Hello all! Today I’m here to tell you about a nifty website I’ve discovered called Hemingway. Basically you paste in some writing and it not only gives you an idea as to the reading level of your piece, but it also points out where you may want to change passive voice or turn adverbs into a more descriptive verb. (For example, it will let you know if you want to turn “She slowly walked towards the door” into “She tip-toed towards the door”.) It’s rather handy!
Do note that, of course, none of this is supposed to be a Bible or a set of unbreakable rules – rather, it’s a very neat and easy to follow way to get some ideas on how to spice up your writing a bit.
Check it out! I’m liking it quite a lot so far.
We all have our preferred writing soundtrack, but what if you need something appropriate to your scene on the fly? That’s where Songza comes in. Head over, click on Film Scores, pick the appropriate mood for your scene, and off you go. If you’re feeling fancy go ahead and take a look around the other playlists as well.
The only real downside is that the soundtracks aren’t quite as varied as I’d like and you’ll wind up with a lot of music from the same movie. Still, it’s good at grouping moods and themes together, so if you’re writing a tense standoff you’ll have some tense standoff music ready to go. Same with a major epic battle or some ominous plot twist.
Check it out!
P.S. I know this is terrible to say since I’ve just recently started blogging again, but I may not be around quite so much for the next few weeks since I am hosting a very special visitor. We’ll see how things go, however!
Less talk, more tick-tock