One of the librarians I worked with during my book tour recently got in touch and asked if I had any resources for young writers. She runs a Young Author club through King Country Library System up in Washington, and has many ambitious writers gearing up for NaNoWriMo this year.
At first I panicked, because my idea of a writing resource is a word processor. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d stumbled onto a great deal of interesting sites and helpful little links over the course of the past eight NaNoWriMos. I sent this list along to her, but thought I’d share it here too:
Happy writing everyone! XOXOXO
Sunset in Saint Edward State Park
Fantasy Name Generator
Rinkworks will generate an entire page of made up names, and has algorithms for Japanese, Dragons, serious names, pet names, Greek names, and many more.
A digital coffee shop, designed to give you the perfect amount of background noise to reach peak-productivity. Studies show that absolute silence can be almost as bad as too noisy of an environment for creativity!
In case you need some really random inspiration, the Random Plot Generator will give you loglines and plot points you can try to work into your story.
A Soft Murmur
Like Coffitivity, only with more noises (including wind, rain, fire, etc.) It can be great to have calming white noise going in the background, even if you’re also listening to your writing music.
For those trying to write from the perspective of a protagonist of a different gender. It’s algorithms are designed on the male/female binary, but it can give you insight into whether you’re using language in a more feminine or masculine way. Be warned… it is very hard to fool!
If anyone is working on a dystopia, this is a great article about some of the top real-world issues in totalitarian systems that fiction tends to ignore.
For those who have trouble getting their words down in November, Write or Die forces you to write X amount of words per minute… or it will start deleting what you have already written.
This is the single most valuable site for improving writing. I’d recommend everyone save this for editing in December (don’t use it to draft, you’ll second-guess yourself far too much.) The program is designed to highlight areas where writers have long convoluted sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and wordy constructions.
AUDREY GREATHOUSE 
Fabulous list!! Can’t wait to try them. Thanks Audrey.