Getting Started

Welcome, wordsmith!

One Stop for Writers is your creativity portal to one-of-a-kind tools and resources that will make planning, writing, and revising a story much easier—especially if you follow our step-by-step Storyteller’s Roadmap! If you’ve not yet done so, Sign Up, then navigate to the My Subscription page (via the Account tab) and choose the Free Trial option for two weeks of access. To see some of the ways One Stop for Writers will change your storytelling game, take the tour below.


Our site runs on any device, but for optimum results, we recommend using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Navigation is devilishly easy but keep an eye out for these icons if you need extra help:

We know you want to make the most of your writing time, so here are some shortcuts to help you get started.

Shorten Your Learning Curve

My Workspace is your personal creativity desk at One Stop. There, you can create a project for any story you're working on and fill it with worksheets, notes, bookmarks, maps, character profiles, and more to keep everything organized. Click the NEW button to create whatever you need for a project.

To navigate the site more quickly, scan our FAQ, which covers the common questions you might have about the site’s features.

Brainstorm a New Story

Character, plot, and setting are the titans of storytelling, so we recommend starting with one of those. Tip: use our How to Plan a Story Roadmap for expert step-by-step help!

CHARACTERS:
The Character Builder will enable you to create a powerful story cast, leading you through important areas of development and prompting you with ideas along the way.

Our Templates and Worksheets let you play around with ideas first. Character at a Glance and Body Basics will get you thinking about who your character might be, while the Backstory Wound Profile and Character’s Fears template can help you explore specific story-driving elements from your character’s history.

PLOTTING:
With Story Maps, you can solidify story ideas and outline your novel. This tool also offers step-by-step help with structure if you need it.

Timelines make it easy to track events (and much more) in your story.

Scene Maps (both formal and informal) offer scene-level planning so you can include meaningful plot points that will reveal character development while pushing the story forward.

The Idea Generator is a great pit stop where you can play with ideas or story prompts.

SETTINGS:
Our setting-related Templates and Worksheets make it easy for you to plan the locations for your scenes and organize them across your story. For more information, see the Setting Checklist, Settings at a Glance, and Emotional Value of a Setting resources.

The Worldbuilding Surveys are a more robust tool, helping you design your story’s world from top to bottom. Explore all the foundational elements to make sure the logic holds up.

Draft a New Story

Simply open a new document in your favorite writing program and keep these resources at the ready:

The How to Write a Story Roadmap will set you up for writing, keep you motivated, and guide you through common trouble spots that can derail writers in the drafting stage.

MY WORKSPACE contains all the characters, worksheets, notes, surveys, maps, and timelines you’ve created. Any Character Arc Blueprints you’ve made with the Character Builder will be especially helpful for making sure the players in your story have outer plots that mirror their internal journeys, so keep those handy.

The THESAURUS menu will provide non-stop description options when you get stuck mid-scene. If you’re looking for something in particular, use the Search feature to find entries that contain those keywords.

Our Idea Generator is perfect if you need to raise the stakes, create plot complications, or brainstorm other ideas on the fly.

Revise Your Story

A big part of revision is analyzing each character, story element, and event to make sure they’re as strong as possible. To do this, a writer must know how to elevate their story. Our How to Revise a Story Roadmap will guide you through the entire process, helping you fix, improve, and polish your manuscript. Built by story experts, this roadmap is packed with resources, tutorials, and tools to get your story publish-ready.

Our Checklists and Tip Sheets are also packed with ideas on how to maximize your story and characters in a myriad of ways. Go through these and challenge yourself to make every aspect of the story stronger.

Finally, leverage the THESAURUS description database to make every story detail meaningful and powerful. Use this resource to show, not tell, focusing on description that really matters and weeding out the fluff. Each thesaurus has its own tutorial to make this job even easier!

Share Your Writing Struggles

Our mission is to help writers elevate their storytelling, so the more we know about your needs, the better we can plan future developments. If you would like, complete this quick survey to share your perspective. (And thank you!)