5 Powerhouse Writing Tools No Author Should Be Without

Writing is EXACTLY the same as any other profession in that a few great tools can make a world of difference in the results you get. I’m compiling a list of some of my favorite writing tools to get you started.

1. Grammarly

OK, you probably saw this one coming right out of the gate. Writers have included Grammarly among their best writing tools for years to keep their basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation as buff as The Rock. But it’s the paid versions of the plans that really set the tool apart for serious writers. The premium version, for instance, can help you with tone, fluency, or the inclusivity of your language, as well as formatting. The business version, which you might want to consider given that *cough* self-publishing really is a real job, offers additional support like analytics, snippets, and brand tones. It’s great if you consistently work with a team on your content.

The key with Grammarly is that you have to have the courage to ignore it as much as you trust it. You likely will have positive idiosyncrasies in your writing that the tool keeps wanting to destroy. Don’t let it. Always ask yourself if the suggestions are actually an improvement instead of just being “different.”

2. Ritetag and EngageAI

In the age of social media where writers are expected to do a lot of their own marketing, these tools are your best friends. Ritetag can give you hashtag suggestions and also lets you compare hashtags to ensure you pick the ones that get seen the most. You can set up hashtag sets, as well, so if you’re posting lots of content on similar themes or to the same groups, you can just click your set and have the hashtag preset auto-populate. Ritetag also will suggest tags based on a chunk of text, so you don’t have to wonder which words in your post to tag.

EngageAI is another hashtag tool specific to LinkedIn. Although some hashtags do well across platforms, each platform will have its own trends. Because LinkedIn is the primary social media platform that focuses on you as a professional, it’s important to know the trends there to find work, build a platform, and be taken seriously. EngageAI will allow you to home in on the hashtags that will work for your professional audience, whereas Ritetag is better for general, cross-platform marketing.

3. AWeber

AWeber is an email list service. It’s ideal for communicating with your fans, as well as sending out newsletters or writing-related promos/offers. It integrates with many other writing tools and creative apps, too, such as Captivate (a podcasting service) and WordPress. You also can use it to create landing pages for just about anything, such as free digital downloads, writing course signups, etc. Although there are a lot of other email list management services out there, AWeber is quite affordable for the number of features and the ability to pull many different lists into one account.

4. Canva

People often tout Canva for marketers, since it lets you create lots of fun images. But the Pro version opens up other options, too, such as audio and video. You also easily can resize images so different platforms don’t present them in wacky ways. This makes it perfect to create engaging social media or blog posts to sell or promote your content. You even can create templates for calendars, Bible studies, or courses, which work great to sell or offer as freebies when building your email list.

In the past, I turned to Hootsuite to schedule content because not all the social media platforms allowed for scheduling posts in advance natively. Canva also didn’t work with all the platforms I wanted. But now, the majority of the major platforms have switched gears and give you 30 days or more in advance for your posts. Canva has expanded the platforms you can connect to within its own planner, as well. So I schedule what I create in Canva and the rest natively, customized cross-platform, with a little copy and paste. It’s a little clunky, but with a simple spreadsheet to track what’s going out where, the cost savings are significant. I pay just $120 annually for Canva, whereas Hootsuite has ballooned to $1200. For that amount of money, I’m willing to do the copy/paste, particularly since you’d have to tweak the posts for each platform in Hootsuite anyway.

5. Scrivener

Scrivener is like a word processor, planner, and publisher all in one tool. It’s designed for long-form writing like novels, and it provides a lot of organizational and motivational support for that. For example, you easily can drag and drop scenes or chapters and label them with colors or statuses, and the program lets you set word count goals for individual sessions and the entire manuscript. When you’re ready to share your project, you can export it in popular formats, such as Word. You even can include cover art and publish the document on platforms like Amazon. So many writers see Scrivener as a one-stop-shop they can use from start to finish.