In this blog, we will see 25 tools that writers, bloggers or authors can benefit from These tools are mostly free to use I've not included any usual ones such as Microsoft Word Evernote, or Google Docs and in this list we'll see some really useful tools to take your writing to a different level Now, let's go see some tools to discover the best writer in you.
1. Yarny
The first one we're going to see is called Yarny which is an ideal software for fiction-authors - first, create a free account so whateveryou write gets saved and synced to the cloud. Then name your novel - here you could alsogive yourself a goal of writing a specific number of words and track it. We can start writing our chapters here onthe left side, and these are called snippets in Yarny. These snippets could then be reordered ifyou decide to change the order of your writings by dragging and dropping. You could also create a group and combinea set of snippets by clicking here. The ideas for people, places, and things canall be stored over here, and organized by tags. This also saves different versions if youdecide to discard and revert to older plots. Once done, download your work by clickingon this icon, and choosing the format you want. It also offers different themes to suit yourmood. Did I tell you that Yarny is totally free!
2. iAWriter
This promises a distraction-free interface to let our thoughts flow on to thescreen. It supports Markdown formatting, and as youcan see we can choose to gray out all the words except the sentence that we are currentlywriting. They call it the 'Focus mode'. This software also highlights different partsof speech in different colors. While this offers a paid version, there isa trial that you definitely want to try and even buy this which comes only for $19.99for its Windows version and $29.99 for the Mac version.
3. Wordslingr
This is basically an online community for writers to help fellow writers to becomebetter by providing feedback on their writing. Not just that, it provides feedback at alllevels of the writing journey - be it writing, editing, formatting, or publishing - but that'spart of the paid version. The free version of Wordslingr's interfaceis similar to Yarny in terms of setting writing goals. You can change the default goal of 750 wordsby clicking on it here and changing the word count to any number you want. Create a new file by clicking on this button,and choose a template if you want to. There are multiple templates available tochoose from, in case you run out of ideas. It's editor is quite simple in its interface,with the regular formatting tools. One key feature is the in-built Thesaurus,and dictionary. The real fun begins while writing the storywhere you could activate the navigation from the view menu and create your characters,outline, note down your researches.
4. Wavemaker
Wavemaker is totally free. With Wavemaker, you could easily write a wholenovel. It provides options to structure your draftnovel manuscript into chapters, scenes, and notes - which can all be shuffled around inthe order you want. This virtually runs on any device, and thewritings can be synced using Google Drive. This also works offline, so you could writefrom within a train or in your next flight to that city. It provides planning boards to move aroundyour plot ideas. To begin, just go to this link and connectto your Google drive. No further logins required.
5. Sigil
This is a free and open source software available for windows, mac, and Linux OS,that you can use to self-publish your next book. This is an amazing piece of software to createdeeply customized epub files that can be used for submitting to many online publishing vendors,including Amazon KDP, Nook, ibooks, etc. It comes loaded with a plenty of features,so much so that, it might take a while for us to get used to its interface. If you know HTML, CSS, then you can createa custom css file to easily decorate any part of your ebook. Although, Sigil could seem intimidating whenyou use it for the first time, it is a highly flexible tool with an in-built editor to directlyedit the parts of your manuscript. The only downside is that you cannot importWord document files - it supports only HTML and epub files. Not to forget that Sigil's functionalitiescan be infinitely expanded with its plugins that are available from this mobileread forumpage. You can download it for free from the linksprovided in the video description.
6. Kindle create
This is a software from Amazon. It's a fantastic tool for those who are intoKindle ebook self-publishing on Amazon KDP - the Kindle Direct Publishing. With this tool, you can easily format yourebook manuscript, and export to a KPF file to upload to KDP. This is also a free software available forWindows and Mac. If you would like to know how to get startedwith Kindle create, I made a walkthrough video that you can watch by clicking on this notificationcard or by seeing the links in the description.
7. Kindle addin
Speaking of Kindle create, another offering from Amazon's KDP is Kindle add-infor MS Word. For those who use Microsoft Word, this isa simple add-in that sits right inside your Word document which can be used to formatyour ebook while writing it. This even has an inbuilt previewer that comesalong with it. I have a separate video that you can watchand learn by clicking on the notifications on top right hand corner or by checking thelinks provided in the description below.
8. Calibre
Calibre is a powerful and easy to use e-book manager which is fully free touse. It’ll allow you to do nearly everythingaround maintaining your ebooks and it takes things a step beyond normal e-book software. It's basically an ebook storage and managementtool but it also allows to edit ebook content and metadata, change eBook's cover, createePub files or, convert to many different formats, to publish on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc. If you want to learn how to change ebook'scover, I made a video on that one - which is available on this notification or watchit later by clicking on the link given in the description.
9. BookBolt
This is a tool for self-publishing enthusiasts. They offer some really good tools on theirwebsite with which you could create 'No content' books such as Diaries, Journals, Music sheetbooks, by using their templates, and upload to KDP and start earning some neat commissionon the side. If you are interested in learning furtherabout this world of 'no content' publishing, then let me know in the comments below andI might do a different video for you explaining how this is done. The links are given in the description belowif you want to give BookBolt a try.
10. Portent Title Maker
Now if you are more into writing blogs orarticles with fancy titles for sharing on social media with or without the intent tomake them viral, then this resource is just for you. This tool creates viral-worthy headlines createdfrom the subject or keywords you input here. Then all you have to do is to simply clickto find amusing, relateable, and surprisingly good title ideas.
11. Reedsy
Reedsy is a British online author services firm based in London which servesas a bridge uniting authors and publishing freelancers in the self publishing industry. They offer a bunch of tools as well, suchas book title generator, character name generator, epub to mobi converter, pen name generator,short story ideas, book editor, formatting options, and even publishing your manuscriptsinto pre-formatted PDF or ePub files that can be used to self-publish on amazon or anybook publishing websites. The editor interface is rich with features,and is easy to follow. One key feature that stood out for me is theirpre-formatted sections that we can add as Front matter to our books by properly separatingthem in order and different pages before our actual chapters begin.
12.Draft
If you are writing something in collaboration with someone else, then Draft is for you. When you share your document using Draft,any changes your collaborator makes are on their own copy of the document, and you getto accept or ignore each individual change they make. When you want to compare your old drafts,you have a powerful view to see how your document changed over time by using version control. You can also import your documents from cloudservices like Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive. They provide markdown formatting and alsocomes with the Hemingway mode where editing is not an option and you could just keep writingusing their minimalist interface. There are plenty of other options that youmight want to give a shot using draftin.
13. Noisli.
This product offers some soothing backgroundnoises like the sound of rain, wind, forest, leaves, and many other ambient sounds. They are free to use if you are using theweb version, and have paid options if you are looking for the mobile apps. Noisli also comes in the form of a handy GoogleChrome Extension. They offer a distraction-free text editoronce you sign up. This editor offers markdown and an optionto save either to your Google Drive or Dropbox, or even just download it to your local asa text file.
14. Cold Turkey
This has a free version which comes as a portablesoftware. When I used this, I always felt that it wasactually productive to write and just keep writing. No bells and whistles, whatsoever - I mean,no formatting, no themes, no sounds, just a full screen writing experience with a coupleof options. It keeps automatically saving until we saveit manually. They have both Windows and Mac versions. This software allows us to block everythinguntil a certain number of words are typed or when a specific minutes are passed. You can also choose to do any of these andjust proceed with writing. I really liked that they offer a free stand-alone,portable version to just use, instead of bloating a setup file and forcing installations touse their software. Pretty neat work. Worth a try if you want a distraction-freewriting where all other apps are blocked until you reach a timed goal or word count. Of course, they do have a paid version incase you want to get the sound tracks, themes, and formatting.
15. Grammarly
If writing is an object, grammar mistakes are its shadow - it never leavesus. With a good writing flow, making spellinggrammar mistakes are inevitable. That's when Grammarly can help us becausewriting is writing, but without editing, there is no good writing. This comes as a standalone Desktop software,or as Word add-in, or just use it on the Web with its browser extension which is free. It has got some pretty neat features to editon the go and make the sentences look great. I have created a detailed review of this softwarewhich you can watch by clicking on this notification card. To use this tool, you can create a free accountfrom here - which is also provided in the description below.
16. ProWritingAid
If Grammarly doesn't satisfy you, don't worry, our next software in thelist might make your life even better by becoming your Grammar guru. This is another in-depth online grammar checkerand is slightly tailored towards authors. If you want to change your writing in leapsand bounds and make editing better, give this tool a try. Although this is a paid software, it has afree browser extension that you can use. All said and done, it's only a matter of choicebetween this and Grammarly on which one you would want to use. number 20:Hemingwayapp. This is a web based app that provides a writingAND editing environment. Not just that, they also make helpful suggestionsto make our writing better by color-coding and highlighting their suggestions and ourpossible mistakes while writing, when we are in the editing mode. Just one word of caution that the paid versionis better instead of the free one because the free web version of HemingwayApp doesn'toffer saving or exporting, and you might just have to copy and paste it to take it forward. If you want a desktop offline app, then gofor the paid version - it comes for both Windows and Mac, and it's current version, which isversion 3 comes with a one-time payment of $19.99 for lifetime access, at the time ofmaking this video. The price is the same for both the Windowsand Mac versions of Hemingway. This app actually beats many other tools wesaw in this video and will be a great investment if you choose to go for the Desktop offlineapp.
17. Scrivener
If you are a professional writer who writesfor a livelihood, then Scrivener is one of the best investment you may want to make in. This is a boon for authors who are into fiction-writingbecause this tool helps with plot creation, character name generation, map charactersto different scenes, keep research and writing together on a comparable interface, and manysuch features to help authors of all kind. They offer a 30-day trial and comes in Windowsand Mac versions. They have a bundle purchase option too ifyou are into using both the Windows and Mac computers. Their iOS version for iPad, iPhone and iPodTouch comes in at $19.99 if you are into writing on-the-go using your mobile phones.
18. Scapple
From Literature and Latte.com, again. This one is again for fiction writers whowant to map the characters visually and plot scenes. They too have a one time fee and availablefor both mac and windows. They offer a free 30-day trial for you tocheck and see if it's worth your shot.
19. Novlr
This tool comes with a beautiful, simple, sharp, and well-designed interface, somethingthat offers the perfect screen for focusing your mind. They come in Day, Evening, and Night modeto choose from depending on your mood. Writing style suggestions, Grammar enhancements,Spell check, Syncing to Google Drive or Dropbox, all of these and more are all part of thepackage. So, start using Novlr and join over 40,000writers in 125 countries today. This works both offline and online with anassurance to constantly save your work and thus secure your writing without the needto create manual backups. Their focus mode is something you must givea try to keep your creative juices flowing. They also offer importing options if you haveto import your work from elsewhere in the .txt .rtf .docx .odt formats, along with anoption to publish the work as an eBook!
20. Stormboard
This is a great tool for books that are worked on by two or more authors. With an in-built chat feature, this comesfor free with upto 5 users' personal use to create a maximum of 5 storms - which means5 book ideas. They also provide various templates to choosefrom - a business model canvas template, agile scrum kanban board template, retrospectivebasic type template and much more, depending on a framework you like to implement in yourplanning and execution.
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