Writing can feel like pulling teeth, painful from start to finish — especially without the right writing tools.
Coming up with creative ideas to sell your product or service, wrangling them into words that make sense and appeal to readers, and then editing for clarity can quickly become overwhelming even for the most experienced writer or marketer.
Multiply that effort by the number of clients you need to write high-converting content for, and the workload can seem insurmountable. You may not be ready to employ an assistant yet, but you can arm yourself with some of the best writer’s tools to make your work easier.
Why you should use software to elevate your writing processes
There are many reasons why using software can greatly enhance your writing processes. Writing tools can be the difference between striving and writer's block getting the best of you.
Here are some of the most significant benefits of implementing software into your workflow:
Increased Efficiency and Productivity
One of the biggest advantages of using software for writing is the increased efficiency and productivity it offers. With advanced features like AI content generation, analysis and robust editing functions, you can significantly reduce the time spent on writing, editing and proofreading your work. This allows you to focus more on the actual content creation process.
Consistent Formatting
With writing software, you can easily format your document according to industry standards or specific guidelines like on-page SEO principles. This is especially useful for academic or professional writing where formatting plays a crucial role in conveying information effectively. No more spending hours tweaking margins and headings: let the software handle it for you.
Collaboration Made Easy
Collaborating with others on a writing project can be challenging, especially when working remotely. However, with copywriting platforms, multiple users can work on the same document simultaneously, making real-time edits and comments. This streamlines the collaboration process and eliminates the need for constant back-and-forth communication.
Enhanced Writing Skills
By leveraging software (especially AI) to elevate your writing processes, you also have the opportunity to improve your writing skills. With features such as readability and style analysis, you can receive feedback on your writing and make necessary adjustments. This not only helps in producing high-quality content but also aids in developing better writing habits.
Top 9 Writers Tools to Speed Up Your Writing
Whether you need help generating blog ideas, fine-tuning your article, or avoiding distractions while you work, these are 9 must-have writers tools to have in your arsenal.
- Jasper [writing assistant]
- Grammarly [grammar checker]
- Hemingway Editor [for improving your writing]
- Ulysses [best for iOS]
- Cliché Finder [cliché-free writing]
- Cold Turkey [distraction-free writing]
- Google Docs [best for collaboration]
- Power Thesaurus [for improving your vocabulary]
- Speechify [best self-editing tool]
Best writing assistant: Jasper
After a week of brainstorming content, many writers agree that their brains feel like mush. If you’re in that camp, we recommend trying Jasper, an AI writing assistant.
Will AI copywriting tools replace human writers?
No, Jasper will never replace human writers. Instead, the tool supports copywriters and content marketers. It automates a significant portion of the brainstorming and research so that writing takes less time and effort — and you earn more while doing less.
Jasper is especially handy if you run a content marketing agency or you’re a copywriter trying to scale their business. Instead of writing one post in 4 to 6 hours, you can generate multiple ideas, create content outlines, and draft a post in under 20 minutes! All you have to do is tweak and deliver in less than half the time.
Whether you’re working on writing attention-grabbing headlines, an article outline, or rewriting that pesky bio for the third time, Jasper can help. Use one of the over 50 writing templates available.
Jasper features you can use for copywriting
Quick Content Generation
Some days, concentrating long enough to complete your writing projects feels like an insurmountable task. Whether it's crafting punchy copy that converts or producing long-form content, finding the exact combination of words that perfectly conveys your message can pose a significant challenge.
Using an AI writing assistant like Jasper can be incredibly effective. All you need to do is enter your topic and provide Jasper with details to guide its understanding of your objectives.
From here, Jasper will generate copywriting that meets your unique needs.
Different Tones and Styles
Jasper's Brand Voice feature allows you to tailor your content to any audience without altering your core messages. Simply upload a document to be scanned by Jasper, copy and paste text or sit back and let Jasper scan an entire website. It’ll be able to create a Brand Voice profile that matches the tone and style so you can build consistency across all your AI-generated content.
Content Repurposing
What you write as a long-form blog post might work for an email newsletter, but you’re going to have to switch up your formatting so that it’s more digestible for those reading it. Different platforms have their own nuances and each audience responds differently to content types, so you’re best off writing natively for the channel you’re using.
Fortunately, Jasper makes repurposing your content a breeze. Using your existing content as a starting point, Jasper allows you to reformat your content for any distribution channel, while conveying the same message.
Creating Content in 30+ Languages
Using advanced AI software for translation tasks can significantly lighten your workload and expand your content's reach to diverse audiences.
Jasper’s powerful technology can read and write content in over 30 languages. This includes French, German, Japanese, Chinese and many other languages. Say goodbye to inaccurate Google translations and hello to your newfound international audience!
What makes Jasper the best writing assistant?
- Create a wide variety of content: Find writing templates for SEO headings, product descriptions, blog posts, and more.
- Facebook Group: Stuck figuring out a Jasper feature? Ask over 70K like-minded users in the interactive Jasper Facebook group.
- Explain to a Child: Simplify your text to a 5th-grade reading (or lower) using this cool feature.
- Jasper Everywhere: Use Jasper anywhere you write online thanks to this amazing Chrome extension for writing.
Drawbacks: With Starter and Pro plans, you need to provide Jasper with a reasonable level of input to generate quality content. But that’s why Jasper creates superior content.
Pricing: Paid plans start at the Creator Plan for $39 per month, while the Professional Plan is $59 per month. There are also flexible pricing options for enterprise-level solutions.
Best grammar checker: Grammarly
By now, everyone knows what Grammarly is, and what it does — and for good reason! This popular grammar checker refines your text by correcting spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors.
The Premium and Business plans do even more for your writing. With the Premium plan, Grammarly can suggest everything from alternative word choices to changes to improve clarity, while maintaining a selected tone and level of formality.
If you run a content marketing agency, then you may want to look into the Business plan, which allows you to create and adhere to a custom style guide for consistency in your copy. Both Premium and Business plans help you ensure 100% original content using plagiarism checks.
What makes Grammarly the best grammar checker?
- Effective grammar checker: Grammarly excels at maintaining good grammar, spelling, and punctuation use.
- Style guide: This Business plan feature is a lifesaver if your company struggles to enforce a style guide.
- Tone and formality adjustments: Whether you’re writing for an academic, business, general, or informal audience, Grammarly knows just how you should sound.
- Use everywhere you go: Grammarly has extensions for most browsers, apps for Windows and Mac, and Keyboards on iOS and Android devices.
- Add to your writing platform: With its MS Word and MS Outlook add-ins, you never have to write without Grammarly.
Drawbacks: Requires a stable internet connection.
Pricing: There is a free plan, but the Premium plan costs $12/month, while the Business plan is $12.50/member per month billed annually (3-149 members). Grammarly offers discounts for teams of more than 10 people.
How to get it: Sign up for Grammarly here
Best for improving your writing: Hemingway Editor
Great writing is made by rewriting. If you want writing that helps your message shine through, then you need a tool like the Hemingway Editor.
Hemingway isn’t aimed at fixing grammatical errors or correcting misplaced commas. Rather, it’s designed to be an AI editor. It improves your writing — and your skill in the long run — by highlighting issues like passive voice, adverb overuse, and overall poor readability.
The Hemingway site is easy to use. Toggle to start writing a fresh draft or paste your already written text for the app to suggest edits. If you love the service, you can purchase their desktop app for Windows or Mac and bring your built-in editor wherever you go.
What makes Hemingway Editor a great writing tool?
- No internet needed: Simple desktop app works without an internet connection.
- Improve your writing: Unique AI editor focuses on tightening text and improving readability.
- Format text as you write: Hemingway allows you to add headings and HTML markdowns that prepare your text for other publishing platforms.
- Export text easily: After writing, you can export your text straight to WordPress and Medium or send it as a PDF.
Drawbacks: Misses grammatical errors, so best for experienced writers.
Pricing: The site is free to use and the desktop app costs $19.99 for lifetime use.
How to get it: Try Hemingway on the website
Best writing tool for iOS and Mac: Ulysses
If you work on Apple’s operating systems and want a distraction-free interface for your messy first draft, try Ulysses.
This writing tool is all about boosting your focus and output. Ulysses’s user experience (UX) is similar to that of Apple’s interface and will be intuitive for users already familiar with that aesthetic.
Designed to keep you writing, Ulysses boasts efficient keyboard navigation that ensures you never have to touch your mouse or trackpad. Besides a fluid UX, Ulysses allows you to organize your writing in folders, by hierarchy, and even add attachments like photos and PDFs to your documents.
What makes Ulysses the best writing tool for iOS?
- Improved focus and productivity: Ulysses Full-Screen Mode and Typewriter View are designed to help you focus on your writing.
- Themed editor: Switch up your writing space by changing your theme on Ulysses.
- Reliable backup: Back up your writing to the cloud and never worry about losing your work.
- Fun analytics: Set writing goals and see live statistics as you race toward your deadline.
- Stay in sync: Work across all your Apple devices with Ulysses’s sync feature.
Drawbacks: Only for Mac and iOS devices.
Pricing: You can try Ulysses for free on all devices. Their only plan goes for $5.99/month and $49.99/year. They also offer a special discount for students.
How to get it: Get Ulysses here
Best for cliché-free writing: Cliché Finder
No copywriter likes to sound like a broken record. Your audience will tire quickly — and your copy will not convert — if you always say the same “buzzy,” “salesy” phrases. Even content writers need to keep their writing fresh and innovative if they want to strike a chord with their readers.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can never use a cliché. However, if you have a habit of overusing tired clichés in your writing, this free website will help you identify them, and hopefully use them sparingly.
Cliché Finder also suggests possible spelling mistakes and synonyms for commonly used words in your text.
What makes Cliche Findér a useful tool?
- Ingenious writing tool: Who would have thought of a tool to spot clichés?
- Free: This site is completely free to use.
- Easy to use: Just paste in your text and it identifies your clichés and spelling errors, if any.
- More than just a cliché finder: The site also works like a mini-thesaurus, offering word replacement choices.
Drawbacks: The user interface is unappealing and hard to read.
Pricing: Free
How to get it: Try Cliché Finder on the website
Best productivity tool: Cold Turkey Writer
You could have all the best writer’s tools at your disposal and not write a single word, thanks to procrastination. With Cold Turkey Writer, you can squash that problem.
This writing tool redefines what focused writing means. It locks you in for a specified time period or word count (you decide how long). You will be unable to access anything but the blank page until you meet your goal or the time elapses. Talk about facing your fears head-on!
For Pro users, you can also add writing fuel by tweaking the ambiance with their coffee shop or rain soundtracks. Fear not, it autosaves your work every few seconds and at the end of each session.
What makes Cold Turkey Writer the best productivity tool?
- Distraction-free: You can’t even access your local computer during the time block.
- Ambiance: If you like repetitive noises, choose between the coffee shop and rain soundtracks.
- Beat writer’s block: It’s just you and the blank page — you might as well make the time count.
- Cheap lifetime Pro access: Get lifetime access to all the features for a small fee.
- Can be used on public computers: This stand-alone program has no installer, so you can save it on a USB and plug it in anywhere you decide to work.
Drawbacks: It saves your copy as plain text, which limits formatting options.
Pricing: There’s a free option, and you can get lifetime Pro access for $9.
How to get it: Download Cold Turkey Writer on the website
Best collaboration tool: Google Docs
What content writer does not use Google Docs? It’s free, has several invaluable tools for creating and formatting content, and allows multiple team members to collaborate on a document without manual back and forth. What’s not to love?
You can also insert images, links, tables, charts, and many other kinds of media to enrich your content. Google’s formatting works well with content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, so you can copy and paste while maintaining your headings and most of your other formatting.
As you work, you never have to worry about losing your documents or even the history of changes made during the process. Google Docs keeps track for you. Plus, you can save your documents to work on while you’re offline.
What makes Google Docs the most collaborative writing tool?
Highly collaborative: Lets team members suggest edits, edit directly, and leave comments.
Supports multimedia, add-ons, and integrations: Add images, work with a grammar checker add-on and integrate with other work tools like Slack and Trello.
Preserved formatting: Copy and paste to CMS like WordPress without losing your formatting.
Free to use: Yes, all this good stuff for exactly zero dollars.
Drawbacks: If you create a lot of content, you may need to upgrade from your allotted 15 GB storage limits after a while.
Pricing: Free
How to get it: Check out Google Docs here
Best for improving your vocabulary: Power Thesaurus
Fun fact: Everyone who works with words has at least googled once “[insert overused word] synonym.” And it’s no wonder, robust vocabulary is crucial for writing striking content.
If you’ve ever gotten stuck looking for synonyms for a word that has popped up more than three times in your text of 1000 words, you need Power Thesaurus. This free resource provides you with synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and example sentences at a single click.
Even if you don’t have your computer with you, you can bring your Thesaurus along on your phone with their mobile apps. Refresh your writing — and surprise your editor — with a vocabulary upgrade.
What makes Power Thesaurus the best vocabulary booster?
Fast: Built for busy writers and students—get answers with just one click!
Free version available: You might need to deal with annoying ads, but this service has a free version.
Vast database of words: With over 80 million English synonyms, this site is loaded.
Mobile app and browser extension: Use on your iOS and Android devices and use the extensions as you surf the Internet.
More integrations: There’s also a Google Docs add-on, as well as an add-in for MS Word.
Drawbacks: Requires an internet connection.
Pricing: The Pro version costs $2.49/month annually for more content and an ad-free experience.
How to get it: Try Power Thesaurus here
Best self-editing tool: Speechify
Do you wish someone could read your copy back to you to see how it flows—or just to catch that last typo? We’ve been there. Speechify is here to save the day.
Speechify uses impressive AI technology to create natural-sounding voices that bring your text to life. While it is a listening tool, it has been proven that reading your work out loud is an effective editing strategy. This tool just might be the gamechanger you’ve been looking for.
This software reads your writing—or any webpage on the internet—out loud to you. The onboarding process is seamless. Once you sign up with your email, Speechify allows you to pick from over 30 AI voices (including a Gwyneth Paltrow option in beta!) and languages.
Add the extension to your Chrome browser and gain access to web pages, PDF documents, Google Docs in audio.
What makes Speechify the best self-editing tool?
- Meticulous error detection: Have your content read back to you and catch typos your strained eyes might have missed otherwise.
- Efficient multitasking: Listen to your emails being read while you tidy your desk at the end of the day. Score.
- Natural sounding voices: AI voices are more natural-sounding than robotic. Still, don’t expect voice acting; they’re still just bots.
- Highly inclusive: Disabled people, people with dyslexia, or persons with chronic illnesses will benefit even more from this tool.
- Read faster: Speechify offers unlimited reading speeds. You can adjust the number of words read per minute.
Drawbacks: Speechify skips lines on some PDF documents and seems to work best on web pages.
Pricing: Free version offers a limited number of words read per day. Speechify Premium costs $30/month and $140/year.
How to get it: Try Speechify on their website.
Which writing tool is best for you?
Whatever your needs, the best writing tools will elevate your content and workflow, making your work more enjoyable and more profitable.
If you need more help thinking of what to write about and how to present your content, we highly recommend using Jasper, a highly effective AI writing assistant. Try the Blog Post Topic Ideas and the Article Outline templates.
Once you’ve tweaked your content, you might need to pass it through a reputable grammar checker or AI editor for top-notch readability.
You get a 7 day free trial to start collaborating with Jasper. Try out Jasper’s many templates by signing up here.
