These 6 Writing Apps Will Make You a Better Writer

We’ve come a long way, writers. Once, improving our writing skills meant writing (and later typing) our drafts, doing our best to revise and proofread, and then subjecting them to an editor’s red pen. Today, we have tools to not only help us create content, but also to organize, proofread, and polish it.

These apps and online tools will help any writer perfect her craft.

Content Creation Tools

Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and other word processors are fantastic tools. But if you want to supercharge your writing, a content tool built specifically for scribes could be the way to go. And, as a rule, they’re priced with the starving artist in mind.

1Scrivener

If you hang around with writers, specifically anyone who’s working on a novel or other long-form type of writing, you’ve probably at least heard mention of Scrivener. Although its robust features have a bit of a learning curve, it’s a must-have tool for anyone who needs to make use of outlining, storyboarding, research organization and note taking. It’s billed as a “complete writing studio,” and it fits that bill well.

When your magnum opus is complete, Scrivener allows you to organize your document into a finished manuscript that exports to many popular file formats including Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, and HTML, as well as to self-publishing tools like ePub or Kindle (which requires Kindle’s free tool, KindleGen.)

Scrivener’s user interface is a bit dated, but that doesn’t affect its functionality. A full-screen editing mode allows for distraction-free writing.

Platforms: iOS, Mac, Windows

Price: Free trial, $40 USD to purchase

2Ulysses

Ulysses takes many of Scrivener’s features and makes them portable for the roaming writer. With iCloud, your library syncs between all connected devices, which means that no matter where you go, you can continue where you left off.

Similar to Scrivener, Ulysses simplifies exporting to Word and other file formats as well as self-publishing platforms. But there’s a bonus for bloggers—it exports to WordPress and Medium.

If you like a sleek, modern interface with distraction-free capabilities, Ulysses just might be the writing tool for you. Alas, Windows users, it’s for Apple only.

Platforms: Mac, iOS

Price: $44.99 USD (Mac), $24.99 USD (iOS)

3Draft

Draft is a web app with some unique features. Beyond its streamlined word processing capabilities, it makes the version control features in word processors like Google Docs friendlier to creative writers or anyone who generates multiple drafts of a single document. Any changes collaborators make can be approved line-by-line, similar to Google Docs’ “Suggesting” mode. (There’s even an “Ask a Professional” feature that allows you to ask others for advice on your writing, though I haven’t tested this.) Draft also allows you to mark major revisions of your work so that you can review them and see how your document has changed over time.

Hemingway Mode is a unique feature. Turn it on when you want to “write first, edit later.” This setting forces you to keep moving forward by stripping away your ability to delete or change anything you’ve already written.

Platforms: Web-based

Price: Free

Organization Tools

4Evernote

What would I do without Evernote? It’s a robust note-taking tool that not only allows me to save flashes of inspiration to my always-handy smartphone (where I can access them anytime and anywhere later), but it also lets me clip articles for research or inspiration. You can supercharge your notes with links, checklists, tables, attachments, and audio recordings. Even handwritten notes are searchable. I can also tag and categorize my notes to make them easy to find later.

Platforms: Web, iOS, Mac, Windows, Android

Price: Free | $69.99 per year for premium

Revision and Editing

5Grammarly

Every writer needs a second set of eyes to proofread drafts. Grammarly’s browser extension helps you communicate clearly by suggesting spelling, grammar, and punctuation improvements. Grammarly’s premium version allows writers to select from different writing styles such as creative, casual, and business.

Platforms: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, MS Office add-in

Price: Free | As low as $11.66 per month for Premium

6Readable.io

Have you ever wondered just how readable your writing is? My favorite test is to read my writing out loud (if you stumble during the reading, you may need to revise for readability.) But Readable.io takes things a step further. This web-based app gives your text an overall readability rating and scores its reading level on a number of scales, such as the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Gunning Fog index.

Of course, style is sometimes more important than reading ease, especially for creative writers. But when clarity is the most important factor, this tool can help. At the very least, it’s an eye-opener.

Platforms: Web-based

Price: Free | $3 USD per month for premium features

What Is the Singular They, and Why Should I Use It?

Last year, Grammarly polled our social audiences to see if they supported gender-neutral pronoun usage. The results were a bit surprising: more than half of the audience polled felt that the idea of gender-neutral pronouns was a nonstarter.

With this knowledge, I’d like to make an appeal to our audience: consider the singular they. Language has changed a lot in the last year, with the singular they being voted the most important word of the year, and numerous dictionaries adding gender-neutral usage notes. Merriam-Webster even introduced the gender-neutral honorific Mx. to their unabridged dictionary this year, forever ending the question of what to call someone whose gender is nonbinary (i.e., not male or female).

It’s about time we talked about they in particular and gender-neutral pronouns as a whole, and it’s time we discussed why they’re important to binary and nonbinary folks alike.

First, Some Terminology

Since it’s Pride Month, we’d like to start by defining a few key terms in this discussion, with some help from our friends at the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Here are four gender-related terms that you should know:

Gender: A set of cultural identities, expressions, and roles—traditionally categorized as feminine or masculine—that are assigned to people based on the interpretation of their bodies, and more specifically, their sexual and reproductive anatomy. Since gender is a social construction, it is possible for people to reject or modify the assignments given to them and develop something that feels truer and more just to themselves.

Gender binary: A socially constructed system of viewing gender as male or female, in which no other possibilities for gender are believed to exist. The gender binary is inaccurate because it does not take into account the diversity of gender identities and gender expressions among all people. The gender binary is oppressive to anyone who does not conform to dominant societal gender norms.

Nonbinary: Adjective describing a person who identifies as neither male nor female.

Of course, these three terms are just the beginning of a discussion about gender, but for the purposes of talking about gender-neutral or third-gender pronouns, they’re a great start. If you have more questions about gender or sexuality, I’d highly recommend GLSEN’s resources on the subject.

Now, to return to pronouns . . .

English Evolves!

One of the great lies about the English language is that it remains static. Grammar pedants and trolls generally operate under a series of assumptions about language, which may or may not reflect current usage and accepted norms. In the linguistics community, there is actually a term for this view of language—prescriptivism.

Unfortunately for prescriptivists, English is constantly changing—and always has been. Some words that grammar pedants scoff at as obnoxious neologisms were in fact coined as long ago as the nineteenth century. Take “dude” for example. Reviled by grammar trolls the world over, this term has provoked the ire of multiple generations of fuddy-duddies. But did you know that it has its roots in late nineteenth-century British dandyism? Although the term originally described a cultural trend in England, it eventually came to mean “clueless city-dweller” to American cowboys and ranchers (as Mental Floss notes, this is also the origin of the “dude ranch”). However, by WWI, “dude” had flip-flopped again to its current meaning—a cool guy.

Even if we adhere to certain rules to make communication easier for people across regions, dialects, and levels of writing proficiency, the language will eventually evolve. The singular they is simply another way English is changing for the shorter, the more empathetic, the better. As we’ve mentioned before, the singular they is not even a new phenomenon. Merriam-Webster includes usage examples of the singular they dating back to Shakespeare, with notable additions from the likes of Jane Austen and even the traditionalist W. H. Auden. The singular they is nothing new, but in making our language more inclusive of people of a myriad of genders, this simple word is becoming more and more important.

LGBTQ Harassment and Personal Gender Pronouns

According to a 2013 GLSEN study, more than 64.5 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students hear homophobic remarks at school. Of these students, 33.1 percent have heard harassing remarks specifically targeting transgender students. For transgender, genderqueer, genderfluid, and other nonbinary students, this can have extreme consequences, from lower GPAs to missed classes to suicide.

Clearly, language matters, and it’s especially important to people whose gender does not match cultural assumptions. That’s why we support and respect the use of whichever personal gender pronouns a person or group may choose to describe themselves. What’s a personal gender pronoun, you ask? GLSEN defines personal gender pronouns (PGPs for short) as “The pronoun or set of pronouns that a person would like to be called by when their proper name is not being used.” For people who identify as male or female, this is generally he or she, but trans, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming folks may use a variety of pronouns. They could use the singular gender-neutral “they,” but they could also use one of these options:

Although we won’t touch on all the pronoun options listed here, you can see that there are many. So how do you know which one to use? Ask! Asking someone their personal gender pronoun is easy. Just say something like “What pronouns do you use?” or “Is this pronoun right for you?” Most people will be happy to inform or correct you, especially when you ask them early on in your relationship.

Since we’re focusing on the singular gender-neutral they here, it’s important to note that many people at different points of the gender spectrum use “they.” When you’re using it in a sentence, you can say something like this:

“They is a talented artist. I really enjoyed their painting of a flower in art class yesterday.”

But Wait, “They” Is Useful for Everyone!

Now that we’ve talked briefly about how to use they for people who have chosen it as their PGP, let’s talk about how it can help people who identify as he or she. Merriam-Webster sums up the situation well in their usage note for they:

They, their, them, themselves: English lacks a common-gender third person singular pronoun that can be used to refer to indefinite pronouns (as everyone, anyone, someone).

Although English has many great qualities, it’s never been great with indefinite pronouns. Traditionally, he was the default pronoun for a person whose gender you didn’t know, as in this quote from Thomas Huxley:

“Suppose the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess.”— Thomas Huxley

But, as many have pointed out, gendering all unknown people as male is sexist and inaccurate. That’s why Merriam-Webster, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the American Heritage Dictionary have recently added notes supporting the use of the singular they for a person whose gender you don’t know. “The trend, then, is clear. Writers who choose to use they with a singular antecedent should rest assured that they are in good company—even if a fair number of traditionalists still wince at the usage,” says the American Heritage Dictionary, in their usage note on the subject.

Admittedly, using the singular they in a formal context may still cause some raised eyebrows, so be careful if you’re submitting a paper to a particularly traditional teacher or professor. But the tides are turning, and English will soon be more efficient because of usages like this:

If Sally or George got a cold, I would have sympathy for them.

Note that, if we did not use the singular they, that sentence would read:

If Sally or George got a cold, I would have sympathy for him.

Or, if we tried to make some awkward amalgam of current language norms, we might write:

If Sally or George got a cold, I would have sympathy for him/her.

Furthermore, if Sally or George identified as a gender other than male or female, even the above Frankenstein-ed sentence would be incorrect. After all, your name does not determine your gender or your preferred gender pronouns.

There must be a better way!

Luckily, using the singular they makes English a more efficient language, and it helps us to avoid awkward sentence constructions. More importantly, though, it allows you to avoid making assumptions about the gender of a person you don’t know.

Their Pronoun, Themself

Of course, not everyone will agree that it’s time to formally accept the singular gender-neutral they. GLSEN’s research reminds us that people who would use they as their preferred gender pronoun have long been the subjects of harassment and discrimination, although things are changing. Grammarly supports the individual choice of pronouns and is using the hashtag #theyisok this week to start a dialogue about PGPs, gender neutral pronouns, and the singular they.

What do you think about the gender-neutral use of they? Leave a comment below, or tweet your experience with personal gender pronouns.

Waking the Muse: How to Find Inspiration

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London

Many writers are of the mistaken opinion that great work only comes when they are inspired, but that’s backwards. A writer doesn’t wait for inspiration to find them; a writer creates inspiration by starting to write, even when they don’t feel like it. The simple act of writing will kickstart your brain and let your Muse know that it’s time to get started. However, for those times when nothing seems to work and your writing just feels bad, here are a few ways to inspire yourself.

Yeah, it’s counter-intuitive – but it works. A friend once told me she was having trouble working the dialogue out of her story. She told me how the character was obsessed with his work and couldn’t break away from it. Then she told me she had spent every day for three weeks on the novel. I told her to take a break; she was projecting her own worries onto the character. A few days later, she was able to return to the novel without difficulty. Relaxing allows your subconscious to work out the problems while your conscious mind takes a well-earned break.

Free write.

Don’t worry about writing anything in particular. Just jot your thoughts down into a journal. It’s usually better to do free writing and journaling by hand; it connects you with the writing more than the keyboard does. Spend just fifteen minutes writing down whatever comes to mind, even if it’s just the phrase, “I don’t know what to write,” over and over again.

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh

Go somewhere different to write.

If you normally write at your desk, go to a coffee shop. If you always write indoors, take your laptop and go to the park. Changing up your surroundings can spark inspiration in the most unlikely of ways, and sometimes it can be fun to change your approach to writing.

Consume plot.

“Read” doesn’t adequately convey this idea, as the best writers look to a lot of different places to find inspiration. Find a great book that you enjoy. Revisit an old classic. Turn on the television and watch something new. Go online and browse fan fiction. Taking in all the forms of storytelling you can handle will inspire you. You’ll have your own personal take on a plot, or see an element that you can apply to your own work. Besides, what’s more inspirational than seeing the success of other storytellers?

Go for a walk.

Many times, the block on our writing is self imposed. Your consciousness is getting in the way. If you let your mind go blank and just take in the sights and sounds of the world around you, your brain will sort everything out. In addition, it has been shown that walking improves your creativity. You’ll burn off some of those calories and spark your mind at the same time!

Inspiration isn’t some sort of mystical force that only comes around when it feels the time is right. It’s there, inside of you, right now. You just have to find it. Like Jack London said, chase it with a club. Force it to work for you. Don’t be a slave to the need for inspiration.

What inspires you to write?

Speak Like a Scientist: 4 Words to Try Using Differently

Scientific writing is known for its precision and accuracy. Other forms of written and spoken communication, however, are often filled with confusing and ambiguous vocabulary. Here are four words we’ve poached from the scientific world that should be adopted in non-scientific communication.

Abstract In scientific writing, an abstract summarizes the key points of a presentation or paper. Written scientific research is often lengthy, so an abstract serves as a way to let the reader know what he or she is getting into up front. Most people use the word “abstract” to describe art or theoretical concepts. But if you use its scientific meaning, whether you’re writing a long email or a detailed list of directions, you can create an abstract that summarizes the key points.

Volume In our everyday lives, we often talk about volume in terms of noise. In science, volume is the amount of space occupied by an object measured in three dimensions, expressed in cubic units. Try using “volume” as a more specific way of talking about how much space is available for or taken up by an object.

Hypothesis In the scientific world, a hypothesis is a supposition made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation. In our everyday conversation, the word “hypothesis” can often be substituted for the word “idea.” For example, if you’re planning a bake sale and you base your sales projections on how many cookies and cupcakes you sold last year, you might say you have “an idea” of how much money you’ll make this year. Since your idea is based on evidence from the year before, it’s actually a hypothesis.

Conductor A train conductor, a symphony conductor…we know conductors as people who orchestrate actions. In the scientific world, a conductor is a material or an object that conducts heat, electricity, light, or sound. For example, the cord between your lamp and the wall is a conductor of electricity. (Interestingly, the plastic or rubber casing around the wire acts as an insulator and the internal metal wiring is the strict conductor.) Once you know what a conductor is, you’ll start seeing them everywhere! Use this word from the science world to identify the conductors around you — even in a literary sense!

What other scientific words should be adopted for everyday use? Share your suggestions in the comments!

5 Reasons the Writing World Should Celebrate Dyslexia

Guest Post by Doug Sprei and Jules Johnson, LearningAlly.org

For many people with dyslexia, writing and spelling are some of the most challenging activities in daily life. And yet in the midst of this difficulty, a world of creative thinking is awakened. Some of the most acclaimed authors, business leaders, scientists, and innovators are dyslexic. The next time you switch on a light bulb or reach for a favorite book, consider the following reasons that dyslexia is something to be celebrated.

Millions of people have dyslexia – and their different brains add to the extraordinary diversity of humanity.

Studies by leading researchers such as Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale University indicate that as many as one in five individuals have dyslexia. Their findings also prove that dyslexia is decidedly not an indicator of intelligence. 

People with dyslexia who struggle to read, spell, and write are often bright and innovative thinkers who excel in many disciplines. The list of celebrities in this category includes film director Steven Spielberg, financial magnate Charles Schwab, entrepreneur Richard Branson, activist Erin Brockovich, lawyer David Boies . . . the roster is panoramic.

 

So what’s going on? “Our education system looks at dyslexia as a deficit rather than as a difference,” says Dr. Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. Wolf and other prominent educators embrace the term cerebral diversity to help people understand that there really is no one standard brain organization. “For its own survival, the human species needs differences,” she says. “And the brain of an individual with dyslexia has certain unique features that help our society advance.”

Terrible spellers can be great writers – and thinkers.

Agatha Christie once recounted that “Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. I was an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.” From an internationally acclaimed author, that may be a shocking admission, but Christie was far from alone in struggling with dyslexia. A list of her peers includes poet Philip Schulz and playwright Wendy Wasserstein (both Pulitzer Prize winners), children’s book author Rick Riordan, and novelist John Irving, to name just a few.

As a young student with dyslexia, writer and filmmaker Sprague Theobald struggled against authority figures saying that he was stupid and would never accomplish anything. “Mostly, my job now is to not acknowledge the damaging voices from my past school years,” he says. “If you are a stickler for spelling and don’t understand why a person may have spelling issues, let me give you a spelling test of Greek words with a police siren blaring in your right ear and a fire siren blaring in your left ear. That’s about how confusing and challenging spelling can be for those of us who are blessed with dyslexia.”

We might still be writing by candlelight if not for dyslexia.

A six year-old student was once sent home from school with a note from his teacher pinned to his shirt. It read, “This boy is too stupid to learn.” Decades later, he recalled, “My teachers said I’m addled, my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.” The boy, Thomas Edison, went on to invent the first commercially practical incandescent light. His example is illuminating for children with learning disabilities who feel crushed when labels are pinned on them – and can even provide “light bulb moments” for parents anxious to buoy their spirits.

Assistive technology is a “ramp” for dyslexic writers and readers.

People with dyslexia often have no problem verbalizing great ideas, but can be frustrated when they have to put those ideas in writing. They can also sometimes be dysgraphic, which makes the physical act of writing with a pencil and paper extremely difficult. And of course reading brings on a huge host of challenges.

Fortunately there are a variety of tech tools that can help them translate their ideas into writing.  “When it comes to editing their writing, dyslexics can use advanced spelling and grammar checkers,” says assistive technology specialist Jamie Martin. “For reading and research, human-narrated audiobooks from Learning Ally can be downloaded and accessed on computers, tablets, and smartphones. Word prediction and dictation software can go a long way in removing the barrier of poor spelling for dyslexics; and any kind of electronic writing can be the saving grace for people with dysgraphia.”

Dyslexia informs our past and future. Scientific acumen, creativity, and engineering ingenuity are only some of the gifts of the dyslexic brain. In young people, those gifts are not recognized and exalted often enough.

“I’m as much of a grammar and spelling nerd as anyone out there,” says educational therapist Diana Kennedy.  “On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to go head to head in a contest of science, art, or invention against Leonardo DaVinci, or of business acumen against Charles Schwab, or of movie-making against Steven Spielberg. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be proud of your prodigious spelling and grasp of complex grammar, but when it comes to dyslexia, it’s important to keep our pride in perspective.”

 

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Doug Sprei is national communications director and Jules Johnson is social media community leader at Learning Ally – a national nonprofit serving students with learning and visual disabilities. The organization provides resources for parents; training and technology for teachers and schools; and 80,000 human-narrated audio textbooks for K-12 through higher education. For more information, visit http://LearningAlly.org.