Today we are going to be talking about some essential tools that you can and maybe should use as a writer. This is a topic many new and sometimes experienced writers may need some advice on, and that’s what I will be giving today. Unfortunately, there are no tools that can magically write your story for you in exactly the way you want, which is unfortunate because who wouldn’t want to pump out new stories every few weeks? There are, however, tools that make the entire writing process easier.
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Tool #1 – Scrivener
The first tool is what I primarily use for writing and editing and keeping all my world building and stuff together. This is also the tool that many other authors and writers use and this would be Scrivener. Which is my all-time favorite writing app. This app is available on Windows Mac and iOS and has a price tag of $60 for Windows and Mac. The student version is $51, and the iOS version is $24. The one downside to this app is that it might take a day or so to get used to the program, but after you get past that beginning learning curve it is so easy to get around. Scrivener allows you to organize everything that you want how you want and there are so many tools that they have to help you along. Scrivener is basically the Premiere Pro of the writing world.
Some features Scrivener has are:
- A cork board view where you can view each section of your story on Virtual index cards on a virtual cork board. On this cork board you can move everything around to restructure and change where things are located.
- The outliner is just like the cork board view, however there is more information available at your fingertips with this, and you can also change what information you can see with the metadata.
- Composition mode is what you can use if you want to just focus on writing and nothing else. It full screens the application and only shows you what you’re working on. You can even change the backgrounds to suit what you want to feel when you’re writing.
- There are snapshots in which you can save snapshots of your draft, so when you go to a different draft you can revert to previous drafts and afterwards drafts. You can see how you’ve changed and all that and still keep your information safe from being deleted.
- One of my favorite features is to be able to separate your screen into two documents. On one side you can have your writing and the other side you can have your outline, which is typically how I like to work.
There are many many more features I enjoy with Scrivener. These are just the tip of the iceberg of where you can go with it. Now,of course, there are alternatives to this if you prefer something else. Your Alternatives include yWriter, Novelr, Campfire, and of course Microsoft Word and Google Docs. However, out of all of these, I can safely say scrivener is my favorite. If I had to choose one, even out of the rest of the tools I have on this list, Scrivener would be the one I choose.
Tool #2 – ProWritingAid
The next tool on my list is ProWritingAid, and this is primarily used to help me with editing. ProWritingAid has a desktop app through Windows and Mac, and is also available through your web browser. It also has a Safari, Firefox, Edge and Chrome extension that gives you web-based compatibility. Another bonus to this is that they have direct integration with Word, Docs, Scrivener and a few other apps so that you can work on editing right in that application. That is one reason why I chose ProWritingAid since it integrates with my writing application. Now there are other grammar and editing apps you can find out there, but I find this one to be the best for a few reasons.
- This app helps improve clarity, grammar and style in your writing with its suggestions that it gives you as you write. If you pay for the premium version of ProWritingAid, you have 20 plus different reports to help you find where you’re lacking and how you can improve your writing. There are reports on grammar, writing style, overused words and many more of these different reports.
- The next thing ProWritingAid does is it allows you to create your own style guidelines so that the application follows what style you write in and it can give you suggestions based on that.
- There’s also rephrasing tools that can help you find different ways to phrase sentences and more. It even lets you choose what kind of style you’re going for, should you be writing creatively, should you be writing a newspaper article, it has different settings for that so you can tailor this to your needs.
There are a lot more features you can find with this and of course just like scrivener this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ProwritingAid. your main alternatives for ProwritingAid are Grammarly and the Hemingway editor. There are different options you can use to purchase this application. There is a free version, but it does not include nearly as much as the paid version does. It also offers a lifetime license that costs around three to four hundred dollars if you’re interested in that. It can get expensive but I do think ProWritingAid is worth it.
Tool #3 – Notion
The next tool you can use is Notion. Notion is used to keep track of things I don’t keep track of in my scrivener project. Notion is available through Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It is also available through your browser should you not have any of those. It’s also completely free for one person to use. Some people actually write in Notion, however that’s not what I use it for.
- I use it to keep track of my projects and their basic information. I also keep track of what I’m currently writing, what my goals are for the year. I even have an embed for Google Sheets, which is where I keep track of my word count.
- You can do a lot to make sure you lose nothing. There are different databases that allow you to view your projects and different information you want to see from different views. Using it also allows you to keep projects, ideas, and the quick notes you need to take all in one easy to access place.
- Notion is also something you can use to keep track of things other than your writing. It can help organize your life and your reading and other stuff like that. I could keep all this in scrivener, however, having to switch between different scrivener projects to keep track of these might be a little time consuming. In fact, I found it to be time consuming, which is why I use Notion.
Alternatives like Obsidian, Simplenote and Evernote. Simplenote is something you can use for quick notes if you need to use that instead. Evernote and Obsidian are more like Notion in the fact that you can keep track of a whole lot more and you have different ways to keep track of it.
Tool #4 – Google Docs
The next app is Google Docs. I do not write in this, but I use Google Docs to share my writing. Google Docs is available on every platform available on the market. It’s very simple and easy to share with anyone with a Google account.
- I don’t share my writing with many people anymore, but when I do, this is what I use.
- When you share it, the viewers even have a chance to leave comments and suggestions right in that same document so you don’t have to switch back and forth between different documents for that.
- You can even have yourself and someone else writing in the document at the same time.
- This is why Google Docs is great for beta reading and collaborations with other people.
You can use Microsoft Word or other alternatives like that, but I think Google Docs is the best out of all of them.
Honorable Mention
Before we reach the end, I have an honorable mention. That is any music or ambience app you like. There are other websites you can use for ambience to get you in the writing mood, or if you’d like listening to music while you’re writing or working, there you go. I think any one of them you like is a good place to go. I don’t have an exact recommendation for what to use as there are so many of them I cannot really narrow it down.