Remarkably Useful
This is a simple idea but a remarkably useful little app for generating ideas.
Just browse through the appropriate list — say, setting — and you are presented with a copious list of every idea you might ever want to use when creating a setting.
It’s a very simple idea that works surprisingly well.
I find it less useful for things like character, where you could end up with a character like something created from a kit, like a Lego model only with less life.
But that’s also true of those prompt sheets for so-called character building. What you can end up with is less of a character and more of a robot.
But for all other aspects the lists act more like a stimulus to genuine creativity as you browse through all sorts of characteristics you may not have thought of have thought of for yourself.
As you browse you think, yes! that might work then as you read on you may then see another idea that may prompt you into thinking about the topic in a new way. And then another.
So the process of browsing the lists is more a way to stimulate creativity than a mechanical and lifeless process.
Of course you could read a thesaurus. But that only offers certain kinds of words.
And you can certainly look up words for ‘green’ if you’re stuck for
a romantic description of the precise shade (malachite?!) of your hero’s eyes. But try looking up ‘setting’ and see how far it gets you.
What you may need is not another word for setting — location, place, locus, maybe (I’ve not checked) — but words to describe a setting. That’s where these lists come in.
This is such a simple idea but a remarkably effective and useful one.
I firmly believe no writer aspiring beyond basic skills should be without a thesaurus (and a good dictionary, of course). But I also believe every writer should have this app, too.
Just as a thesaurus performs a different task from a dictionary, this app performs a different task from either of those, the task of stimulating ideas, not prescribing them, and stimulating creativity not restricting it.
I wouldn’t be without it.
Just browse through the appropriate list — say, setting — and you are presented with a copious list of every idea you might ever want to use when creating a setting.
It’s a very simple idea that works surprisingly well.
I find it less useful for things like character, where you could end up with a character like something created from a kit, like a Lego model only with less life.
But that’s also true of those prompt sheets for so-called character building. What you can end up with is less of a character and more of a robot.
But for all other aspects the lists act more like a stimulus to genuine creativity as you browse through all sorts of characteristics you may not have thought of have thought of for yourself.
As you browse you think, yes! that might work then as you read on you may then see another idea that may prompt you into thinking about the topic in a new way. And then another.
So the process of browsing the lists is more a way to stimulate creativity than a mechanical and lifeless process.
Of course you could read a thesaurus. But that only offers certain kinds of words.
And you can certainly look up words for ‘green’ if you’re stuck for
a romantic description of the precise shade (malachite?!) of your hero’s eyes. But try looking up ‘setting’ and see how far it gets you.
What you may need is not another word for setting — location, place, locus, maybe (I’ve not checked) — but words to describe a setting. That’s where these lists come in.
This is such a simple idea but a remarkably effective and useful one.
I firmly believe no writer aspiring beyond basic skills should be without a thesaurus (and a good dictionary, of course). But I also believe every writer should have this app, too.
Just as a thesaurus performs a different task from a dictionary, this app performs a different task from either of those, the task of stimulating ideas, not prescribing them, and stimulating creativity not restricting it.
I wouldn’t be without it.
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Fantastic
This app is brilliant, I spend hours on Google searching these things up, and now I have an app which is filled with so much information, it makes my heart happy!
So helpful ♥️
SOOOO many lists!! ♥️
Where has this been all my life
THE FUDGING BEST, recommending this to all my writer friends. MY DAYS OF SPENDING HOURS A DAY ON REDDIT POST AND RANDOM SHIFTY SITES I’VE NEVER HEARD OF ARE OVER!
Not worth it.
I really wanted to like this, but in all honesty this is like $3 for small lists when you can find all of this on google. The app needs a search, better UI, tags, more extensive lists, origin definitions, etc. Not worth the money. Just open a browser and a notepad.
