Wednesday, September 29, 2021
#BookReview - A Gathering of Broken Mirrors by Anthony E. Shaw
#AuthorInterview with Eenam Vang, author of Labyrinth
#BookReview - A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueur
Thursday, September 23, 2021
#BookReview - Saguaro's Gifts
#BookReview - The Zodiac Revisited
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
#AuthorInterview with Arnold Johnston and Deborah Ann Percy
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
#AuthorInterview with A.M. Grotticelli, author of The Bond
#BookReview - Striking Range by Margaret Mizushima
#BookReview - The Ghouls' Guide to Good Grammar
Friday, September 17, 2021
7 Essential Productivity Tools Every Writer Needs
7 Essential Productivity Tools Every Writer Needs
By: Jessica Fender (see bio at bottom of article)
As a writer, you need to make sure you're using your writing time the way you should. Staying inspired, productive, and efficient can be hard at times, due to all the pressure or distractions you may be experiencing. Luckily, you're the one controlling what you do and how you do it. So, you should explore and find productivity tools that will make every writing session a success.
To help you out, we've made a list of 7 essential productivity tools that every writer needs. Let’s break it down.
source: Pexels
1. Any.do
Every writer needs great organizational skills, to keep their workdays filled with meaningful tasks. A great tool you can use to keep all your tasks, goals, and ideas organized is Any.do.
Any.do is an organization app that allows you to:
- create and run a writing schedule
- create lists and reminders
- keep track of your progress on certain writing tasks
Plus, you get to sync it across devices, which allows you to stay organized wherever you are.
2. Freedom
If you get distracted easily and find yourself searching the web or scrolling social media in the middle of a writing session- you need Freedom.
Freedom is an app designed to block distractions and keep you focused on your writing tasks. You can block anything you want:
- websites
- apps
- social media
You can even sync blocks across all your devices, to make sure nothing keeps you away from your writing work.
3. Grammarly
As a writer, you need a surefire way to check your writing accuracy, without doing it manually and relying just on your proofreading skills.
Grammarly is one of the best proofreading and grammar-checking tools you can find. It will do the following tasks for you:
- analyze your entire document
- mark errors in grammar, spelling, word choice, and structure
- suggest corrections
- save your document formatting
You'll avoid wasting time proofreading yourself and stay productive for other more important tasks.
All you have to do is drag and drop the document, and download it after you finish your Grammarly analysis. If you need advanced proofreading options, you could check out EssayService. Their professional writers can do editing, proofreading, and rewriting of your documents.
4. Thesaurus.com
Every active writer knows what it’s like to be unable to find the right words to express your ideas. You know what you want to say, but no words you’re thinking of seem adequate or like the perfect fit.
That’s when you can turn to Thesaurus.com.
Thesaurus.com is a tool that will provide a ton of synonyms and antonyms for the words that are roaming your mind. You’ll be able to find the right words faster and produce high-quality content without trouble.
All you need to do is type the word you want to explore, and this tool will make suggestions and unlock those parts of your brain that were blocked just a second ago.
5. Hemingway App
Another helping hand for writers that helps boost productivity and maximize writing success, is the Hemingway Editor. This editor focuses on all the most important aspects of writing:
- readability
- sentence structure and complexity
- use of active and passive voice
- clarity
You can use Hemingway to learn more about the content you’ve written and analyze it objectively.
6. Cliché Finder
When you're trying to be productive and reach your daily writing goal, you can come across many pitfalls. One of those pitfalls is using too many clichés in your writing.
In fact, even a single cliché is too much for a serious author.
So, Cliché Finder is a tool that will help you find and eliminate words, expressions, and phrases that are used too often, corny, or empty.
This will improve your writing and make sure you avoid sounding like a second-class writer.
7. Ulysses
Finally, to maximize your writing productivity and achieve all your daily or weekly goals, you can try the Ulysses writing environment for authors and writers of all sorts.
Ulysses is a writing app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users. It’s designed to increase your productivity by helping you stay focused on your writing tasks. It comes with features such as:
- distraction-free writing interface
- documents management
- cross-device syncing
- text editor
- attachments
- etc.
This all-in-one tool will keep you away from the time-consuming switch between multiple apps, and help you stay fixated on the task you’ve set in front of you.
Final Thoughts
Writing is primarily a creative activity but this doesn't mean writers shouldn't practice self-discipline and be productive. Each writing session needs to have a goal and writers have to make sure they reach it.
The 7 productivity tools we’ve selected and explained above will help you boost your productivity and do more writing work every day.
Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun. You find her on Twitter.