5 Near-Indispensable Tools to Help Authors Write

There are a variety of platforms (or tools) vying for our attention as authors. Sifting through these to find truly useful ones is a laborious task, and also subjective. Some authors will prefer tools to help them keep to a daily or weekly work count, some will prefer tools to help with character names, some will prefer tools to help with sentence structure, and so on. The following 5 tools are near-indispensable for helping authors write and complete manuscripts, in my opinion (8 books down in a mix of indie and trad publishing + a few in the oven!). They're tools I've personally used, and find helpful.

1. Microsoft Word

This software, or a very similar equivalent (such as Open Office, Google Docs, etc), is well worth the investment as a decent catch-all. If there was only one tool I could use to aid with my writing, it would be this processor. Its word and grammar checker is fantastic. Furthermore, once you become au fait with using it to write with, you will also probably begin to learn about using styles to create headings and other types of formatting that help you navigate the document (as that's what your book is!), and create your desired eBook or physical book template.

2. Grammarly

This is FREE and the next most important thing in terms of spell and grammar checking, after Microsoft Word. Before I pass my book to proof-readers, and certainly before it sees the light of day to anyone else such as an editor, I run my manuscript through Grammarly. It catches mistakes that Microsoft Word misses, and also finds different types of grammatical errors. There's no reason not to use it.

3. Hemingway 

Hemingway has a similar overall sleek feel to Grammarly, but it's geared towards readability (as opposed to catching mistakes, per se). Therefore, you can use the two in tandem. Of course, you can disagree with a lot of what Hemingway comes up with, but it's still useful to gauge the algorithmic perception of your writing.​ Oh, and it's also FREE.

4. An app to take notes (I use Telegram)

Being able to jot down notes on-the-go is non-negotiable. You might wake up at night having had a useful dream, have a spark of inspiration on the tube or the bus, or realise something mid-conversation with a friend that you need to subtly note down. You need to be able to quickly take notes. Pretty much 1 billion apps offer this, but you need to find one that you're comfortable with. Personally, I use Telegram (saved messaged), since I have it synced to my phone and computer, so can write notes on-the-go and use/delete them later. I also believe it's highly encrypted (compared to many other messaging services).

5. Glossary Generator

This is also FREE, fast, and simple to use. It's a program I wrote in python to help authors create glossaries without having to trawl through their books for hours. You simply upload your manuscript (in Microsoft Word format), and a text file is created with glossary suggestions. Also, it helps authors find errors that aren't discovered by other software, like inconsistently named characters. Glossaries are so important, especially for Fantasy and Sci-Fi, and are increasingly in demand by readers. Give it a go!

Good luck!