I read a lot of blogs and emails by and for authors, and a list of favorite tools available to writers is a recurring topic. I don’t use a lot of tools, but I’m not tool-averse either because they, obviously, can be helpful. Here are a few I use frequently:
Microsoft Word
I’ve heard from lots of other writers about how they love Scrivener and similar platforms. To be honest, I have not tried them. I’m learning something new all the time in my day job, and I just haven’t had the energy to research, choose, and learn a new writing program. I write in Word. It has good points and bad points, but I know it very well.
Spellcheck
I’m actually not a bad speller, but I’m also not a great keyboardist, so I misspell a lot due to sloppy typing. Word provides spellcheck and synonym suggestions which are a great help. Althougj I often also use an online thesaurus because Word’s options are limited.
Word count
Microsoft Word also has a word count tool, which comes in handy when writing an author bio or a book summary that needs to meet a word or character limit. I keep a number of bios and summaries at various lengths in my computer files to pull out as needed.
Grammarly
While I have yet to agree to the paid version, I am use the free Grammarly tool. It gives me a few grammar corrections for free, which are usually wasted on “correcting” sloppy typing (see above) rather than fixing actual grammar mistakes. The program will continue to remind me of grammar it disagrees with, but it blurs out the correction because I haven't paid. Still, I can usually figure out what the problem is and correct it myself.
MailChimp
I was grandfathered into the current MailChimp because I’ve been using it forever. I understand there are other email programs, but I haven’t made the effort to learn about them. MailChimp provides a nice service which allows folks to easily subscribe and for me to send my Word of the Week. So as long as it ain’t broke, I’m not fixing it.
Photopea
Apparently, this is pronounced like “Utopia,” but in my head, I think “vegetable with a camera.” Photopea is my go-to for cropping, recoloring, and cleaning up of images. It’s very similar to Photoshop, so my learning curve was short. Canva has often been recommended to me, but again, I’m loathe to learn something new. I use Photopea to create graphics for emails, social media, and for images in my books.
You may have noticed that as well as avoiding new programs, I also avoid spending money. Many writers share this trait until we get rich and famous. If that is you and you are looking for inexpensive options, these are my suggestions. If you have suggestions of your own, please share. Although I will probably pass on them if they are too complicated for this tired brain.
Photo by Mikael Blomkvist