Fiction Writing Assistants (Prose-Focused)
The core category — tools built specifically for writing natural-sounding narrative prose, designed around the needs of novelists and short story writers rather than content marketers.
- Sudowrite — The gold standard for fiction prose; its custom Muse model is fine-tuned on narrative fiction and understands scene structure, blocking, and pacing at a level general LLMs don’t; Story Bible keeps your world consistent
- NovelAI — Highly customizable storytelling with minimal content filters; popular with writers exploring mature or genre-pushing themes; Lorebook system maintains character and world consistency; also generates anime-style images
- Novelcrafter — Best for long-form structural planning; Codex acts as a wiki-style story bible feeding into every AI generation; supports multiple AI model vendors including local models; steep but rewarding learning curve
- Squibler — All-in-one novel and script writing with genre templates, chapter tracking, collaboration tools, and AI-generated visuals for worldbuilding inspiration
- ShortlyAI — Minimalist, distraction-free long-form writing; commands like /rewrite, /expand, and /shorten work inline; good for writers who want clean assistance without feature overload
- Raptor Write — Free, open-source-style writing environment; powered by your own model keys via OpenRouter; popular among writers who want control without subscription costs
Worldbuilding & Lore Management
Tools for building and organizing the fictional universe your story lives in — geography, cultures, magic systems, timelines, political structures, and the relationships between them all.
- World Anvil — The undisputed champion for organized worldbuilding; wiki-style encyclopedic lore management with timelines, maps, family trees, and interactive campaign tools; favored by fantasy and sci-fi authors and DMs
- LegendKeeper — Cleaner, more modern alternative to World Anvil; real-time collaboration; excellent for handcrafted worlds requiring precision organization
- Deep Realms — AI-generative worldbuilding; auto-generates cultures, political systems, lore, and towns from prompts; great for DMs and fantasy writers who need content fast
- Summon Worlds — Character databases, relationship trees, and dynamic lore generation for building interconnected fictional universes
- Campfire Write — Combines worldbuilding with story planning; character arcs, timelines, maps, and relationship webs all linked to your manuscript
Story Structure & Plot Planning
Tools focused on the architecture of narrative — outlines, beat sheets, act structures, and helping writers plan before they draft.
- Plottr — Visual plot planner with timelines, character arcs, and series management; works offline; loved by plotters managing multi-book series
- StoryShop — Character and plot development platform with AI-assisted brainstorming; connects character motivation to scene structure
- Storywork — Built by industry veterans; guides writers through a professional story development methodology; AI assists organization but doesn’t generate creative content — intentionally
- Dramatica Pro — Deep structural theory-based story analysis; complex but uniquely rigorous; used by professional screenwriters and novelists who want to understand the “why” behind story structure
Screenwriting & Script Tools
Tools purpose-built for screenplay format, dialogue, scene construction, and the specific conventions of writing for film and TV.
- Final Draft 12 — Industry standard for screenplay formatting; AI-assisted beat suggestions and script notes; WGA-compliant; the tool professional Hollywood writers use
- WriterDuet — Real-time collaborative screenwriting with AI beat expansion; cloud-synced; best for writing teams and co-writers
- Scriptmatix — Built by working screenwriters; AI assists with structure and character; Studio Composer (coming 2026) converts scripts into audio-visual media
- Storywork — Interactive story development and industry-standard script writing with AI read-aloud; imports Final Draft and Fountain files
- Melies — AI screenwriting platform focused on character development, dialogue generation, and idea-to-script workflows
- Celtx — Free-to-start all-in-one pre-production tool covering scripts, storyboards, scheduling, and budgets; popular with indie filmmakers
Character Development
Tools specifically focused on building psychologically rich, consistent characters with deep backstories, motivations, and voice.
- Charisma.ai — Creates interactive characters that can hold real-time branching conversations; used in games, interactive stories, and training simulations
- Character.ai — Create and chat with persistent AI characters; widely used by writers for testing character voice and dialogue dynamics
- Subtxt — Narrative theory-based character and theme development; built on Dramatica principles; helps writers align character arc with thematic argument
- Campfire Blaze — Character relationship mapping and arc tracking across complex ensemble casts
Interactive Fiction & Collaborative Storytelling
Tools for branching narratives, text adventures, shared storytelling, and reader-driven story experiences.
- AI Dungeon — The original AI text adventure; open-ended collaborative story generation; best for exploratory, improvisational fiction
- NovelAI — Text Adventure Mode enables RPG-style interactive storytelling alongside its prose writing mode
- Twine — Free, open-source tool for building branching interactive narratives; not AI-native but widely used as the canvas that AI-generated content is built into
- Storium — Multiplayer collaborative storytelling platform with narrative structure cards and shared world-building
- Ink by Inkle — Scripting language for interactive narratives; used in commercial games and interactive fiction with AI-assisted dialogue generation
Editing, Voice & Style Refinement
Tools for refining prose after drafting — improving clarity, preserving voice, and polishing toward publication.
- ProWritingAid — Deepest grammar and style analysis for fiction writers; checks for overused words, pacing, dialogue tags, readability, and genre-specific style issues; integrates with Scrivener
- Hemingway Editor — Highlights overly complex sentences, passive voice, and adverb overuse; enforces clarity and directness in prose
- Fictionary — Story editing tool used by professional editors; analyzes scene-by-scene structure, pacing, and character development across a full manuscript
- AutoCrit — Genre-specific manuscript analysis comparing your prose against published works in your genre; good for pre-submission polish
Dialogue & Voice Tools
Tools specifically for testing and refining how characters sound when they speak.
- Character.ai — Widely used by writers to “talk to” their characters and discover their authentic voice through conversation
- ElevenLabs — Text-to-speech with expressive, emotional character voices; useful for writers doing table reads of their dialogue to hear how it sounds
- Descript — Audio and video editing with voice cloning; lets writers hear their scenes performed before committing to final dialogue
Writing Environment & Project Management
Tools for organizing the long-form writing project itself — manuscript structure, notes, drafts, research, and the writing environment.
- Scrivener — The long-form writing environment of choice for serious authors; corkboard, outliner, manuscript compiler, and research folder in one; not AI-native but integrates with AI tools
- Obsidian — Markdown-based note-taking with bidirectional links; increasingly used by writers for networked worldbuilding and research notes
- Notion — Flexible project management used by many authors for chapter tracking, character notes, and editorial calendars
- iA Writer — Minimalist, distraction-free writing environment with Style Check for detecting clichés and overused phrases
Mentorship & Creative Inspiration
A newer category — tools that position AI as a creative mentor or muse rather than a writing assistant, focused on unlocking the human writer’s creativity rather than generating text.
- Life Note — “Talk to” historical writers and philosophers (Mark Twain, Aristotle) about your story; designed to help writers develop theme, character psychology, and creative philosophy through dialogue
- Sudowrite Brainstorm Mode — Generates multiple divergent creative directions simultaneously; great for breaking out of tunnel vision on plot and character
- Claude / ChatGPT as writing partners — Most professional writers use general LLMs for brainstorming, “what if” exploration, and talking through story problems rather than generating prose directly
Publishing & Author Platform
Tools for what comes after writing — getting your work to readers and building an author brand.
- Reedsy — Connects authors with professional editors, cover designers, and formatters; also has a manuscript formatting tool and a discovery platform for readers
- Vellum — Beautiful ebook and print formatting for self-publishing authors; Mac-only but widely considered the best in class
- Draft2Digital — Ebook distribution to all major retailers with AI-assisted metadata and description optimization
- Publisher Rocket — Amazon keyword and category research for authors optimizing discoverability of their books
An example, keeping it simple:
- Diagnose your style with Perplexity : “Analyze my writing style in detail: sentence length patterns, how I handle dialogue, how I use sensory detail, my narrative distance, my pacing. Then when I share new writing, tell me where it drifts from this style.”
- Then : Save that style analysis. Paste it at the top of every Perplexity conversation going forward. Now you have an external mirror that can tell you when new writing sounds like you and when it doesn’t.
- Use Sudowrite generate new content consistent with the style (Prose generation, scene discovery, getting unstuck)
- If timeline is important to manage then use Notion
- After drafting it up then ProWritingAid can help to edit.
