Writing is a massive effort and it takes a village to string together a solid story all on your own. Luckily, there are a variety of tools available to help you simplify the job and improve your writing skills. Creative distraction-free writing applications may greatly assist the process, whether you work on paper or on the computer.
Writing is personal, and everything you write bears your voice. However, while you are in the process of developing your style, you may greatly benefit from writing apps to help you better express yourself and form your unique style.
Since the focus is the key to successful writing, applications with minimal settings will allow you to keep your thoughts on the content and focus completely on your task. Below we'll go over some distraction-free writing programs for various types of writing projects that might suit you.
Up your vocabulary
You might start with something simple like "Lose the Very" to refresh your vocabulary. This distraction-free platform generates words for you in a creative way based on the hints you provide. If you're not sure what you're searching for, go for the "random" button and surf until you find the right term.
Any writer's toolset should include a thesaurus. Once you key in the term, OneLook's Thesaurus gives dozens of synonyms to examine as alternatives. OneLook provides some very useful features: you may enter phrases into the search bar if you can't think of a single word to look for. You may even narrow down the results to just view nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs. The platform is entirely free to use.
For those looking to enhance their vocabulary in a more structured and engaging way, Promova's Vocabulary App offers an interactive solution. With daily challenges, personalized word recommendations, and a spaced repetition system, the app helps you grow your vocabulary effectively over time. It's especially useful for those learning new languages, as it tailors word lists to your proficiency level and interests. Plus, the app includes visual and contextual learning features, which help reinforce the meanings of words in a more memorable way. Whether you're expanding your native language or diving into a new one, Promova provides a fun and effective approach to mastering new vocabulary.
Writing apps for long works
If you're working on a long-form piece, Scrivener is a great option. Scrivener helps authors and students organize their thoughts and handle more complex writing tasks. Scrivener, which is designed for extensive writing projects, allows you to construct your material in any sequence you like, in chunks as large or small. The program is intuitive and simple to use, despite its many features and it comes with a free trial version as well.
Ulysses, on the other hand, is excellent for writers who are easily distracted by toolbars. Ulysses is sophisticated writing software for iOS that allows you to compose content without ever departing from the keyboard with a distraction-free mode you can take advantage of. Ulysses is a typical writing program; you can easily stay organized, with all of your projects neatly grouped. Such, Ulysses is perfect for bloggers and copywriters who are simultaneously trying to juggle multiple projects. It should be noted, however, that it is only compatible with Apple devices.
iA Writer is another distraction-free document software that works for Windows and iOS, on both desktop and mobile platforms. Its user interface is designed to eliminate background noise and allow you to focus on your writing. It comes with many useful features, such as Syntax, which emphasizes portions of the speech to help you improve your text. Focus mode is another important function that allows you to concentrate just on the sentence or paragraph you're working on. A free trial is provided, as well as educational discounts.
Prose editor
For authors who prefer to keep things short and simple, Hemingway is a simply essential program, available on Windows and Mac. This distraction-free tool is recognized for being easy to use and geared toward making writing simpler. You may either start writing your text in the Hemingway app or copy and paste anything you've already written. The prose-based editor examines sentence length, word usage, phrase alternatives, and seemingly little details that can otherwise be missed. Examine highlighted elements in your material and make the appropriate modifications to remove adverbs, utilize active verbs, and simplify complex phrases. Overall, Hemingway helps you to be a better writer in the long run since you're identifying and correcting your mistakes.
Readable's objective is similar to Hemingway's: to improve the readability of your work through a simple, focus app, but it also offers additional functions. This app gathers a wealth of data to provide you with a comprehensive analysis of your work and give you a readability score. If you prefer to not upgrade for more detailed analysis and statistics, Readable has a free version that should work well.
Research-based and note-taking apps
For researchers, Evernote is an excellent writing program. Evernote allows you to keep track of all of your ideas, to-do lists, notes and documents in one location. If you want to write without distractions while yet having access to all of the features of a word processor, this is a good choice. You can create categories and folders for various sorts of content to keep everything organized. Simply click the browser extension to save highlights or the page to your notebook, as you surf the web and find items that need to be added to your researched category. Evernote comes with a free version as well as paid packages. With Evernote's premium account, you can scan handwritten notes, and book pages into the program. Scanned documents may also be searched, making it simple to discover what you need.
SciSpace (formerly Typeset) is another research-focused tool created by and for scholars. You may quickly copy-paste or upload your article to SciSpace and use their citation style. When you've finished uploading and referencing, SciSpace will build your research report which you can download in any format you want. Additionally, SciSpace evaluates the quality of your work using its built-in plagiarism and grammar checkers.
On the other hand, if you are looking for apps for formulating your ideas, Mind mapping is a great brainstorming exercise. Mind mapping, which MindMeister provides, may help you capture your ideas and develop new ones by generating associations. MindMeister extends to provide you with as much space as you need to collect, organize, and share your thoughts without distractions, no matter how big your mind map grows. You are free to design up to three free mind maps.
Distraction-free – literally
Not quite a writing app, but this tool offers a great way to eliminate the distractions that hinder you from concentrating on your work. Freedom allows you to ban the websites and applications that disturb you the most across all of your devices, ensuring that you're not distracted by fluttering phone alerts while on your computer. You may schedule writing sessions in advance to ensure that your distractions are removed when you're ready to write.
Writing communities
After you feel like the writing process is near the end, you can benefit from accessing groups of like-minded people where you can exchange your ideas, in addition to creative writing tools. You can go for a writing community like Scribophile, where writers of all ability levels are welcome to share their insights to better one other's work. Members of the platform exchange critiques on each others' work, and as the website attests, constructive feedback is one of the best ways to get actionable ways to improve your writing.
All in all, whether you're a fiction writer or an aspiring blogger, these options will help you stay focused on your work by minimizing distractions. While there are several apps, classes, and forums dedicated to writing, in the end, you must decide what you want from a writing tool and how crucial a distraction-free experience is to you.
Combining your work with focus writing applications will surely boost your writing and provide you with better results on any type of creative work. The apps are there to help you polish your writing and switch your focus solely on your content creation.
Header photo by Jess Bailey.