10 Must-Have Tools for Writers

A surgeon without a scalpel has no business in an operating theatre and a sailor without a compass will soon hit an iceberg. In today’s fast-paced world where we swim in a sea of distractions, a writer needs more than a pen and a paper to truly survive and stand out. Tools give leverage which translates to speed, accuracy, and efficiency in the execution of our daily projects.

There is a school of thought that believes that writing is effortless and a lazy man’s job. This is why you get a weird look anytime you tell someone that you are a full-time writer. Writing is not for the fainthearted but these tools bring ease and comfort while you do what you love – writing. In 2018, there is a bevy of online tools provided by the soothing womb of technology to assist writers. All you need is to take advantage of them.

I hope these tools make life easy for you as much as they have assisted me.

 

The most popular writing software is unarguably Microsoft Word but in some instances where you need to collaborate with a teammate on a project, Google Doc is a lifesaver. In December 2017, while working on a project with a friend in the United Kingdom, we had to settle for Google Doc because it allowed us to work on the project at the same time. It’s beautiful and amazing! Another feature on Google Doc which I find fascinating is its ability to incorporate Google Search especially when you are looking for external hyperlinks to support your arguments and facts.

If you have read any of my articles on editing, you must have caught a glimpse of my hatred for clichés. I encourage writers to ditch clichés in their writings. This is one of the fundamental laws of writing that I learnt from the sagacious author of Animal Farm, George Orwell. Clichés and redundant statements rip off the wings of your articles, they squirm in places where they are meant to fly. Cliché finder will fish out the clichés in your writing and decorate your work in a stylish fashion.

If you want your writing to ride on the sophisticated wings of clarity and simplicity, then you need to run into the waiting arms of Hemingway Editor. Hemingway Writing App makes your writing bold, clear and direct. It’s two in one; you can use it for writing and leverage its editing features. It calls your attention to overly long sentences, passive voices and needless adverbs. The primary goal of the web application is to make the readability of your text excellent.

If you have ever worked as a journalist, you will agree with me that it could be very challenging to transcribe recorded interviews. Transcribing is a formidable task; it saps your energy and could be nerve-racking. OTranscribe makes life easy for you. The web application is a powerful tool because of its ability to process different audio formats. Let me show you the icing on the cake; it can create text from the YouTube videos and it’s all for free.

Just like a thesaurus; it is a library of synonyms and antonyms that can add variety to your writing. It’s an online web application and it’s free.

 

Productivity comes at a price – discipline and effective management of distractions. Focus booster app was designed based on the Pomodoro technique and it has a proven track record of increasing productivity amidst freelancers, employees, and writers. Focus on a task for 25 minutes and get a break of 5 minutes at the end of each session. When you are done with the fourth session, you can embark on a break of 20 minutes to restrategize and plan your schedule again. I always advise people to do one thing at a time, focus booster will assist in maximizing focus and getting amazing results in a short period of time.

In conclusion, I only recommend tools that I have used personally. These tools will help you in achieving your writing goals in 2018. Let me know in the comments which tools you use in your writing that were not mentioned here. I’d love to check them out!