I think every writer should have a blog. Aside from the writing discipline it provides, blogging is one of the very best ways to establish your platform, build a readership, and possibly even attract a book deal.
There are lots of platforms to blog on, but I’m a fan of Wordpress. It’s free, it’s endlessly customizable, and it’s easy to start with a blog and build it into a full-fledged website. Check out either the Wordpress.com hosted site, or for more control and options opt for Wordpress.org, which offers you more freedom and growth potential.
When I first started this blog, I spent a lot of time searching for a good theme, which provides the basic layout and design elements of a blog. There are thousands of free Wordpress themes. But what I think makes for a great theme for a writer is a layout that’s simple, clean and elegant and puts your writing front and center.
Here are 10 Cool WordPress Themes for Writers:
1. Neoclassical I’m a fan of Chris Pearson’s simple, elegant design aesthetic. This blog runs on his premium Thesis theme, which I love. But you can get this similar, older version from Pearson free.
2. PlaintxtBlog This is the theme I used on Editor Unleashed for the first two months of its existence. Simple, basic, customizable, not too much to tinker with—a good starter blog for writers in my opinion.
3. Pressrow Another Chris Pearson design, and one I’ve spotted on a number of writers’ blogs that I admire. Check it out on chapmanchapman.
4. Sandbox This is a classic, basic theme that’s easy to customize. For an example, litpark will show you how this theme can rock.
5. Magazine Basic Another solid 3-column theme with a magazine feel that puts content first.
6. Cutline Ample white space, modern fonts, horizontal navigation—in short, everything a writer could hope for in a blog design.
7. Journalist Here’s a theme with a classic newspaper feel that was designed with journalists in mind.
8. Minimalism I love the justified text and crisp use of white space. Very zen and poetic.
9. Misty Look Another simple, poetic theme used well by another one of my favorite writing blogs, writerunboxed.
10.DePo Masthead I like the 3-column layout, pop of red and classic fonts in this theme. Check out Jordan Rosenfeld’s Make a Scene blog for a good example.
The great thing about WordPress themes is they’re not a huge commitment. It’s easy to pick one you might like, try it on for a test drive, and swap it out if it’s not working for you.
Any other WordPress themes you’d recommend for writers? Please post favorite examples here in the comments.
-Maria Schneider
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I started my WordPress.com blog on your post’s recommendation only two months ago, and I’m very happy with it. I have the MistyLook theme and decided to go with CSS customization. There has been a distinct learning curve, but I enjoy a challenge and they have CSS tutorials. Also, the volunteers who staff the Forums are very helpful when I hit a stumbling block.
Anyway, thought you should know that at least one of your readers actually listens to your advice. :)
@hope101, hey Hope, I just checked out your blog. Love the color scheme, and the orange is fabulous.
Great info! When I chose pressrow as my theme, I was looking for a theme that 1) looked professional 2) had links to previous and next posts at the top and 3) was only two column. That limited me to three choices, and I wish I’d taken better notes since Wordpress’s categories don’t make very easy viewing, and you should think about including that information, too! :)
Good post!
@Maria Whoa! That was fast, lol. Thanks so much for the feedback. It’s nice to know what a Trained Professional thinks of it.
I’ve gone through six templates so far this year, in search of one that had the right combination of features and display options, including PlaintxtBlog which I found through you. I generally prefer minimalist templates, but I love my current one because it’s got all of the features I wanted — including a 3-column layout — while also having some visual flair without going over-the-top like so many free templates tend to do.
PS: Arthemia and Silver Lexus are two other clean templates I’ve used and/or considered.
http://www.highlandsbydesign.com/theme/silver-lexus-theme/
http://michaelhutagalung.com/2008/05/arthemia-magazine-blog-wordpress-theme-released/
I love the Pressrow theme!
I was just wondering about WordPress themes for writers, because I never found any to my satisfaction so I ended up creating my own. (See my site.) The thing is, I think writers need a way to boast their work, which most of these blogs are not that well-equipped to do. Even my custom theme could use work in that area — but I’m trying to resist the urge to redesign because I need to WRITE!
Anyway, these are all perfectly fine templates for a writer’s *blog*, but I look forward to the day that a WordPress theme really captures all the needs/nuances for a writer’s *site*.
These are all good suggestions. I think it’s important to make sure your theme is clear and easy to use, including reasonable size fonts and a clean layout. Image-heavy themes are okay for design and portfolio sites, bit for us writers it’s all about the content!
This reminds me that I have a blog long overdue…
Great post! I’m a big WordPress fan, too. I use Digg 3 Column, which, obviously, has three columns… but if you set it up properly, can look quite clean.
Though I don’t use wordpress, I agree on the importance of a blog. I started one at my editor’s recommendation. I had no idea how much fun it would be (well, maybe I did, and that’s why I took so long to start one). What a great way to connect w/ people.
Simple, elegant, tasteful, professional, who needs all that? When you’re a geek like me, with the aesthetic refinement of a coprorate art buyer, flexibility and the ability to tweak the CSS endlessly are what really matter. That’s why I chose Atahualpa. And I love it.
@Graham, you crack me up! I like your blog, lots of personality. I’m thinking about trying to learn CSS myself so I can geek out a little. :)
Thesis, Thesis, Thesis – the same theme you’re running.
It’s the gold standard right now.
Don’t discount the possibility of customizing the theme with your own photos.
I chose the Misty Look theme for my private blog, then replaced the image with one I’d taken with my li’l digital camera. The software displayed my pic along with a box showing how much would appear in the header. I maneuvered the box to where I wanted it, and it’s exactly perfect for my purposes!
@Jeff, I agree, I love Thesis. But if you’re just starting a blog, I think it’s perhaps better to start with a simple and free theme to figure out what you want in a blog design before you commit to a premium theme.
Which of these are for wordpress.org & which for wordpress.com??
Thanks for this post Maria. Authors definitely need a blog and starting with a free theme is excellent. I used Redflowers until recently – now I have switched to Thesis which definitely looks more professional and is easier on the eye! I am still tweaking and have to learn more about it I think to appreciate it’s full potential!
Thanks, Joanna
@CafeObserver: I’m going to add this info to the post, but DePo Masthead and PressRow are for Wordpress.com, I believe the rest are Wordpress.org.
Hi Maria, I have just started a blog to push my fairy tale “The 7 Gifts”. I chose Wordpress for just the reasons you list, and the fact that I could install it easily direct from my web host. I have been very pleased with the way it works and settled on the Carrington Blog theme with a slightly modified header. A great attraction of this theme, apart from its clarity, is that comments can be quickly listed or hidden without reloading the whole page, using Ajax. That I really like. It should have two narrow sidebars but I edited a file to remove one, leaving a single wide one so my post titles can stay on one line. Click my name to have a look. It also displays well on Intenet Explorer, which some themes do not. I run Firefox in Linux but use a site which shows me what the blog looks like in various flavours of IE – essential to check considering the percentage who use it..
@maria and @CafeObserver
Yes, I think those are available through WordPress.com, but you can also get them as free themes if you have a self-hosted WordPress installation.
@Cafe Observer, I know for sure the Mistylook, Pressrow and Digg 3 themes are available on WP.COM. If you go to this page http://en.wordpress.com/features/ it’s probably the best explanation of the features available.
Also, this page will show you a tag cloud. Follow some in and get an idea of the way people have customized: http://en.wordpress.com/tags/
Hope that helps.
Sorry I didn’t think of this earlier, but here is the page where you can view all 5 pages of the WordPress.COM themes. You can sort according to the features you believe are most essential.
http://cherrytart.wordpress.com/wp-admin/themes.php
Maria, I’m really slow…thanks for linking to my blog!! My template makes me feel more like a journalist :)
Thanks for the list, I’ve passed it on to a number of writers who were looking to change their blog.
The Erudite is the winner for me. I went through several WordPress themes before falling into the simplistic arms of this free template from Soma Design. It’s for self-hosted blogs.
From the template page:
I’m using it on my reverse-engineered publishing experiment, The Miracle in July. It’s a one-column, uncluttered dream. I highly recommend it.
Thanks friends for your answers re theme availability! It seems for Wordpress.com you are limited to the themes offered directly by Wordpress. No third-party themes sites.
You convinced me to start blogging with this post (and your great step-by-step guide) and I’m really enjoying it! For now, I’m using one of the wordpress themes but I’m planning to customize further in the future. Thanks for the wonderful idea! Next, I’ll conquer Twitter…
Thanks for the link to Writer Unboxed!
MistyLook is a “classic” wordpress theme.
I’m not using WordPress for a blog, but rather to publish chapters of a story I’m working on as I finish them. I chose a theme called “This Just In,” which (in my opinion) looks great and was easily adaptable from blog format to chapter format.
Is sometimes loads a little slow, but other than that, no complaints.
I completely agree – I’ve just moved from Wordpress hosted to self-hosted and am using the most customisable theme I have ever come across (but I am also a bit of a CSS-techie) – called Atahualpa which also has the most fantastic support forum
They are coming out with an even newer one soon too called ThemeFrame – http://wordpress.bytesforall.com/?p=75
Whatever the Theme though, blogging is one of the best ways of not only sharing knowledge but also of exercising those “writing muscles”
My blog’s here – http://www.thebookwright.com
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