step-by-step story maker tool now!

Get Started

Daily Writing Challenges

Our daily writing challenges aim to inspire and encourage young writers to write daily. Each day the challenges will update to show a new inspirational prompt for you to write about. We have special seasonal writing challenges, as well as regular challenges, such as the word challenge, book title challenge, poetry challenge and more!

Use Story Starters to Inspire You

Story starters are a brilliant way to fix blank page syndrome (or writer's block). Did you know that 67% of authors say the most challenging part of writing is starting their story? We have thousands of story starters to get you writing in no time! And that's not all, if you're still stuck for inspiration we even have a ton of artwork to inspire you.

Generate Funny Story Ideas

With thousands of story combinations to keep you writing stories every day. Our simple-to-use story idea generator comes with tons of fun and wacky prompts to inspire you. Whether you're into pirates or princesses we got writing prompts to suit every child out there.

No Registration Required

Imagine Forest offers a seamless and user-friendly experience with the convenience of no registration required. We believe in breaking down barriers and making creative resources accessible to all. We provide a hassle-free environment for users to dive into the world of storytelling, writing challenges, and more.

Safe For Kids

Imagine Forest is proud to declare itself a safe space for kids. With no registration required to use tools, we ensure that no personal information is collected, providing a secure and privacy-conscious environment. Our resources are carefully curated to be age-appropriate, for younger to older children, fostering a positive and creative atmosphere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Imagine forest free?

Yes. Imagine Forest is 100% free. There are no additional costs or subscription fees. All features you see on the site are fully available for free.

How do you use Imagine forest?

To use Imagine Forest simply explore the site or click the 'Create a Story' button at the top of this page to access the story creator. Once inside the story creator, you can select the type of story you want to write and continue following the on-screen instructions. At the end, you can download a PDF of your book. You can also explore the rest of the site to find some interesting activities and writing resources to help you become a better story writer.

How do I register for Imagine Forest?

No registration is required. All resources from the story creator to the writing challenges and blog content are openly available to all site visitors. This also means that we don’t store any personal information, allowing users to explore Imagine Forest without the need for a formal registration process. The platform is designed to prioritize user privacy and accessibility, ensuring that creative individuals of all ages can freely engage with the diverse range of writing resources.

Is Imagine Forest safe for kids?

Yes of course. The absence of a registration requirement means that no personal information is collected, providing an added layer of privacy and security. Additionally, the content and activities on Imagine Forest are tailored to be child-friendly, fostering a positive and creative environment. The platform aims to inspire and nurture the imagination of young writers in a safe and age-appropriate manner. As with any online platform, it's advisable for parents to monitor their children's online activities and ensure that they are engaging with content suitable for their age group.

Can I view a list of Writing Prompts?

Yes. Imagine Forest has a huge list of writing prompts and story starters. You can view this collection of writing prompts on our blog, in the writing prompts category .

Is it possible to remove the ads?

Sorry, there is no option to remove ads yet. Ads help keep Imagine Forest running and providing free access to its creative resources for all users. While it may be inconvenient for some to see ads, they play a crucial role in sustaining the platform and ensuring that it remains freely accessible to a wide audience. Imagine Forest relies on revenue generated from advertisements to cover the costs of maintaining the website, developing new features, and expanding its offerings. By allowing ads, the platform can continue to provide a wealth of writing tools, challenges, and other resources without requiring users to pay for access. In the future, we may offer users a paid subscription option which allows them to remove ads from the site.

Is it possible to upload my own images?

At this moment in time, no it is not possible to upload your own images in the story creator tool. We may bring this feature in the future. The purpose of Imagine Forest is to guide you on how to write a good story. It is an educational tool for helping beginners write stories and poems. We do however provide a huge built-in library of photos, and illustrations to use. You can also request more specific images by contacting our team .

Write Your Novel Online Now

NovelEasy is the online writing platform for writers of all skill levels. Whether you’re a published author or budding talent looking for life beyond status updates, you can get away from the noise and focus on telling your story with NovelEasy.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” — Maya Angelou

You want to write but you get distracted when you go online. Humans are creative. We have ideas and incredible stories to tell, but often we end up scrolling instead of writing. Is the next Shakespeare out there fishing for “likes”? Is the next Dickens sharing memes?

NovelEasy wants to change that. Here you can unleash your creativity and write something you can be proud of. You’ve always wanted to write a book. Let’s do it!

More Efficient, Better Writing

Easy to Use

Just start typing into the distraction-free text editor and NovelEasy will automatically and securely save for you. Click on a title for quick inline edits, then jump right back into your writing. Best of all, NovelEasy is 100% FREE to join.

Easily add, reorder, delete, and navigate chapters . Start using them to build an outline, then add text to flesh out your story. All the flexibility of a three-ring binder, but a whole lot easier.

Universal Formatting

Spruce up your writing with NovelEasy's convenient Markdown buttons in addition to typing in your own tags. The built-in Markdown renderer will display your styling right in your browser. Best of all, everything you type is preserved exactly as you entered it.

Writing Statistics

PREMIUM FEATURE

Track your daily progress with word count, time spent writing, days spent writing, monthly totals, and more! Go back and see your past statistics * and get a true picture of your writing journey.

*Statistics recorded from December 2018 onward.

Get to the Finish Line

Monitor your book's length using NovelEasy's word counter . Review your novel in Reading Mode then, when you're done, export it as a Markdown document that you can open with most text editors.

Home » Writing » 50 writing websites and online resources

Sites for notes and writing

6. evernote.

This bookmarking tool is a great way to collect moments of inspiration and ideas for your story together in one place, where they can be filed and organized, ready to be put to good use. It might be a ‘how to’ article you want to read, a quote that reminds you of one of your characters, or an image that would be the perfect setting for your next scene. Inspiration strikes in the most unexpected places, but as Evernote is available on almost every platform, you can collect notes wherever you are. You can choose to have one notebook that you throw everything into, or you can set up separate notebooks to help you organize your thoughts and ideas as you go. If you’re working on a novel, why not set up separate notebooks for each character or each chapter?

7. Scrivener

While some writers prefer to stick with the traditional pen and paper or word processor, for others, technology can be a game-changer. Scrivener is a powerful writing tool that allows you to organize your notes, research, and writing all in one place. You can create separate documents for each chapter, scene, or character and easily move them around as needed. You can also set word count goals and track your progress, making it an empowering tool for both planning and writing your work.

8. Storyist

Another popular writing app is Storyist , which offers a wide range of features for novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights. From corkboard view to character and plot development tools, Storyist helps you bring your stories to life in an organized way. It also has a distraction-free writing mode, making it easier to focus on your writing without any distractions. Plus, with its built-in formatting tools, you can easily export your work into a professional-looking manuscript when it’s time to self-publish.

9. Calmly Writer

For those who prefer a clean and minimalist interface, Calmly Writer is a great option. This writing app allows you to focus on your writing without any clutter or interruptions. You can also save your work as you go, making it easy to come back to where you left off. And with its auto-save feature, you don’t have to worry about losing your work in case of any technical issues. It’s available on both desktop and mobile devices.

10. Ommwriter

For writers who need a tranquil and calming environment to get their creative juices flowing, Ommwriter is the perfect writing app. With soothing background music, minimalistic design, and customizable backgrounds, this app offers a meditative experience for writers. It also has a “focus mode” that allows you to hide everything on your screen except for your writing, helping you stay in the flow and avoid distractions. Ommwriter also has a mindfulness timer that reminds you to take breaks and practice self-care while writing.

Writing community resources

In the realm of writing, the adage “It takes a village” is extremely true. Having a community as a writer isn’t just important—it’s essential. While writing is often seen as a solitary endeavor, there’s nothing like the support, inspiration, and feedback from fellow wordsmiths. It’s about belonging to a group that gets the highs and lows of the creative process and turns struggles into shared successes.

Here are a few of our favorite sites to find your village.

11. Catapult’s Don’t Write Alone

The blog Don’t Write Alone was created by the team at Catapult, a publisher and magazine dedicated to nurturing and enhancing writers’ talents. Founded in 2005, Catapult showcases a diverse range of literary works and is now sharing its vast knowledge. The platform offers a huge collection of content, including insightful interviews, detailed essays on the craft of writing, and explorations of the writer’s life. Its mission is to offer comprehensive support and inspiration to writers at any stage of their journey.

12. Gutsy Great Novelists

Are you a novelist seeking motivation, accountability, and encouragement? Look no further than Gutsy Great Novelists , a free online community just for you. With the tagline “where serious creative writers gather to finish their novels,” you can’t really go wrong. Award-winning novelist Joan Dempsey founded this platform to help writers feel less isolated. Members get access to critique groups, lots of online resources, and events and classes that will keep you on track until your novel is complete.

13. Lambda Literary

For writers and readers alike, Lambda Literary is a community-driven organization that champions LGBTQ+ literature. With a mission to elevate voices and stories that have been historically marginalized, this platform offers various resources for writers, including workshops, literary events, and publishing opportunities. It also hosts an annual writing retreat for emerging queer writers, providing a safe and supportive space for creative expression. Sign us up!

15. Writing.com

Writing.com is one of the largest online writing communities out there. It’s a super supportive environment for writers of all levels—and you have a portfolio to store and share your writing. You can also join various groups based on your interests or genres, providing opportunities for networking and collaboration with other writers. Plus, Writing.com regularly hosts contests and challenges to help improve your writing skills and gain recognition for your work. Whether you’re seeking support or looking to expand your audience, this community has something for everyone.

16. Reddit’s r/WritersGroup

If you’re a Reddit fan, you probably already know about r/WritersGroup . This subreddit serves as a testament to the strength of community in the writing process, offering a space where writers from all walks of life can share their drafts, seek advice, and provide constructive criticism. Whether you’re battling writer’s block, seeking feedback on a new chapter, or just in need of inspiration, this is your go-to sanctuary.

17. She Writes

Created by women, for women, She Writes is a supportive community that celebrates their diverse voices and experiences. With more than 32,000 members and 350 groups, it’s the largest online community of women writers in the world! With forums and tons of articles, this platform provides a safe space for women to share their work and receive feedback from other writers. 

18. SFF Chronicles

For science fiction and fantasy writers, SFF Chronicles is a valuable resource for learning, connecting, and honing your craft. With forums dedicated to discussing the latest trends and tropes in the genre, as well as sections for feedback and critique, this is your virtual writing workshop. It also hosts contests and interviews with established authors, if you’re seeking insight and inspiration.

19. The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Imposter syndrome is hard to battle alone. Step into the Insecure Writer’s Support Group , where those whispers are drowned out by the resounding voices of support, encouragement, and understanding. This haven is dedicated to writers at any stage of their journey, providing you with resources, advice, and, most importantly, a community that gets it. Conquer your insecurities by reading their blogs and monthly newsletters, joining their social media groups, and joining their pitch event to find an agent or publisher (every January).

20. Underlined

Formerly known as Figment , Underlined is a website that provides story starters, writing inspiration, and advice from published authors . You can also join a community of aspiring writers, share excerpts of your work, and provide feedback to each other—all valuable parts of the creative life.

Sites for improving your writing

Now that you’re equipped with a plethora of platforms to connect and expand your creative horizons, it’s time to take your writing to the next level. Improving your craft is a continuous, evolving process—whether you’ve just penned your first poem or are on your tenth novel.

Here are the resources you need to refine your skills, find your unique voice, and perfect the art of storytelling. From grammar guides to story structure tips, these sites offer the tools you need to elevate your writing.

21. 750 Words

As with any skill, the best way to improve your writing is to practice, practice, practice. The website 750 Words provides a daily nudge to get your creative juices flowing. Based on The Artist Way ‘s morning pages , the goal is to write 750 words (roughly three pages) every day, without any distractions. By just writing without an agenda and without judgment, you’ll make writing every day a regular productive habit and steadily build your confidence.

22. Helping Writers Become Authors

The Helping Writers Become Authors site, created by award-winning author K.M. Weiland, offers practical tips and advice on story writing, from structure and plot to character identity and dialogue. It’s a great, regularly updated resource to take you from writer to professional.

23. Grammar Girl

Get a grip on the quirks of language and the rules of good grammar with this entertaining and useful podcast based on the hugely popular blog by the same name. Top listened-to Grammar Girl episodes include “Affect Versus Effect” and “Active Voice & Passive Voice.”

24. Coursera

Looking for a more structured approach to learning? Coursera offers online courses on writing, from writing your first novel to academic writing . With options from top universities such as Stanford and Wesleyan, you’ll have access to expert instruction and peer feedback to hone your skills.

25. Masterclass

Masterclass brings together some of the biggest names in writing, like David Sedaris , Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman , for online video courses on pretty much any aspect of writing you’re looking to learn. With a subscription, you’ll have access to their wisdom and techniques for crafting powerful stories that captivate your readers.

26. Critique Circle

Join a community of writers, both published and aspiring, on Critique Circle to get feedback on your writing and provide critiques for others. With tools for tracking your progress, finding beta readers, and connecting with fellow writers, this platform offers valuable resources for improving your craft. Plus, the supportive atmosphere encourages growth and development as a writer.

27. Now Novel

For those looking for a more structured approach to writing, Now Novel offers personalized coaching and guidance throughout the writing process. From outlining and character development to editing and publishing, their team of experts will provide valuable feedback and support to help you bring your story to life. Whether you’re just starting or need help revising, Now Novel offers a community and resources tailored to your specific needs as a writer.

Resources for characters and plot

We’re betting you have more than one favorite character from more than one book. Characters like Elizabeth Bennett, Albus Dumbledore, and Bilbo Baggins live on in our minds long after we’ve turned the final page. Your characters should become like old friends that you know inside and out to add depth and humanity to your story. These are the resources you need to make it happen.

28. Writer’s Digest’s Character Development Sheets

Subscribing to the Writer’s Digest mailing list gets you access to this free worksheet designed to flesh out each of your characters. Working through a series of questions, you’ll develop their key hopes, fears, and skills, their personality quirks, how they might act in different situations, and how all of this will be revealed to the reader throughout your story.

29. The Write Practice’s Characterization 101

This free course from The Write Practice guides you through seven key steps to creating memorable characters, covering important character archetypes, character motivations, how not to introduce a character to your story, and much more.

30. The Novel Factory’s 150+ Character Questions

Building on the idea of character development sheets, The Novel Factory offers a comprehensive list of over 150 questions to help you fully flesh out each character in your story. From physical appearance and background to their biggest secrets and flaws, this resource will help you create well-rounded and dynamic characters that readers will connect with.

31. TV Tropes

Ever come across a character or plot twist that seems oddly familiar? That’s because many writers use common tropes and archetypes in their stories. TV Tropes is a user-edited wiki page that outlines these common patterns and themes found in media, providing examples and analysis for each one. It’s a helpful resource for understanding how to effectively use, subvert, or avoid these tropes in your writing.

32 Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

Need some guidance in creating a fictional world for your story? This list of 123 questions from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America can help you think through all aspects of your world, from its physical laws to its social structure and cultural customs. By taking the time to fully develop your world, you’ll make it feel more immersive and believable for readers.

33 Reedsy’s Plot Generator

When you’re stuck on where to take your story next, Reedsy’s plot generator can help spark new ideas. Simply select a genre and hit “generate” to receive a random plot outline that you can use as a starting point for your own story. It’s a fun tool for getting unstuck and exploring new directions for your plot.

Resources for editing and reviewing

In addition to proofreading for spelling, language, and grammar errors, two other forms of editing should form part of your review process. Developmental editing, which is editing for the structure, flow, and consistency of your story, and substantive editing, which is concerned with clarity, accuracy, and reader comprehension.

When your manuscript or first draft is complete, let it sit a while before reviewing. It also helps to have a second and third set of eyes on your work. Even better, if your budget allows, hiring a professional editor can give your story the polished finish it deserves.

34. Grammarly

Available as a Google Chrome extension or device app, Grammarly works across your web pages and documents as you write to help you catch common writing errors. It highlights and fixes grammar, punctuation, and contextual spelling mistakes. The premium version can also suggest alternative vocabulary choices.

Remember not to rely on online spell checks alone to proofread your work. Always give your text a thorough check yourself, too.

35. ProWriting Aid

ProWriting Aid takes your writing beyond mere spell checks, offering a holistic approach to improve your writing style, tone, and clarity. What sets it apart from Grammarly is its in-depth focus on your writing’s overall readability and engagement level. It provides detailed reports on style, overused words, sentence length variation, and even readability scores, making it invaluable for writers looking to polish their manuscripts to perfection. While Grammarly excels at real-time grammar and spelling corrections, ProWriting Aid is the go-to tool if you’re looking for comprehensive feedback on your structure and style.

36. Hemingway Editor

As the name suggests, Hemingway Editor is an online editing tool and website that will help make your writing clearer, bolder, and more direct—just like the author it’s named after. Simply copy and paste your text into the tool to check for overly complex sentences, overuse of adverbs, and the passive voice. It will also highlight instances where a shorter word could serve the same purpose.

Every writer needs a good editor, and Reedsy only works with the best. Their hand-picked, experienced, professional editors can review your story development, structure, consistency, and style, helping to perfect and polish your manuscript. Reedsy also offers a tool to easily write and format a book , the same way a professional typesetter would. (You can print from their tool with Blurb, too!)

Artificial Intelligence for writers 

AI gets a bad rap, but in our digital age, its emergence is nothing short of a revolution in creativity. Whether you’re battling writer’s block, seeking the perfect synonym to elevate your prose, or plotting a novel, AI-powered writing assistants can offer a wealth of resources at your fingertips. These innovative tools are not doing the writing for you—they’re about enhancing your creativity and offering insights and suggestions that might not have crossed your mind.

38. Sudowrite

Using artificial intelligence, Sudowrite offers suggestions and ideas to help you improve your writing. It can generate plot twists, character names, and even entire paragraphs based on the information you provide. While it’s not meant to replace human creativity and imagination, Sudowrite can be a helpful tool for sparking new ideas and breaking through writer’s block.

Claude has emerged as a dynamic counterpart to ChatGPT, due to its ethical and safer approach to AI. What sets Claude apart is its focus on nuanced, open-minded text generation—working to understand context and intent before replying. It can help you with brainstorming, research, structural analysis, line edits, critique, and even productivity—with writing sprints, prompts, word count, and positive reinforcement. It’s not replacing creativity, but supporting you from blank page to final polish.

40. Jasper.ai

Jasper is another AI-powered writing tool that can assist with plot development, character creation, and even research for your story. Jasper also has a feature that allows you to collaborate with other writers in real time, making it a useful tool for team projects or brainstorming sessions. What’s great about Jasper is that it has a document feature, so you can write, edit, and save your work like you would in Word or Google Docs, rather than chatting back and forth with AI.

Resources for promoting and marketing

Once your masterpiece is polished and ready to shine, the next thrilling chapter of your author’s journey begins: promoting and marketing your book. This can seem like a Herculean task, especially in a world flooded with content. But with the right tools and strategies, you can cut through the noise and get your book into the hands of eager readers.

We’ve lined up the best resources to transform you from a writer into a savvy marketer!

41. Wattpad

Use this storytelling platform to connect with writers and readers around the world, build an audience, and even get discovered. On Wattpad , you start by sharing a story, and then if you build a big enough fan base, you may have a chance to work with entertainment companies and publishers looking to feature your work. Just remember, some publishers won’t print work that appears online, so be sure to do your research before uploading your entire novel!

On this writing and reading hub, you’ll find stories, articles, and inspiration that are curated to your taste and written by people like us. Want to share your own writing, photos, or videos? You can do that on Medium —and potentially earn money. The platform lets you see how your stories are performing and what kinds of readers like your writing. It also offers tips for starting a newsletter, submitting to publications, and curating your work.

43. Kindlepreneur

Kindlepreneur is a treasure trove of resources for authors, especially those venturing into self-publishing. From book marketing and advertising strategies to optimizing your Amazon sales page, author Dave Chesson has got you covered with his helpful blog posts, videos, and courses. He also offers free downloadable templates and worksheets to help you plan and execute your book marketing strategy.

44. NY Book Editors

Need help proofreading your manuscript or marketing your book? NY Book Editors provides editing and proofreading services, as well as an extensive blog full of helpful advice for writers. They also offer a free guide to writing the perfect query letter to help you attract agents or publishers—and plenty of other useful publishing and marketing information.

45. Agency Query

If you want to get an agent or a publisher, use Agency Query to build your list of potential agents and publishers. The website also provides features like tracking the status of pitches sent out to agencies, keeping notes on each agency’s submission requirements, and more.

46. The Creative Penn

The Creative Penn is a website run by bestselling author Joanna Penn . It offers a wealth of information on how to, “write, publish and market your book—and make a living with your writing.” Penn also has a vibrant YouTube channel and podcast where she shares advice for authors, helpful if you are a visual or auditory learner.

47. Publishers Weekly

Stay up to date on the publishing industry and get insider tips from publishers, editors, and literary agents with Publishers Weekly . This website offers news, reviews, job postings, and other helpful resources for writers. They also have a dedicated section for independent authors if that’s you.

48. Storiad

Storiad is a tool designed to help you promote and market your book through social media, website creation, book trailers, and more. They offer various packages for authors at different stages of their careers, from beginners to established writers. Storiad can also help you create a professional author website with built-in marketing tools.

49. BookBub

BookBub is a popular platform that lets you promote your book to millions of readers through daily email newsletters, targeted ads, and featured deals. You can submit your book for consideration or use their blog for free marketing advice and trends in publishing. BookBub also offers webinars, courses, and other resources for writers.

50. Author Marketing Club

Author Marketing Club is a community of authors helping each other promote their work through free and paid book promotion tools, tutorials, webinars, and more. They also offer a powerful search engine that allows you to find relevant blogs, websites, and book promotion sites to submit your work for exposure. Joining this club can help you reach a wider audience and get more readers interested in your writing.

How Blurb can help

From collecting inspiration to the final finishing touches, there’s a whole world of tools , websites, support, and advice out there to help you with every stage of writing your own story and making your own book. You have all the tools you need. Now write!

And when you’re ready to publish and share your work with the world, Blurb can help. Our self-publishing platform allows you to turn your manuscript into a professional-quality book, whether it’s a novel, memoir, poetry collection, or any other genre. With customizable book formats and design tools, as well as tons of options for distribution, we make it easy to bring your writing to your fans.

So what are you waiting for? Start creating and sharing your stories with the world today. We believe in you!

Blurb is your platform designed to turn the dream of publishing your book into reality. Whether you’re crafting a photo book, a novel, or a poetry collection, we’ve got the tools and support to help you professionally design, self-publish, promote, and sell your work.

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Best story writing websites in 2022

What are the best storytelling websites? We’ve put together a selection of writing sites offering writing tips, help with plot and character, book publication and promo resources and more.

• Post author By Jordan
• 27 Comments on Best story writing websites in 2022

Need writing resources? Here are some of the best story writing websites. We’ve updated these resources to include writing tips, story plotting resources, publishing and book promo help, and more.

Fiction writing websites – categories

Writing tips and insights from authors, community and writing critiques, help creating plot and structure, advice on creating characters, worldbuilding and creating story settings, writing tools for planning stories, creativity, inspiration and writing prompts, editing and evaluating your writing, insights from and help finding agents, story and book publishing help, help promoting your writing, writing genres and genre-specific insight.

• Further writing resources and roundups

Let’s dive in and explore some of the best writing resources on the web. Use the links on the right (if on a desktop device) to go to the section that interests you:

The websites in this section aren’t so much story writing websites as resources offering a peek into authors’ writing process , inspiration sources and advice:

The Paris Review

The Paris Review’s ‘Art of Fiction’ series includes interviews with celebrated authors and editors.

Interviewed luminaries include Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury and others. See, for example, Faulkner on why believing you can rewrite better is positive motivation for an artist.

The books section of NPR offers many interesting interviews, podcasts (with transcripts) and book picks.

The New York Times By the Book

The New York Times is an excellent website for writers generally due to the caliber of its writing. The ‘By the Book’ section of this writing website offers illuminating author interviews.

Read Ocean Vuong on bringing books to lunch dates , ‘just in case’. Although the NYT is paywalled, it’s one of the more worthwhile (and cheaper) sites to subscribe to.

Writers & Artists

UK writing platform Writers & Artists has many blog articles and interviews. Their ‘advice’ section is particularly helpful for writers.

See this article by author Michèle Roberts , Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Roberts shares how to get over writer’s block.

The Writer Magazine

Founded in 1887, The Writer magazine offers many illuminating interviews with authors. Here, for example, author Emma Straub talks character development , writing routine, the writing process, and more.

Additional resources

Is there another website whose author interviews you love? Please share your favorites in the comments below. Read advice from eight Nobel-winning authors here .

Writing groups are a fantastic way to develop your story (as our Group Coaching writing course alumni attest). Here are places to get feedback on your writing:

We’ll toot our own horn here: Now Novel’s critique groups are home to first-timers and experienced writers alike. Members who earn our ‘top critiquer’ badge frequently and consistently give thoughtful, considered writing feedback. We’ve regularly featured in Reedsy’s list of top writing communities and other best-of roundups.

Read our article on how to give feedback that rocks here .

Develop Your Story With Support

Finishing writing is hard – get help and stay accountable to your goals.

The writing platform Medium is described as an open platform ‘where readers find dynamic thinking’.

You’ll often find interesting thought pieces, such as Katie Lawrence’s piece on writing a bestseller here , as well as readers’ engaging comments.

Absolute Write Water Cooler

Absolute Write is a free writing forum and community. Here, writers share tips on subjects from writing software to approaching agents and editors.

See the full list of writing forums , spanning basic writing questions, how to deal with having stories turned down for publication, and much more.

The /r/writing Subreddit

Reddit is the more verbal of all the social platforms, and thus a natural fit for writers. The /r/writing subreddit currently has over two million members, and there are daily discussions about writing tools and software, and weekly critique and self-promotion threads too.

Creating the plot and structure for a story is hard without a framework. The fiction writing websites below offer plot frameworks, ways to understand story structure, and tips for writing page-turning stories.

To get brainstorming stories right away, start with Now Novel’s browser-based story outlining tool , the Now Novel dashboard.

The Nashville Film Institute provides a useful breakdown of Dan Harmon’s ‘Story Circle’ plot structure template , which itself is derived from Joseph Campbell’s classic The Hero’s Journey story structure concept .

UC Berkeley teaching resources

UC Berkeley has a portal with resources for teachers that includes a wonderfully clear summary of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey . The resource includes deep dives into the hero’s journey in myth and film. Explore various ways this story pattern recurs in different media.

Screenwriting tricks for authors

Author and screenwriter Alexandra Sokoloff’s blog offers many tips on plot and story structure. See a plot structure series Sokoloff wrote for NaNoWriMo on three-act story structure, beginning with the inciting incident .

The Plot Whisperer

Author Martha Alderson offers plenty of advice on how to plot and structure stories on her Plot Whisperer blog.

See, for example, ‘ 15 tips to create a compelling plot for your story ‘.

Aerogramme Writers’ Studio

Although Aerogramme Writers’ Studio has been taking a hiatus since around 2020 from posting new content, there is still a trove of useful story plotting and structure info on this story writing website.

See teacher and author Kenn Adams’ breakdown of the ‘story spine’ , a simple, eight-step ‘fill-in-the-blank’ process to find the core focus of a story.

Plot generator

This plot generator tool churns out some pretty wild plot ideas (‘Bernadette is a killer fuelled by homophobia, who watches teachers and shaves them’.) You may find useful plot tidbits in the midst of the absurdity.

The Learning Network on the NYT

Another helpful part of the New York Times (apart from the author interview section linked above) is its learning network.

See for example 1000 writing prompts for students in this article. These could be interesting questions to ask your fictional characters, too.

The secrets of story structure by K.M. Weiland

Author K.M. Weiland’s blog has many helpful articles on story craft. Her fiction writing website includes multi-article guides such as ‘The Secrets of Story Structure’ here .

ChatGPT by OpenAI

This AI writing generator is a helpful tool for finding writing prompts, synonyms, creating permutations of lines and ideas, and more. See our article on 10 helpful uses of AI writing tools where we explore the tool’s uses and limitations.

Learning how to create characters in an ongoing process of writing, learning more about the psychology of goals, motivations, desires and conflicts, and reading great character studies. Read our best articles on creating characters , and find useful character creation resources below:

Writers Write

Writers Write, originally founded by Amanda Patterson, has many articles on character development. Read this blog post for 350 ideas for character traits .

Ian Irvine’s character how-to’s

Author Ian Irvine has a great selection of character-building advice here , which he has condensed from Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias .

Random motive generator

Random generators are hit and miss, but this character motive generator can give you some ideas for the motive part of goal, motivation and conflict.

See more tips on creating clear goal, motivation and conflict for your characters in this extract from our monthly writing craft webinars with Now Novel coach and HarperCollins-published author, Romy Sommer:

This person does not exist

This AI-driven image creation tool composites a massive sample of images to create images of humans who do not (in theory) exist, generating characterful new people from visual data . Try refreshing the page a few times, then write a paragraph of description imagining who the person in front of you is.

Live Write Breathe

Author Janalyn Voigt offers plenty of writing advice on her blog, including this characte-building worksheet .

Worldbuilding is vital for creating believable settings that feel lived in and plausible. Read our best articles on creating settings and find worldbuilding resources for stories below:

Azgaar’s fantasy map generator

Countless fantasy novels begin with front pages showing fictional maps. Create your own with Azgaar’s fun, free browser-based fantasy map generator .

TED-Ed is the American media organization TED’s (of TED Talks – ‘ideas worth spreading’) platform for educational materials. Among the resources shared, you’ll find this rap from YouTube creator Flocabulary on why setting in stories matters .

TV Tropes offers many succinct wiki-style pages on film, TV and book tropes (motifs or devices that recur in popular culture and literature). See a post on the ‘standard fantasy setting’ that also links to TV Tropes’ page on urban fantasy.

The British national archives

If you are setting your story in England in a specific historical period, the national archives are a great resource for finding information. The collection spans 1000 years plus, including subjects such as the military, census records, famous wills, photographs of famous prisoners and more.

Writing a story set in another non-fictive country? Google for digital archives that may supply texture and detail for your setting.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has many useful worldbuilding resources. See, for example, Patricia C. Wrede’s comprehensive list of fantasy worldbuilding questions .

Planning stories and creating outlines in advance is one way to ensure that you stay on track and don’t get stuck while drafting.

Read ways to use Now Novel’s story outlining tools and find more tools for planning stories below:

Several Now Novel members have mentioned that they use this well-known desktop-based writing software in tandem with Now Novel’s own online story brainstorming tools, as each compliments the others set of features. Read more about Scrivener’s features .

Although exclusive to Apple devices, this is a popular writing app that includes features such as word count tracking, as well as folders where you can organize writing project snippets by material integrated into your manuscript, material in review and process work or scrapped ideas.

Milanote is note creation tool pitched to story-boarders working in film, advertising and novel-writing as well . Like Evernote, it has a web clipper for saving snippets of articles you read to notes.

One stop for writers – timelines

In addition to offering helpful writing advice on their blog at Writers Helping Writers , Angela Ackerman and co provide a story tool with a timeline-creation tool that you may find useful if the sequence of events in your story is important.

Trello is a flexible browser-based project-management tool with a board-based interface (similar to Milanote) that you can use to organize scene summaries (much like our own Scene Builder, which is more story-oriented). Here’s an article from Trello’s blog on ways to use it to organize your story or story research.

How do you find a story idea ? The resources below include writing prompts, resources for finding story inspiration and more:

The Write Practice blog

The Write Practice has many helpful articles for writers on their blog, including this selection of writing prompts .

The Marginalian

The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) is Maria Popova’s fantastic blog about writers, inspiration, creativity and more. See for example how she unpacks complex ideas about inspiration from Ursula K. Le Guin .

Positive Writer

Bryan Hutchinson offers helpful personal accounts relating to writing and inspiration, such as how creative journaling helped his writing process .

Advice to Writers

Jon Winokur’s writing website offers ‘writerly wisdom of the ages’ in daily quotes, such as this one:

I’ve tried to figure out what good writing is. I know it when I read it in other people’s work or my own. The closest I’ve come is that there’s a rhythm to the writing, in the sentence and the paragraph. When the rhythm’s off, it’s hard to read the thing. Sebastian Junger, quoted by Jon Winokur.

Encyclopedia Mythica

Myths, legends and fables have always been fantastic sources of inspiration for new stories. Encyclopedia Mythica is a helpful wiki all about mythology and famous mythic figures.

Reedsy Plot Generator

Reedsy has a fun tool for generating plot ideas by genre that may help you find initial inspiration for something you can alter and make your own further.

Nonsense Generator

This is another idea generator tool that churns out absurd sentences. More silly than serious, you might find an image that strikes you all the same. Example generated: ‘Two-finger John set a treehouse on fire’.

Bookfox (formerly The John Fox) has many articles with writing prompts and inspiration. Here’s a list of how 50 authors prepare to write and get inspired.

Resources for editing stories will be more important to you perhaps if you are nearer the end of your manuscript. Find out about Now Novel’s editing services here and keep reading for helpful editing tools and resources:

Chicago Manual of Style’s shop talk blog

The Chicago Manual of Style is a trusted style and editing manual. Their ‘shop talk’ blog has helpful tips on grammar, style and punctuation. Also find articles such as this on using Word vs Docs to edit your manuscript.

ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is ‘an AI-powered writing assistant’ that checks writing for style and grammar issues. See their article on why they’re a good choice of editing plugin to use with Now Novel .

Hemingway App

Hemingway is a simple, browser-based editing tool for checking paragraphs for issues such as sentence structure, reading level, and grammar.

Grammarly is another style and spelling checker that is widely used.

Oxford grammar practice resources

Practice your grammar online with these basic, intermediate and advanced lessons from Oxford University Press.

Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl is a resource that’s part of Mignon Fogarty’s ‘Quick and Dirty Tips’ network. It’s a useful resource for brushing up on grammar. Read about the different types of nouns and their uses , for example.

Once you’ve finished writing a book and edited a draft so it is good enough to send off, where do you find help writing synopses or lists of agents open to submissions? Here are some helpful resources around representation and querying your manuscript:

Writer’s Market guides

Writer’s Market publishes useful annual guides on the publishing industry. You’ll find query letter templates as well as guides to getting agency representation packed with actionable advice.

The Query Shark

Janet Reid’s blog Query Shark provides excellent insight into the parts of query letters that work and pique interest.

Association of Authors’ Representatives

Many agents belong to associations such as the AAR. These agent listing platforms provide a useful way to search for agents interested in your genre and whether they are open to unsolicited submissions or require referrals.

Querytracker

This platform provides a useful list of agents as well as individual agent profiles where querying authors comment their experiences and whether or not they received full or partial manuscript requests. It’s helpful to determine which agents are active and which tend to be more responsive to queries in a specific niche.

Agent and publishing coach Rachelle Gardner

Agent and publishing coach Rachelle Gardner offers plenty of useful advice on writing and publishing, such as this article on whether or not you should write to market .

Curtis Brown Creative’s blog

Curtis Brown Creative, a London-based literary agency established in 2011, offers plenty of advice from agents and agent-represented authors on their blog. Founder and director Anna Davis offers some excellent advice on preparing to submit to agents .

Guide to literary agents

Writer’s Digest’s ‘Guide to Literary Agents’ blog section touches on querying, the importance of perseverance in getting published, and more.

NY Book Editors

NY Book Editors have an excellent blog – the linked article on writing query letters gives plenty of good tips as well as helpful examples of strong openings and more.

Poets & Writers agent database

Poets & Writers magazine has a helpful database of literary agents where you can find agents’ contact details, the genres they’re interested in representing, and further details such as their respective agencies’ websites.

Nathan Bransford’s blog

Nathan Bransford, an author and former agent at Curtis Brown, writes a blog where he offers tips such as how to write a query letter .

Evil Editor

Evil Editor breaks down synopses and explains pitfalls writers should avoid.

Publishing is a vast subject area, from choosing between indie and traditional publishing to understanding market, Kindle store categories, what the publishing process is like, and more.

Watch a video extract from our monthly webinars below where Romy Sommer explores paths to publishing. Then keep reading for useful publishing websites:

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly is a great resource for all things publishing-related, including weekly information on recent book deals that will help you abreast of what’s happening in publishing.

Writer Beware (the SFWA)

Writer Beware , a subcommunity of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, offers a great resource on dubious publishing tactics and would-be agents and other pitfalls to keep aware of.

Publishers Marketplace

Publishers Marketplace is another useful publishing resource (particularly for US-based writers), including information on agents, their commission rates, recent book deals and more.

Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman’s blog focuses on the publishing industry and helping authors navigate processes such as starting out as an unpublished author. See her beginner’s guide to getting published .

The Creative Penn

Joanna Penn’s blog includes podcasts and interviews with specialists in a range of niches, including book publishing and promo. See for example this podcast interview on going wide with publishing consultant Mark Leslie Lefebvre.

Publishing Perspectives

This publishing portal offers news on recent writing prize winners, news round-ups about events in the book industry, and more.

Hawes Publications

This useful internet resource keeps an updated list of brief plot summaries (loglines) describing popular releases, a two-sentence plot summary or blurb . Reading over succinct summaries could help you tighten your own elevator pitch or logline.

Writing Cooperative

Writing Cooperative is home to many useful resources for writers, such as this list by Austin Hackney of 128 publications that pay for short stories.

BookBub’s blog often features helpful articles on publishing matters, such as this article ‘ 50+ Publishing Resources You Should Know About ‘ by Diana Urban.

Reedsy offers a comprehensive directory of publishers that have been vetted, including data such as location, size, what genres they publish, and whether or not they are indie and open to submissions.

Kindle Publishing Guidelines

If you’re planning to indie publish a book on Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing has a handy knowledge base with information on everything from cover image guidelines to enhanced typesetting tips.

Book marketing is something many authors find challenging. Reading the right resources and putting time into promoting your work (or rather, building relationships with future readers) is key to selling. Find useful resources for book promo below:

Penguin UK’s blog

Penguin’s blog has many articles offering succinct tips, such as this post on ways to promote your book (including video on what a book publicist does).

NetGalley is a book promo platform devoted to helping build your ‘street team’ – readers who may receive advance copies in exchange for honest reviews.

Smith Publicity

Smith Publicity is a book publicity agency that offers helpful guides to doing book promo. See these 110 tips for marketing your book.

Whitefox, a company offering publishing consultancy and other services relating to publishing and distribution, offers helpful tips on book promo on their blog. See this round-up, where nine book industry insiders give advice for creating pre-publication buzz.

Scribe Media

Scribe Media offer, among other services, book launch preparation and assistance getting media exposure. Read their helpful post on thirteen ways to get more exposure for your book .

Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson provides useful introductions to book promo (pertaining to selling via Amazon’s Kindle store), such as this guide to choosing the right categories for giving your books maximum visibility.

The Book Designer

The Book Designer, in the same stable as Self Publishing School, has several helpful articles related to book promo, such as this one on how to get reviews for indie-published books .

Self-Publishing School

Self-Publishing School offers various tips on book publishing and promo, and this is a helpful round-up of free and paid sites where you can promote your latest publication .

There are many internet resources that provide insight and help specific to different writing genres. Find resources for romance, fantasy, mystery, crime, sci-fi, historical and more below:

Writing romance

Find our best romance articles here and extra romance writing websites below:

Write for Harlequin

Harlequin has long been a big name in romance publishing. On the ‘Write for Harlequin’ blog, the publisher frequently shares editors’ wish lists such as this summary of stories sought in the historical romance subgenre .

The Mills & Boon blog

Mills & Boon is another big name in romance publishing, and their blog features many interesting romance subgenre and trope discussions, such as authors on why they love writing the ‘enemies to lovers’ trope .

Diana Gabaldon’s blog

Diana Gabaldon, author of the successful romantic historical Outlander series, has an active blog where she shares interviews from the archives, news and more. Here’s an interview where Gabaldon speaks on writing an honest romance book that will ring true regardless of setting, time period, and how much (or little) autobiography it contains.

She Reads Romance Books

Review communities dedicated to specific genres are a great way to delve into the minds of readers in your target market and see what makes readers love the books they do. This romance-focused site offers round ups of the best romance books over the years and more.

Nicholas Sparks’ blog

Some of the tips on romance author Nicholas Sparks’ blog may read a little pat, but in the ‘advice to writers’ section of the author’s website there is this good advice:

Over time, quality work will lead to an audience for your work. In the end, readers always choose. Nicholas Sparks, author’s website.

Romance Writers of Australia

This Australian romance writers’ organization offers a fun ‘three things I learned writing …’ series where romance authors discuss three things they learned while writing their published books. It’s full of motivating lessons from romance writing such as ‘anything is fixable’.

Romance Writers of America

The RWA likewise has an archive of helpful articles on romance writing . Articles range from industry news to tips for building your newsletter.

Writing fantasy

Read all our most popular fantasy-writing articles here , and more on the genre below:

The SWFA’s blog

This has been mentioned already above in a different context, but in addition to its excellent guides and resources, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America also offers articles by guest contributors on topics such as walking the line between good style and too much fantasy jargon and slang .

Ursula K. Le Guin archives

The ‘about writing’ archives on Ursula K. Le Guin’s website are a great selection of the late fantasy and science fiction author’s musings on fantasy-related and more general writing topics. Here’s a good open letter on plausibility in fantasy with interesting discussion of the way Tolkien uses settings.

Neil Gaiman’s blog

Author Neil Gaiman’s career has spanned an eclectic range of genres and formats, from dark fantasy to sci fi, graphic novels and screenplays. The author’s blog is full of interesting insights into fantasy, such as an appreciation post for Sir Terry Pratchett or this essay on where Gaiman gets his ideas .

The Speculative Literature Foundation

The Speculative Literature Foundation is ‘a global nonprofit dedicating to promoting literary quality in speculative fiction’. Resources the organization offers include lists of grants for fantasy and sci-fi writers as well as interviews with speculative fiction writers and deep dives into writing matters .

Fantasy author Brent Weeks

The fantasy author Brent Weeks offers plenty of excellent advice on fantasy worldbuilding , magic systems, writing fight scenes and more on his personal blog.

Writing science fiction

Another complex speculative genre, science fiction has many fantastic writing organizations and story writing websites dedicated to the genre:

Neal Stephenson’s writing advice

Although not a separate story writing website, speculative fiction titan Neal Stephenson’s writing advice on the TED-Ed blog is simple and golden.

Galaxy science fiction magazine archives

Galaxy was a science fiction magazine published from 1950 to 1980 and is thus an interesting time capsule for SF writers. You can read stories by Ray Bradbury in its pages (including his story ‘The Fireman’ which later became his cult novel, Fahrenheit 451 ).

Philip K. Dick on androids and humans

One of the most influential sci-fi authors of all time gave a speech titled ‘The Android and the Human’ at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in 1972, available to read here .

Asimov Online

Isaac Asimov, one of the so-called ‘big three’ science fiction authors, is the subject of this internet archive of sci-fi resources , essays and more.

Arthur C. Clarke at 100

On the centenary of Arthur C. Clarke’s birth, Adam Roberts reflects on this ‘big three’ sci-fi author’s legacy and works such as Rendezvous with Rama (1973) and 2001: A Space Odyssey for The Guardian .

Tor, a speculative fiction publishing company, runs a blog featuring interesting science fiction reads such as this article by author Adam Oyebanji on how science ‘nudges fiction towards new frontiers’.

Locus Magazine

Billed as ‘the magazine of the science fiction and fantasy field’, Locus’ fiction writing website has speculative fiction publishing news, reviews, interviews, lists of sci-fi and fantasy conventions, and more.

Writing crime and mystery

The crime and mystery fiction writing websites below include writing organizations, useful crime-writing and mystery resources, and more:

Mystery Writers of America

The Mystery Writers of America writing organization describes itself as ‘the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime-writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction’. See their list of vetted publishers of crime and mystery .

The Crime Writers’ Association

Another crime-writing organization based in the UK, member benefits include co-promotion of new crime novel releases, monthly crime fiction -devoted newsletters, and more.

International Thriller Writers

The International Thriller Writers organization like the CWA has a debut authors program , whereby you get extra help with launching and promoting your debut in return for membership.

Agatha Christie archives

This website devoted to the seminal mystery author’s life and work includes interesting information such as this article on how Christie wrote , along with bibliographies, reading lists and more.

Louise Penny’s author site

Mystery author Louise Penny offers tips and encouragement for getting published on her personal author site.

Crime Reads

A crime and mystery-writing website, Crime Reads offers blogs on mystery topics such as the ‘fine art’ of writing riveting plot twists .

Sisters in Crime

Founded in 1986 to advocate for women crime writers, Sisters in Crime offers writing webinars, resources for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, and more.

Jungle Red Writers

This blog helmed by seven women who write crime has many interesting reads, such as Hannah Mary Mckinnon’s article on embracing research .

Elizabeth Spann Craig

Cozy mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig blogs about writing mysteries and also has an well-curated writing guide roundup she shares via Twitter called ‘Twitterific Writing Links’.

Criminal Minds blog

The premise of this story writing website is simple: ‘Each week, we respond to provocative questions about crime fiction, writing, publishing and life.’ Read crime and mystery Q&As .

Crime by the Book blog

Crime by the Book is ‘the result of one girl’s ongoing exploration of crime fiction from around the world’. You’ll find crime book reviews, recommended reading lists and more on this portal dedicated to the crime genre.

Crime Fiction Lover

This crime-focused writing site offers crime novel reviews, author spotlights and interviews, a virtual book club and more.

Author Bryn Donovan’s blog

Author Bryn Donovan offers helpful tips for mystery and crime writers, such as this list of 25 case-solving clues you could use in a story.

The unsolved mysteries subreddit

Reddit is full of interesting topic threads with deep dives and articles shares. A good subreddit or community for mystery authors is the Unsolved Mysteries subreddit .

Here, members discuss unsolved cases and their theories about what happened. [Note that stories may share disturbing elements relating to unsolved police cases].

Writing children’s and YA fiction

Writing for younger readers entails writing to specific reading age norms, knowing what is age-appropriate and more. Find useful writing websites for YA and kids’ lit below:

The Atlantic

The Atlantic is not dedicated to YA and kids’ lit, but has a helpful article here where YA authors share their best tips on writing for and about teens.

The YA Bookshelf

The YA Bookshelf is a useful website for YA book reviews and resources. See their roundup of YA book blogs , for example.

Hannah Holt’s blog

Children’s writer Hannah Holt has an interesting deep dive into YA author stats (though published in 2017, it has all kinds of insights into YA author advances, average submissions until being published and more).

So You Want to Write

So You Want to Write has a comprehensive guide to writing YA by YA fantasy author Mackenzie Belcastro.

John Green Q&A

It’s great when authors give concise answers to complex questions. YA author John Green’s writing FAQs on his website answers interesting questions such as ‘how do you write about adolescents when you aren’t one?’

Vlogbrothers

Writing for younger readers necessitates using platforms younger readers love well and meaningfully. See John and Hank Green’s vlog on YouTube for ideas of how to create meaningful video content for your YA readers.

Sarah Webb’s children’s writing tips

Children’s author Sarah Webb shares great advice for writing for children on her author site.

Michael Morpugo’s teaching resources

Sir Michael Morpugo, one of the best-loved children’s authors and author of War Horse , shares inviting question and quiz resources for parents and educators to go with his books via the author’s website. An inspiring ed-tech format to use with your own children’s writing.

Interview with Maurice Sendak

The Guardian has many fantastic articles mixing essay with interview, such as this biting and fascinating conversation with Maurice Sendak , author and illustrator of the beloved Where the Wild Things Are . His statement ‘I refuse to lie to children’ is an interesting maxim for writing for younger, truth-seeking readers.

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups

This helpful resource for children’s book writers and readers includes interviews with authors, information on the Children’s Book Award, and more.

Writing historical fiction

Writing historical fiction naturally involves research due to stories being based on real events. Here are some of he best internet resources for researching and writing historical books, including museum archives with digital collections and universities’ subject specialist research guides.

British Pathé archives

British Pathé is a fascinating resource for historical footage and photo collections. See, for example, their outline of key events from WWII.

The National Archives (UK)

The National Archives is a vast archive spanning 1000 years of UK history. The searchable collections have many photo albums and articles, on everything from coronations to crime and punishment in specific eras.

The Smithsonian Institute

Across the Atlantic, the Smithsonian Institute offers vast archives of research materials to do with American history, from conservation biology to art history.

National Archives of Australia

Writing books set in Australia? The National Archives of Australia provides research guides for subjects such as first peoples and colonial history, foreign relations, military history and more.

USC Latin America resource guide

The University of Southern California offers a useful, organized guide to resources on Latin American history and archives from this region as well as the Caribbean. Google ‘.edu’ and the area you’re interested in and ‘resources’ to find similar librarian-developed research resources for historical fiction.

Yale’s European history library guide

Yale University has a fantastic library guide to historical research resources about Europe . Includes resources for general Western European history and medieval, early modern and modern Europe.

The Historical Novel Society

Founded in 1997, this organization is devoted to historical fiction and offers a quarterly magazine, information on historical fiction conferences, member directory and more.

A Writer of History by M.K. Tod

Historical fiction author and blogger M.K. Tod shares many interesting historical fiction discussions and interviews on her blog. For example, this deep dive on behind-the-scenes facts from WWII .

Africa is a Country

Africa is a Country (the title is ironic) is a fantastic resource for nuanced journalism and contemporary, left-leaning analysis of African culture and politics, reviews of books about African and diasporic issues, and more. A good research resource for studying African issues and debates.

English Historical Fiction Authors

This history writing blog began in 2011 and shares all kinds of interesting micro history accounts by historical writers from various periods of British history.

Queen Anne Boleyn blog

This site devoted to historical fiction and named after the famously executed second wife of Heny VIII has many interesting blog articles. See, for example, where history authors weighed in on casting decisions and the question of race and representation in adapting historical stories for film and TV.

Jane Austen’s World

This blog offers thought-provoking deep dives into Austen’s writing , the Regency period (such as social customs of the time) and more.

Further writing resources

Mcsweeney’s internet tendency.

A long-standing humor site that publishes biting satire and parody, such as ‘If people talked to other professionals the way they talk to teachers’ by Shannon Reed . A good regular read for aspiring humor writers.

Quora is often a very useful resource when you have a specific writing-related question you’d like to crowd-source answers for (for example, ‘ What is plot development? ‘).

Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds

Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds blog is full of interesting and profanity-laden articles about the writing process [not for the expletive-squeamish] and now features guest articles on topics such as ‘five things learned while writing a book’.

Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest is one of the longest-standing writing sites on the web, with WD having been founded long before the interne in 1920. They offer fiction and non-fiction writing resources, a very broad section on getting published and more.

National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo has a simple premise: Challenging writers to try produce a book draft in a month. Anyone who has written or attempted to write a book knows this is no time at all, but many authors use the write-a-thon as an exercise to see how much they can churn out of a manuscript within 30 days.

Writer Unboxed

This story writing website founded by Kathleen Bolton and current editorial director Therese Walsh offers an engaging blog and also published a writing manual , Author in Progress in partnership with Writer’s Digest. The manual is billed as ‘a no-holds-barred guide to what it really takes to get published’.

Literary Hub publishes a wide variety of material, but their ‘craft and criticism’ section is perhaps the most immediately useful. Read this article by author Vauhini Vara on how to keep a long project alive (with advice from writer and Emeritus Professor of English Tobias Wolff).

What are your favorite literary writing websites? Let us know in the comments below. Start writing a book with structured support and a caring community’s help.

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• Tags writing resources , writing websites

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

27 replies on “Best story writing websites in 2022”

Always great content on here! Really impressed at how in depth this list is. Bookmarking it for later.

Thanks so much, Ben.

Great content and we are really impressed with the way of presentations

This was such an awesome article. So awesome in fact I’ve featured it on my top 15 best articles on writing – ever! http://reflectionsfromaredhead.com/the-best-articles-on-writing/

Thank you, Janine! Have shared your post on social media.

That is quite an extensive list. Thank you very much for this comprehensive blog post.

Take a look at Writelight as well.

Thank you for the suggestion, Artem.

Hello, I Like your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wish you best of luck for all your best efforts. Bonobology | Romantic Story

If this list gets update sometime, some sites for Writer Podcasts and Book Cover resources would be good addition.

Hi Adrijus, great suggestions. It’s on my list!

Happy to share some if needed.

P.S. Do you take guest posters on? 🙂

Hi Adrijus, we do when it’s good content relevant to aspiring authors primary challenges (e.g. craft, organization, publishing process, etc.) The best thing to do is submit a pitch to help at nownovel dot com via email including topic and title suggestions and we’ll see if there’s fit.

Thanks for asking.

Sounds good. Thank you!

Hi Bridget, you have done a great work here. I’m really impressed.

This was such an awesome article. You can also publish your story on https://highlightstory.com

Thank you! I’m not sure I’ll check out all these resources, but I’ve already found some useful ones for me. I find great support in writers’ blogs and the block with general tips is very useful for me. In addition, I want to share some interesting articles: https://stacitroilo.wordpress.com/2019/07/19/author-inspiration-writing-links-83/ I read this blog regularly as yours and find many useful ideas.

Thank you, Anna. Thanks for sharing helpful resources you’ve come across too.

[…] Novel: “Story writing websites and resources: 200 of the best,” a comprehensive resource divided into useful categories including everything from plot […]

Some of your links need to fixed. One’s like Deborah Bruch’s Plot Analysis Worksheet leads to a “Forbidden” access page, and you have Reedsy leads to the previous option of Nonsense Generator. You have a shit ton of great links, some just need to be cleaned up a bit.

Thank you, JD. Will do – this one hasn’t had some attention in a while. Thank you for reading our blog.

i love writing stories guys

That’s great, Larric – keep writing them 🙂

Nice collection Jordan! I also have a blog where I share my writing tips for story/book writing.

Hi Pauline, thank you for sharing that. I had to remove your link to your site as there is a lot of advertising on-page and the content that I read had several confusing paragraphs and would benefit from editing. Readers could thus see the site as spammy (a reason we don’t run third-party ads on this blog). I would suggest looking at those aspects if you want your readership to grow.

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An online writing app for novelists and storytellers

Web-based writing.

Read, write, and edit from any computer any time. Your manuscripts are saved online so you always continue right where you left off, even from a different device.

Continuous Backups

Revise and delete without fear. We keep loads of backups for weeks, months, and even years. No need to email yourself a copy just in case . . .

Bank-level Security

Your manuscripts are encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption—the same level of encryption you use to access your bank account.

The Quill includes all the features you need plus a few you'll love. Save yourself time and effort while enjoying every minute of your storytelling. The Quill can even predict when you'll finish your novel so you can rest assured you'll meet your deadline.

• Character profiles
• Dictionary & thesaurus
• Predict completion dates
• Track word counts
• To do lists
• Secure autosave & backups
• Rearrange chapters
• Search anywhere
• Continuous spell check
• Automatic smart quotes
• Write and review anywhere
• Leave comments for later

Character Profiles

Create authentic, consistent characters with detailed profiles. Upload a reference photo and record details like age, hair color, personality, and secrets for each character. Never forget a character's eye color again.

Beautiful, Clean, Functional Design

Dive into your writing using a modern, clean user-interface that shows you only what you need to see. Without messy distractions, you can focus on your manuscript and say good-bye to complicated software that only slows you down.

The Features You Need

Your manuscript is more than just words—it’s a work of art. Craft it using powerful tools including a full-manuscript search, notes attached to your text, categorized to do lists, drag & drop chapter re-ordering, word counts, smart quotes, auto-correct, folders for research and outtakes, and a built-in dictionary/thesaurus, all without leaving your manuscript.

Pratilipi is India's largest digital platform connecting readers and writers in Hindi

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Pratilipi is India's largest digital platform connecting readers and writers in 12 Indian languages

Discover thousands of stories, poems, articles, magazines, novels, essays, etc for free. Read popular genres. Save your favourites in your own library. Contents present in the Pratilipi library are filled with endless emotions, thoughts, verses, and possibilities.

Self-publish on Pratilipi and join the largest community of writers. Create new drafts, add images and publish right from the app. Pratilipi provides a hassle free and advanced writer panel to make your act of writing a little less scary and a whole lot comforting.

Pratilipi brings writers and readers on a single platform. Follow authors to see what they are publishing next, review and discuss. Share your favourites with your fellow readers. Here writers can interact directly with readers and readers can often evolve into writers.

Read the new and write with the old

Pratilipi has the perfect blend of classic old and the new-age literature. Old and wise writers inspire you to write, whereas new writers make you feel young and restless.

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They say that it takes a village to raise a child. At Pratilipi, we say it takes a community to make a writer. We all have a story to tell. The dialogue-stimulating community of Pratilipi brings writers and readers on a single destination platform.

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Where to Find Free Short Stories Online

Sarah Ullery

Sarah suffers from chronic sarcasm, and an unhealthy aversion to noise. She loves to read, and would like to do nothing else, but stupid real life makes her go to work. She lives in the middle of a cornfield and shares a house with two spoiled dogs and a ton of books.

View All posts by Sarah Ullery

Short stories are a great way to discover new writers, or sample different genres. There are classic short stories that you can read in less than an hour, but leave you feeling like a better reader for having read them. In a previous article , I mentioned that they’re also a great way to break a reading slump, and they can be compiled onto reading apps like Pocket . They’re a great companion on lunch breaks, planes, waiting in line, or when you’re bored at work (they can be easily concealed on a web browser or on your phone).

I spend too much money on books, so sometimes it’s nice to read free stuff, and the internet is not lacking in places to find great stories that are free to read on your computer, tablet, or phone. I’ve compiled 20 different websites where I regularly find free short stories.

Narrative Magazine

Narrative Magazine is a free space for readers to enjoy some of the best short stories, essays, and poetry written by both established and emerging writers. They also have a series called “Tell Me a Story” , a high school essay writing contest that encourages young writers to submit essays responding to a single prompt. They’re a nonprofit, and do appreciate donations , but it’s completely voluntary. Find new stories from writers like Min Jin Lee, or classics like “ Death in the Woods ” by Sherwood Anderson. Narrative is a treasure trove.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is “free” until you receive the pop-up message on your screen that says “you’ve hit the wall,” which means no more mooching; time to subscribe. And it’s totally worth it, but expensive, so if you’re cheap like me, choose the stories you read at The New Yorker wisely. But seriously, is there anything better than The New Yorker ? It’s totally worth subscribing.

Electric Literature

A great resource to find information about new books, old books, and upcoming books; Electric Literature is also a great place to find short stories. Their “recommended reading” section has great short stories; or you can find “poetry, essays, and graphic narratives” in “The Commuter.” Electric Literature is a nonprofit, and much like Narrative they work hard to promote new and emerging writers.

Wattpad is a reader/writer interface that allows people to easily access over three million different stories through their website, or by downloading the app. It’s also a great place to submit short stories if you’re interested in writing. The site is open to anyone, at any level of writing experience. If you’re more interested in reading than writing, topics range from adventure to teen fiction to fan fiction to poetry and horror. There’s a little bit of something for everyone.

Like The New Yorker , Granta is a literary magazine that limits the number of articles you can read free digitally. So choose wisely. But like The New Yorker , Granta publishes the best writing. In their own words: “ Granta  does not have a political or literary manifesto, but it does have a belief in the power and urgency of the story and its supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real.” So basically, it’s worth the price if you’re willing to subscribe.

Tor.com is a fantasy/sci-fi website that  allows free access to short stories that are published on their website. One of my favorite Tor.com short stories is Rachel Swirsky’s “ A Memory of Wind “, which is about Iphigenia prior to Agamemnon’s sacrifice. You can also find stories from Seanan McGuire , Jonathan Carroll , Mary Robinette Kowal , and JY Yang (to name a few). This is consistently one of my favorite places to find new writers.

Lightspeed Magazine

Like Tor.com, Lightspeed is a digital magazine that publishes short stories by authors like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, N.K. Jemisin, Ted Chiang, and Ken Liu. You can choose to subscribe for 12 months, which will get you access to over 100 short stories, plus you have access to author interviews, and other nonfiction content. But, if you’d rather dabble and choose not to subscribe, there’s still a ton of free content available.

American Short Fiction

A triannually published literary magazine that publishes short fiction by established and emerging writers; American Short Fiction has published Laura van den Berg and Roxane Gay. Many of their stories have appeared in the end-of-year collection The Best American Short Stories .

The Atlantic

The Atlantic is recognized for their journalism, but they also publish great short stories from well-established and emerging writers. You can access stories from the current issue of the magazine, or from their archives. I’d recommend Helen Phillips’s ( The Need and The Beautiful Bureaucrat ) short story “ The Wall .”

Project Gutenberg

The best source for public domain books, short stories, and poetry; Project Gutenberg boasts over 60,000 free ebooks. You don’t have to download any special apps to read their content; the books or short stories will download to whatever you use to read other digital books.

Guernica is a nonprofit digital magazine that publishes just about everything from poetry to fiction, comics, interviews, and essays. You will inevitably find something wonderful to read from Guernica.

Joyland Magazine

It you’re from a specific region of the United States that you think is underrepresented within the publishing industry, Joyland would be a perfect place to start hunting for stories from writers from all over the country. The magazine splits their stories into regions, so there’s stories from: New York, the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the South, the Midwest, the West, and Canada. Writers like Roxane Gay, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Lydia Millet, have all had stories published by Joyland .

Terraform (from Vice ) publishes science fiction short stories. They argue that, although science fiction is very popular in TV and movies “there’s a distinct dearth of science fiction in its purest, arguably its original, form—short fiction.” So if you’re nostalgic for the science fiction of yesteryear, try Terraform .

Paper Darts

Paper Darts is a “magazine of LIT + ART fueled by volunteers and imaginary money since 2009.” They also have great, original short stories, and you should read the stories that they offer free online, but if you can, you should also buy the print copy of the magazine.

Midnight Breakfast

Midnight Breakfast is a free online literary magazine that publishes short stories, essays, and nonfiction. They publish stories and ideas from diverse voices and are looking to “spark conversation” with “good friends over greasy food.” So if this at all intrigues you, check out their very eclectic catalogue of free stories.

Virginia Quarterly Review

Virginia Quarterly Review publishes criticism, poetry, photography, and fiction (short stories). The current most popular short story on their website is Stephen King’s “ Cookie Jar .” The fall issue of the print magazine is “Bedtime Stories” and is all about childhood stories, why they’re important, and how they shape our lives. They also have a profile of Oliver Jeffers, the author of numerous award winning picture books. So, basically, if you’re looking for something beyond fiction, they’ve gotcha covered.

Paris Review

The Paris Review ‘s Instagram account is one of my favorite things:

View this post on Instagram “The words have their own truth, and that comes from how they sound,” Herta Müller, born on this day in 1953, told ‘The Paris Review’ in her 2014 Art of Fiction interview. “But they aren’t the same as the things themselves, there’s never a perfect match.” Follow the link in bio to read more. A post shared by The Paris Review (@parisreview) on Aug 17, 2019 at 9:01am PDT

A constant source of wisdom and solace, the magazine boasts the writing of the creme de la creme of the literary world. You can read short stories online, listen to their podcast (which also features short stories read by the author), or if you want to shell out a few bucks, you can purchase the current issue for $20.

Kenyon Review

Kenyon Review is a “multi-platform organization” with fiction, reviews, poetry, and essays available in their print magazine (six issues released per year), at KROnline, or KR Reviews. If you’re looking for short stories you can read free online, you’ll want to stick with KROnline , which has both new and archived stories available for your perusal.

Classic Short Stories

If you’re just looking for the classics, and you want a really simple, user- friendly experience, try the website Classic Short Stories . They have stories from authors like George Saunders, Katherine Mansfield, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Unlike some of the other publications and websites I’ve listed, everything is available for free.

Levar Burton Reads

I grew up listening to Levar Burton read on Reading Rainbow . His voice is a balm to my soul. He could read the phone book to me and I would be enamored, but the stories he picks for his podcast are always the best stories from the best writers. This season he’s read Samantha Schweblin, Ted Chiang, and N.K. Jemisin. So if you’d rather listen to short stories during your commute or while you run or do chores around the house, try Levar Burton Reads .

Need more? Try 18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online , 4 Must-Read Dark Fiction Magazines , and  Literary Magazines 101

You Might Also Like

inklewriter

Write your very own interactive stories., at inkle, we believe it takes great writers to tell great stories..

That’s why we’ve created inklewriter , to help writers tell interactive tales with the minimum of fuss. inklewriter keeps your branching story organised, so you can concentrate on what’s important – the writing.

inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It’s perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing.

• Getting Started
• Game Developers

Write as you play

The inklewriter lets you write as you play, branching the story with choices, and then linking those branches back together again. It keeps track of which paths you’ve finished, and which still need to be written.

There’s no set-up, no programming, no drawing diagrams – so there’s nothing between you and the empty page. Oh, and it’s free to use. And once written, you can share your stories with whomever you like.

Your stories, to share

Every writer needs a readership, and with inklewriter you can share your story with the world, because every story is given its own unique web-page that you can share however you want.

inklewriter in the press

We’ve been mentioned in several articles around the internet – here’s a selection:

• The Interactive Fiction Renaissance – Gamasutra
• The Joy of Text – PC Gamer
• Write CYOA with this clever HTML 5 App – FastCo Design
• New tools let anyone write a text adventure – Gamasutra
• inklewriter – IndieGames
• A new digital opportunity – BritWriters

What's the difference between inklewriter and ink?

• inklewriter is an easy-to-use online tool to write basic interactive stories.
• ink by comparison (and its editor Inky ) is a more powerful narrative scripting language that is primarily designed for professional game development, though it can also be used to write and share choice-based interactive fiction . It is also surprisingly easy to learn, though for ease of use it's hard to beat inklewriter!

We have made both available for free, and both are open source.

Convert inklewriter stories to ink

If you'd like to convert your inklewriter story into an ink, there is an option to do so in the tool .

The four best AI writing apps worth a try

Suswati Basu is a multilingual, award-winning editor and the founder of the intersectional literature channel, How To Be Books. She was shortlisted for the Guardian…

AI tools like ChatGPT are revolutionizing writing, aiding in document creation and streamlining work processes.

Human oversight remains crucial to ensure accuracy and prevent AI-generated content from being too generic or erroneous.

Various AI writing apps, such as Copy.ai, Anyword, Writesonic, and Rytr, offer different features and pricing plans to cater to diverse needs.

Whatever the industry, more and more people are using artificial intelligence to assist with their work, especially since the launch of ChatGPT . Many workers and students now use the tool to write documents, essays, and more. It often speeds up the process of creating content and managing the mundane aspects of work. While they aren’t taking over the world yet, they are quickly evolving and have reached a stage where they can be useful, at least in the right circumstances.

Of course, all AI writing software requires some level of human oversight to achieve the best results. Without it, the software can generate content that is rather generic or even hallucinate facts , even though it may appear to be written by a human. As AI tools gain popularity, people are becoming more adept at recognizing the often bland nature of AI-generated content and are likely to either identify it or at least be suspicious of content that seems to lack a human touch.

How do AI writing tools work?

Predictive text on a smartphone or keyboard works in a similar way to AI. It essentially provides an “educated” guess as to what a user might say next based on their history of typing in a specific app. The difference is that it will rely on what other people have said as well, and find some level of commonality.

For example, if typing the sentence “The cat sat on the,” the model predicts the word “mat” based on the input sequence. It’s a simplistic illustration, but in reality, the model considers a vast number of possible continuations based on its training data and selects the most likely one.

Some large language models (LLMs) now use internet searches to gather information relevant to their writing prompts, which they then integrate into their responses. While earlier versions tended to produce stiff and robotic output, developments in algorithms and programming have allowed AI writers to produce more human-like responses. These days, most are using OpenAI’s ChatGPT models to power their tools.

Which is the best free AI app for writing?

ReadWrite decided to ask AI itself for a text prompt to assess how well it would fare:

Write a 250-word short story about a character who discovers a hidden world within their favorite childhood book. The story should include:

• A vivid description of the hidden world, including its unique features and inhabitants.
• The character’s emotional journey as they explore this new world and confront their own nostalgia.
• A surprising twist or revelation that changes their perspective on the book and their childhood.

Copy.ai ’s free trial uses ChatGPT-3.5, hence it is limited in terms of vocabulary and sophistication. Using the given prompt, it managed to create a story about a woman named Evelyn who discovered a magical library hidden in a garden.

While the story was quite pleasant to read, several noticeable AI traits appeared. For one, it used the main character’s name in every paragraph. Several words seem to be commonly used by ChatGPT, such as “nostalgia,” “abundance,” and “vibrant.” Combined with the repetitiveness, it seemed rather obvious that AI was used.

The pro version of Copy.ai uses ChatGPT-4, so it may produce better results. It’s unclear whether the app will incorporate new versions of the LLM, as OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman revealed that ChatGPT-5 is on its way.

Copy.ai is also compatible with a variety of other AI models including Azure and Anthropic , which makes it more flexible for delivering results. Another piece of good news is that the company has a zero-retention data policy.

Like OpenAI, Copy.ai has a free version with limited words, while the Pro version starts from $36 per month for five users, and has unlimited capacity.

Anyword is a little bit more complicated to use as it doesn’t bring the user directly to the writing app. It offers a variety of writing options, including 1,000-word SEO-friendly blog articles, social media posts, and ad campaigns. If you just need a simple text prompt box, you can find it under “general prompt” on the dashboard.

However, it allows you to change the tone of voice from neutral to rebellious, or even to a multi-tonal style incorporating three dimensions. There is also the capability to target specific audiences, whether they are nostalgic readers or creative writers. When kept neutral with a broad audience, it produced a similar copy, characterized by the repetition of names and overly flowery language. Nevertheless, the story was creative but seemed to heavily favor the fantasy genre.

Using other filters, it generated a tale almost identical to the first, including the same phrases such as “The Enchanted Forest,” “newfound,” “intertwining,” and “grandmother.” It’s quite apparent that it has a defined notion of what constitutes a childhood book.

The Starter plan with one seat costs $39 per month paid annually. The Data-Driven plan costs $79/month, and the Business plan is $349 per month.

Writesonic is another free AI writing tool, with an interface comparable to ChatGPT as it has a dark left-hand side panel. Like Copy.ai, the unpaid version is powered by ChatGPT-3.5 among others, but has better billing options than OpenAI. The company states that it is “agnostic” about using a variety of LLMs.

“Our proprietary AI Model Gateway, called GPT Router dynamically routes between multiple AI models, thus speeding up responses and ensuring the best quality output as well as non-stop reliability,” it says on its website. These include Meta’s LLama and Google’s Gemini models.

The AI article writer can create long-form content pieces and includes a chatbot assistant named Chatsonic. When tested with a text prompt, it produced a slightly more imaginative story, making it more reliable than other tools.

Although there is a free version, Chatsonic costs $12 per month when paid annually and claims to offer output quality comparable to GPT-4 and Claude 3 Opus . The individual plan costs $16 and includes additional features such as an SEO optimizer, plagiarism checker, and a tool for facts and citations.

Rytr , with a name that phonetically resembles “writer,” adopts a no-nonsense approach by featuring a straightforward interface like that of a writing pad. That being said, it still allows users to select the tone and use case of the output. Using the “story plot” function, it produced a tale almost identical to one by Anyword.

Not only did “Amelia” have a copy of “The Enchanted Forest,” but she also showed a penchant for streams and creeks. Hence, it is obvious that Rytr also uses ChatGPT-3 for its content writing.

Rytr is free to use, with unlimited queries available for $7.50 per month. In comparison, ChatGPT-4 costs $20 per month currently. The difference is that Rytr offers other features such as a plagiarism checker and SEO toolkit.

Featured image: Canva

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Suswati Basu Tech journalist

Suswati Basu is a multilingual, award-winning editor and the founder of the intersectional literature channel, How To Be Books. She was shortlisted for the Guardian Mary Stott Prize and longlisted for the Guardian International Development Journalism Award. With 18 years of experience in the media industry, Suswati has held significant roles such as head of audience and deputy editor for NationalWorld news, digital editor for Channel 4 News and ITV News. She has also contributed to the Guardian and received training at the BBC As an audience, trends, and SEO specialist, she has participated in panel events alongside Google. Her…

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10 best apps and websites for downloading free books in 2024

Reading is a pastime that has only benefited from the expansion of smart devices like phones , tablets , and e-book readers . No longer chained to the confines of flimsy paperbacks and weighty hardcovers, you can carry your favorite reads on any number of your devices without worrying about weighing yourself down, damaging the fragile paper, or just losing them.

There’s also no shortage of e-books to read, with nearly every bestseller and classic now available in a digital format for your perusing pleasure. But free e-books ? That’s a different ballgame altogether. finding them can be on the tougher side. Thankfully, there are a number of apps and websites that either specialize in providing free e-books or have sections where you can find them.

While you’re unlikely to find the latest bestsellers for free, you are likely to find some public domain classics and some newer, but less well-known titles. Go find your next read with the help of one of these services.

• The best piano apps in 2024: top apps for learning how to play
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The king of the e-book reader is, unsurprisingly, one of the most solid ways to get a hold of free books. It’s also one of the best ways to get free e-books for a Kindle since they’ll be delivered straight to your device, unlike with a number of these other apps and websites.

Finding free books on Amazon isn’t the easiest process in the world, but it’s also far from the most difficult. If you’re using the website, then you can head to a category of books, then select Best sellers , then  Top 100 free to see a breakdown of the most popular titles in that particular category. You can also search for “free books” to find a list you can look through or narrow down to a certain category. It’s also possible to do this on the Amazon app, but keep in mind you can’t currently purchase e-books through the app due to disputes with Google and Apple.

It’s also worth mentioning there are Amazon services that furnish you with free books. Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that gives you access to a vast range of e-books, as does Prime Reading as part of the Amazon Prime subscription. While neither is technically free, Prime Reading is a good bonus if you’re already subscribed to Amazon Prime, while Kindle Unlimited may be worth it for people who can read through multiple books a month or even a week.

Amazon is a solid way to get hold of free books, but it has some downsides. As you’d expect, it only really works for Kindle devices and the Kindle app, and you won’t be able to easily download these book files to send them to another device. It also requires an Amazon account and a checkout process of sorts, even if you’re not paying anything. Oddly, it’s also not particularly easy to find free books on the Kindle itself, as the storefront doesn’t really have the best browsing options.

Kindle Unlimited Prime Reading Free Books on Amazon

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the place the go for free downloadable classics. The website, which stretches back to 1971, is the world’s oldest digital library and hosts over 70,000 titles. It’s the best place to look for titles in the public domain, and it’s here you’ll find a bunch of downloads for older classics, like Moby Dick , the collected works of Shakespeare, and even a lot of Agatha Christie’s books. The downloads are available in a number of formats, including simple EPUB files, as well as files tweaked to work on Amazon Kindles.

The sheer amount of file types on 0ffer can be a little confusing, though. Do you want the EPUB3, EPUB, or Kindle formats? Or is reading online better? And while you can find books in other languages here, most are in English. Some titles may also not be free to download outside of the U.S., so it’s sometimes not that straightforward. Finally, if you want an app, there’s no app here, as it only works as a website.

However, if you’re looking for an older classic, then this is where you should go first.

Google Play Books

Google Play Books is often seen as the poor cousin of Amazon’s Kindle service, but it’s nothing of the sort. If you’re looking to pivot away from Amazon’s seemingly all-encompassing monolith, then Google Play Books is a good alternative. It has a massive selection of e-books in general, but you can also find some great free options if you know where to look.

The first and principal place to find free books is the app’s home page. Scroll down to the eBook charts to can find a category marked  Free . Here, you’ll find the top 100 e-books that have been added to other people’s libraries, giving you a useful barometer of popularity. If none of these tickle your fancy, or if you’re looking for something in another genre, your options are unfortunately a little more limited. You can search for “free [genre]” to find books, or just search for your desired genre and then select Free  from the price filter. There’s no dedicated “free” section to browse, unfortunately.

However, there’s another big plus here, and it’s the selection of free audiobooks on offer. Yes, free audiobooks. They’re “auto-generated”, so not read by people, and are limited to just classics in the public domain. But that includes books you may have always wanted to read, like Dracula and  Frankenstein , or nonfiction like The Prince . Since they’re not read by a human, but a computer-generated voice, there’s a touch of uncanny valley about it, but if you can stomach that, this is a great option.

Downsides for Google Play Books include the aforementioned difficulty in finding free titles, but also keep in mind that it can be tough to get these titles onto e-book readers. Unless your e-book reader allows for third-party apps, you’re going to have to find a way to download the files and send them to your e-book reader of choice. Also, you’ll need a Google account to use and access the app.

Google Play Books website Google Play Books Android app Google Play Books iOS app Free audiobooks

The best way to get free books is from your local library — but it’s not like you can just walk in and take out a digital e-book. But what you  can do is use Libby to borrow e-books from your local library using your library card.

Libby is replacing the service previously known as OverDrive and functions much the same way. Get a library card from your local library and then sign up for Libby. Enter your library card details, and presto — it will let you know which books are available for loan. It’s simple and free, and if you’re in the U.S., it links up to Amazon Kindles, making it even easier to read them.

There are some problems with Libby, of course. If you’re not in the U.S. or don’t have a Kindle , then you’re restricted to reading your books using the Libby app, which may not be to your tastes or as easy as using an e-book reader. As it’s a library copy, there’s also a restricted number of licenses, meaning you may have to wait to get hold of a book, especially if it’s in demand.

Libby has some shortcomings that can make it a bit of a tougher sell, but if it’s free books you’re after, and you already have a compatible library card, then it costs you nothing to sign up and check out what you can get.

Libby website Libby Android app Libby iOS app

ManyBooks offers exactly what the name implies: It has many books, and they come from a wide variety of genres and times. ManyBooks offers over 50,000 titles on its website, and while there’s the usual selection of public domain classics to pick from, you’ll also find a whole heap of books from newer authors. You can download each book in multiple formats, so you can transfer them to your e-book reader, or you can read them using ManyBook’s online reader instead.

You’ll need a free account to download, or you’ll be sent over to Amazon instead, in which case you’ll need an Amazon account. Also, contrary to what the website states, not all of the books are available for free. However, those books are clearly marked and often available at a low price anyway, so it’s easy to forgive.

ManyBooks website ManyBooks Android app ManyBooks iOS app

Open Library

The Internet Archive holds a lot of great e-books, but it lacks an easy way of browsing those titles — and that’s why we have Open Library . Open Library pulls from the Internet Archive and presents it in a way that’s a lot more user-friendly and easy to browse. There are tons of titles here to pick from, including all the usual public domain classics, as well as some seriously famous books up for grabs — including A Game of Thrones  by George R. R. Martin and  Deep Six  by Clive Cussler. Granted, these more famous titles will only be available on a borrowing basis, but they are there and available if you want them.

Multiple download formats are available, and you can also search by language, which is a nice addition. However, it can be hard to find books available in your language, as sometimes a book will be listed as available, but only be borrowable in Spanish. This is fine if you speak Spanish, but not great if you don’t. Still, it’s definitely worth having on your radar. There are apps available for Android and iOS.

Open Library website Open Library Android app Open Library iOS app

Books aren’t the only way to read, and audiobooks are rapidly gaining interest for those who want a way to keep reading their favorite books while driving, walking, or doing chores. Getting free audiobooks can be a bit of a challenge, though, which is why it’s nice that LibriVox exists. LibriVox offers free audiobooks in a range of genres and languages. It’s especially good for children’s books, and while you’re again relying on public domain titles, it’s nice to have such a massive number of titles available for free.

It’s volunteer-run, which is why audiobooks can be offered for free. However, that’s a double-edged sword as quality can vary from book to book, with much depending on the individual skill of the volunteer who read that specific book. This can make it a bit of a tougher sell than you might originally think, but if you find the right audiobook, then all is forgiven. There’s a website and an app for Android and iOS.

Librivox website LibriVox Android app LibriVox iOS app

Free-ebooks.net

Another website that does exactly what it says on the tin, Free-ebooks.net offers, well, free e-books. There’s a massive selection to choose from here, with options ranging from classics to a whole bunch of newer titles you’ve probably never heard of. This wide variety also comes with some audiobooks as well, really boosting the options available to you.

The catch? You’ll need to register for free, and you can only download five books per month. That’ll be fine if you’re a slower reader, but if you devour books, then you’ll need to get more of your fix from elsewhere, too.

Free-ebooks.net website Free-ebooks.net Android app Free-ebooks.net iOS app

While eBooks.com is technically a marketplace, it doesn’t shy away from offering a bunch of books for free. Four hundred of them, to be exact, which is enough to keep even the most avid and active reader busy for a little while. They’re available to download or read online, though it’s worth keeping in mind that all of these free e-books come as an ACSM file, which means they’re locked down pretty tight with DRM and can only be read using Adobe’s software on a Mac or PC, or by using one of eBooks.com’s recommended reading apps on mobile. That’s a disappointment, but since you’re getting some solid free e-books, it’s hard to complain that they require a few small hoops to jump through.

eBooks.com website eBooks.com Android reader app eBooks.com iOS reader app

There’s something to be said for the benefits of quick and dirty, and Authorama is both of those. It’s stocked with pretty much just public domain books, but they’re well reproduced and high quality. The website itself is extremely simple and bare-bones to the extreme — it’s just a white space with an alphabetical list of titles. As a result, it’s very easy to use; just scroll down the list and find what you want.

The downsides? There aren’t very many options to pick from, and it lacks many books from languages other than English. It’s also not much to look at, and there are no advanced search features to be found here. It’s also largely restricted to just reading from the website, which can be a chore. But even with these downsides, it’s a good catalog of free books.

Authorama website

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Mark Jansen is an avid follower of everything that beeps, bloops, or makes pretty lights. He has a degree in Ancient & Medieval History, which obviously makes him a shoo-in to write about technology for a living. He currently contributes to the Mobile section on Digital Trends, with a particular emphasis and expertise on exploring the weirder side of smartphones, from tiny rugged phones to massive gaming phones. You'll most often find him seeking out leaks and rumors on upcoming devices, and playing with a variety of new apps for both Android and iOS.

Kindle deals aren’t just restricted to discounts on the devices themselves but services relating to them too. Right now, you can sign up to three months of Kindle Unlimited for free so you don’t have to worry about the monthly fee of $12. That works out as a saving of $36 across the three months while also allowing you to check out a near-endless supply of books too. Whether you’ve just bought a Kindle or you’re settling down for better habits this year, this is a great deal for anyone who hasn’t already signed up for it in the past. Keen to learn more? Let’s take a look at what Kindle Unlimited has to offer.

Why you should sign up for Kindle Unlimited Kindle Unlimited is basically Amazon’s book-borrowing service. It works just like a virtual library allowing you to check out up to 10 items at once. Not just e-books are catered for here with audiobooks and comic books also available, along with many magazine subscriptions. It’s possible to borrow titles as often as you like with no due dates if you don’t return them by a set time.

Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and even Motorola have been coming out with fast new Android phones that match a number of lifestyles and design tastes. And that means you'll need apps that can take advantage of those larger screens and faster processors.  They're how we communicate with friends, watch movies, stay productive, and so much more. You can have the best Android phone on the market, but if you don't also pair it with the best Android apps, you're missing out.

There are millions of Android apps on the Play Store. Many of them are great, some are fine, and others are bogus. To help you sift through everything and focus on the apps you should actually care about, we've rounded up 50 of our favorite ones right here. If you're looking for games, check out our list of the best Android games. And if you are in the market for a new Android phone, make sure to check out our latest smartphone reviews.

The Apple iPhone keeps getting better each year with features and new hardware specs that companies can take advantage up, and we have the new Apple iPhone 15 just around the corner. Whether you just want to doomscroll all day, communicate with others, check the weather, or even find your next soulmate, there's going to be some kind of app to help you satisfy those digital cravings.

But the App Store is filled with thousands of apps — where do you even begin? Don't worry, we're here to help. We've gone through the many apps on Apple's digital storefront so you don't have to. Here are the best apps for your iPhone, whether it's an iPhone 11 or an iPhone 14 Pro.

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Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest . If you’re looking for the best fiction short stories to read online, we’ve got you covered. Wide-ranging and ever-curious, these free short stories will meet your reading needs.

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“ hearts are trump ” by sarah coury.

🏆 Winner of Contest #246

Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t played cards together in years. If you want to get real technical about it, Uncle Abe and Uncle Will haven’t even shared the same room in years, but that ain’t news to anyone east of Livernois. By now, the entire city of Detroit knows about Abraham and William Haddad—at least those who regularly stop into the family party store for their weekly supply of meats, spirits, and fresh-baked pita. It’s old news. Two bitter brothers broken up over a girl who left town anyway. It’s been ages and the aunties need fres...

“ Everything is Connected ” by Olivier Breuleux

🏆 Winner of Contest #245

Many people don't believe that everything is connected. It's strange. They believe in magnets, in electromagnetic waves, in quantum action at a distance. They believe that the force of gravity makes the Earth revolve around the Sun, and yet they do not believe that the same forces can influence the smaller details of our fate. They believe that it is all up to them. That they have free will. They say that Jupiter can gently pull the Sun, yet it cannot move our infinitely smaller souls.A paradox.The stars are difficult to read, for sure. The ...

“ KILLER IN THE WILLOWS ” by Kajsa Ohman

🏆 Winner of Contest #235

KILLER IN THE WILLOWSJust do it, so the T-shirts say. Just pick up the gun, pull the trigger—but maybe aim first, aim at the upper sternum and then pull the trigger, congratulating yourself that at last, in your long, passive life, you have shot somebody dead. So she did, and thus she became a murderer. She slipped through the night after that and disappeared into the willows to wash off any blood that spattered onto her clothing. The willows were thickl...

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“ bye-bye barracuda mama ” by joe holek.

Submitted to Contest #249

Mama had been at it again, running the law, now she was out back hiding in the hay barn, and her car had to go. Grandad told me to take the car out of town. He held up the key in front of my face. A lucky rabbit foot and a metal, dime bag scale hung from the key. He slipped them into my breast pocket, the weight sagged down. “Good luck,” he said. The keys tossed around, beating on my chest as I ran out to the barn, the police sirens screaming off in the distance. Mama was sitting against the stable when I entered the barn. Her face nearly hi...

“ BABY FEVER ” by Asia Windeyer

The morning after my daughter dies, I drive her to an IHOP. The road is scabbed with filled, worn-down, then refilled potholes so by the time we pull into the parking lot the old station wagon is shaking like a wet dog and Marnie’s left cheek is plastered to the vinyl back-seat. Cornsilk hair wreaths her tiny head, lips parted in sleep, pink fists only starting to grey at the knuckles. She looks so much like a porcelain doll that it makes my chest ache. Morning hangs a little lower with empty streets; sun scalds the asphalt, leaving dimples ...

“ The Competition ” by Jennifer Luckett

Peter wove through a maze of stations to reach his slightly larger corner space to the staccato beat of whirring mixers and rattling trays. The bakers spent hours flitting about the spacious kitchen perfecting their mise en place, measuring, sifting and creaming high-quality ingredients to create their (hopefully) prize-winning baked goods for the competition.  The intoxicating aroma of butter, vanilla and chocolate wafted through the kitchen, as their deadline approached like a bullet train. Peter used his sleeve to mopped his brow a...

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CW: This piece contains some profanity as well as descriptions of physical violence and gore. Viewer discretion is advised. FUCK! I pound my fist into the dashboard of the old hunk of shit I call my car, an action that proves futile, unsurprisingly enough, to snap it back into gear. I then slam my foot down on the gas with just enough force to not knock it out of place. Though a quiver of energy runs through the piece of junk from the blow, the engine doesn’t cough or sputter back to life. It continues to sit stock still in the crumbling dri...

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Mo hurriedly put on his wrinkled button-up dress shirt which he buttoned wrongly, and threw on a linty suit. He rubbed some spit in his hair. No time for gel. No time for ironing the shirt and sweeping off the lints off the suit either. He grabbed his backpack, and dashed out the door, with a piece of bread in his mouth and a half-filled coffee cup in his hand. He checked his phone as he scarfed down his bread and downed the coffee. Thirty minutes until his job interview at 10:00. The problem is that the ride from home to the office takes at...

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Entry: 118. Time: 000589:34578ET. Currently: Passing by the exoplanet Sponsus291b. There isn’t much else after this, except the star it orbits.  You know, now that I think of it the way that I put Entry, #, sounds so formal. Like a nurse’s log o...

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The crowded bar buzzed with excitement. Voices raised over the booming music, rendering conversation impossible amidst the cacophony, and although I'm not particularly graceful, my friends and I concluded that dancing was the best choice. The rhythm guided our hips as we moved, pausing only for bathroom breaks or to order drinks. Rolling back my shoulders and wildly throwing my arms up, I hollered to my friend Libby. “I’m a wizard!”“Your moves are boss!” She shouted back. The beauty(or curse) of alcohol is that you stop caring whether you lo...

“ Green Light ” by Stephanie Lye

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. The way she moved, the way the music thumped through her body, and her, lost in her own world. It was like watching a car crash. What on earth was she doing? You wanted to look away, but you just couldn’t. Her arms were best described as flailing. Long, big gestures that moved contrary to the rest of her body. Like those inflatable men outside car dealerships. Her hips and legs somehow moved opposite to the beat of the music, black doc martens stomping into the ground. The DJ was loving it, nodding his ...

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I had watched every match he had ever played, studied the recordings for hours. I knew his game plan probably better than he knew it himself. For example his first serve would be powerful with him aiming it for the back corner of my service box on my forehead side, in the hopes the spin on the ball will kick it out of my reach. Once he realises I have gotten wise to it because I ready myself further over, he will try a serve down the middle to my backhand. Another example is without a doubt once a rally reaches ten, his next shot will go dow...

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Short fiction stories are a fantastic way to access the literary world in compact, bite-sized reading sessions. The short story as we know it today began in the 19th century, when the increasing interest in print literary magazines led to many authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens writing and publishing stories. Later, with the onset of modernism in the beginning of the 20th century, the fiction short story began to adopt more abstract forms, embracing ambiguity and inconclusivity. The later 20th century brought the increasing popularity of the short story as an artistic and literary undertaking. 

Short fiction stories span every imaginable genre. From literary fiction (the likes of which you’ll see published in The New Yorker ), to crime, fantasy, and romance stories, the form is remarkable for its versatility and adaptability.

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Read 20 Short Stories From Nobel Prize-Winning Writer Alice Munro (RIP) Free Online

in Literature | May 15th, 2024 1 Comment

Note : Back in 2013, when Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Lit­er­a­ture , we pub­lished a post fea­tur­ing 20 short sto­ries writ­ten by Munro. Today, with the sad news that Alice Munro has passed away , at the age of 92, we’re bring­ing the orig­i­nal post (from Octo­ber 10, 2013) back to the surface–in part because you can still read the 20 sto­ries free online. Please find the sto­ries at the bot­tom of this post.

Call­ing her a “mas­ter of the con­tem­po­rary short sto­ry,” the Swedish Acad­e­my award­ed 82-year-old Alice Munro the Nobel Prize in Lit­er­a­ture today. It is well-deserved, and hard-earned (and comes not long after she announced her retire­ment from fic­tion ). After 14 sto­ry col­lec­tions, Munro has reached at least a cou­ple gen­er­a­tions of writ­ers with her psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly sub­tle sto­ries about ordi­nary men and women in Huron Coun­ty, Ontario, her birth­place and home. Only the 13 th woman writer to win the Nobel , Munro has pre­vi­ous­ly won the Man Book­er Prize in 2009, the Gov­er­nor General’s Lit­er­ary Award for Fic­tion in Cana­da three times (1968, 1978, and 1986), and two O. Hen­ry Awards (2006 and 2008). Her region­al fic­tion draws as much from her Ontario sur­round­ings as does the work of the very best so-called “region­al” writ­ers, and cap­ti­vat­ing inter­ac­tions of char­ac­ter and land­scape tend to dri­ve her work more so than intri­cate plot­ting.

Of that region she loves, Munro has said: “It means some­thing to me that no oth­er coun­try can—no mat­ter how impor­tant his­tor­i­cal­ly that oth­er coun­try may be, how ‘beau­ti­ful,’ how live­ly and inter­est­ing. I am intox­i­cat­ed by this par­tic­u­lar land­scape… I speak the lan­guage.” The lan­guage she may have learned from the “brick hous­es, the falling-down barns, the trail­er parks, bur­den­some old church­es, Wal-Mart and Cana­di­an Tire.” But the short sto­ry form she learned from writ­ers like Car­son McCullers, Flan­nery O’Connor , and Eudo­ra Wel­ty. She names all three in a 2001 inter­view with The Atlantic , and also men­tions Chekhov and “a lot of writ­ers that I found in The New York­er in the fifties who wrote about the same type of mate­r­i­al I did—about emo­tions and places.”

Munro was no young lit­er­ary phenom—she did not achieve fame in her twen­ties with sto­ries in The New York­er . A moth­er of three chil­dren, she “learned to write in the sliv­ers of time she had.” She pub­lished her first col­lec­tion, Dance of the Hap­py Shades in 1968 at 37, an advanced age for writ­ers today, so many of whom have sev­er­al nov­els under their belts by their ear­ly thir­ties. Munro always meant to write a nov­el, many in fact, but “there was no way I could get that kind of time,” she said:

Why do I like to write short sto­ries? Well, I cer­tain­ly did­n’t intend to. I was going to write a nov­el. And still! I still come up with ideas for nov­els. And I even start nov­els. But some­thing hap­pens to them. They break up. I look at what I real­ly want to do with the mate­r­i­al, and it nev­er turns out to be a nov­el. But when I was younger, it was sim­ply a mat­ter of expe­di­en­cy. I had small chil­dren, I did­n’t have any help. Some of this was before the days of auto­mat­ic wash­ing machines, if you can actu­al­ly believe it. There was no way I could get that kind of time. I could­n’t look ahead and say, this is going to take me a year, because I thought every moment some­thing might hap­pen that would take all time away from me. So I wrote in bits and pieces with a lim­it­ed time expec­ta­tion. Per­haps I got used to think­ing of my mate­r­i­al in terms of things that worked that way. And then when I got a lit­tle more time, I start­ed writ­ing these odd­er sto­ries, which branch out a lot.

Whether Munro’s adher­ence to the short form has always been a mat­ter of expe­di­en­cy, or whether it’s just what her sto­ries need to be, hard­ly mat­ters to read­ers who love her work. She dis­cuss­es her “stum­bling” on short fic­tion in the inter­view above from 1990 with Rex Mur­phy. For a detailed sketch of Munro’s ear­ly life, see her won­der­ful 2011 bio­graph­i­cal essay “ Dear Life ” in The New York­er . And for those less famil­iar with Munro’s exquis­ite­ly craft­ed nar­ra­tives, we offer you below sev­er­al selec­tions of her work free online. Get to know this author who, The New York Times writes, “rev­o­lu­tion­ized the archi­tec­ture of short sto­ries.”

“Voic­es” - (2013, Tele­graph )

“ A Red Dress—1946 ” (2012–13, Nar­ra­tive —requires free sign-up)

“ Amund­sen ” (2012, The New York­er )

“ Train ” (2012, Harper’s )

“ To Reach Japan ” (2012, Nar­ra­tive —requires free sign-up)

“Axis” (2001, The New York­er — in audio)

“ Grav­el ” (2011, The New York­er )

“Fic­tion” (2009, Dai­ly Lit)

“ Deep Holes ” (2008, The New York­er )

“ Free Rad­i­cals ” (2008, The New York­er )

“ Face ” (2008, The New York­er )

“ Dimen­sion ” (2006, The New York­er )

“Wen­lock Edge” (2005, The New York­er )

“The View from Cas­tle Rock” (2005, The New York­er )

“ Pas­sion ” (2004, The New York­er )

“ Run­away ” (2003, The New York­er )

“Some Women” (2008, New York­er )

“ The Bear Came Over the Moun­tain ” (1999, The New York­er )

“Quee­nie” (1998, Lon­don Review of Books

“ Boys and Girls ” (1968)

Relat­ed Con­tent:

29 Free Short Sto­ries from Some of Today’s Most Acclaimed Writ­ers: Mar­garet Atwood, David Mitchell & More

Kurt Von­negut Offers 8 Tips on How to Write Good Short Sto­ries (and Amus­ing­ly Graphs the Shapes Those Sto­ries Can Take)

The Graveyard Book & Coraline , to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven & Dickens’ A Christmas Carol " href="https://www.openculture.com/2019/02/hear-neil-gaiman-read-aloud-15-of-his-own-works.html" rel="bookmark">Hear Neil Gaiman Read Aloud 15 of His Own Works, and Works by 6 Oth­er Great Writ­ers: From The Grave­yard Book & Cora­line, to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven & Dick­ens’ A Christ­mas Car­ol

Josh Jones  is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at  @jdmagness

by OC | Permalink | Comments (1) |

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Comments (1), 1 comment so far.

I re-vis­it her won­der­ful writ­ing often. Such a great body of work. Rex Mur­phy died recent­ly as well. Thanks for includ­ing their con­ver­sa­tion.

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The "Winner Take All" problem

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A 2017 march against sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood.

When June Carbone, Naomi Cahn and Nancy Levit set out to write a book about women in the workforce, they initially thought it would be a story all about women's march towards workplace equality. But when they looked at the data, they found something more disturbing: of the ways in which women's push toward workplace equality has actually been stalled for years. In today's episode, law professor June Carbone argues that the root of the problem lies in something they call the "winner take all" approach to business. That's the thesis of their new book, " Fair Shake: Women & the Fight to Build a Just Economy ". Related episodes: What would it take to fix retirement? ( Apple / Spotify ) For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Music by Drop Electric . Find us: TikTok , Instagram , Facebook , Newsletter .

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What you need to know in 2024 about a roth ira.

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What you need to know about a Roth IRA in 2024.

Many well-meaning people take the benefits of a Roth IRA for granted. With the tax benefits of a Roth IRA, modest contributions over long periods can translate into a substantial amount of tax-free income throughout your entire retirement. Those with the highest incomes may dream of the potential for a significant amount of tax-free retirement income, but they often earn too much income to be able to contribute to this type of retirement account. And sadly, their wealth managers are usually too lazy to set up these accounts for them when they are eligible to contribute. The responsibility to set up and fund a Roth IRA falls squarely on the rest of us.

Roth IRA Basics For 2024

A Roth IRA is one type of tax-advantaged retirement account. Unlike a traditional IRA or 401(k), you will not receive a tax deduction for your contributions to a Roth IRA. However, your investments inside a Roth IRA will not only grow tax-free, but they can also be withdrawn tax-free during retirement. (That's assuming you follow a few basic Roth IRA rules).

Should You Contribute To a Roth IRA While You Can?

For 2024, if you are married and filing jointly, each spouse can make a maximum Roth IRA contribution of $7,000 if they have an AGI (adjusted gross income) of less than $230,000. For singles, that number is lower at $146,000. Contribution limits drop if you earn more than these amounts, and you can't contribute at all if you are lucky enough to earn more than $240,000 as a married couple and $161,000 as a single taxpayer. Notice that there is a marriage penalty in play here. It would be great if the income limits for married couples were double those of two single taxpayers.

If your income is close to those threshold limits, consider saving the $7,000 throughout the year into a regular investment account. Then, take those funds and put the maximum amount you are allowed into the Roth IRA when filing taxes, assuming you're eligible to contribute. Saving the money is the hard part, and it is much easier to come up with $7,000 if you have a year to do it rather than when you are staring down the barrel of the Roth contribution deadline (typically right around April 15 each year).

If you age 50 or older you can make catch-up contributions to a Roth IRA each year.

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Biden vs. trump 2024 election polls: biden losing support among key voting blocs, japanese fans are puzzled that yasuke is in assassin s creed shadows, are there roth ira catch-up contributions.

There is an allowable Roth IRA catch-up contribution of $1,000 per year for those who have reached the age of 50, bringing the total contribution to $8,000 for tax year 2024.

The tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals become more valuable the more time you give your Roth IRA to compound in value. The more your Roth IRA grows, the more potential tax savings you can reap in retirement.

Spousal Contributions To A Roth IRA

Even if only one spouse works in your household, you may still be able to benefit from a Spousal Roth IRA. Whether your life partner is a stay-at-home parent or has chosen not to work, a spousal contribution will allow your household to contribute more to a Roth IRA each year, assuming you qualify for Roth IRA contributions based on the previously mentioned income limits.

Roth 401(k) Or Roth IRA?

If your employer offers a Roth 401(k), this is typically the easier option. You can make contributions right out of your paycheck. The contribution limits are also higher. In 2024, you can contribute $23,000 to a Roth 401(k). The catch-up contribution for a Roth 401(k) is also larger, at $7,500 per year.

If you want to maximize your tax-free income in retirement, you may want to consider fully funding both a Roth IRA and a Roth 401(k).

What Is The Roth IRA Five-Year Rule?

To have full access to your "tax-free withdrawals," you must fulfill the Roth IRA five-year rule. This IRS rule says you can't withdraw your Roth earnings tax-free without owing taxes for at least five years from the beginning of the tax year for which you made your first Roth IRA contribution. This applies even if you are retired and/or older than 59.5.

Of course, you can withdraw all the money you contributed to a Roth IRA anytime. If you've been saving for years and have a substantial amount in your Roth IRA, this rule shouldn't cause much of an issue. On the other hand, if you are starting to invest for retirement at a late age, work with your CPA and fiduciary financial planner on a smart withdrawal strategy so you can potentially avoid unwanted taxation on your Roth IRA distributions.

Can You Get a Tax Deduction for Roth IRA Contributions?

It's shocking, but there is actually something in the IRS tax code that exclusively benefits those in the lower-income tax brackets. As you already know, you typically don't get a tax deduction when contributing to a Roth IRA. But remember, you also don't have to pay taxes when you make withdrawals in retirement. (If you follow the simple Roth IRA rules.)

There is an extra tax bonus for low-income workers who are savvy enough to make Roth IRA contributions. This bonus comes in the form of the saver's credit. If, in 2024, you make less than $38,250, single, or $76,500 as a married couple, you could potentially receive a tax credit for 10-50% of your contributions to a Roth IRA. This credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of your taxes owed. A tax credit is more valuable than a tax deduction. You can receive the credit as a refund for those who don't owe taxes.

You don't have to be private plane rich to become a Roth IRA millionaire.

How You Can Become A Roth IRA Millionaire ?

Just for illustration, if you were to contribute $7,000 to a Roth IRA from age 25 until age 70, how much money do you think you would have? You would have contributed $245,000, which is not a small amount. Assuming a 10% annual return, your Roth IRA could potentially be worth more than $1,897,000. All this money can be withdrawn tax-free. If this isn't the motivation to start a Roth IRA today, I don't know what is. The earlier you start investing for retirement, the more likely you are to become a Roth IRA millionaire.

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Stormy Daniels gives hush-money jury a tutorial in porn: 'The sex is very real — just like what happened to me in that room'

• On cross-examination, Stormy Daniels was asked if she supports herself by "making phony stories about sex appear real."
• "The sex is very real," the porn star protested, "just like what happened to me in that room" with Donald Trump.
• "If that story was not real I would have written it a lot better" quipped Daniels, who also writes and directs.

Stormy Daniels turned her second day of testimony into a tutorial on porn Thursday, insisting that the sex on screen is "very real" — just like the sex she says she had with Donald Trump.

There was one important distinction, the adult-film star suggested: sex with Trump would make a pretty bad porn movie.

"So you have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real, right?" defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked during a fiery morning cross-examination at the ongoing hush money trial in Manhattan.

As questions go, it was a zinger. Implicit in the question was an accusation — that Daniels has made a career out of lying about sex, including about an encounter she says she had with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006.

But Daniels' answer was a zinger, too.

"Wow," the porn star responded, pausing briefly, then continuing.

"That's not how I'd put it. The sex in the films, it's very much real," she said. "Just like what happened to me in that room" with Trump.

"All right," Necheles continued. "But you're making fictionalized stories about sex. You write these stories?"

"No," Daniels protested. "The sex is real. The character names might be different, but the sex is very real. That's why it's pornography and not a B-movie."

The GOP frontrunner and criminal defendant sat slouched at the defense table just 20 feet from Daniels, as she went on to suggest that her encounter with Trump would have made a pretty bad porn movie.

Necheles asked Daniels if she had a lot of experience writing porn scripts. Daniels had testified earlier that in addition to starring in some 200 porn flicks and compilations, she's written and directed 70 more.

"I have a lot of experience writing dialogue, not writing sex" she told Necheles. "Pretty sure we all know how to do that" without a script, Daniels quipped.

"And if that story was untrue," she added, meaning the story of having sex with Trump, "I would have written it a lot better."

Laughter filled the courtroom, and several jurors smiled.

Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down https://t.co/jYZTm2SOfK — Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) March 27, 2024

Earlier Thursday, Daniels was hammered by Necheles about recent posts on X in which she referred to the GOP frontrunner as an "orange turd."

Necheles asked Daniels if she's been posting about how she's going to be "instrumental in putting President Trump in jail?"

"Show me where it says I'm going to be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail," Daniels snapped back.

Related stories

Daniels was shown one of her March tweets that read: "Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down."

The post was in response to another post that called Daniels "aka THE HUMAN TOILET."

The post was then displayed on four large overhead screens in the courtroom — and on the computer monitor directly in front of Trump at the defense table.

"I don't see the word instrumental or jail," Daniels protested.

"What did you mean?" Necheles demanded.

"I don't know what I mean," Daniels answered defiantly.

"Ms. Daniels," Necheles pursued. "I'm asking you if you know what you meant when you said 'flush the orange turd.' You don't want to admit that you meant President Trump?"

"Oh I definitely meant pres— " Daniels then stopped herself before continuing — "Donald Trump."

Daniels' second day on the stand was a hot ticket.

Stormy Daniels was on the stand in NY v Trump criminal trial for a day and a half, ending at 12:30p today. Couldn’t be prouder of my client. pic.twitter.com/riTnzwdsQf — clark brewster (@cbrew1) May 9, 2024

Court officials said the lines to get into court on Thursday morning were the longest they've been since the trial kicked off with jury selection on April 15.

The long lines were not surprising, given the fireworks during her first day on the witness stand Tuesday.

On direct examination Tuesday by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Daniels described having "brief" sex with Trump in July 2006, in his penthouse suite during a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

Daniels made the jarring mention of his not using a condom. When she blurted out the words "missionary position," the defense objected, and the reference was stricken from the record.

The porn star has taunted Trump on Twitter in the past, calling him an "orange turd" and daring him, "Game on, Tiny." But she dropped her typically brash public persona in telling jurors that she felt frightened and ashamed after the encounter.

She also said she came forward with her story 10 years later, on the brink of the 2016 election, because she feared for her safety.

Sure, she wanted money, she conceded. But she also wanted to get out ahead of the story, she said. Getting her name on a non-disclosure contract was one way to "get out in front where you are safe — hide in plain view," Daniels said an attorney advised.

The sparks flew as Necheles began her cross-examination on Tuesday by demanding that Daniels admit she hates Trump . "Yes!" Daniels responded quickly.

The Manhattan district attorney's office alleges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her silent about the sex — an accusation Trump vehemently denies.

The payment, delivered by Cohen, was wired to Daniels 11 days before the election, according to prosecutors and records shown as evidence in the trial .

This story was updated with additional detail.

Watch: Trump dozes off at the start of his hush-money trial

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