Writing is a very expressive form of art. A blog post, news story, ad copy, an engaging email, or even a social media caption all requires personality and feelings that come from the heart. But even though writing is the output of mental and emotional thoughts, that doesn’t mean that technology can’t play a part in making you a better writer.
There are dozens of applications and programs that will help you focus, block out productivity killers, and even zero in on those aggravating grammatical errors. Technology has even gone as far as suggesting alternative (and better!) sentences improve the clarity and wordings of your write-ups. But you might wonder, out of all these applications, which ones can really help make me a better writer?
So here is our list of the five best writing apps that will not only spellcheck but will help you add more impact to your write-ups.
1. A Soft Murmur
The ambiance and the feeling of surroundings can deeply affect a writer’s productivity. And a study has shown that the ideal level of noise for creative cognition is the moderate level which the app Soft Murmur, an online background noise generator, can provide.
This free app is designed to help writers (or anyone that needs focus) to relax and tune out unpleasant sounds.
2. Freedom
Social media, the grassroots of all distraction. If you don’t have an amazing amount of willpower, there’s just no way to be a hundred percent productive with social media applications in the background.
But, here we have Freedom, an app and website-blocker that will instantly bestow you the gift of focus. If you find yourself constantly distracted by even the simplest notification, you can use Freedom to block specific websites, apps, or even the whole Internet for as long as you want.
You can block on a whim or set your schedule that will automatically bar off distractions on the times you usually write.
3. Calmly
Calmly is a distraction-free writing tool with a simple and easy-to-use interface. The app has one goal, block out all the interfaces of a typical word processing program, letting you fill all the four corners of your screen with just words.
The program has a lot of keyboard shortcuts, markdown formatting, and a “focus mode” that highlights only the paragraph that you are currently working on.
It is undeniably one of the best apps out there.
4. Grammarly
If you are confident in your way of writing engaging stories and content but confuse about the dozens of rules of subject-verb agreement, then Grammarly is the app for you.
Grammarly has two versions, a paid one and the premium one. If you are one who only wishes to look out for simple grammatical errors, the free version would suffice. The premium one, on the other hand, is more advanced, with the app even offering you alternative sentences to structure your sentence better. So if you have a job that requires tons of writing, definitely install Grammarly.
Aside from correcting them, Grammarly also explains why so you can learn and minimize your mistake in the future.
5. Scrivener
They say that a list of best writing apps is not complete with Scrivener on the list.
This tool is like a digital binder and can store all of your notes, research, and writing all in one place, making cross-referencing and maneuvering between materials easy as a piece of cake.
Scrivener’s text editor is a word processor on the booster, has an easy-to-use interface complete with formatting, annotation, style, and footnote settings.
You can even set your writing targets and track your progress. You can also export your file to a wide variety of formats, including PDF.
