How to Create Your Own Virtual Writer's Office Using Google

Google is not the number one search engine just because they have a search box on their front page; no they are top dog because they are the leaders of internet innovation. Google has come a long way since the days of the Back Rub. By signing up for a Google account you can now design your own writer's resource lab, office or library. All this can be achieved using the home page feature and I'm going to show you how.

Go to google.com and look up at the top right hand of the screen, see the link that says sign in? Click on that, don't worry that you don't have an account just click it anyway. When the next page loads, scroll down past the log in box and you will see a link for creating a new account, click there and register yourself an account.

Once you have a Google account set up and are logged in you should see two tabs, one that says home page and one that says add a tab. On the other side of the screen you should see a link that says add stuff. Click on this because this is where the action happens.

I suggest opening up another tab in your browser, one with your home page loaded that you can refresh over and over and one with the add stuff page open. When you open up your Google home page click on the x in each tool box to remove it, you should start with a fresh blank page.

With each tool that you add to your Google home page you can minimize them on the screen so that you can have as many tool boxes as you want. You can also move the tools around on the screen by clicking and dragging them into place.

At the top of the screen in the search box, type writer's idea and hit enter or click the search home page content button. The writer's idea bank is a tool to help you deal with writer's block. This tool is ideal for people that write novels, songs, poetry, short and long stories and more. When you refresh your home page the writer's idea bank will give you a fresh suggestion for plot, setting and storyline. Click on the add button to add the writer's idea bank to your home page. Now click over to your home page tab and refresh the page. You should see the new writer's idea bank tool on your Google home page. Move it to where ever you like.

The next set of tools we are going to add to your Google home page are grammar tools. In the search box at the top of the screen type in online English grammar and hit the enter key. The first two tools in that list are excellent resources.

The Online English Grammar Tool has a complete listing of all grammatical topics you'll ever need. It has examples, explanations, tests and quizzes.

The Whitesmoke Check My Writing tool actually lets you paste or type text into the box and it will analyze it for grammatical correctness. When it has a suggestion it will underline the word or phrase in blue; clicking on the underlined word will activate a popup box containing the suggestion. Click the add button to put them on your home page, them move and minimize them on your Google home page.

You can get writing prompts galore with some of the Google tools that are available. How Stuff Works is a good one. In the search box at the top, type howstuffworks.

It's one word. You'll get listings of articles like how silly string works. Some of these make great articles. There are 4 how stuff works daily feeds to chose from, select the one you want and click add. Go back to your Google home page, refresh, move and minimize as desired.

Another good writing prompt tool is the how to daily feeds. Return to the search box at the top and enter how to of the day and hit enter. I like the wiki how to of the day tool box myself but go ahead and scroll through the list of how to tools to find the ones that suit you best. When you find what interests you click the add button and check it out on your home page.

You should begin to see a pattern here. By searching for specific tools related to the craft of writing you can build your own Google home page resource center. These tools are the tips of your fingers and help the task of writing to become a well oiled machine.

One great thing about Google home pages is that with the add a tab tab, you can create as many libraries or resource centers as you like. You can create one specifically for how to's, daily feeds and tools that give you ideas or you can create one that provides you with all the daily news around the world. Whatever you want it's right there and very simple to customize to your own liking. Be adventurous, create several pages with lots of tools and find what helps make your internet easier to organize.