If you are like me, and writing is part of your full-time job and/or takes up all your free time, you might well regularly shop around for applications/software/tools that make your life eas(ier).
Over the years I’ve found and tested a few, and that’s my personal list of what will always be on my laptop. [Disclaimer: I am not associated with any of the companies or developers mentioned here.]
- Scrivener
If there is ONE tool to chose over everything else, for me this will be Scrivener, and the reason is that it makes the cumbersome task of writing a book a bit less painful. It would take many blog posts to explain all its features. I have actually written one a while ago, and, while there’s now a new version on the market, the reasons why it’s so good are still valid. (By the way, I have not tried the Scrivener 2 yet, but it seems to work quite well, especially for people who self-publish. I’ll post more when I have given it a try.
2. Grammarly
While it’s not optimal, this is one of the best online tools that correct your grammar. While you need to pay to get its full functionalities and integration with Words, for example, its basic version is free. I found it the most useful for online 
writing -emails, blogs and so on – and for non-fiction work, while it is far from perfect for creative writing. Here’s for more.
3. ProWriting Aid
It is a $$ alternative to Grammarly, but, IMO, it is better suited for creative writing than the former one. I have tried to edit the same piece of work with the two softwares, and in terms of stylistic choices and suggestions, ProWriting Aid is way more accurate. You can try it for free.
4. Wordreference
If like me you often write in other languages, you might need a quick dictionary to check for the exact word. Wordreference is the best I have found online. Completely free, it offers many languages and many examples, and it is even available as an iOs /Android apps.
What are your favourite tools for writing? Let me know!
Thank you for this helpful article, Steph. I love Dragon Naturally when I want to dictate my reviews and parts of my writing – and the text to speech facility is brilliant to read my work back to me when line editing as I follow the manuscript. It tends to read what I’ve written, rather than what I THINK I’ve written…
Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah. I had a go at it long ago, but it’s time to try it again 🙂
It really helps with the line editing.
Thanks for the list! I’ve bookmarked WordReference already.
Let me know how it does work for you, Cinda.