Sam Altman welcomes baby in birth announcement on X: 'I have never felt such love'
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Pens. Pencils. Typewriters. Computers. Wordstar. Word. Google Docs. Writing tools continually evolve. That evolution has brought us hundreds of writing apps to choose from. Read on for recommended tools for various writing challenges.
If you’re easily distracted: iA Writer
This is the simplest writing interface. Too many writing apps have cluttered, distracting interfaces. I know I’m procrastinating when I find myself exploring styling options. iA Writer is the purest app I’ve found for streamlined composition. All I see are the words I’m typing.
If you get stuck with writer’s block: Letterly
Get past the blank page problem by talking out loud about your ideas without worrying about precise wording. With Letterly and other AI dictation apps like Oasis ($50/year), it’s easy to convert spoken thoughts into drafts.
Letterly and Oasis transcribe what you say then convert it into a variety of formats like an outline, summary, social post, or a draft blog or journal entry.
When I’m stuck looking at a word count of zero, I like opening up one of these apps and talking to myself about a few ideas. It’s a form of oral freewriting. Within a few minutes I have sentences to build on.
If you’re working on a book project: Scrivener
When you’re working on a long writing project with multiple parts, try Scrivener. It gives you multiple ways to see and edit the sections of your work. I like the index card view, which allows for dragging cards around to reorder material.
If you’d like to write with others: Etherpad
Etherpad is an open source writing tool I like for collaborative live brainstorming, writing and editing. You can use it online for free at sites like Framapad and pad.education, or set up your own instance with a little coding. Here’s an example of a collaborative doc I started. Add to it to try out Etherpad.
If you like experimenting with AI: Lex
The AI in the Lex writing and editing app points out cliches, passive voice, hedging (I think, probably, etc), missing citations, and repetition. It also lets you customize a writing issue to watch out for. You can also select a phrase you’re struggling with and Lex will suggest a rewrite option.
If you like to experiment…
I’m continually trying out new apps. Here are a few I’m looking at these days.
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