14 Best Writing Tools to Boost Your Productivity
The average copywriter writes up to anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 words every day. In addition to writing, many writers are responsible for conducting research, making edits, and optimizing the content for search engines. This requires a great deal of focus and mental energy, especially when there are deadlines involved.
As the demand for quality written content rises, writers are put under increasing pressure to complete all of these tasks efficiently and effectively. Thankfully, many writing tools are available that can significantly boost writers’ productivity, streamline the writing process, enhance creativity, and ensure the production of high-quality content.
Within this article, we have carefully curated a list of the 14 best writing tools that every writer should have in their toolkit. From grammar and spell-checking software to AI tools, novelists and copywriters will not only save valuable time, but also be able to deliver exceptional work that clients’ exceeds expectations.
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Why Should You Use Writing Tools?
Writing is a creative process, and it is hard work crafting multiple pieces of well-written content day in and day out. That being said, writers are at higher risk of burnout than many other professions, especially if they are responsible for other tasks alongside their writing. Thankfully, there is some support available for busy novelists and copywriters in the form of writing tools. Below are some of the benefits that using writing tools can bring you:
✅ Improved Efficiency: Writing tools can help streamline the writing process by automating repetitive tasks, such as grammar and spell-checking, formatting, and word count tracking. This allows you to complete your work faster, saving valuable time and energy.
✅ Enhanced Writing Quality: Writing tools provide valuable assistance in terms of grammar, punctuation, and style. They can catch errors and suggest improvements, ensuring that your copy is polished, and error-free. By using tools like readability analyzers, you can also optimize your content for maximum impact and clarity.
✅ Increased Creativity: Certain writing tools offer features such as brainstorming prompts, rewrite suggestions, and thesauruses. These resources can help spark creativity, overcome writer’s block, and find alternative words and phrases to make your writing more engaging and unique.
✅ Organization and Project Management: Some tools come with project management features, allowing you to organize your writing projects, set deadlines, and track progress. With these tools, you can stay organized, prioritize tasks, and ensure timely delivery of your copy.
✅ Stress Reduction: Copywriters may experience high levels of stress when juggling multiple writing projects at one time. Writing tools can help to take some of the load off of their plate, which can significantly reduce stress and avoid burnouts.
The Best Writing Tools to Boost Productivity
The writing tools that we outline in this article offer a wide range of features, from grammar-checking and readability scoring to research and AI rewriting. Each tool listed serves a unique purpose and can play a significant role in boosting your productivity.
Hemingway Editor – For Improved Readability
Hemingway Editor, a popular writing tool named after the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway, is designed to improve the readability and clarity of written content. It highlights complex sentences, suggests simpler alternatives, identifies adverbs that can be removed, and points out instances of passive voice.
Hemingway is completely free and requires no download, as it is completely browser-based.
Grammarly – For Perfect Grammar
Grammarly is an advanced online writing assistant that offers a wide range of grammar, spelling, and punctuation-checking features. This tool also comes with a built-in plagiarism checker that can compare the submitted text with a vast database of sources, helping to identify potential instances of intellectual property breaches.
Grammarly offers a free plan for basic writing suggestions and tone detection, and premium plans start at $25 per month.
Evernote – For Advanced Organization
With Evernote, users can create and organize digital notes, including text, images, audio recordings, web clippings, and attachments. The notes can be structured into notebooks and tagged for easy categorization and retrieval. Evernote also allows you to set reminders, create to-do lists, and easily collaborate with others by sharing notes and notebooks.
Evernote’s free plan allows for up to 60MB of uploads per month, and paid plans start out at only $5.
Jasper AI – For Marketing Copy
Jasper.ai is an AI writing tool primarily designed to generate marketing copy, including blog posts, advertisement copy, product descriptions, and social media captions. This tool allows you to choose a template, for example, an Amazon product description, and input your target audience, tone of voice, and any other necessary details. Using this information, Jasper.ai creates a well-written piece of content that is virtually indistinguishable from man-made copy.
Jasper.ai’s plans start at $49 per month for individual users, and $125 for teams. They offer a 7-day free trial, as well as a discount when you opt for a yearly subscription.
Rytr – For Short-Form Copy
If you’re looking for something to help you generate short-form copy such as meta descriptions, social media posts, or emails, then Rytr is undoubtedly the tool for you. This AI writing tool can generate many different types of content, according to your chosen tone of voice and the specific instructions that you give. Rytr can also provide article outlines, which can help you to streamline your writing process.
For up to 10,000 words per month and the basic features, Rytr is completely free. For access to premium tools and a higher word count, plans start out at just $9 per month.
Readable – For Clearer, More Impactful Copy
Readable is an online writing tool designed to help writers improve their content’s overall readability and engage their audience. Their advanced algorithm rates the copy’s readability, clarity, and grammar, and has built-in features that can analyze your tone of voice, your keyword density, and word choices.
Readable is an affordable tool, starting at $4 per month for the most basic features.
Google Docs – For Seamless Collaboration
In addition to easy file-sharing and intuitive formatting, Google Docs allows multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. The real-time collaboration feature enables writers to collaborate with colleagues, clients, or editors, making it easy to gather feedback, make edits, and track changes in real-time. It eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails or document versions, streamlining the collaborative writing process.
Google Docs is completely free for individual users, albeit with limited cloud storage. Business plans cost $12 per month, and offer upgraded storage and 24/7 customer support.
Microsoft Word – For Document Organization & Navigation
Microsoft Word provides features to help writers organize and navigate their documents more efficiently. This includes a navigation panel, headings, table of contents generation, and bookmarking. These features make it easier for writers to manage large documents, quickly jump to specific sections, and create structured documents. Furthermore, Microsoft Word offers a wide range of templates, editing tools, and integrations with other Microsoft tools.
It is free to use Microsoft Word on your browser with limited functionality, and $75 per year.
ProWritingAid – To Improve Your Writing Skills
There are fewer tools more versatile than ProWritingAid. In addition to an excellent grammar- and readability-checker, this AI writing tool equips users with resources to improve their writing skills as they go. It also provides suggestions to shorten sentences, remove unnecessary jargon, and adjust your tone at the touch of a button.
ProWritingAid offers limited functionality with its free plan, and for $30 per month you get unlimited access and premium features.
Scrivener – For All the Tools You Need to Begin
Primarily used by novelists and screenwriters, Scrivener provides its users with all the resources that they need to research, write, plan, and arrange documents on a single platform. Features of this app include word-processing, easy restructuring, a corkboard for planning and visualization, the ability to set word targets, and an accessible place to store your reference material.
A standard license to download and use Scrivener costs around $50 once-off, which gives you access to all of the app’s features.
Wavemaker – For Brainstorming, Planning, and Creating Novels
Wavemaker is a cross-platform, easy-to-use tool for novelists to research, plan out, and create their content. This software also has a set of brainstorming tools to help streamline the drafting process, and a planning board to arrange your ideas in one place. What really sets Wavemaker apart from other writing tools is the ‘Snowflake’ feature, which allows you to add characters, locations and any extra information relevant to your novel for easy access when writing.
Wavemaker is completely free for unlimited use, with the option to donate to the creator’s Patreon.
Atomic Scribbler – For Flawless Details
With its intuitive interface and comprehensive features, Atomic Scribbler provides a seamless writing experience for both new and experienced writers. One standout feature of this tool is its ability to help writers structure novels or manuscripts, with a unique approach called “The Writer’s Journey,” where users can outline their story using scenes, characters, and locations. The software also provides tools for character development, enabling writers to create detailed character profiles, track relationships, and explore character arcs.
Atomic Scribbler is also free-to-use, with no limitations.
ChatGPT – For Planning & Research
While OpenAI’s ChatGPT isn’t always accurate, it serves as a helpful tool for writers to conduct research and plan out their copy. This AI chatbot can create article outlines, rewrite sentences, check grammar and readability, and bulk up their content. The premium version has an option for the AI to browse the internet for more accurate results.
ChatGPT offers a generous free plan, and offers additional features at $20 per month.
CopySmith – For Marketing & eCommerce Copy
With CopySmith, writers who specialize in eCommerce and marketing content can easily create product descriptions, FAQ page copy, product briefs, titles, and much more. The tool also assists with search engine optimization and maintaining a consistent brand voice, and supports collaboration so that teams and clients can view and edit content on one platform.
Plans start at $19 per month, with a 20,000 word limit and access to all of CopySmith’s basic features.
Conclusion
The writing tools outlined in this article are essential for boosting writers’ productivity and helping them produce high-quality content. From grammar-checking and readability scoring to planning and brainstorming, each tool offers unique features that cater to specific writing needs.
By using these tools, writers can improve efficiency, enhance writing quality, manage projects more effectively, and collaborate seamlessly with others. Whether you’re a copywriter, novelist, or content creator, incorporating these 14 best writing tools into your workflow can greatly enhance your productivity and help you deliver exceptional work that exceeds expectations.
