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6 tools that power my writing life

July 3, 2024 /

Every writer has their own process for writing. Some of us are plotters, some are pantsers. Some write with music, others require silence. Some use Word, some Scrivener, some old souls even draft in longhand. We writers are all special snowflakes1, so we each tend to assemble our own writing toolboxes. In this post, I’ll share the contents of mine, the 6 tools that power my writing life.

But first: This post is part of the IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) monthly blog hop. On the first Wednesday of every month, we IWSG-ers share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Our awesome co-hosts this month are JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue, and Natalie Aguirre!

Each month, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh gives us an optional question to answer. This month’s question is: What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?

OK, let’s get back to:

The 6 tools that power my writing life

Let’s start with the most important first:

Writing software

To be a writer, one must actually write.2 And since chiseling words on a stone tablet is inefficient and increases the risk of dropping said stone tablet on one’s foot, we need more modern alternatives. Like these:

  1. Scrivener. I draft and do most of my revisions in Scrivener. I also use Scrivener for plotting (with the Snowflake Method), storing research, creating character sketches, and saving cut scenes and snippets. Scrivener has a steep learning curve, but it fits the way I work and lets me keep all key components of a project in a single location.
  2. Microsoft Word. I use Word for editorial notes, for checking final formatting of a manuscript, and for printing a manuscript for hand-edits. I could use Scrivener for editorial notes, but if I do them in Word, I can have them on my second monitor and have all the real estate on my primary monitor available for the document I’m editing in Scrivener. I’m zoom-the-text-to-150% years old, so my aging eyes appreciate the extra viewing space. My aging eyes also proofread better on paper, and there’s something about reading a draft on paper that helps me catch other kinds of issues too–rhythm and flow of prose, clunky dialogue, even the occasional plot hole or redundancy. I think it’s because reading on paper mimics the experience of reading a book.

Brainstorming and storing ideas and notes

  1. Evernote. I use Evernote for all kinds of notetaking and information management in my life, including my writing life. I keep notes from writing classes and webinars in there, jot ideas and notes in the iOS app when I’m on the go (Why, why, why do the best plot ideas pop into my brain when I’m either in the shower or driving? Why????). I’ve been known to scribble down snippets of dialogue or plot bits while walking, exercising, reading, cooking… I’ve even pulled over a few times to capture an idea. I haven’t yet figured out how to use Evernote in the shower though.
  2. A paper notebook. Sometimes it’s easier to scribble an idea on paper than to tap it into my phone, especially when I don’t have reading glasses handy for seeing tiny letters on a tiny screen. I carry a small notebook in my purse, and I have a horde of medium and large notebooks at home. I rarely draft more than snippets in longhand, but I frequently brainstorm in longhand. Sometimes putting pen to paper activates some other part of my brain3, and ideas flow when they don’t at the keyboard.

For more information on how I use Scrivener and Evernote, plus some links to other content on using Evernote for writing projects, see my post from 2021, My Favorite Writing Tools 1: Notebooks, Pens, Note-Taking Software, and Writing Software.

Writing trackers

  1. Online Writing Log. Online Writing Log (OWL) is a writing tracker with session and sprint timers, tracking of word count and time spent, project tracking, and some useful graphs to show progress over a specific time period. It also features monthly challenges for competing against other subscribers. I believe some features are still free. Full access is $4.99/month.
  2. Writing & Revision Tracker from Jamie Raintree. Jamie’s tracker is built in Excel and features the ability to set goals for projects by month and year and see your progress by day. Last time I checked, the cost was $19 for 5 projects and $29 for 10 projects.

For screenshots of both these tools, see my post from 2021, My Favorite Writing Tools 2: Writing Trackers.

Which one(s) I can’t live without

Honestly? None of them. Take away Scrivener, and I’ll use Word. Take away both of those, and I’ll use LibreOffice or Google Docs. No notetaking app? I have paper and a pen. No writing tracker? Excel, bullet journal, or paper and pen. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of these tools, but they’re just that: tools. I can still write without them if I need to.

Personal news

In last month’s IWSG post, I shared that I’m packing up and moving to California. By the time you read this, we’ll have just over 2 weeks till the movers show up to load up our stuff and transport it to a storage facility in Fresno, where it will live till we sell our home in Tucson and buy one out there. In the meantime, we’ll be living in an AirBnB. That should be… interesting.

The memery

Usually I share writing memes in my IWSG posts, but I’m too busy with moving-related work to search for any new ones, so instead you get the memes that have been lurking in a dark corner of my hard drive, waiting to be chosen.

First up: summer outfits.

My husband would have fit right in with that group.

Let’s keep the summer theme rolling:

Here in southern Arizona, mosquitoes aren’t much of an issue (usually), but if I sit outside in the evening this time of year, I’m likely to be thwapped upside the head by a Palo Verde beetle. Go ahead, Google them. They’re the stuff of nightmares, and they have all the grace and flying ability of a June bug.

And finally:

That’s it for me this month. Back to packing and cleaning and sorting through crap and… *sigh*

How about y’all? What’s in your writer’s toolbox? What’s your favorite moving tip?

  1. I’m such a special snowflake, I even plot using the Snowflake Method. See my post, Books to Help You Write Better: A Writer’s Reading List for books on using this method.
  2. This is grossly unfair.
  3. The part not devoted to 80s song lyrics, out of date passwords, and memes.

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18 Comments

  • Kim Elliott

    July 3, 2024 at 8:31 am

    You sound like you have your process down to a science with the tools you use. I will have to look into Scrivener someday. Good luck with moving! It can be so stressful.

  • Natalie Aguirre

    July 3, 2024 at 9:06 am

    Good luck with your move. That’s great that you have the tools that work for you. I’m okay with just using Word and an upgraded version of Grammarly that I get through my job.

  • Barbara Mealer/B. A. Mealer

    July 3, 2024 at 10:57 am

    I like Scrivener for writing, organizing, research, etc. But without it, I’d use MS Word.
    I track my stuff in Excel with a program that gives me my WPH.
    For me, if I can’t use it off line, it is useless to me since I work off like a lot. I don’t need ‘challenges’ to get work done. What I need to do is stay off line to stop the distractions. I’m squirrelly in that I’m easily distracted, especially when doing something I’m not comfortable with or that is boring to me.

    For moving–label those boxes with the rooms they belong in and if there are breakable things in them. If a box contains something that I know I’ll need right away, I put that on the box.
    Never, ever put your most valuable things on a moving van. Pack those and take them with you in your car. (ie expensive jewelry, fragile figurines that are worth a lot of money, any electronics like a PC, and that $15K dollar picture that can’t be replaced.)

    I do not envy you in moving. It is not my favorite thing, and I despise unpacking and putting things away. And good luck on finding a house you can afford in CA. I know the prices are ridiculous there.

    • Janet Alcorn

      July 3, 2024 at 7:38 pm

      I label boxes with the room they belong in and a priority number–1, 2, or 3–so I know what to open first. And totally agree on the valuables. I’ve had so many things damaged by movers.

      Fresno prices aren’t too bad, about the same as Tucson, maybe a bit less. But stuff is selling super fast, so there’s not much point in looking till our house here is under contract.

  • mlouisebarbourfundyblue

    July 3, 2024 at 1:17 pm

    I don’t envy you getting ready to move, Janet! But, before you know it, the move will be behind you. I see Barbara (above) has left you some great suggestions. I do my best editing on a printed copy. I can write the draft and catch a lot of things, but then I must go over the printed copy. All the best to you. Be gentle with yourself during this stressful time!

    • Janet Alcorn

      July 3, 2024 at 7:39 pm

      I mostly don’t mind moving except for the week before and the week after, when everything is so disrupted. Oh, and the drama around selling and buying a house. Ugh.

  • Loni Townsend

    July 3, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    Best of luck with the move. I approve of your dark-corner memes.

    I am spoiled with yWriter that I don’t think I could switch to something else, at least not for my big books that are 60+ chapters consisting of over 100 scenes by 4 different POVs. My mind rebels if I try to think about managing that in just a word processor.

    • Janet Alcorn

      July 3, 2024 at 7:39 pm

      Yeah, I use Scrivener because it makes it so much easier to manage lots of chapters and multiple POV. I’ll have to investigate yWriter someday.

  • Rebecca Douglass

    July 5, 2024 at 9:21 am

    Ha! I’m zoom to 200% old!
    I’m starting to realize that one reason I don’t have a lot of need for these fancy softwares isn’t just that I’m an old stick-in-the- mud. It’s that my stories aren’t THAT complex (like, 30 chapters and one POV). I mean, yeah, I have to track a murderer and a handful of red herrings, but I can mostly do that with my trusty notebook. Honestly, I could write with nothing but a notebook. It’s the editing that would kill me.