Some authors say they only use Scribner to write their books, but honestly, there’s a real learning curve with that software, though mostly because it does so much. Yeah, it does everything except wrting the book for you. But what if you just want something basic and free? What if you need a tool that puts everything you need at your fingertips without distraction? Here are some free tools you can use.
This is the perfect tool for those who get too distracted when they are supposed to be writing. It allows you to hide other apps so you can get your word count in without getting sucked into whatever’s trending on Twitter. You can customize some aspects of the tool, but for the most part, it’s a clutter-free way to write. It also includes a timer and goal tracker so you can easily keep track of your writing progress.
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This program was designed for fiction writing, though some non-fiction authors might also find it useful. It has some similar features as Scribner, but without the big learning curve, which saves time. One of the most important aspects of writing a book is keeping it all organized, and that’s just what this tool does. It makes it possible to focus on creating scenes and chapters with the ability to flip back and forth between them with a click of your mouse. It gives you the option of keeping scene/section and chapter notes, character information and other details you need to keep track of (instead of keeping a separate Book Bible where you keep track of all the little details). You can download it, which means you can work offline so you can access it anytime and work without distractions (i.e. Facebook).
If you have a lot of research to do for your book, or if you want to include images in your book, Evernote is a great choice. You can collaborate with others, email work to yourself and record audio all without leaving Evernote. It’s an organizational system that includes a word processing feature which makes it easy to collect and keep all of your ideas, research, chapters and inspiration altogether. It syncs across all your devices so that you can always write on the fly, and the premium version ($4.99/mo.) gives you off-line access to all of your content. It keeps you focused on your writing by making it easy to clip and annotate web articles right from your browser.