5 Free WordPress Themes for Writers

Wordpress themes

If you have a WordPress-based site, then you know that one of the first choices you have to make (and then live with) is your choice of theme. A theme drives the aesthetics of your site—how it looks and feels—and thus its personality.

But a theme also affects the functionality of your site. Some themes have more page or post templates than others. Some have very specific ways of formatting the homepage. Others allow for special customizations.

I use a simple, free theme for this site—TwentyTwelve—that’s developed by WordPress itself. It offers very few bells and whistles, but it’s served me well for a couple of years now. If you’re looking for your first WordPress theme, or you’re just in the market to redecorate, then consider these themes, which can work well for writers.

1. Penscratch

Penscratch WordPress theme

This theme (also developed by the folks at WordPress) has become a favorite with my students. The typography and white space are friendly, inviting, and easy on the eyes. It’s ideal for writers because the focus is the text. Go view the demo. Even though the demo shows you the theme in full-width mode, you can also add a sidebar.

2. Hemingway Rewritten

Hemingway Rewritten WordPress theme

If you have beautiful photographs or imagery to incorporate into your site, check out Hemingway Rewritten. As the theme name indicates, it’s great for writers, but it also has a lot of opportunity for visual customization, so you can incorporate your own voice and personality. Go view the demo.

3. Editor

Editor WordPress theme

Editor is focused, minimalist, and ideal for get-to-the-point sites. If you’re intimidated by too many options and too much flexibility, this may be perfect for you. It’s intended for blog-driven sites, but looks good even if you don’t blog. Go view the demo.

4. Reddle

Reddle WordPress theme

Reddle has a lot in common with Penscratch—and is also designed and developed by the folks at WordPress. It offers a gorgeous minimalist theme for bloggers, but can also be configured into a very simple, static-page site. Go view the demo.

5. Responsive

Responsive WordPress Theme

Responsive is far more customizable and complex than the other four—and more suited toward entrepreneurial and business-like authors. It offers numerous page layout options, a homepage template that’s ideal for showcasing books and products, and a double menu at the top. Go view the demo.

What WordPress themes do you use or recommend? Please share in the comments.

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Southpaw

I use Suffusion. It is completely customizable.

Derek Murphy

And if those aren’t enough, here are 99 more WordPress themes for writers. 🙂 http://www.creativindie.com/99-wordpress-themes-for-indie-author-websites-that-will-actually-sell-books/

Jane Friedman

That brings new meaning to the word comprehensive! Thank you. 🙂

Louise Findlay

I use Twenty Eleven but I’ve been looking for an upgrade to try out on my self-hosted version. Responsive and Penscratch look good. I’m glad this is a free list.

Nate the great

I’m using twentythirteen myself, but if I started a writing blog I would use Tarski. It’s simple and clean.

Anma Natsu

I’m currently using one called Retro-Fitted, however I’m using the one from the WordPress.com site rather than the one also available in the WordPress theme directory. I’d picked it while trying the hosted version of WordPress and didn’t like any of WP’s default ones. But then when I decided to do self-hosting instead, the one from the themes directory of the site was vastly differently. I mean like barely could tell they were the same theme!

Fortunately, the .com one was downloadable so I was able to keep it. It works for me for now, in that it had the very general layout I wanted other than being fixed width.

I plan to do my own down the road, once I’m past NaNo and have more time to devote to studying it and learning more about options.

Jane Friedman

Very interesting – appreciate the insight.

Ruth Skilbeck

This is a good topic, but only covers Wordpres.com, not WordPress.org. If writers and author/publishers wish to develop sites that they may sell from later and not have to pay the annual fees of wordpress-com which are considerable, and out of reach for many struggling authors, one does not have to pay annual fee to use wordpress.org themes, or to start your own independent site – you just need a server (and be prepared to learn the tech skills, not necessarily that difficult for a basic site, and pay much smaller annual fee). There is information on this on wordpress.com, if one searches.

Jane Friedman

Hi Ruth,

The WordPress themes I’ve referenced above can be downloaded and used either in the .com (free WordPress hosted) environment or the .org (self-hosted) environment. They are free either way.

Ruth Skilbeck

Hi Jane, great, thanks for this will have a look more closely as I am about to start the process of building my first self-hosted site. So far have been using wordpress.com Twenty Eleven and blogger, but moving into author-publisher mode.

tweaknee

I found the ‘responsive’ theme here https://wordpress.org/themes/responsive/ Thought Cyberchimps was charging for it last time I looked! Home page is a little tricky to set up, but it’s a good theme.

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Chris Norbury

I use Oxygen. Had something else before, but don’t recall. Seems okay to me, but I’m not a heavy duty blogger, so the “right theme” isn’t at the top of my worry list. 🙂

Chris