My Top Writing Tools

There is an old adage that the tool should not interfere with the work. Most people who are writing will open up their favorite word processor (usually Microsoft Word) and start typing away. Word is good for final drafts for me but when it comes to drafting I need something less complicated and integrated with my phone. I also like to use other writing tools to get the job done. I produce thousands of words a week in various capacities and so I have come up with a list of my favorite writing tools!

Freewrite

The best way to describe this is a digital typewriter. It is a really neat device out of Germany that wireless connects to dropbox or Google Drive through its PostBox platform. It’s made for simplicity in writing. It has a normal sized keyboard with mechanical keys that slow down your typing and a small screen. Its most interesting feature is that you can’t scroll up on the text. It is built to help keep you writing forward for later editing. I’ve used it often but I will confess I don’t use it as much anymore. It’s heigh and my wrists aren’t so compatible so I really need to get a wrist rest. The inability to scroll up does get annoying but it does keep you off of social media and google which is nice. It has also a very long battery life, so it’s great for travel. I’ve used it in public and it’s a great conversation starter!

Evernote

I was an Evernote user for 10 years. It was my favorite tool until I moved to another tool that I’ll talk about in a minute. My life was in Evernote. Everything I needed about myself was in Evernote. I had a subscription. I had all the apps, everything. Evernote is still a powerful tool. It doesn’t quite have the organization tools that I wanted for writing books and that’s why I moved on, but it is a powerful tool for writing and it has mobile apps which makes working on multiple devices very easy. It’s fairly inexpensive as well which was always nice.

Scrivener

Scrivener was a tool I had heard about for a long-time before I took the plunge and bought it. I migrated all my work over to it and I used it for awhile. It is an app built for writing creative works like books and screen plays. It really shines in its planning tools. You can color code storylines to keep track of them and you can use their “cards” reminiscent of the 3x5 cards many of us grew up with to outline and plan your work. I liked it but I left it because of the lack of a mobile option. I write quite a bit on my phone and I found myself writing stuff down in Evernote and then having to move it over and it was just a pain in the ass.

Ulysses

Ulysses has become a popular new app. I’m writing this very blog post in it right now. It has mobile apps and has many of the functionalities of Scrivener that I really liked but with a mobile app option.

There are a few big Pros for Ulysses. It can also work as a publishing tool which can help you avoid having to learn InDesign for book layout. It can publish directly to Medium and Wordpress (which is huge for me) but there is one big Con: It’s only available on Mac (for now) which cuts out many people who use windows machines.

If you are interested in writing a book and telling your unique story! My new writing courses: The Power of Story (fiction and non-fiction) are now available! You get year long access to the complete course as well as access to our bi-weekly writing group and 2 coaching sessions with me! To sign up today visit: The Cameron Journal Academy.