If you’re a blogger, writer or content marketer…
You need to adapt.
New technology and on-the-go expectations from your audience have led to a growing need to ‘systemize’ your life and increase your efficiency.
The field of personal effectiveness and productivity is fueled by an increasing number of low cost (or free) software tools, available all over the world.
If you don’t adapt, you will fall behind.
The following list of writing tools dig deep into your writing habits. They will show you what resonates with your audience and help you create better, more consistent content.
Optimization
Having well written content, can only get you so far as an author. By understanding how to optimize your content for yourself or a client, ensures that your work will continuously create awareness in whatever medium you choose. From back-end data to front-end visuals, optimization tools give your content a boost.
1. AtomicWriter
This easy-to-use tool is the first in it’s class to accurately tell you who your reading audience is, the audience’s reading level, and which content they relate to the most. AtomicWriter adapts your writing to your target audience.
By hooking up your Google analytics and social media accounts, this tool analyzes your content to tell you where and how you can improve your writing based on historical data and engagement data. It also provides you with an Atomic Score that acts as a benchmark for writers to know what they have to achieve in order to produce the most effective content that will resonate with their target audience.
2. Skyword
With a community of influential writers, designers, and videographers, your story will turn into scalable and sustainable content for your content marketing efforts. In this instance, great storytellers don’t necessarily just have to show their work in writing.
3. Draft
Putting the edits you made to the forefront of its interface, Draft shows you where and what you’ve changed, giving you the option of accepting it or reverting it back to what it was originally. What’s even more useful is the Mark Draft feature that saves that version of your work as you go.
With many other options that make iCloud and Google Docs seem dated, this tool can help you write and share your writing for other presentations not limited to blogging.
Ideation & prompts
To generate great ideas and write about them from a fresh perspective, is one of the most difficult aspects to being a writer. With the following tools, you will be able to think up new ideas fasters, sift through information overload, and improve your writing efficiency. Writer’s block will become a long lost myth.
4. Content Ideator
Just enter a keyword and you’ll get a list of existing titles to inspire your own content piece.
5. Daily Page
Get emailed a writing prompt every morning. This tool is great for jumpstarting your brain or to complete by the end of the day.
You can also share your response or choose to be private.
6. WritePls
A list of curated articles to help you to write and publish online.
Get inspired by topics that range from non-fiction, fiction, e-mails, and growth hacking.
7. Twords
The perfect motivator to nudge you towards your writing finish line. Track your writing to see which days were your best.
With writing prompts, you can refine your style, technique, and tone.
8. BlankPage
Putting the routine practices of writing into a great tool. With the goal to write for at least 20 minutes a day, you’ll definitely be improving as a writer.
By creating an outline that doubles as your motivation, you will stay on-track to finish your story.
9. 750 Words
Tracking your word count along the way to your goal of 750 words or 3 pages of writing per day, will help you clear your mind of idea clutter, and get your ideas flowing for the rest of the day.
Inspired by The Artist’s Way – Morning Pages exercise.
Removing distractions
Visually minimalistic and open spaces increases creativity. Just as artists work in their own studios, starting on a blank canvas, writers also require a space of their own.
Omitting distractions will encourage flow of thought, and tone consistency while writing. Readers are keen on content that is able to deliver on expected quality, style, and publication time. The key here is focused writing.
10. ZenPen
A clean and minimalist approach to where you write. Blocking out visual distractions, with features to stylize the text, add hyperlinks, and block quotes.
11. Typed
An app that let’s you focus primarily on your work, and writing experience. Features include, ridding your view of window buttons, a word counter, saving your work on the cloud, soundtracks that help you focus, a distraction-free Zen mode, and other modes to choose from.
12. Calmly Writer
As you start writing on this interface, all the distracting options disappear. With a different kind of focus mode that highlights only the paragraph you are currently editing. Like many other tools, it offers cloud saving, and a beautifully responsive design.
13. OmmWriter
As your “own private writing room” everywhere you go, you are able to concentrate on the single task of writing. It features backgrounds, audio tracks, and keystroke sounds to help keep your writing momentum going.
14. Squirt
Letting you read an article one word at a time, Squirt enhances your reading speed. You can also use this tool to improve your grammar and spelling errors, and improve your brain’s transition between flow of thought and writing output.
Documentation
A big leap from desktop-based software, writing on-the-go is now a common practice. Writing programs are expected to have cloud compatibility, with website plug-in options, group accessibility, and the standard features we grew up with using Microsoft Word.
As many have the same features, the tool you use is based on your personal preference and needs.
15. Write
For your tablet and smartphone, Write’s clean and intuitive UI creates a seamless writing experience that could be as good as if you were writing from your desktop. There is no missing cursor like every other app out there. Their cursor trackpad is able to ensure you are accurately correcting the right text. No hide-and-seek behind the finger here!
Additional features include passcode app activation, tagging options for organizations, night and day themes, custom URL actions, a shortcut toolbar, ability to edit on dropbox, a preview mode, and stylization.
16. Typewrite
Your alternative to Google Docs, with a much friendly layout. Options like markdown format, real-time collaborative and historical editing, and dropbox sync, and compatible with all your devices.
17. Ulysses
On Mac, it’s interface was made for any writing project, and is clutter-free. On iPad, it transitions the Mac experience to an on-the-go experience, with the same capabilities as the desktop version. This text-editor allows you to change the visual style you are writing on created by their community.
Collaboration
Diving further into group accessibility features, it continues to be important that you stay connected with your team and build your network. We are no longer restricted to meeting in the same room and hashing out the details under time constraints. Being able to collaborate with your team and a community that can critique your work, increases workflow, output, and personal knowledge.
18. Poetica
Exclusively for WordPress, Poetica allows you to see people editing in real-time, what was previously there, straight publication to wordpress, and Slack notifications. This tools encourages a collaborative form of editing.
19. Help Me Write
If you can’t decide what you want to write, let the community make that decision for you. Simply, add your ideas, share them, ask your friends what they’d like to read about, and write and publish! By knowing what your audience wants to read before you even start writing,ensures you’ll have readers as soon as you hit publish and will save you time.
20. Reedsy
As a community where authors meet the best editors, designers, and marketers, Reedsy will help you stay connected to experts and freelancers to create a beautiful product. To enhance workflow – writing and project management tools are also included.
These 20 amazing writing tools will help shift your focus and improve your productivity. We’ve already seen how tablets have improved the speed a child’s brain can process words, and with technology evolving so quickly, a writer needs to be able to adapt to this digital environment too. How else can you expect to keep up with the demand for quality content online?
Please feel free to mention any other tools we might have missed, or you think are worth noting in the comments!
Guest Author: Initially a self-taught social media enthusiast, turned Social Media Marketer, Amanda Chiu writes posts, shares news, seeks industry knowledge, and engages with online communities daily. Her attempts at clearing her ever-growing reading list continues to be unsuccessful, and she really does believe that sharing is caring.