Writing Wednesdays: Free writing tools you can start using today

Not my typical Writing Wednesdays advice post, I know - but in-keeping with the social media and blogging advice week as well as being advice for writing!

When you’re a writer, you’ll see no end of these articles, trying to entice you to use products you don’t really need but that are marketed at you as a writer! to improve your writing! and stuff! And half of those products – the half that actually look useful – will probably be free trials for a month to draw you in and then try to charge you ten quid a month.

You might like this post on the pros and cons of publishing online.

Well, as a writer, I have fallen subject to nosing around at these articles. And I’ve tried some different products. Some of these overlap with everyday use or things I use for blogging, but I also use them for writing. And I wanted to share them with you, in case you guys are searching for other products to help you as a writer!

• Evernote – a wonderful platform, across devices (including desktop!). There’s even formatting on there for bold/italics, bullet points, etc. I use it a lot for typing things up on my iPad or phone when I’m on the go, and then accessing those notes via Evernote on my laptop later.

• Bubbl.us - for those of you who need to just let your ideas run wild before you can really get to grips with your novel, this one’s for you: a free, online brainstorming website that lets you be creative even on the go.

• Trello – this has become one of my blogging essentials, but I’ve also found it handy for writing, too. It’s a virtual whiteboard (again, you can access it via the app as well as your computer) and I’ve found it really handy for odd scraps of notes and ideas that I can shuffle about and collect at a later date.

• CalmlyWriter - this is not one I like using, but I’ve chosen to include it because some of you might find it a good website and just because I don’t enjoy using it, doesn’t mean you won’t. It’s a fuss-free online writing tool (my issue is that the export is in HTML… So you’d have to copy and paste into Notepad and then into Word…) but it is clear, and it is fuss-free, writing-wise!

• Werdsmith – I really like this app for writing on my iPad, if I can’t access my laptop. I find it easy to use, easy to import and export files, and not too fussy and not too plain.

• Todoist - a to-do list that you can access via your desktop and via an app. You can create different projects, group things… It’s just super handy and easy to use!

• Facebook – surprised to see this one on the list? (So am I.) There are hundreds of groups for writers on Facebook – whether it’s for your genre, or writers in your area – to keep you inspired and motivated.

• Pinterest – in a similar vein to Facebook, it’s a great community and I’d really recommend it for visual inspiration if you’re looking for writing prompts.

• Wattpad – of course! Even if you don’t want to use it to share your writing (which you should, and you can check out this Writing Wednesday post on posting your work online), it’ll give you access to an incredibly supportive community of writers and readers that may help inspire and motivate you. But, you can also write in the app or on the website, and save as a draft – so you can, effectively, use it as a way of saving some writing while you’re on the go to access later on your computer.

• Canva - more helpful for those of you who are publishing online, or maybe those of you who are maintaining online profiles/blogs as a writer. It’s such a great site, really easy to use, and you can make great graphics, with plenty of free templates! I’ve made the current Writing Wednesdays graphics, like the one on this post, using Canva.

Are there any free writing tools that you guys like using? Share them in the comments below!