Every writer understands that writing is a wonderful creative outlet. It is a way we explore and interpret the world around us. Writing can bring relief and a sense of satisfaction also.
That being said, there are a lot of complexities involved with writing. It can also be highly stressful and emotionally draining at times. Facing writer’s block, editing, rewrites, redrafting, and rejections can be highly overwhelming.
So, for fine-tuning of writing skills many writers use software tools.
So we have curated a list of the best writing tools that provide solutions to the different complexities involved with writing for free.
Grammarly: For clear and concise writing
The most known and frequently used editing software, Grammarly identifies grammatical, spelling, and clarity errors, while also providing feedback on your writing style. It is free to download writing tools and create an account.
Grammarly offers different levels of service. The free basic level includes spelling and grammar checks, identifies clarity errors, and assesses your writing style and readability by providing you with an engagement and delivery score.
Premium and business memberships provide a more detailed evaluation of your writing. These evaluations include sentence structure, tense issues, writing voice and delivery, word choices, and phrase usage.
FocusWriter: For decreasing distractions
When writing on a computer, it’s ridiculously easy to become distracted… and procrastinate. The internet provides us with loads of information, so, a small detour on a research mission can soon become a lost cause.
FocusWriter is a word processor that is only operable in full-screen mode. Blocking out any distractions on your desktop. To leave the screen and return to your desktop or open other programs the user needs to shut the program down.
This program implements an ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ philosophy. Once the research is completed, FocusWriter can be used extensively to work on deadline-based jobs.
MindMeister: For brainstorming and organizing
Mind mapping is a great brainstorming exercise for all kinds of writing projects. Whether capturing thoughts for a term paper or thesis or coming up with ideas for a new novel, mind mapping can help you capture your ideas and brainstorm new ones by triggering associations.
While brainstorming MindMeister offers more flexibility than a traditional pen and paper approach. MindMeister is a tool designed specifically to make mind mapping easier, giving writers a simple way to capture their ideas, organize them, and share them with others. The size of the map doesn’t matter, MindMeister expands to give you as much room as you need. Capture all of your ideas in a single file, rearrange and organize your ideas by dragging and dropping them, and connect ideas no matter how far apart they are on your mind map.
MindMeister is however not a free app but it does provide unlimited access for up to 3 mind maps.
Unpaywall: For researching
Unpaywall harvests data from sources like journals’ open-access repositories and university and government databases, ensuring you’re never infringing copyright when you access a paywalled article for free.
When your research lands on a result for a paywalled paper or article that’s available for free on some other source, a green unlocked icon is displayed that leads to the free copy of the paper.
Unpaywall doesn’t work for everything it won’t get you past the paywall on your favorite news site, but if you refer to scholarly articles from time to time, it’s worth installing.
Google Docs: For collaborative writing
With a free Google account, you can use Google Docs to write, edit, and archive your work. It autosaves your document to Google Drive after nearly every word you type and backs up everything you write to the cloud automatically.
While this makes Google Drive a great tool for any type of writing, where it stands out is its collaborative features.
With a few clicks, you can share your document with others and give them viewing editing, or commenting permissions. And best of all, everyone you share the file with can edit the document together at the same time without overriding changes.
One Look Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus: For all the words you need
OneLook’s Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus are like any other thesaurus. Type in a word, and it suggests dozens of synonyms as consider as alternatives. And while the thesaurus is a must-have in any writer’s toolkit, OneLook offers other uniquely helpful options for free.
De-Jargonizer: For communication to a mass audience
If a developer writes a blog post for other developers, it’s probably fine, as the targeted audience understands these industry-specific words (jargon). However, if a developer wants to communicate with a non-developer, using jargon can be disengaging.
De-Jargonizer helps you identify words that might be considered jargon for readers that don’t belong to the same field as the writer.
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