What’s both amazing and terrifying about being a writer is knowing you can always improve. It makes writers make revisions, do more research, and sit on even perfect compositions for weeks at a time before submitting them to their editors.
The internet has unlocked many ways for writers to hone their skills and take the writing to the next level. Here are seven amazing tools that will help you brainstorm, write, and revise better.
Scrivener
Scrivener is a little bit of everything. This word-processing app is designed for real writers. It helps you organize all your ideas, paragraphs, and projects for easy access. Their content management system allows you to track notes, documents, and metadata more efficiently.
The best thing about Scrivener is its “composition mode.” It allows you to filter out all the distractions, notifications, and everything else on your computer. Along with word frequency, project and word count targets, and more, Scrivener has everything a writer needs.
Grammarly
Grammarly is like having an editor always at your side. It’s way better than MS Word at picking up spelling and grammar mistakes. And it also picks up more complicated issues like fluency, engagement, variety, and more.
You can use Grammarly everywhere too. You can plug it into Chrome to check your emails and text box submissions. You can also add it to Word and other apps. The premium version catches even more errors, so be sure to upgrade.
Hemingway App
Everyone knows Hemingway was the king of brevity. And his writing advice inspired the Hemingway app. It helps you become a bolder and more concise writer. You can type directly in the app or copy and paste into it.
Hemingway app will highlight long-winded passages and the editing they may need through color-coding. It also includes a readability meter to show how understandable your writing is. For anybody writing for online audiences, this app is essential.
Write it Sideways
We all turn to Google when we need a little help. Unfortunately, when you search “how to improve my writing,” it’s not going to give you the best advice. Write it Sideways is designed by writing professionals for writing professionals. Their team has selected gems from across the web to help you improve all kinds of writing.
The site has a variety of categories, and you can find topics ranging from “How to reduce typos and errors” to listicles on “how to improve your productivity.” Spending a few minutes on this site each day is a great inspiration, no matter what type of writer you are.
Daily Page
Writing is like exercising. You need to do it every day to keep your muscles in good shape. Daily Page helps you unlock your creativity with fun writing prompts each morning. Don’t worry; it’s not heated political debates, but casual topics designed to get the juices flowing.
Prompts include “Describe the first time you fell in love” or “It all fell apart when…” and other topics. It’s up to you whether you keep it to yourself or share it with fellow writers on the site. You can then browse all the public responses to get a taste of all the other great writers out there.
Cliché Finder
If you do a lot of writing, you may find yourself relying more and more on clichés. While the occasional one is fine, everybody knows the dangers of bad writing habits.
Cliché Finder is simple. It checks your writing for overused phrases. All you have to do is copy and paste it into the text bar. It will then highlight the results and allow you to replace these tired expressions with unique prose.
The Most Dangerous Writing App
What writer hasn’t suffered from a little spell of procrastination? The Most Dangerous Writing App forces you to keep writing. If you don’t, you’ll lose the entire draft. Even pausing too long between sentences will erase everything,
The goal of the app is for writers to turn off the editor’s voice in their heads so they can write and go with the flow. It’s not only a great way to stay motivated but also helps your voice to develop. You can choose between prompts and no prompt, and the amount of time you want to pass before total deletion occurs. Good luck!
Make Sure Your Writing Is Safe
All of these apps will help you become a better, more productive writer. Unfortunately, several of them suffer from security flaws inherent in their design.
Nothing major, but Hemingway, Cliché Finder, and many other writing apps run on HTTP sites. As a blogger, you most likely know why that is a problem. Any information you submit, in this case — your writing — is not as secure against hackers as it could be.
All writers know the value of protecting their work. Make sure your writing is safe by enabling NordVPN anytime you connect to the internet. It encrypts the connection between your computer and the websites you visit to ensure nobody can intercept your next big idea.
Now get out there and start writing!
