7 Tools and Tips to Make Writing Easier

When you sit down to write a blog or create new content for your website, a paralyzing fear may keep you from doing the tasks you know need to be done. A fear of writing isn’t unusual, especially when you consider how many people may potentially read your words when you finish. If you’re letting that fear keep you from your content marketing tasks, this list of tools that make writing easier might just help.

Inspiration File

Rather than head off to Google every time you need to come up with some topics for blogs, why don’t you routinely collect inspiration? You probably read blogs, see images, watch videos, and hear conversations all day long that seem like great blog fodder. Instead of wracking your brain to remember, keep everything together in one file.

Crowdsourcing

A big fear when writing is that your topic won’t reach your desired audience. What if, you worry to yourself and anyone who’ll listen, your blog doesn’t reach anyone at all? Well, by crowdsourcing your topics and answers, you don’t have to fear that anymore. Help Me Write is one way to go about getting info from the masses. This tool primarily provides answers from your followers. If you need answers from people you don’t know, check out Quora.

Templates

Sometimes you just need a little guidance, right? With the use of a blog or ebook template, you could finally put those thoughts in your head into the right format for consumption. You can find collections of templates that include guidelines for list posts, curated posts, how-to blogs, and even SlideShare. It won’t take you long to produce content when you have a little bit of help.

Distraction-Free Zones

If you work with WordPress, you can take advantage of their distraction-free tool. Some computers also come with tools that help you cut down on interruptions. If you don’t have either of these, then you can use a program like ZenPen, which provides you a distraction-free writing experience. Of course, this only keeps you from checking Facebook every five seconds. To get rid of distractions in your home or office, you’ll need a door with a lock.

Hemingway App

Once you get some words on the page, you’ll need some help determining if it’s something your followers will want to read. The Hemingway App is a great way to gain an overview of your entire article. The app will tell you which sentences need work, which are hard to read, and which are absolutely perfect. You’ll also get some tips for word usage that you may not have considered before.

Grammarly

For more in depth critiques of your writing, Grammarly gets down and dirty. This particular tool helps you catch grammar issues that you don’t even know exist. Keep in mind, however, that Grammarly exists to make your writing as perfect as possible. Perfect often equals stuffy, so you’ll want to take everything suggested with a grain of salt. After all, you don’t want to lose your individual voice, do you?

Timers

Once you’ve got your writing juices flowing, it’s time to rein them in a little. Even if you’re ready with a topic, prepared to write without distractions, and know you’ll produce something readable, you still can’t spend all day on it, can you? By training yourself with timers, you can cut down on the amount of time each blog and ebook takes to write. Use your own timer, or you can choose this Tomato Timer that was created with the sole purpose of productivity training.

Now, we understand that not everyone will be able to write blogs and ebooks quickly and efficiently. Maybe your gift is math and business, and you need to leave the writing up to others. If that’s the case, it’s okay. You can always find a writer to take care of the hard stuff for you. After all, that’s what we do—take care of the hard stuff so you can focus on running your business.