Hi, my name is Onyemechi
In this post, I will share the writing tools and resources that I use in my writing life.
The resources that help me save time and save me from stress.
Most of them are free and some of them at a minimal cost you can start using them.
Make sure you bookmark this page so you don’t get too miss when I add new writing tools as I discover new ones in the course of my writing journey.
Research
Feedly
Before I discovered Feedly I had to move from websites to websites researching and looking for updates in the process I ended up checking out things I am not supposed to check.
- Visiting websites.
- Social media
- Binge-watching YouTube.
- And sometimes I miss some websites. I just forget to check them out
What Feedly does is that it allows you to bookmark all the sites or websites that matter to you and whenever they post anything new you get to receive it all in one place in the app.
It is a freemium kind of app.
Don’t worry it has 100 free websites that you can add to your feed for free.
Wait a minute that’s a lot.
You can classify your interests into buckets.
These buckets are simply names for each category.
For example in my feed, I have poetry, writing tips.
When you see any information from any of the websites and you like it you can bookmark it.
You can also save it to your board so you can check it later on.
This is essential because one of my goals is to read flash fiction poetry daily so I have bookmarked the sites.
I took a list of the reputable magazines that publish flash fiction and poetry.
Added them to my feed.
To do this you simply use the URL of the site or type in the name of the site.
Create a feed and add it.
I am not overwhelmed with information.
I stay on track with what matters.
You can check out the website below for free
Writing
Google Docs
Why there are a lot of paid tools out there Google docs seems to do the job for me.
It’s simple yet powerful.
There are a lot of features but I will mention a few of them that seems to stand out
First, it saves automatically when you type.
I don’t have to save it manually when I type.
This is a lifesaver because why you are in the flow you might forget to save and some naughty stuff might happen and your stuff is gone after pouring your sweat and mind into writing and everything is gone.
Raise your hands if you’ve experienced this before.
Second, It allows you to save your work in any format.
We have the following formats:
- Word(.docx)
- PDF Document (.pdf)
- Open Document format (.odt)
- Plain Text (.txt)
- Rich Text Format (.rtf)
- Webpage (.html, zipped)
- Epub publication (.epub)
This is great because depending on the place you are publishing your work you would have to save your work in different formats.
Guess what it’s free and it synchronizes across your devices.
When I’m writing I am concerned about the availability of my work the backup of my work if anything happens.
Once bitten twice shy.
I remember when I lost all my files because my memory card crashed and I couldn’t recover any of them so I’ve learned better now.
Google Voice typing
Google voice typing saves me time when my fat big thumbs cannot touch the letters on the virtual keyboard accurately.
You should try it out. The Google voice typing is highly accurate though it doesn’t save my audio recording except for transcription of words it is good I have tried most of the dictation apps.
The problem is that it doesn’t punctuate your write-up automatically.
You have to punctuate with your voice.
Some of the voice commands I have tried.
- (.) Period or Full stop. Both of them works
- ? Question mark
- ( Open bracket
- ) Close bracket
- New line: This takes you to a new line.
- New Paragraph
- Comma
Diary and Note-taking
Google Journal
Google Journal is a simple yet efficient note-taking app.
You should try it. It’s free and simple to use.
Simple to get started with.
It allows you to save
- Pictures
- Audio and also it also transcribes the audio and saves the audio for you.
- Another amazing feature is that it uses OCR which means when you write sometimes the creative genius does not work with digital tools and we want to write with a pen but we don’t have the time to start typing everything again online so if you have good handwriting, not like me you can simply use the optical character recognition
- snap the page you want to transcribe
- Upload to the app
- It will pull the text from it and make it a text.
This means you can back up your physical notes just in case
Try Google Journal
Editing
Grammarly
Grammarly is free to use though they have a paid subscription you can get started with it for free.
The free version does most of the job.
It does so many things some of which are:
- Edit grammar
- Edit punctuation
- Comma
- Full stop
- Question mark etc
- Edit spelling
I use Grammarly because it has a mobile app while writing I can just simply put on my data connection and get it to do the work for me.
So rather than copy and paste my write up on the website and have it check my work while I work.
It edits your work with an internet connection.
You can use the keyboard offline but to edit your work it has to be online.
Another fun thing Grammarly does is that it takes a record of all the words you have used it to edit and it gives you weekly insights on your total word count for the week, progressive word count for the month, and the total word count you have written since you started writing with Grammarly.
It kind of acts as my word count tracker.
ProWritingAid
This writing tool I use when I want a wholesome editing experience as Grammarly does not allow me to use their Online editor with my mobile phone.
What you’re writing comes in because It adjusts based on what you want to write if you are writing fiction, nonfiction or what-have-you so does the ProWritingAid.
It also points out passive voice, adverbs, grammar, and style issues.
Depending on the people you are writing for it looks at the readability of your text.
They don’t have a writing app for mobile users.
For desktop users, they have a chrome plugin for editing your work.
Hemingway Editor
When I’m writing non-fiction or a blog post or something that has to be of high readability.
That’s when I use Hemmingway Editor.
Sometimes when I’m writing fiction and poetry I use it.
I use it to point out
- Adverbs in my text
- Complex sentences that might lead to confusion so you can change the text
It’s free to use online but you can buy the offline desktop app then you have to pay for it.
Click here to use Hemmingway Editor
Publishing
Submittable
Before I found submittable submitting my work to magazines was stressful.
I would have to go through emails and then I’ll have to check emails over and over again to see if my work has been accepted or rejected.
Managing all these websites was a pain in the ass trust me.
Where submittable comes in is that it manages all your submission cut them into a bucket of
- Accepted
- Rejected
- All submissions
What I love about this writing tool is that it is used by most magazines including big names like Granta etc.
And if you use simultaneous submission it’s easier for you to withdraw your submission just in case the work gets accepted somewhere else.
If you’re looking to get published in literary magazines you should be using this tool to save time and stress.
Click here to start using submittable for free
The Elements of Style
For a quick tour guide in grammar and style, you should look at the book called ” The Elements of Style” the book is more of a manual than a textbook.
Short and concise yet straight to the point it avoids fluff gives you the basic form it doesn’t have a final rule.
What it tells you is a guide.
Conclusion
As I try new tools and I see things that save me time and stress I would add them to this list.
Make sure you bookmark this page so you don’t get to miss any one of them when I add them to the page.
I want to hear from you which of the tools are you using to save you time and stress and help you get the job done.
Are there any free tools you use that I didn’t mention?
Let me know in the comments section 🤔.
