character writing websites

• The story world

Character plans

These plans are designed to help you develop your characters. We offer plans to help you interview your characters, define their needs, and generally get to know them better. Understanding your characters will help you write authentic stories and create characters your readers care about.

• Time to complete
• Ease of use
• Development stage

Launch Story Planner Helper

Have a story in mind but don't know where to start? Story Planner Helper can point you in the right direction.

Launch helper

Detailed character profile

This character profile is lengthy but it will certainly help you get to know your character better.

Try this plan

Character sketch

This character sketch plan is by Karen. S. Weisner, who devised ‘First Draft in 30 Days’.

Character blueprint

This simple plan prompts you for the basic details you need when creating characters.

Jeff's Character Plan

A great set of one-word prompts to help you get to know your characters.

Short character profile

This profile is useful to define key details about minor characters.

Proust Character Questionnaire

Imagine you are your character and answer this famous personality questionnaire.

Character arc

A plan to describe how your characters change.

Character qualities (Syd Field)

A quick way to define the qualities needed in a strong central character.

Character archetypes

An archetype is character type that repeats regularly. These archetypes are based on Jung’s work.

Snowflake Method character plan

A character plan by the creator of the Snowflake Method.

Story Planner

• book Notebook.ai for writers
• book Notebook.ai for roleplayers
• language Universes
• group Characters
• terrain Locations
• emoji_events Items
• business Buildings
• bubble_chart Conditions
• explore Continents
• flag Countries
• pets Creatures
• ac_unit Deities
• fastfood Foods
• account_balance Governments
• location_on Landmarks
• forum Languages
• flash_on Magics
• public Planets
• brightness_7 Religions
• local_movies Scenes
• school Schools
• sports_volleyball Sports
• router Technologies
• location_city Towns
• today Traditions
• drive_eta Vehicles

The smart notebook for worldbuilders.

Notebook.ai grows with your ideas and collaborates with you..

For writers

Authors use Notebook.ai to create rich, immersive worlds for their novels, stories, and plays.

For roleplayers

Dungeon masters use Notebook.ai to build worlds for their campaigns and share them with players.

Create rich worlds with your free worldbuilding notebook

Create universes

Track multiple stories at once by organizing your ideas into just the universe they belong in.

Create characters

From your heroes to the little guys, each character plays an important role in your story.

Create locations

From magical mountains to urban modern settings, locations are the lifeblood of worldbuilding.

Create items

Books, weapons, artifacts, and other items: track who made them, who owns them, and more.

Deeper characters

Get to know your characters. Track every detail of their thoughts, appearance, family, and personality.

Richer worlds

Immerse yourself in vibrant worlds with specialized notebook pages for your countries, cities, landmarks, and more.

Organizable

Focus on one universe at a time and automatically filter everything else out. Reorganize, sort, and write freely.

Brainstorm together

Invite anyone to review any pages you decide to share. Sometimes a second set of eyes makes all the difference.

Backed up forever

Never lose a notebook full of priceless ideas again. Notebook.ai backs up and protects your work.

No ads, ever

Rest easy knowing your notebook is safe and completely private by default, but shareable if you choose.

Write smarter with integrated novel-writing software

Promotes creativity.

Notebook.ai helps flesh out your ideas by asking you questions about the pages you create.

Continuity checks

When every little fact is stored in one place, you can rest easy knowing you won't accidentally contradict yourself.

Quickly find anything, anywhere — even that random thought you jotted down at 3am two years ago.

Write faster

Use the built-in document editor to reference any aspect of any page in your notebook without losing your momentum.

Write better

Analyze your writing with a world-class artificial intelligence that measures readability, style, emotion, and more.

Grows with you

Plan as much as you want in your notebook — for life. The only limits here are your imagination.

Go the extra mile with premium notebook pages

Notebook.ai's free tier was intentionally designed to be enough for most worlds, but if you want to support the site and take your worldbuilding to a new level, a premium subscription is available that unlocks 25 additional page templates to use. Each template is customizable and comes with its own set of writing prompts.

Create creatures

Your personal bestiary includes the wildlife, critters, merfolk, and other interesting beings of your world.

Create floras

Paint your landscape with rich flora like plants, flowers, trees, and other nature.

Create planets

Celestial bodies orbiting through space, carrying a planet's-worth of worldbuilding opportunities.

Create continents

Underneath our feet, continents form the base and borders our worlds are built upon.

Create countries

Kingdoms, countries, regions: you decide what international borders look like in your story.

Create landmarks

From the smallest statue to the biggest mountain, landmarks can play important roles, too.

Create towns

Towns can both unite and divide your characters. Keep track of what makes your towns unique.

Create buildings

Fill your towns with stores, offices, historical buildings, and residences for your characters.

Create schools

From Hogwarts to Walkerville to Brakebills, schools educate every new generation in our worlds.

Create jobs

Jobs build worlds. How do your characters make a living? What skills are the most in-demand?

Create technologies

Create your gadgets, gizmos, and all kinds of advanced (or primitive) technologies.

Create lores

Track every kind of story within your world, from modern anecdotes to ancient legends.

Create vehicles

Vehicles come in many shapes and sizes: cars, boats, spaceships — or something completely new.

Create conditions

Conditions affect your characters for better or for worse. Create diseases, blessings, and more.

Create races

Humans can be joined by elves, orcs, werewolves, vampires, dragons, and many other races.

Create deities

Gods, goddesses, and other godly beings in your world — every world came from somewhere.

Create religions

Organizing your world's beliefs into cohesive religions can lead to a more epic world for your readers.

Create magic

A source of magic often creates a multitude of spells, potions, and occasional trinkets.

Create governments

The organizations of your world that keep it running smoothly — or not!

Create groups

Bundle your characters, locations, items, and other ideas into any kind of collection you need.

Create languages

Language is a bond that weaves a culture together. Are there any new languages in your world?

Create traditions

Everyone has something they celebrate. Honor your characters by detailing their traditions.

Create foods

People of all kinds eat and drink things of all kinds. Come eat, drink, and be merry!

Create sports

People are naturally competitive, and sports seem to naturally emerge in almost every world.

Create scenes

Scenes are events that happen in your world, ranging in size from a nice breakfast to entire wars.

Create timelines

Plot your plot over time. Track what happens every step of the way.

Create collections

Collect and organize notebook pages into customizable collections you can share or collaborate in.

"Really clever and beautifully organized way for storytellers to create a world." — Alec P.

Notebook.ai Pricing

• language Plan up to 5 universes
• group Plan unlimited characters
• terrain Plan unlimited locations
• emoji_events Plan unlimited items
• cloud_upload Upload up to 50MB of images

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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

5 Character Tools You Absolutely Need to Know

April 9, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Angela here, happy to welcome Savannah Cordova from Reedsy who has done some sleuthing to find tools that might help you create your characters. Play around with ideas, or take a deep dive into their backstory, personality, and the forces that drive them to achieve meaningful story goals, it’s up to you!

We all know characters are the beating heart of any good story. No matter how original or exciting your plot is, readers simply won’t be able to get invested unless they care about the people (or robots, or animals, or whatever your characters are!). That’s why before you start writing — possibly before you even figure out your plot — you need to create characters that are well-rounded and compelling.

It’s this prerequisite of character development that makes features like the occupation thesaurus so valuable. Because when creating characters, you can’t leave anything out! We’re all “round” in real life, after all. So if some of your characters are mysteriously missing careers, motivations, or discernible personalities, readers are going to notice.

Luckily, there are plenty of stellar tools to assist you with character development and profiling. Here are five character tools you need to know, each one designed to serve a different purpose .

1. The Character Creator

Though this tool is titled the rather general-sounding “Character Creator,” it really encompasses just one aspect of the character: their physical appearance. Though there are plenty of “physical appearance” generators out there, they tend to just spit out a combination of traits (“curly brown hair/green eyes/freckles”) rather than actually showing you what the character would look like. I find it much more helpful to have concrete visuals of your characters as you’re writing about them —  plus it’s just fun to experiment with different physical traits and see how they manifest.

Of course, you can always comb through headshots on sites like Backstage, or use images of your favorite actors or models. This may be best if you need a visual for a character who’s especially tall, short, fat, or skinny; the main drawback of Character Creator is its lack of diverse body types. But everything else is intricately customizable, from face shape to hairstyle to the wide range of accessories.

TIP: If you need help describing your character’s appearance, make sure to check out this Physical Features Descriptive Database .

2. Reedsy’s Character Name Generator

After you’ve checked off character appearances, Reedsy’s character name generator should be your next stop. In the name (get it?) of full disclosure, my team created this tool, so I might be a bit biased as to how cool it is. But seriously — it’s divided by language, archetype, and even various countries’ mythologies, with over a million potential options for character names.

If you want a strong moniker for your protag, you can try out the hero name generator to find one that means something empowering, like “fighter” or “radiant.” Or say one of your characters is Korean, but you don’t speak Korean: you can use the relevant language generator to produce some authentic names. In any case, for those who agonize over picking out character names (and are sick and tired of baby name websites!), this generator is your lifeline.

3. RanGen’s Personality Generator

Now we’re getting into the meat and potatoes of your characters: their personalities. You’ve probably already thought about how your characters will behave and interact with one another, since character dynamics are often pretty intertwined with plot. However, you may not have considered how their outward behavior actually relates to their personality. For example, you might have a character who’s always loud, energetic, and the life of the party — but do they act that way because they’re actually very confident and secure, or because they crave attention and approval? This is where personality comes into play.

As you’re coming up with character personalities, you may wish to consult a personality generator like RanGen’s. It provides lists of qualities pertaining to a character’s friendliness, confidence, emotional capacity, intelligence, and other attributes. But of course, true to the “RanGen” name, this is a random generator — which means the traits may be completely arbitrary in relation to the characters you’ve started constructing, and even in relation to each other. For instance, I got a profile where the character’s friendliness was “callous,”yet their agreeableness was “harmonic” (needless to say, not the most compatible combination).

While character personalities don’t need to be perfectly cohesive — to paraphrase Whitman, they can contain multitudes — you probably shouldn’t have traits that clearly contradict one another. And you definitely don’t want your characters to seem cobbled together at random, especially because their experiences and environments affect them in very specific ways, which a generator cannot take into account. As a result, this tool is best used for brainstorming, rather than creating full-on character profiles.

TIP: Planning your character’s personality using the database of positive traits and negative traits at One Stop for Writers is also a great option, as it helps you describe these traits through behaviors, attitudes, etc.

4. Springhole’s Character Motivation Generator

It’s designed for roleplaying, but this character motivation tool can definitely be applied to the characters in your story. You might have to rephrase certain motivations for them to make sense (for example, instead of “character wants to bring glory to their planet,” you might say “to their family” or “to their community” instead), but otherwise it’s a pretty nuanced tool.

Again, as with character dynamics, you probably already have some idea of your characters’ motivations, as they’ll relate closely to your plot. However, for any characters you’re unsure about, or who might need additional motivations to make them more complex, this generator can really help. It might even spark a subplot or spin-off for a secondary character, who suddenly gets a lot more interesting with the help of motivations!

TIP: For more motivations (and indeed in-depth descriptive characteristics of all stripes), you should check out the Character Motivation Database over at One Stop for Writers . Which brings us to…

5. One Stop for Writers Character Builder

Naturally, I have to give a shout out to One Stop for Writers’ super-comprehensive Character Builder. For those who haven’t tried it already, this is no average character template. Rather than merely providing the minimum number of blank spaces for you to fill in, the Character Builder walks you through the whole process and highlights the importance of connection among every aspect of your character.

You’ll start with the basics: your character’s backstory , which will emphasize how their past experience has led to their current vulnerabilities. This foundation allows you to build their personality , behavior , motivations , and more intuitively from there. Indeed, the Character Builder’s greatest strength is that it truly helps you breathe life into your characters: while all the other tools on this list will give you ideas, the Character Builder will enable you to hone those ideas into consistent, realistic, in-depth characters. Watch it in action :

Best of all? You can try the Character Builder any time because One Stop for Writers has a 2-Week FREE TRIAL .

Yes, all these tools have their own individual strengths — but they’re best used in conjunction with one another. The whole here is definitely greater than the sum of the parts, because the whole is ultimately the character themselves, and that character has limitless potential.

Have a favorite character tool? Let us know in the comments!

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories (and occasionally terrible novels).

You can read more of her professional work on the Reedsy blog , or personal writing on Medium .

Interested in posting at Writers Helping Writers? Review our content guidelines to see what we’re looking for and how to pitch us your ideas.

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Reader Interactions

May 2, 2021 at 10:10 pm

The hero machine link previously mentioned no longer works. I found the female options on your suggested site a little disheartening. I personally like hero forge. There are options for fantasy, sci-fi, “normal”, a huge range of body types, skin colors, and almost too much customization potential 🙂 Otherwise, these all seem like really cool tools! I’m excited to check them all out.

heroforge.com.

May 3, 2021 at 11:29 am

Thanks for letting us know about the broken link and limitations on some of these links, and for suggesting a new one. Happy writing!

August 3, 2019 at 1:46 pm

Yup, I just created a character description crib sheet: https://thgmwriters.com/blog/describe-character-development-crib-sheet/

That should be helpful for somebody who needs to get organized.

August 3, 2019 at 5:11 pm

Thanks David!

April 9, 2019 at 12:43 pm

Tools are great 🙂 And my boyfriend just found this one ’cause I said the Character Creator was very limited. This looks good too:

http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-2-5-character-portrait-creator/

April 9, 2019 at 6:48 pm

Oh! Thanks for the heads up on that one, Donna!

April 10, 2019 at 3:54 pm

Thanks Donna! That one definitely looks to have a better range of body types 🙂

April 9, 2019 at 11:55 am

Thanks Becca & Angela! It was a super fun post to write, since I got to test out a bunch of different tools 🙂 Hope other people find them as useful as I did!

April 9, 2019 at 11:09 am

Thanks so much for sharing these, Savannah! I am a total nerd for new writing tools. 🙂

April 9, 2019 at 9:51 am

What a great round-up. Thanks for putting this list together!

[…] storytellers creating their characters, Savannah Cordova shares 5 character tools you need to know about, Melissa Donovan investigates what makes iconic characters unforgettable, Jim Dempsey writes […]

[…] 5 Character Tools You Need to Know | Writers Helping Writers […]

[…] post 5 Character Tools You Absolutely Need to Know appeared first on WRITERS HELPING […]

Privacy Overview

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Refsheet requires Javascript to work properly. Please check your browser settings, and enable Javascript if it is not already turned on.

Explore all the important aspects of your character’s past and present—backstory, personality, behavior, motivations, physical details, and more—by sourcing the material in our custom description thesaurus database. At each step, you’ll be presented with options that encourage you to think deeper about the character’s role in the story. Even better, this tool will identify key pieces of information that tie into their arc and produce an accurate Character Arc Blueprint, mapping their internal journey of growth and change (or devolution and failure), as determined by you. Holy cow, did plotting just get easier? It sure did!

Are you a pantser who prefers less planning? Use the Info section at the top of each tab to make basic notes about your character. To go deeper, move step-by-step through the tabs, examining the more profound aspects of your character’s personality and history as needed.

Once a profile is finished, subscribers can create a smart PDF (a powerful tool unto itself) to save on their computer or export to their favorite writing program, like Scrivener. Free Trial users can’t create a PDF of their test profile, but they can extract their information via the options on the Export my Data page.

Building a character from the ground up can be daunting, we know. If you need help, our test character Paul will provide an example of how this tool can be used. Also, don’t forget to use the Storyteller’s Roadmap . Our story experts will guide you step-by step through planning a character, creating their arc, and weaving everything into your plot. You’ll also find an abundance of help on our tutorials and terminology pages.

The Character Creator

The Character Creator aims to provide a fun and easy way to help you find a look for your characters. Just like the japanese kisekae (electronic paper dolls), you pick and choose items from a list to ornate your character with. It is free to use and will always remain free to use. For storytellers looking for spritesheets of their characters, we offer those services on demand.

The website was launched on January 11th 2014 with only basic functionality. Since then, new features and content have been added with every update, see details on our facebook page .

If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to get involved, either as a programmer or an artist, email your request .

copyright © 2014-2023 Studio Chacre

Q: Can I use the characters I've created on this site in my game?

A: The art is licensed cc-by-nc . You are free to use for non-commercial products as long as you credit the site. If you want to use characters in a commercial product, you can obtain a license by visiting our Patreon page and pledging $5 a month or more.

Q: How can I download my new character?

A: Once you've chosen a sex and skin color for your character, the download button in the top-right menu will be enabled. Clicking 'Download' will prompt you to save the file to disk.

Q: How do I get a jpg or png version of my character?

A: Once you've downloaded the vector file from the site (.svg) you can open it and export to the format of your choice in your favorite graphics program.

Q: What application can I use to open the vector file?

A: Any graphics program that supports SVG will do. Popular programs like Photoshop and Illustrator will do, personally I use Inkscape, it's free and works very well.

Q: Where can I learn more about the origin of the Character Creator?

A: You can read here all about how the idea came about in this IndieHacker Interview

Q: Where can I learn more about how the site works under the hood?

A: Watch this presentation at the Libre Graphics Meeting

You can view, edit and export to other formats with vector graphics programs such as Inkscape . Characters are free to use under the cc-by-nc license. Get a commercial license, more angles and positions, supplemental art when you join our Patreon .

I love getting email from creatives. If you have a minute, please let me know what you use The Character Creator for, and what features or items you'd like to see.

The Character Creator dot org

Frédéric Guimont

Patreon.com/CharacterCreator

This project is made possible thanks our distinguished patrons. We salute you!

• James P Often
• Kevin Jenkins (k-town)
• Rich Lonely
• Patrick L Ball
• Vener Garayev

Supporting Actors

• Mohamad nazarnezhad

Participants

• Maxim St-Hilaire
• Cappa Ribou
• Jared Pearson
• Klavdij Voncina
• Simon Prest
• David Robinson
• Lindsay Linamen
• Javier Acosta
• POPaPOTEMUS
• Susanne Carlsson
• Ankita Gautam
• IdrilKalean
• Rissa Chelly
• Mark Frederickson
• Michael Carr

Contributors

• Eric Sperano
• Pablo Saxtron
• Martin Caspers
• Danfe IMpex
• Frederik Houde
• Dominique Dehareng
• Loran Thomas
• Maxwell Somto Nwabunike
• Sylvia Barnes
• Arielle Danos
• Deven Shanner
• Melissa Vassar
• Story Storm
• Jesús Portugal Xespe
• Roman Ondrus
• Gwendolyn Shinault
• Julian Grant
• Alexandra Engelhardt

Studio Chacre

The Character Creator was built on the shoulders of giants:

Free Software used in this project:

© copyright 2014-2022 Frédéric Guimont

Immortalize your Character as a Non-Fungible Token on the Ethereum Blockchain today. Simply copy the URL (The address bar contains all the information needed to recreate your character) and paste it in an email with the subject line "NFT" and address it to:

Price: 0.1 ETH per character

View NFT store.

Select which zoom to crop image:

Choose the file format of your download:

1) Choose the sex of your character.

2) Select your character's skin tone.

3) Pick a category and click on an option from the list to open a selection of items for your character to try on. You can also click on your character to open up relevant items to choose from.

4) Choose an item to try it on.

5) You can change the colors here.

6) You can always request a random character here.

7) Download your character and register an account to save your character for later use.

Your Story Starts Here

Pluot is the intuitive character and story planning app for writers. Download today.

Unleash Your Writing Potential

Plot scenes.

Build the conflict and outcome of each scene in your outline and easily reorder your scenes through drag-and-drop.

Develop Characters

The heart of your story. Complete detailed character profiles with over 70 attributes available.

Create Locations

The setting for your scenes. Describe your locations and provide their history and residents.

Construct Storylines

Define the plot points of each storyline in your outline, including the inciting incident, midpoint, climax, and resolution.

Create custom items

Vehicles, magic wands, organizations, create whatever your story requires!

Link Story Elements

Create interconnected outlines by linking scenes to your created characters, locations, storylines and custom items.

Attach character, location, storyline and custom item images to help visualize your story.

Weekly Writing Challenge

Each week, you'll find a new writing prompt in the app to flex your creative writing muscles. Submit your story and receive feedback from other users!

Import and Export

Import JSON files and export your outlines to text and Microsoft Word files when you're ready to write!

Available in 20+ Languages

Distraction-free outlining.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pluot is designed for writers of various genres, including novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, animators, graphic novelists, video game writers, Dungeon Masters, and more. It provides a comprehensive plot planning and story outlining tool with detailed character worksheets, scene creation, location management, and storyline development.

Absolutely! If you subscribe to Pluot Pro, you can easily backup your outlines to the cloud and seamlessly sync changes across multiple devices.

If you're not a Pro subscriber, you still have the option to export your outlines to a JSON file, which can be imported on another device. However, please note that this method is not intended for actively working on an outline across multiple devices.

Yes, you can export your outlines to a JSON file for transferring data between devices or to a plain text file when you've completed your outline and are ready to start writing!

With Pluot Pro, you also have the option to backup your work to the cloud, allowing for quick and convenient transfer between devices.

Currently, Pluot is exclusively available on Android and Chromebook devices. However, there may be plans to develop iOS and web versions in the future. Stay tuned!

If you'd like to support the ongoing development of the app, I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a review on the Google Play store listing . Ratings and reviews play a crucial role in the growth of the app, and I value feedback from users like you.

Additionally, there is a crowd-sourced translation project available where you can contribute to improving and adding translations. Your help in this endeavor is immensely appreciated.

Lastly, spreading the word about Pluot would be fantastic. I am incredibly grateful for the positive reception the app has received so far, and I would love for more people to join in its continued growth. By the way, there's also a Discord community where you can connect with other Pluot users!

Ready to plot?

Try it out today!

Plearn* Your Novel

* learn to write a novel as you plan it.

More than a course. More than just software.

NovelChick is the perfect cross between an online plotting tool and a step-by-step written course on characters, worldbuilding, and plot outlines.

We teach fiction writers to go from a rough idea to a strong plot outline.

Forget about not knowing where to start, getting stuck in the middle, or doing massive rewrites later. With this story-planning tool in your hands, your chances of completing your novel will quadruple. 

How it Works

Interesting characters, rich worldbuilding, plot outline, we don't give you answers. we simply ask all the right questions., getting started the easy way, no installation, secure & safe, access anywhere, may the muse be ever with you, manage your ideas, free forever.

Beginning To End

Manage your stories, make us care, cast your characters.

Unique, Proven Method

4-act structure, with you all the way, guided creation.

God Is In The Details

Comprehensive worldbuilding, we love you too, what our fans have to say.

Frequently Asked Questions

You might be wondering..., is novelchick free.

NovelChick is free to sign up, manage your unlimited ideas,  and brainstorm. You can also create a story, one hero, and one world article in the free plan.

Everything beyond that point — unlimited characters, plot notes, world articles, and detailed act outlines — is available as soon as you upgrade your account. You can control your subscription from within the platform.

Is NovelChick For Me?

NovelChick works best for writers who:

• Don’t know how to go from idea to full plot
• Are tired of writing by the seat of their pants and getting nowhere
• Need help with their character, worldbuilding, or plotting skills

If you want to write a popular book that sells well—then NovelChick is precisely for you.

Will NovelChick Help Me Complete My Novel?

Yes. When you know in advance where your novel is going and why, you’ll find it easier to complete the first draft, and you’ll need fewer revisions to make it all flow together.

Can I write my entire novel in NovelChick?

Not quite. NovelChick is a novel planning tool, not writing software. We focus on giving you the best tools to plot your stories with success.

When I'm Done Writing My Outline, What's Next?

You can export your complete outline, characters, and plot notes into an editable Word document with one click of the mouse. The resulting file will be your constant guide as you write the first draft.

Will You Help Me If I Get Stuck?

Yes! You can always reach us through the website chat/email in the bottom right corner, or through the support ticket system. We’ll do our best to help you hatch and grow your novel.

Who's behind NovelChick?

More Questions?

Let's do it, ready to plot your novel.

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The Best Character Template Ever (100+ Character Traits!)

So you have an awesome story and want to bring it to life with some incredible characters, but organizing all those character ideas in your head can be tough!

I know, I’ve been there. We’ve all been there (trust me, I did a very legit survey of us all).

To help, here is a very thorough list of more than 100 different character traits you can use to understand more about your character than you do about your friends and family. Fill out this template with as many or as few details as you’d like. You can even grab your fillable PDF at the bottom of this article.

Readers will sniff out a half-baked character from a mile away, and you better pray they never find a poorly written character in your book. Luckily, this template will help you avoid both of those pitfalls.

How to Use This Template

Hopefully, this template is, for the most part, straightforward. But there are some options that might give you some pause. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to quickly go over the different sections of the template.

In general, the traits get deeper and deeper into the abyss of your character’s soul the further down the list you go.

Demographics are your basics. This is the sort of information someone could likely glean from a short conversation with your character or what the government might gather from a census.

Physical appearance is what someone would notice about your character if they looked at them. This goes beyond just hair, eye, and skin color, though. Things like your character’s gait or their fashion style can add a lot of depth for your reader.

History allows you to understand a character’s past. More importantly, it allows you to understand how that past affects their actions in your story. Some of this information might never see the light of day, but it allows you to craft dynamic, complex characters.

Psychological traits are those that aren’t readily apparent to an onlooker but are critical to how your character operates in any given situation. This is where you start getting deep with things like flaws , desires, and traits that make people (or non-people) who they are.

Communication is not only important for things like dialogue and writing, but they are easy ways for you to differentiate between your characters .

Strengths, weaknesses, and abilities are very vague terms but are quite important. This is especially true for genres like fantasy or sci-fi, and these traits can be helpful when crafting your main characters, including villains .

Relationships are important for characters, even if it means highlighting how alone they are. Relationships can go a lot further than immediate friends, family, or partners. Try and take some time to think about exactly who is involved in your character’s life.

Character growth is the most important category in this template. Here is where you include things like arcs, archetypes, conflicts, goals, and motivation. You need to pay attention to this section, because these ideas will be the ones that make memorable characters.

So check out the template below and think about how you can use it to build your characters. 

The Best Character Template Ever

Demographics.

• Sex/Gender:
• Occupation:
• Socioeconomic status:
• Other notes:

Physical Appearance

• Skin color:
• Hair color:
• Fitness level:
• Scars/Birthmarks:
• Other distinguishing features:
• Disabilities:
• Fashion style:
• Accessories:
• Cleanliness/Grooming:
• Posture/Gait:
• Coordination (or lack thereof):
• Weaknesses:
• Birth date:
• Place of birth:
• Key family members:
• Notable events/milestones:
• Criminal record:
• Affiliations:
• Skeletons in the closet:

Psychological Traits

• Personality type:
• Personality traits:
• Temperament:
• Introvert/Extrovert:
• Mannerisms:
• Educational background:
• Intelligence:
• Self-esteem:
• Skills/talents:
• Morals/Virtues:
• Phobias/Fears:
• Angered by:
• Pet peeves:
• Obsessed with:
• Bad habits:
• Favorite sayings:
• Accomplishments:

Communication

• Languages known:
• Preferred communication methods:
• Style and pacing of speech:
• Use of gestures:
• Facial expressions:
• Verbal expressions:

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Abilities

• Physical strengths:
• Physical weaknesses:
• Intellectual strengths:
• Intellectual weaknesses:
• Interpersonal strengths:
• Interpersonal weaknesses:
• Physical abilities:
• Magical abilities:
• Physical illnesses/conditions:
• Mental illnesses/conditions:

Relationships

• Partner(s)/Significant other(s):
• Parents/Guardians:
• Grandparents:
• Grandchildren:
• Best friends:
• Colleagues:
• Mentors/Teachers:
• Idols/Role models:
• Non-living things:
• Clubs/Memberships:
• Social media presence:
• Public perception of them:

Character Growth

• Character archetype:
• Character arc:
• Core values:
• Internal conflicts:
• External conflicts:
• Goals: 
• Motivations:
• Epiphanies:
• Significant events/plot points:

Craft Amazing Characters With Dabble

Creating characters your readers will love (or love to hate) has never been easier than with Dabble. By keeping all of your notes about characters and your plot just a click away from your manuscript, you’ll be able to write a story that is bound for the bestseller lists.

You can click here to grab a PDF copy of this template, or you can just copy and paste the categories you want from this article directly into your Character Notes in Dabble.

That’s not all! We also have a handful of other resources that can help you make some awesome characters. Be sure to check out:

• Our complete guide to creating characters
• 101 character goals
• A metric ton of character ideas you can use with this template
• 65 character development questions
• 20 original character interview questions
• A downloadable character profile

The best part? You can add all of these into your character’s folder in Dabble. Your character will be more real than you or I.

Enough dilly-dallying, time for Dabbling. Click here to get started with your totally free, no credit card required trial of Dabble and build your amazing characters today.

Happy writing!

Doug Landsborough can’t get enough of writing. Whether freelancing as an editor, blog writer, or ghostwriter, Doug is a big fan of the power of words. In his spare time, he writes about monsters, angels, and demons under the name D. William Landsborough. When not obsessing about sympathetic villains and wondrous magic, Doug enjoys board games, horror movies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah.

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Last updated on Feb 07, 2023

The 50+ Best Writing Websites of 2024

The Internet is full of writing websites and blogs to help people reach their creative goals . If you’ve always dreamt of writing your own book, but don’t know how to get there — or if you’re in the process of writing, but feel unsure about what to do next — then it’s your lucky day! Here we have all the best writing websites of 2024 in one single place for your convenience. They’re also organized by category, and alphabetically within each of those categories, to make each one easier to find. Enjoy!

Best writing websites for writing craft and inspiration

1. Almost an Author

Offering up new content every day, Almost an Author covers a grand scope of writing topics. From genre-specific advice to emotional support on your writing journey, there's tons of useful info here for beginner and veteran writers alike.

2. Association of Writer & Writing Programs

Having just marked their 50th anniversary, AWP is one of the premier authorities on writing. The AWP website provides resources and ample opportunities for authors, teachers, and students at every point in their career. Here you’ll be able to find information about writing programs, career options, and conferences all over the world. Keep in mind, though, that access to some of these features is restricted to members only.

3. Creativity Portal

This is a wonderful hub for creative resources that has been around for a whopping nineteen years! Here you can find writing prompts , creative coaching, printable writing templates, and interviews with authors that will help nourish the right side of your brain.

4. Daily Writing Tips

As the name suggests, this site offers daily writing tips ranging from open-ended prompts and exercises to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. It also covers all writing levels and professions, so it doesn't matter how far along you are in your writing career — DWT is sure to help you out.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a master’s degree, you can get your own "DIY MFA" right here! This site (founded by Gabriela Pereira ) aims to cover everything you would learn in a graduate program, while giving you the freedom to choose your own areas of concentration and allocate your time as you please. 

6. Electric Literature

While not exactly a craft-focused website — so no straight-up writing advice or prompts — this nonprofit digital publisher showcases literature-related essays, criticism, and recommended readings. If you're looking to brush up on both literary theory and recent literary trends, Electric Lit is the place for you.

7. Fiction University

This virtual university, run by award-winning author Janice Hardy, contains tons of advice and concrete examples to help authors build a strong writing foundation. It's full of blog posts by professionals who share their own processes and techniques, providing tips not just on what you should do as a writer, but on how  to make it happen.

8. Helping Writers Become Authors

Longtime author K.M. Weiland offers writing advice that ranges from outlining and structuring to characterization and dialogue — plus all the little details in between. She updates her blog faithfully with topical posts that would pique any writer's (or non-writer's) interest.

9. Insecure Writer's Support Group

Writing is intimidating for everyone , whether you're a multi-published author or you're just starting out. That's why getting support, guidance, and motivation throughout the process is vital! On IWSG, you'll discover a wealth of information on writing, publishing, marketing, and anything else you might need to ultimately overcome your insecurities.

10. Literary Hub

LitHub boasts a superb selection of content for all things literary. Here you can get all the latest book-related news, posts on design and the craft, your daily dose of fiction, and sparkling reviews of new works. One of this site's best features is its section on literature in translation — a great resource for those who want to read books and authors from around the world.

11. LitReactor

The LitReactor blog consists of writing classes, workshops, and a myriad of posts on writing and books ( some of which are even written by us! ). There’s also an online magazine that includes interviews, criticism and analysis, and seasonally appropriate reads and recommendations.

12. LitRejections

An unfortunate occupational hazard of with writing is rejection. This is where a site like LitRejections comes into play! It offers personal stories to help discouraged writers persevere through rejection, and maintain hope and motivation as they move forward in their careers.

13. Live Write Thrive

In this website by professional writer and editor C.S. Lakin, you’ll find plenty of nuanced writing anecdotes and tips. Lakin also supplies annotated critiques that can help you prep your book for publication.

14. NaNoWriMo

Besides serving as the official information hub for NaNoWriMo , this site also lends constant support for those struggling to "win" National Novel Writing Month. Make sure to check out the NaNoWriMo forums, which are chock-full of other people's personal writing tips and strategies to get you through November — and every other month of the year — as a writer.

15. Now Novel

This comprehensive website, founded by author Bridget McNulty , is a go-to for just about every writing-related question you might have. Here you'll also find advice, courses, and even an author dashboard where you can keep track of your own writing progress.

16. Positive Writer

If you often feel uncertain about your creative abilities, this is the site for you. Bryan Hutchinson created Positive Writer to encourage and inspire all those who want to write, no matter how much experience or confidence they have.

17. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid offers a fantastic manuscript editing software that analyzes your writing and creates reports for you to learn from! This tool also includes a thesaurus, grammar checks, style suggestions, and more — you can learn all about it on the ProWritingAid blog, or in our review of the app !

18. She Writes

A well-established writing website with a feminist bent, She Writes is "the largest online community and content site for women writers... all around the world." The site features thoughtful posts and resources to help writers on their journeys, as well as a personal She Writes blog page for every user who signs up.

19. Well-Storied

Here you can find recent articles, workbooks, tutorials, and fascinating discussions on writing. Kristine Kieffer has an extensive archive of posts as well, where you can procure information on just about any topic related to books and writing.

20. The Write Practice

Fulfilling the promise of their name, every single post on this site emphasizes putting theory into practice! There's simply no better way to become a writer than by creating a routine, and that’s exactly what The Write Practice helps facilitate.

21. Writer’s Digest

Writer's Digest is one of the most encyclopedic writing websites out there — after all, the print magazine has been around for almost a century now! Here you’ll find genre and vocation-organized articles, events and competitions, webinars, templates, tutorials, and so much more.

22. Writer Unboxed

Writer Unboxed features articles by authors and industry professionals, focused specifically on the craft and business of fiction writing.

23. The Writing Cooperative

Plain and simple, this is a group of people who want to help each other become better writers. On Writing Cooperative, you will find articles that cover just about every aspect of the writing life. They also have monthly writing challenges to keep you incentivized, and there’s even a space where you can submit your own article to the blog!

24. Writing.com

This is an absolutely all-inclusive community for writers . It’s open to all levels and provides a creative, supportive environment for all members, as well as portfolios to store and display their writing. Like most writing websites, it also includes a plethora of writing tools , contests, and rewards.

25. Catapult: Don’t Write Alone

Don’t Write Alone is a blog written by the Catapult team dedicated to helping writers grow their skills. As a publisher and magazine founded in 2005, Catapult has seen a lot of works and now they’re spilling all the details. From interviews, to craft essays, to writer lifestyle essays, Catapult covers it all.

26. Kirkus Review’s Writers’ Center

Kirkus Review is known for its prestigious $50,000 dollar annual prize and its bi-monthly issues where they critique hundreds of recently published books. But, did you know they also have a section of their website devoted to helping emerging writers grow their skills and navigate the publishing industry? They’re always up to date on the latest trends — if they aren’t creating new trends themselves.

27. Writers Write

An invaluable resource for creative writers, business writers, or bloggers, Writers Write offers over 1400 articles, courses, and workbooks to help you take your writing practice to the next level. Alongside their educational content, they offer book reviews, trivia on famous authors, and prompts. Sign up for their inspirational newsletters for regular hits of motivation that will keep you writing.

28. The Narrative Arc

Beginning as a home to Andie R. Cranford’s writing journey, The Narrative Arc is now a treasure trove of practical tips and prompts to inspire your creativity. Breakdowns of popular books are particularly handy for the budding author — but whether exploring writing for the first time or tightening the bolts on your Franken-novel, the site's ideas on craft are elegant and inspiring.

Best writing websites in the publishing industry

29. Agent Query

This database allows authors to perform in-depth searches for literary agents . You can narrow your search by genre and keywords, view agents’ full profiles, and see if they are currently accepting queries — all for free!

30. The Creative Penn

Besides being a bestselling author on various topics, Joanna Penn is also a leading voice in self-publishing . On her punnily named site, you’ll find abundant information related to writing, self-publishing, marketing, and everything else you mind need to make a living as a writer.

31. Digital Pubbing

Digital Pubbing provides industry news, interviews with indie authors, and resources for learning all about ebooks and the publishing industry. In accordance with the name, this is the perfect site for any author hoping to absorb some serious digital knowledge.

32. The Independent Publishing Magazine

We know it might seem like we're repeating ourselves, but this website really is all about publishing (both independent and traditional, despite what the name indicates). Whatever info you need about self-publishing, trad pub, or hybrid publishing , you’ll definitely be able to find it here.

33. Publishers Weekly

And if you have a specific question about the publishing world, you’ll most likely find the answer here. This weekly magazine is packed full of news, reviews, announcements, and many other resources on the industry. It has been dubbed as "the Bible of the book business" and with its extensive archive, it’s easy to see why.

34. Publishing Perspectives

Publishing Perspectives is another leading source of publishing info, specializing in industry news and topical articles. Aimed at publishers, agents , and authors alike, it features a variety of posts that cover book fairs, distribution, education, and much more.

35. Query Shark

Not sure where your query letter is up to snuff? Query Shark offers the opportunity to have your query critiqued, and to read detailed query critiques of other authors' letters, so you can get the best possible results for your book. Be warned, though, that this sharp-toothed feedback isn't for the weak of heart.

36. Writer Beware

This amazingly thorough site compiles information on schemes and scams that affect authors , especially those run through email and the Internet. It’s sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but obviously applies to authors everywhere. If you're a fresh-faced author trying to get published, definitely check it out — it could save you from losing thousands of dollars in an elaborate scam.

37. The Darling Axe

When the industry professionals at The Darling Axe aren’t working on manuscripts, they flock to the internet to share their hot takes on the publishing industry. They also host writing contests throughout the year to build a writing community and give unpublished authors the chance to get feedback from professionals.

Best writing websites for marketing and design

38. David Gaughran

An experienced author of historical adventures, short stories, and popular books for writers , David Gaughran is one of the definitive writing experts out there. His eponymous blog contains plenty of info on marketing and self-publishing, plus workshops to help aspiring authors. And similar to Writer Beware, he's the noble opposition of online publishing scams and scammers — so if you're frustrated by these issues, you'll discover a blissfully sympathetic voice on his blog.

39. Kikolani

Focused specifically on marketing, Kikolani offers tips and strategies for bloggers who want to grow their presence and attract more readers. Here you’ll find information on brand development , social media, customer retention, and other useful tips that you can put to good use as a blogger. (If you're just getting started, though, we'd recommend this course .)

40. Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson is — in his own words — a “digital marketing nut.” His blog has all the information you could ever need about Kindle book publishing , how to write to market, increasing your rankings on Amazon, and lots more practical tips and advice.

41. Storiad

Storiad is a marketing platform that helps authors and publishers sell books. Go here for essential information on writing apps , databases, tools, and budgeting to help you run your own publishing campaign from start to finish.

42. Writers & Artists

Part of the distinguished Bloomsbury, Writers & Artists has quite a few articles on writing and the self-publishing process. They also offer editorial services and events on many different topics, like genre-specific writing courses and how to get connected with agents .

43. Your Writer Platform

Naturally, this site is dedicated to building your very own writer platform. There are tons of tips, resources, tools, how-tos, and even individual consulting services to help you build the platform that works best for you and your marketing needs.

Best writing blogs by industry professionals

44. Goins, Writer

Bestselling author Jeff Goins created this blog to share his thoughts on writing and to inspire others to chase their creative dreams. He's especially good at breaking complex topics down into digestible bits — new writers, go here for your primers.

45. Jane Friedman

With copious experience in the publishing industry, Jane Friedman offers online classes and articles on the entire process of book publishing. She's a real goldmine of business knowledge, so keep her in mind for when you're ready to publish your book.

46. Nail Your Novel

As a bestselling former ghostwriter who now publishes under her own name, Roz Morris provides advice about writing, self-publishing, and of course, ghostwriting . If you're interested in becoming a ghostwriter, be sure to check out her courses!

47. Nathan Bransford

Nathan Bransford is a former literary agent who posts all about the inner workings of publishing, as well and information on agents and self-publishing. He also does consultations, edits, and critiques . 

48. Rachelle Gardner

Skillful agent Rachelle Gardner has negotiated over 200 contracts with over twenty publishers and helped more than 100 authors fulfill their dreams of publishing. On her blog, she offers writing, publishing, and social media coaching, along with general writing and publishing tips.

49. Kris Writes

For regular insights from a New York Times bestselling author, look no further than Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog. On Mondays, she posts free short stories for authors to find inspiration in, and Wednesdays she posts in her “Business Musings” collection where she breaks down news from the publishing industry and offers her inside opinions. 

50. The Marginalian  

Maria Popova describes her site as “a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually, poetically — drawn from my extended marginalia on the search for meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy, and the various other tendrils of human thought and feeling.” She sends out a Sunday newsletter with thoughtful deconstruction of the week’s best liberal arts goings-on to help broaden her readers’ appreciation of the creative world.

51. John August

For all the screenwriters out there, John August co-hosts a weekly podcast with fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin discussing both the craft and business of screenwriting while breaking down popular movies. To help screenwriters really get a feel for the process of working with a studio, John has posted multiple versions of scripts from different stages in the production process on films and series he’s written, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Big Fish , and Chernobyl .

What are some of your favorite writing websites? Let us know in the comments below!

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The best AI image generators to try right now

If you've ever searched Google high and low to find an image you needed to no avail, artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to help. 

With AI image generators, you can type in a prompt as detailed or vague as you'd like to fit an array of purposes and have the image you were thinking of instantly pop up on your screen. These tools can help with branding, social media content creation, and making invitations, flyers, business cards, and more.

Also: ChatGPT no longer requires a login, but you might want one anyway. Here's why

Even if you have no professional use for AI, don't worry -- the process is so fun that anyone can (and should) try it out.

OpenAI's DALL-E 2 made a huge splash because of its advanced capabilities as the first mainstream AI image generator. However, since its initial launch, there have been many developments. Other companies have released models that rival DALL-E 2, and OpenAI even released a more advanced model known as DALL-E 3 , discontinuing its predecessor. 

To help you discover which models are the best for different tasks, I put the image generators to the test by giving each tool the same prompt: "Two Yorkies sitting on a beach that is covered in snow". I also included screenshots to help you decide which is best. 

Also: DALL-E adds new ways to edit and create AI-generated images. Learn how to use it

While I found the best overall AI image generator is Image Creator from Microsoft Designer , due to its free-of-charge, high-quality results, other AI image generators perform better for specific needs. For the full roundup of the best AI image generators, keep reading. 

The best AI image generators of 2024

Image creator from microsoft designer (formerly bing image creator), best ai image generator overall.

• Powered by DALL-E 3
• Convenient to access
• Need a Microsoft account
• In preview stage

Image Creator from Microsoft Designer is powered by DALL-E 3, OpenAI's most advanced image-generating model. As a result, it produces the same quality results as DALL-E while remaining free to use as opposed to the $20 per month fee to use DALL-E. 

All you need to do to access the image generator is visit the Image Creator website and sign in with a Microsoft account. 

Another major perk about this AI generator is that you can also access it in the same place where you can access Microsoft's AI chatbot, Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) . 

This capability means that in addition to visiting Image Creator on its standalone site, you can ask it to generate images for you in Copilot. To render an image, all you have to do is conversationally ask Copilot to draw you any image you'd like. 

Also:   How to use Image Creator from Microsoft Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator)

This feature is so convenient because you can satisfy all your image-generating and AI-chatting needs in the same place for free. This combination facilitates tasks that could benefit from image and text generation, such as party planning, as you can ask the chatbot to generate themes for your party and then ask it to create images that follow the theme.

Image Creator from Microsoft Designer f eatures:  Powered by:  DALL-E 3 |  Access via:  Copilot, browser, mobile |  Output:  4 images per prompt |  P rice:  Free 

DALL-E 3 by OpenAI

Best ai image generator if you want to experience the inspiration.

• Not copyrighted
• Accurate depictions
• Confusing credits

OpenAI, the AI research company behind ChatGPT, launched DALL-E 2 in November 2022. The tool quickly became the most popular AI image generator on the market. However, after launching its most advanced image generator, DALL-E 3, OpenAI discontinued DALL-E 2. 

DALL-E 3 is even more capable than the original model, but this ability comes at a cost. To access DALL-E 3 you must be a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, and the membership costs $20 per month per user. You can access DALL-E 3 via ChatGPT or the ChatGPT app.

Using DALL-E 3 is very intuitive. Type in whatever prompt you'd like, specifying as much detail as necessary to bring your vision to life, and then DALL-E 3 will generate four images from your prompt. As you can see in the image at the top of the article, the renditions are high quality and very realistic.

OpenAI even recently added new ways to edit an image generated by the chatbot, including easy conversational text prompts and the ability to click on parts of the image you want to edit. 

Like with Copilot, you can chat and render your images on the same platform, making it convenient to work on projects that depend on image and text generation. If you don't want to shell out the money,  Image Creator by Designer  is a great alternative since it's free, uses DALL-E 3, and can be accessed via Copilot.

DALL-E 3 features: Powered by:  DALL-E 3 by OpenAI |  Access via:  ChatGPT website and app |  Output:  4 images per credit |  Price:  ChatGPT Plus subscription, $20 per month

ImageFX by Google

The best ai image generator for beginners.

• Easy-to-use
• High-quality results
• Expressive chips
• Need a Google account
• Strict guardrails can be limiting

Google's ImageFX was a dark horse, entering the AI image generator space much later than its competition, over a year after DALL-E 2 launched. However, the generator's performance seems to have been worth the wait. The image generator can produce high-quality, realistic outputs, even objects that are difficult to render, such as hands. 

Also: I just tried Google's ImageFX AI image generator, and I'm shocked at how good it is

The tool boasts a unique feature, expressive chips, that make it easier to refine your prompts or generate new ones via dropdowns, which highlight parts of your prompt and suggest different word changes to modify your output.

ImageFX also includes suggestions for the style you'd like your image rendered in, such as photorealistic, 35mm film, minimal, sketch, handmade, and more. This combination of features makes ImageFX the perfect for beginners who want to experiment. 

ImageFX from Google: Powered by:  Imagen 2  | Access via:  Website |  Output:  4 images |  Price:  free 

DreamStudio by Stability AI

Best ai image generator for customization.

• Accepts specific instruction
• Open source
• More entries for customization
• Paid credits
• Need to create an account

Stability AI created the massively popular, open-sourced, text-to-image generator, Stable Diffusion. Users can download the tool and use it at no cost. However, using this tool typically requires technical skill. 

Also :  How to use Stable Diffusion AI to create amazing images

To make the technology readily accessible to everyone (regardless of skill level), Stability AI created DreamStudio, which incorporates Stable Diffusion in a UI that is easy to understand and use. 

One of the standouts of the platform is that it includes many different entries for customization, including a "negative prompt" where you can delineate the specifics of what you'd like to avoid in the final image. You can also easily change the image ratio -- that's a key feature, as most AI image generators automatically deliver 1:1. 

DreamStudio features: Powered by:  SDXL 1.0 by Stability AI  | Access via:  Website |  Output:  1 image per 2 credits |  Price:  $1 per 100 credits |  Credits:  25 free credits when you open an account; buy purchase once you run out

Dream by WOMBO

Best ai image generator for your phone.

• Remix your own images
• Multiple templates
• One image per prompt
• Subscription cost for full access

This app took the first-place spot for the best overall app in Google Play's 2022 awards , and it has five stars on Apple's App Store with 141.6K ratings. With the app, you can create art and images with the simple input of a quick prompt. 

An added plus is this AI image generator allows you to pick different design styles such as realistic, expressionist, comic, abstract, fanatical, ink, and more. 

Also :  How to use Dream by WOMBO to generate artwork in any style

In addition to the app, the tool has a free desktop mobile version that is simple to use. If you want to take your use of the app to the next level, you can pay $90 per year or $10 per month.

Dream by WOMBO f eatures: Powered by:  WOMBO AI's machine-learning algorithm |  Access via:  Mobile and desktop versions |  Output:  1 image with a free version, 4 with a paid plan |  Price:  Free limited access

Best no-frills AI image generator

• Unlimited access
• Simple to use
• Longer wait
• Inconsistent images

Despite originally being named DALL-E mini, this AI image generator is NOT affiliated with OpenAI or DALL-E 2. Rather, it is an open-source alternative. However, the name DALL-E 2 mini is somewhat fitting as the tool does everything DALL-E 2 does, just with less precise renditions. 

Also :  How to use Craiyon AI (formerly known as DALL-E mini)

Unlike DALL-E 2, the outputs from Craiyon lack quality and take longer to render (approximately a minute). However, because you have unlimited prompts, you can continue to tweak the prompt until you get your exact vision. The site is also simple to use, making it perfect for someone wanting to experiment with AI image generators. It also generates six images, more than any other chatbot listed. 

Craiyon f eatures: Powered by:  Their model |  Access via :  Craiyon website  |  Output:  6 images per prompt |  Price:  Free, unlimited prompts 

Best AI image generator for highest quality photos

• Very high-quality outputs
• Discord community
• Monthly cost
• Confusing to set up

I often play around with AI image generators because they make it fun and easy to create digital artwork. Despite all my experiences with different AI generators, nothing could have prepared me for Midjourney -- in the best way. 

The output of the image was so crystal clear that I had a hard time believing it wasn't an actual picture that someone took of my prompt. This software is so good that it has produced award-winning art .

However, I think Midjourney isn't user-friendly and it confuses me. If you also need extra direction, check out our step-by-step how-to here: How to use Midjourney to generate amazing images and art .

Another problem with the tool is that you may not access it for free. When I tried to render images, I got this error message: "Due to extreme demand, we can't provide a free trial right now. Please subscribe to create images with Midjourney."

To show you the quality of renditions, I've included a close-up below from a previous time I tested the generator. The prompt was: "A baby Yorkie sitting on a comfy couch in front of the NYC skyline." 

Midjourney f eatures: Powered by:  Midjourney; utilizes Discord |  Access via:  Discord |  Output:  4 images per prompt |  Price:  Starts at $10/month

Adobe Firefly

Best ai image generator if you have a reference photo.

• Structure and Style Reference
• Commercial-safe
• Longer lag than other generators
• More specific prompts required

Adobe has been a leader in developing creative tools for creative and working professionals for decades. As a result, it's no surprise that its image generator is impressive. Accessing the generator is easy. Just visit the website and type the prompt of the image you'd like generated. 

Also: This new AI tool from Adobe makes generating the images you need even simpler

As you can see above, the images rendered of the Yorkies are high-quality, realistic, and detailed. Additionally, the biggest standout features of this chatbot are its Structure Reference and Style Reference features. 

Structure Reference lets users input an image they want the AI model to use as a template. The model then uses this structure to create a new image with the same layout and composition. Style Reference uses an image as a reference to generate a new image in the same style. 

These features are useful if you have an image you'd like the new, generated image to resemble, for example, a quick sketch you drew or even a business logo or style you'd like to keep consistent. 

Another perk is that Adobe Firefly was trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, making all the images generated safe for commercial use and addressing the ethics issue of image generators. 

Adobe Firefly f eatures:  Powered by:  Firefly Image 2 |  Access via:  Website |  Output:  4 images per prompt |  P rice:  Free 

Generative AI by Getty Images

Best ai image generator for businesses.

• Commercially safe
• Contributor compensation program
• Personalized stock photos
• Not clear about pricing
• Not individual-friendly

One of the biggest issues with AI image generators is that they typically train their generators on content from the entirety of the internet, which means the generators use aspects of creators' art without compensation. This approach also puts businesses that use generators at risk of copyright infringement. 

Generative AI by Getty Images tackles that issue by generating images with content solely from Getty Images' vast creative library with full indemnification for commercial use. The generated images will have Getty Images' standard royalty-free license, assuring customers that their content is fair to use without fearing legal repercussions.

Another pro is that contributors whose content was used to train the models will be compensated for their inclusion in the training set. This is a great solution for businesses that want stock photos that match their creative vision but do not want to deal with copyright-related issues. 

ZDNET's Tiernan Ray went hands-on with the AI image generator. Although the tool did not generate the most vivid images, especially compared to DALL-E, it did create accurate, reliable, and useable stock images. 

Generative AI by Getty Images f eatures:  Powered by:  NVIDIA Picasso |  Access via:  Website |  Output:  4 images per prompt |  P rice:  Paid (price undisclosed, have to contact the team)

What is the best AI image generator?

Image Creator from Microsoft Designer is the best overall AI image generator. Like DALL-E 3, Image Creator from Microsoft Designer combines accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness, and can generate high-quality images in seconds. However, unlike DALL-E 3, this Microsoft version is entirely free.

Whether you want to generate images of animals, objects, or even abstract concepts, Image Creator from Microsoft Designer can produce accurate depictions that meet your expectations. It is highly efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective.

Note: Prices and features are subject to change.

Which is the right AI image generator for you?

Although I crowned Image Creator from Microsoft Designer the best AI image generator overall, other AI image generators perform better for specific needs. For example, suppose you are a professional using AI image generation for your business. In that case, you may need a tool like Generative AI by Getty Images which renders images safe for commercial use. 

On the other hand, if you want to play with AI art generating for entertainment purposes, Craiyon might be the best option because it's free, unlimited, and easy to use. 

How did I choose these AI image generators?

To find the best AI image generators, I tested each generator listed and compared their performance. The factors that went into testing performance included UI/UX, image results, cost, speed, and availability. Each AI image generator had different strengths and weaknesses, making each one the ideal fit for individuals as listed next to my picks. 

What is an AI image generator?

An AI image generator is software that uses AI to create images from user text inputs, usually within seconds. The images vary in style depending on the capabilities of the software, but can typically render an image in any style you want, including 3D, 2D, cinematic, modern, Renaissance, and more. 

How do AI image generators work?

Like any other AI model, AI image generators work on learned data they are trained with. Typically, these models are trained on billions of images, which they analyze for characteristics. These insights are then used by the models to create new images.

Are there ethical implications with AI image generators?

AI image generators are trained on billions of images found throughout the internet. These images are often artworks that belong to specific artists, which are then reimagined and repurposed by AI to generate your image. Although the output is not the same image, the new image has elements of the artist's original work not credited to them. 

Are there DALL-E 3 alternatives worth considering?

Contrary to what you might think, there are many AI image generators other than DALL-E 3. Some tools produce even better results than OpenAI's software. If you want to try something different, check out one of our alternatives above or the three additional options below. 

Nightcafe is a multi-purpose AI image generator. The tool is worth trying because it allows users to create unique and original artwork using different inputs and styles, including abstract, impressionism, expressionism, and more.

Canva is a versatile and powerful AI image generator that offers a wide range of options within its design platform. It allows users to create professional-looking designs for different marketing channels, including social media posts, ads, flyers, brochures, and more. 

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