Writer’s Toolbox: Essentials for your success and more

As a writer, you can use as little as a simple notebook and pencil, but if you really want to get somewhere with your craft, you’ll need a bit more than that. That’s why I’ve decided to compile a list of tools that I’ve personally tried and tested. Call this a ‘writer’s toolbox’! I’ll make sure to keep the list updated and add to it as I discover something new.

As we live in a modern society, it’s quite self-explanatory that you won’t get far with your writing unless you digitise it. If you want to get published, send an opinion post to a newspaper or a short story to a literary magazine, the editor will expect you to hand over a properly formatted and attributed digital file. Snail mail submissions still exist, so I’ve heard. As a whole, the typical communication between an author and a publisher nowadays is done overwhelmingly via email.

Digital tools for writers

Writing tools can be categorised into word processors, editing and formatting software, and miscellaneous apps and tools that won’t really help you get a complete manuscript, but they’re nice to have in your process and help you write every day.

Word processors

You can use your typical MS Word or whatever they use on Mac. It’ll work just as well as back in high school when you had to write all those essays and book reports. Or you can opt for open-source software, such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

Scrivener

If you don’t mind paying for proper writing software, the go-to choice would be Scrivener. I’ve had it since 2017, when I got a 50% discount code after successfully drafting a 30K-word manuscript for CampNano, which was a summer challenge of the now notorious NaNoWriMo.

I’ve used Scrivener for a few years for different projects and even some boring work-related writing. I believe it has an option for editing your manuscript and exporting it as an e-book. This hasn’t worked for me, though, because for some reason, Scrivener defaults to installing a localised version on my laptop. And for my location, they have just so happened to select the Russian version, which is completely irrelevant, since I’ve only ever written in English or my native Ukrainian language. This is the main reason why I’ve stopped using Scrivener for now, but I may give it another go sometime in the foreseeable future.

Google Docs

I’m currently using Google Docs for my fiction writing, as well as some other projects, such as translation, blog posts, etc. I love its versatility and how easy it is to share my work with my beta readers. I’ve used it almost exclusively at my corporate job. It’s a great choice if you want to have access to your writing on multiple devices. And my favourite feature is probably the word counter, which you can set up to show you your word count as you are writing.

Other writing-related tools

Other tools which are really helpful, but don’t fall into the category of word processors, would be Grammarly and Hemingway App.

Grammarly

Grammarly is very helpful when it comes to catching typos and fixing up the flow of your sentences. It’s now heavily pushing its AI features, which I’ve personally turned off. I prefer a bit more control over what I choose to fix in my writing. Not all mistakes are mistakes. Sometimes it’s a creative choice or maybe a word or concept that doesn’t really translate to English.

Hemingway App

Hemingway App analyses your writing and gives you some useful stats. Basically, the app is fixing the readability of your text. The easier it is to read and comprehend, the better. That’s a distinctive feature of the novels and short stories penned by Ernest Hemingway, hence the name of the app. I’ve always enjoyed the simple yet impactful writing by Hemingway. I’ve also enjoyed using the app. It’s completely your choice, though. Every writer has their own style, and it can’t all default to Hemingway, no matter how brilliant and recognised worldwide he may be. Sometimes we need a bit more Faulkner in our literary lives.

AI and writing?

I’m not a big fan of using AI for writing, but even I sometimes utilise ChatGPT in my process. I very rarely ask it to actually write something. It usually takes me more time to fix its writing than to write it myself.

I do, however, like using ChatGPT as a sounding board for ideas. You can ask it to generate lists of character names or ideas for conflict escalation in your story. Use it as an assistant if you need to do very basic research. ChatGPT isn’t the worst substitute for Google if you know how you want to use it. And one thing that I like about it is that you can keep all your research within one chat.

What to use for formatting your book

Calibre, Kindle Create, Vellum, and Atticus

I believe these are the go-to professional tools that writers use for formatting their books. I’ve personally only glanced over Calibre for converting files for my Kindle, and that one time I opened and immediately closed Kindle Create. I’ll expand this part as I do more research and use these tools for formatting my own books.

Figma

Figma is something that I’ve seen used to create e-books and PDF files in corporate settings. I’d like to figure out how to use it for that purpose myself, but there’s a bit of a learning curve that I’ve yet to overcome.

Canva

I’ve personally used Canva to format some low-content books. The only problem that I’ve had with it is that it was hard to assess how the book is going to look once it’s printed. I ended up making an exterior that looked too large, which would probably work for children’s literature, but I still have to test it out in different formats.

Random ‘nice to have’ items for a writer

• Dropbox is great for storing your files. I’ve used it alongside Scrivener, but it can also work for your .doc or .odf files, depending on what you use for writing.

• A thermos or a thermopot, also known as a potter, just to always have hot tea or coffee while you’re busy typing up a storm.
• Zotero is a tool for research writing. It helps organise annotations and citations for research papers. I’ve only recently learned about it, and I think it can also be very useful for non-fiction writers.
• Bluetooth keyboard is my personal ‘must’ for when I work on my sister’s old MacBook that has an issue with the keyboard. And I’ve got an extra keyboard that goes with my iPad cover. I may write about it in a separate blog post about how I’ve turned myself into an ‘iPad adult’.
• Notebooks to keep your notes and ideas. You can have a dedicated notebook for each project, or keep everything in one place.
• Fountain pen is my favourite tool for analogue writing because it keeps my handwriting neat and prevents my hand from cramping up. I’ve also recently started writing more with a simple pencil, which was something unheard of for me back in school. It was something I’ve only ever seen done on American TV. Now that I’ve tried it myself, I like how it keeps my notebooks clean and free from smudges from ballpoint pens.
• Pinterest is where you can keep your moodboards and character inspo.
• Pomodoro timers are great for writing sprints or deep focus work. I have an analogue timer that goes up to two hours, which also substitutes as a kitchen timer for when I feel like baking. I’ve also used quite a few YouTube Pomodoro videos with scheduled break times. I’ve always preferred the 45/15 timers, but you can do the usual 25/5 with a 15-minute break after every four focus sessions.
• Trello or Atlassian Jira for staying organised. I’ve used Jira at my corporate job, and later made a free profile for personal use. Trello works pretty much the same. It’s all about how deep you want to go into the Agile methodology. But even if you don’t care about the corporate babble, you can use the concept and transform it to suit your needs as a writer.
• Evernote used to be my favourite tool for storing online research. You can install a browser extension and save clips of webpages every time you find something you might want to use in your book.
• A personal website is another way to organise your life as a writer. It’s an introduction to who you are and a hub for all your published works. A go-to place for your readers to find you and discover more of your work.