Writing Software

You need good writing and editing solutions.  Here are my favourites that I use daily.

Scrivener is a word processor designed from the ground up for the serious writer. It’s everything the serious writer needs to track even the most complicated assignment. It’s part word processor, ring-binder, and scrapbook. Scrivener’s more powerful when combined with their other flagship product, Scapple.

Scapple is a note-taking and mind mapping software from the creators of Scrivener. It allows you to arrange your notes in an idea cloud for easy visualization. And since it’s from the creators of Scrivener, you can import your notes from Scapple into Scrivener.

Grammarly is more than a mere word processor. Grammarly has powerful copyediting software that goes beyond the MS Word spell checker. It checks for spelling and basic grammar plus readability, clarity, tone, passive voice and other issues. It even caught some spelling errors that Word missed in this very text. And that’s on the free version. You can upgrade to the Premium version if you want to supercharge your writing.

Ginger is like Grammarly, though less fully featured. I use it to keep as many eyes on my work as I can to avoid mistakes. Plus, it has a free version, like Grammarly, so why not.

Hemingway is another text editor, though it’s even less fully featured than Grammarly, Ginger, or Word. The strength of Hemmingway is its ability to score your work and give it a grade level. You use this grade to make sure your writing is accessible to your audience. Many people don’t realize that most readers only read at a 10th-grade level. Even Ernest Hemmingway only wrote on a 6th-grade level, hence the name of the app. Plug in your text and it will give recommendations to make your work more readable. Plus, it’s free.