15 Best Tools and Resources to Become a Professional Writer
By
Adnan Rehan
Writing is not the easiest job in the world, but with the right tools and resources, you can ease the burden massively.
Rather than trying to do everything on your own, you can rely on certain tools to help you out on the process. And in fact, using these tools and resources that I am going to mention on this list will help you become a way better writer and potentially win more clients.
If you wish to stand out from the crowd, you need to take the “smart” route instead of doing things traditionally. For example, some tools help you become more organized with your clients and projects, and there are some that help you come up with a brilliant headline.
If you’d go on and try to do those things manually, not only will you be wasting time but also lag behind the other writers in the industry, and that’s not good for your career.
I agree, few things should be done manually, but the solutions mentioned in this list are quite literally the need of the hour for writers. You’d probably want to start using them all right away, so let’s jump straight into the list.
Grammarly
Since we’re all humans, there are always going to be grammatical errors, no matter how well of a grip you have on your English. After you’ve finished writing your piece, you can either go back and proofread the entire thing manually or make the task 100% easier with Grammarly.
It is a super-smart tool that can help you polish your written pieces in a bunch of different ways, including:
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Conciseness
- Formality
- Vocabulary
Also, you can check your content for plagiarism and also identify if the written tone was appropriate. You can download it as a Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari extension or directly access it through their website.
Dropbox Paper
As the name suggests, Dropbox Paper is simply a paper, but it can help you with different tasks, such as quickly creating a creative brief to send to clients or brainstorming new content ideas. It can be easily used for a wide range of activities, even outside of writing.
So, if you wanted to prepare a meeting note or a product launch plan, you can do that all within mere minutes. Other than that, you can integrate various apps to boost functionality and even download their smartphone app to jot down exciting ideas on the go.
Zoho Writer
If you’re fed up with the traditional word processor you’re using, then you should try Zoho Writer. It has everything your traditional word has, but with many more features that can help you in the long run.
With a clean and elegant interface, you can pump out words with much less effort, thanks to their writing assistant. It can detect grammatical errors, improve readability, and suggest a better style of writing.
Moreover, you can directly post your content on WordPress and even integrate it with Zoho CRM.
Headline Analyzer
If you’re like me who struggles to come up with great headlines, then CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is your rescuer. Just start by entering your headline and checking if it is strong and capable enough to grab attention and better SEO rankings.
I love the CoSchedule headline analyzer. I use it every time now.
— Michelle Warner (@gratefulone11) December 17, 2019
Not many people realize that a headline plays a major part in grabbing readers’ attention. A tiny mistake, and you’ve already lost your chance of attracting viewers. So, next time you’re writing content, be sure to use this tool to come up with great headlines.
Sharethrough Headline Analyzer is another tool that’ll help you pack a perfect headline. The reason I’ve included two headline analyzers is that sometimes you’d want to cross-check and verify the strength of your headlines on different sources. It’s always good to have more options.
Upon entering your headline, you can check the strengths, and quality score, and review the suggestions to come up with something better.
iA Writer
As writers, we often get distracted by the tiniest things, and it affects the way we write. In order to potentially avoid that, you can use iA Writer. It creates a full-screen and plans writing space for you to dedicate your time and focus on it without being distracted.
There’s not much to say about their interface because it’s fully plain and simple. It’s all you and your text, that’s it. iA Writer is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone/iPad.
ProWritingAid
If you’ve been searching for something that does a bunch of different tasks all within one tool, then ProWritingAid might just be the one you’re looking for. It can quickly check your grammar, improve your style, and offer tips that’ll help you become a better writer.
One of my favorite features is the ability to find the right word when you can’t think of it, using their word explorer or contextual thesaurus.
All in all, It can help you avoid repetitiveness, confusing words, large sentences, and so much more. You can eliminate every single error and be finished with a clean and professional piece ready to be published.
Ommwriter
Similar to iA Writer, Ommwriter too help you be more focused on your writing and avoid distractions. The editor opens up in full-screen mode with natural backgrounds and very minimal features, which are just about enough to get your work done flawlessly.
It also has audio tracks and key sounds to help you concentrate solely on the words you’re typing. I’d say each and every element present on Ommwriter helps you fuel your creativity and come up with great pieces of content.
No matter if you’re writing a song, book, love letter, or anything. This tool is made for every kind of writer out there.
Milanote
It’s a well-known fact that writers don’t think in a straight line. Their ideas are always jumbled up, and then, in the end, those ideas form a beautiful and finalized piece. Keeping that in mind, Milanote has come up with this writing software that’ll help you store all your ideas and unfinished content in one place and then work on your final piece.
Instead of storing your ideas all over their places, you can house all of them under one roof to avoid conflicts and confusion. With Milanote, you can:
- Add images
- Add mind maps
- Embed videos
- Enter text
- Assemble your story characters’ traits
- Prepare your outline swiftly
There’s a lot more you can do with this software, so be sure to sign up and get started for free.
Notion
Being organized is as important as coming up with messy ideas; otherwise, you’d be wasting your time lurking around trying to recall where you kept your draft. Notion helps you write, plan, collaborate, and become more organized with your work.
With everything in one single place, you can avoid chaos and pulling out your hair. It has a brilliant editor so you can write your content and add more than 30 different media types. You can also assign tasks, add a calendar, and keep a record of everything.
Just discovered @NotionHQ and OMG take my money this is amazing.
— T (@thomaswde) February 25, 2020
Another impressive feature is the ability to add a knowledge base so you can find all your answers seamlessly. If you’ve always wanted to stay focused on your writing and be more organized, then Notion is a great option.
Content SEO Checker
Ask any online marketer, “Which source of traffic is the most valuable?” and they’ll say its Google.
If you’re looking to drive traffic from Google but struggling with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then Content SEO Checker might help you big time.
Upon entering a keyword, this tool suggests LSI keywords and other valuable tips that’ll help you rank better on the search engines. You can then go on to write your entire content on their editor and be guided whenever you make any mishaps that might affect your ranking.
Lastly, you can evaluate your SEO score and, if satisfied, publish it on your blog/website.
Copywritely
Copywritely is another amazing tool for SEO purposes. It helps you polish your content to the max in order to rank higher on the search engines. Once you paste your content onto this tool, it can detect issues that might prevent better ranking and also suggest or delete certain parts of your content to pass through their quality score.
Besides, it can:
- Detect plagiarism
- Research profitable keywords
- Prevent keyword stuffing
- Improve readability score
Their support team is available 24/7, so there’s no way you’ll be left out in case of problems, which is pretty good news.
Writing With Flair
No matter how good of a writer you are, there’s always room for improvement. This Udemy course from the Ex-Wall Street Journal Editor, Shani Raja, called Writing With Flair, is all about teaching you how to turn yourself into an exceptional writer within no time.
You can expect to learn the fundamentals broken down into four easy-to-follow modules. After you’ve finished the course, you’ll be able to apply those strategies to whatever piece you write, be it books, blogs, or just about anything.
It has over 85,000 students enrolled with a total rating of 4.5/5 stars, so you can be sure you’re jumping into something really good.
Canva
In content, visuals are as much important as text. If you have huge blocks of text with no visuals in between, readers are going to have a hard time finishing the entire thing. It just becomes too boring. To avoid that, you can make use of this tool called Canva.
If you’re business is fairly new and you can’t afford to hire a UI/IX designer or you’re intimated by Photoshop/Illustrator, take a weekend and learn Canva.
Canva is extremely user friendly and you can create beautiful designs/graphics in minutes.
— 🌎 (@jasminexETH) February 19, 2020
It lets you design various graphics for your content, be it charts, featured images, graphs, tables, or whatnot. Name any graphic type, and you can be sure Canva has it. You don’t need any design skills to use it. All you do is pick a template and customize it to fit your requirements.
Pixabay
Who doesn’t like free stock photos and graphics, that too quality ones?
Pixabay is a large hub for free graphics and photos that can be used without necessarily giving any attribution, though it’s always appreciated.
You can find all kinds of royalty-free elements on this site and use them on your personal, as well as commercial projects. If you have specific size requirements, you can choose from several options and download the one you prefer. How cool is that?
Conclusion
I hope the above tools and resources will help you become a better writer and land more projects.
