Fanfiction is literature, and literature is an art. Therefore fanfiction itself is an art as well. Just as painting, drawing or sculpting is.

And while you can take a block of cedar wood and use your fingernails and a teaspoon to carve something, it's not the best way to do it. It'd be inefficient, painful, slow, and the result would be a sub-par (or just plain ugly) sculpture, that took too much time to finish.

But you have tools to help you with that. You have chisels, hammers, files, chainsaws and whatnot. You have different types of wood, both prettier and sturdier than cedar. You can use oak, acacia, ebony, any wood that fits your fancy. And the carving itself would be much more pleasant, efficient, less painful, and maybe even faster. Not to mention the sculpture would be of much higher quality.

But why am I even talking about sculpting? About tools used to do it?

Because you - as an author - also have the tools to make your writing much more efficient and pleasant.

You can write your story directly in Fimficiton's editor, but it's like using fingernails and cedar wood. Grab some tools, wouldya? You don't even have to spend a dime - they're (mostly) free!

Now let me introduce you to a selection of utilities that you can use to effortlessly carve your story out of a log of ebony.

Undoubtedly the most important thing in a toolbox of a writer. It's a tool that lets you create. It lets you put your thoughts on a virtual paper. It is your universe, in which you will create new worlds.

FIMFICTION EDITOR

I'm mentioning it pretty much only because of a chronicler's duty. As I stated before, even though this editor has everything that's needed, is pretty lightweight and distraction-free, it's the most crude tool you can possibly use.

Using it to fix some errors, formatting, stuff like that - that's okay. But using it to write a whole story? Nu-uh.

It's distraction-free, mostly. If not all the other tabs in your browser...

Pros:
+ It's there, ready to be used
+ Has all the functionality you may need
+ No need to download anything
+ Mostly distraction-free
+ Free
Cons:
- Has all the functionality you may need and nothing else
- Not WYSIWYG

Acquisition: Comes with Fimfiction itself
Platforms: Even a toaster, if it can run any web browser

MICROSOFT WORD/OPEN OFFICE WRITER

Now we're talking! Or at least starting to.

These two let you finally do stuff! Save your story in a file, check spelling, use thesaurus, upload your story to a cloud, use italics, bold, underline, different fonts, font sizes, colours, WordArt, table-

Quite a lot, don't you think? In fact, too much for most of us I daresay. It can get distracting. I know it by myself - I once tried to write a story in a document, where the background was parchment and the font was some hand-written-like. Didn't go too well. Spent most of the time trying to make my story look pretty, than writing.

Not to mention you still get all those distracting notifications, all of the icons are visible in your taskbar, IRC icon starts flashing, a new e-mail toast pops up somewhere in the corner, and that Firefox icon is also oh-so-tempting to click it...

Overall it's a step up, but it's not perfect by any stretch.

Pros:
+ WYSWYIG
+ Powerful
+ Lots and lots of features...
Cons:
- ...one could say too many
- Word is damn expensive
- Requires download

Acquisition: Word is a part of MS Office, which you have to buy. Open Office Writer is a part of Open Office which you can get for free.
Platforms: Word is Windows only, but OpenOffice works on Windows, Linux and OMac

GDOCS/MS OFFICE ONLINE

Enjoy snippets of first draft of a story I'm working on :P

Amazing, invaluable tool for proofreading, editing, prereading, and sharing your story with your writer's workshop in general. Not so much for writing itself.

However that's the first tool of the bunch that I insist you start using. When you are happy with a chapter you finished - copy and paste it into a Google document. Or the Office Online one, but gDocs is still the preferred hosting.

From there you can provide a link to anyone you want, you can allow them to read your story, edit it or comment. Comment. In comments lays the true power of these tools Every word, every sentence, every paragraph can be marked and commented. Everything can be discussed in the document itself. Many people can do it at once. A perfect tool for collaboration, and a one you'll have to learn if you want to succeed.

Pros:
+ Free
+ Available anywhere, any time
+ Many text editing features
+ No download required
+ May be edited by many people at the same time
+ Comments!
+ Essential tool for every aspiring author
Cons:
- Require a Google/MS account
- Run in a browser, environment full of distractions
- Requires a bit of getting used to

Acquisition: Google Docs' and Ondedrive's websites.
Platforms: Remember that toaster?

WRITE MONKEY

Now we're talking for real!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you distractionless editor! It launches in fullscreen and, as the name suggests, prevents any distractions. It's only you and your test. And nothing else matters.

In WriteMonkey there isn't even any menus, everything's under your RMB. Except a little, customizable bar at the bottom, that tells you the time, word count, file name and progress towards a goal you set for yourself.

There are also many, many other functionalities that are extremely helpful to any writer - spellcheck, thesaurus, I think there's even a built-in translator, a scratchpad, ability to enable a bar that displays whatever snippets you may want to have in sight...

But you don't have to use those if you don't want to. Just launch WriteMonkey and write away! It's that simple.

You may want to customize the colours, though. I find dark brown paper and beige ink to suit me the best, but feel free to experiment. Keep in mind how colours affect your brain - blue increases productivity, green is calming, and brown is comforting, for example.

Pros:
+ Free
+ Distraction-free
+ Highly customisable
+ Easy access to things like thesaurus
+ Has everything you may need
+ Lightweight
Cons:
- Ascetic looks need some getting used to
- No support for having multiple files open
- Close to no text formatting

Acquisition: writemonkey.com. It's free to download, but you can pay-what-you-want to get your name on the splash and the ability to install plugins.
Platforms: Windows

FOCUS WRITER

Even more ascetic than WriteMonkey, eh?

Not exactly. You see, Focus Writer actually has an UI, albeit hidden - you have to put your mouse cursor next to screen edges.

Other than that - it's pretty similar to Write Monkey. Though it has no thesaurus. It makes up for that in other aspects, however, namely support for opening multiple documents, having multiple sessions you can switch between, a built-in timer, and a tracker of your daily progress. Great tools for self-motivation!

It also provides you with formatting tools if you chose to save your stories in a format that supports it.

Pros:
+ Free
+ Distraction-free
+ Highly customisable
+ Timer, daily progress tracker
+ Has everything you may need (formatting!)
+ Lightweight
+ Has an actual UI
Cons:
- Ascetic looks need some getting used to
- No easy access to thesaurus
- No plugins

Acquisition: Focus Writer's website. Again, it's free (choose a tip of $0.00), but you may tip the author if you like it.
Platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac

QUOLL WRITER

A twoface love child of Scrivener and WriteMonkey.

You want distraction-free writing on fullscreen? You got it! With typewriter sounds, colour customization and all.

You want to organize your story? You got it! To an extent, nothing as fancy as Scrivener. But you have an idea board, an ability to insert notes wherever you want in the text, to make item, location, character, or anything else cards for further use... It also analyses your text for passive voice, inconsistencies and stuff!

Oh, and another curious little feature - it has a built-in editing function. You make an account, your editor/proofer makes an account, and he can review, comment and edit your story from Quoll Writer itself!

Also, it makes automatic backups of your projects.

Pros:
+ Free
+ Distraction-free
+ But also have lots of functions
+ Built-in editor's tools
+ Has everything you may need (formatting!)
+ Automatic backups
+ Story organization features
Cons:
- Ummm... No plugins? (so far)
- Access to some functions is not obvious or requires clicking through some menus
- It's in Java, so can sometimes be slow

Acquisition: Quoll Writer's website. Source code is on GitHub.
Platforms: Windows (Linux and Mac versions may appear if the demand is high enough.

You have your editor, and that's all you need. But you may want just a tad more. Some things that will let you track your progress better, communicate with others, or help you focus on creating your future masterpiece.

TOMIGHTY

Yeah, such a small picture looks weird now, doesn't it?

Tomighty is a timer. But a very special timer. It counts down from 25, 15 or 5 minutes. 25 minutes of work, and after that 5 minutes of a break. Or 15 if you need it to be longer.

Surprisingly (or not) it's one of the best ways you can work in. Called the Pomodoro Technique. It forces you to take a short break before you burn out. I know, that writing for an hour straight may sound like a good idea (come on, you just got that Greatest Idea Ever that'll put your HiE wish fulfilment fic on the pantheon, on a throne besides Past Sins!), but it's not. After you're done, you feel burnt out, you feel tired, and you don't want to write any more. Not to mention what you just created is... Well... Less than stellar work.

It also forces you to work on your fic for 25 minutes straight, without checking out your Facebook, or watching cat videos on YouTube, so it also increases your productivity.

And Tomighty lets you keep track on that 25-5 schedule.

Acquisition: tomighty.org
Platforms: Windows and Mac

WORKTIMER

Another timer on our list. Last one, I promise!

Technically, it's supposed to be used by freelancers and such, to keep track on the time they spend on project, to be able to calculate their pay besed on that. It even allows you to enter price per hour.

But we can use it for a different purpose: set up a task for each chapter to track how much time it takes you to write one. How can you use that knowledge? Beats me, but you can never get too much data. Even for the sake of making a blog post saying "I've been working on this story for 133.7 hours! It must be good! Why those downvotes?", or bragging rights if you managed to create a 100k-words-long story in record time.

Or knowing how much time it roughly takes you to write a chapter, and comparing it to how long did it take you a year ago, to see how you developed as an author.

In any case, it's free, so... And has a webpage, so no need to install anything. Though you can do that.

Acquisition: worktimer.co.uk is where you find it. Desktop app download is here. It requires Adobe Air runtime to run.
Platforms: Anything with a browser. Desktop app is dependant on Adobe Air, so it works on all platforms.

MAXTHON NITRO

A browser.

"But professor, I already have a browser!"

With how many tabs open? How many addons? Notifications constantly popping up? How many distractions?

We've already established why distraction-free editors are better than gDocs and such, didn't we? But sometimes you just have to use a browser. Be it to use a translator, an online thesaurus, to look up a definition of a word, check how bird's wings lift is related to their mass... What? If you write a fic about Twilight questioning everything around her, like why Pegasi can fly even though they're too big for their wings to carry them you have to research that stuff!

And MxNithro is ascetic. It has nothing. Not even settings (sic!). It installs in not even ten seconds flat, opens as fast as you click the icon, and loads pages 20% cooler 30% faster. And allows you to not launch your Firefox or Chrome. And is free, obviously.

Acquisition: Maxthon's website. I mean, where else?
Platforms: Windows. Mac and Linux? Not sure, couldn't find any mention of it.

HEXCHAT

Now it's time for some means of communication!

Hexchat is an IRC client. Simple as that. It allows you to join various chat channels related to writing fanfiction, such as ##fimTWG on Rizon network, or... Umm... ##fimTWG on Rizon network!

(No, I don't know of any more. But The Writer's Group channel helped me many times, so nothing wrong with promoting it, right?)

And I am sure you'll be able to find plenty of different, helpful communities, if you search long enough.

Acquisition: hexchat.github.io
Platforms: Windows, Mac, and every Unix-like OS

SKYPE

It's a chat! It's a phone! No! It's Skype!

Most probably preferred ways of communication for many people. And I don't mean just calls. AIM? ICQ? What are those? It's only Skype nowadays!

It lets you chat, it lets you call, it lets you chat in groups, it lets you talk in groups. Yeah. A good tool if you have a proofer/editor/prereader that likes to comment on your story as he/she reads it. And it's much more convenient to use as a tête-a-tete chat, than Fimfiction built-in PM system. And lets you send images and other files to each other, so that's a plus.

Oh, and has an in-browser version as well.

Acquisition: skype.com. Duh.
Platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac

DISCORD

No, it has nothing to do with our treacherous Draconequus.

It's a love child of IRC and Skype, brought up by a marriage of Teamspeak and Slack. It lets you chat on multiple channels. It lets you talk on multiple channels. It lets you send files, embed images and videos. It's lightweight, works in a browser, and doesn't even require registration to use! And has an Android app!

A true thing of beauty, taking everything that was good in its parents. On a single server you can have a channel intended for discussing the show, another one for questions about writing, the a bunch of private channels where people discuss their creations with their workshop members, then a voice channel of two... Everything's in one place. And for your favourite price of free.

Shameless self promotion on
Visit the server I've created for all of us! Writers, artists, readers, watchers, lurkers and whatnot! Here's a link to join!
Shameless self promotion off

Acquisition: discord.gg
Platforms: Windows and Android. Though there's an unofficial wrapper for Linux.

And that concludes my very first lecture! And - judging by what I've seen on this group's forum - your very first lesson on tools you are able to use!

Hope this selection will help you create many masterfully created stories, and do it in a relatively effortless, easy, efficient and pleasant way!

4949383
I'm surprised not to see Scrivener in you list of text editors.

I use it frequently when storyboarding and planning, and only move to GDocs after the first or second draft is done. For preplanned stories, anyway.

It's got some great features for planning out fiction.

It's not free, though, and the wealth of features can be overwhelming to new users. In particular, the templates could use some work, and the text formatting options are a little obtuse.

Also, it's a local only program, but that can be overcome by using Dropbox or a similar file storage service to sync across platforms. Though the internal doc storage structure leaves a little to be desired, it's just .rtf files, and each document is it's own document in the file system.

Still, easier to just use Scrivener to manage and write in if you go that route.

But GDocs all the way for prereading and late stage drafting with others involved.

Finally someone did this. Thank you.

About Google docs, there is something wrong. I don't know of this happening to every body but for me I'm having trouble copying and pasting because the shortcuts for them aren't working.

4949412 The reasons I didn't mention Scrivener were precisely because it's not free, it's bulky and overwhelming. And new writers should, IMHO, focus on honing their skills in writing itself, instead of spending hours upon hours on creating storyboards and plans. That comes later, when your fics stop being... Hmm... Linear, and based on action-reaction. When you start introducing advanced foreshadowing, final scenes that make everything make sense, and so on, and so forth.

Also, I installed Scrivener, said oh sh*t and uninstalled it, so I can't really recommend it.

4949383
> when all you have is a Chromebook, so you can't use any other tools besides the ones already installed, and the Google Chrome Web Store isn't all that reliable, and you can't use the special distraction-free text editors...

For Mac users, there are two more apps that I would highly recommend. Having shopped around for text-editors, these are the two that I would add to the list, one of which I use.

First and foremost, I would recommend
Byword

Byword is a wonderful app that I have been using for a while now. It allows a nice distraction-free environment, and in the fullscreen mode, it can really be a wonderful way to focus on your writing. My favorite feature is that I can choose any font that is installed on my computer, allowing me to pick one that is very aesthetically pleasing. And it keeps a nice, out-of-the-way, word count at the bottom for tracking your progress.

^^^My set up^^^

Pros:
+ Distraction-free
+ Highly customizable
+ Instantly visible word count

Cons:
- Not free
- If you want writing sounds/music, you have to play it yourself

Acquisition: Byword

Another writing tool I would like to recommend is
Typed (which has been renamed Focused)

Typed is a wonderful distraction free and easy-to-use editor. The cool thing about it is that it comes with 8 gentle ambient soundtracks that you can turn on, allowing you to enter the "writing zone" as it were. However it's customization is a bit lacking, though it's distraction free environment, and lovely aesthetic is hard to beat.

Pros:
+ Beautiful distraction free environment
+ Instantly visible word count

Cons:
- More expensive than Byword
- Not as customizable

Aquisition: Focused

In the end I highly prefer Byword, and I've downloaded (and even created) my own ambient tracks to play while I write. Currently I'm listening to some lovely rain. However, for those extremely concerned with the aesthetic and don't want to do any work to enter "the zone", then Focused is a great app as well.

4949424 So you can't use CTRL + C and CTRL + V? You can use Right Click to find the Copy and Paste options.

4949383

This is a great article and resource, nicely done. :) I never actually gave much thought to distraction avoidance, which probably explains why I haven't written a story for the past 234,269 years. When I do write, I use Notepad++ on Windows, or gedit on Linux.

For those who are interested in Scrivener, you might like to read horizon's blog post about it, as it's his writing tool of choice.

4949470 I tried the right click but it won't let me. Everytime I did it, a small pop up the the shortcut keys appear.

Holy crap... Focus Writer. I just got it thanks to this wonderful post, thank you so much for posting this! (I am addicted to the sounds of old-fashioned typewriters, and Focus has that option when you type and press Enter. I am in writing heaven~)

Also, I may want to put something I found extremely useful when organizing ideas, and I use it for the plethora of ideas that come into my head and refuse to leave. It's called Trello.

It does require an account, but it is free. There are little to no distractions, and it highly reminds me of Pinterest when it comes to layouts. You have different "teams", or a group of boards. Each board contains "cards", which make up each board. So imagine making a group (Naming it "Story Ideas"), then making mini-groups with the boards (Each board is an individual idea), and inside each board is the outlines or any other random stuff you want to put into that idea. Navigation is a breeze, and even though there is a Gold version that requires money, but for normal day-to-day basic stuff, a free account is all you need.

Thank you again for creating this wonderful post, and hopefully what I put forth will be just as helpful... or not be, but still.

4949383
Kudos on the selection of tools.

Openoffice also supports addons.
On my other computer I downloaded plugins that would analyze my writing.

Depending on the situation, I use open office or gdocs.

4949534

I am addicted to the sounds of old-fashioned typewriters, and Focus has that option

Okay, that sells it for me. Pretty neat! And on Linux Mint (and presumably Ubuntu), it's available straight from the package manager, which is always nice.

4949383

You forgot to credit GDOCS with the most important tool any online writer has... Auto save. This feature has saved my writing (including college papers) so many times. I haven't used many other writing programs so I can't tell you if the others had it.

4949383 This is an awesome and very helpful blog. Thank you for posting this.

I went from Notepad (yeah, that Notepad) to OpenOffice.org to gdocs because I could write on my phone. And now it looks like I might get to play with new programs.

Don't know what you mean about Word being windows exclusive. http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-D48-00960-Word-for-2011/dp/B003YCOJBM

Curious I've had some trouble importing files from my Text editor...Libre Office to fimfic...how does one upload a Doc from a word processor anyhow?

4953081
The quickest way I can think of is ctrl+A, ctrl+C, ctrl+V. I've just gotten used to typing out the [b] and [i] brackets.

4953081

You can always ctrl+A, ctrl+C, ctrl+V it to gDocs, and impoer it to Fimfiction editor like that. There's a button to do it in top-left corner. The formatting should be copied as well.

'Sides, it's not like you're using coloured fonts, lots of bold and italics, and much formatting in general.

I mean, if you do, that's not a good sign.