As freelance writers, most of us work alone. The good thing about that is that there is no one to tell us how to do our job. Unfortunately, it also means that there is no one to help us become better writers.
But worry not – whether you want to write faster, write content that has a wider audience reach, or write content that is grammatically correct, there are writing apps to help you improve.
There are three online tools that I use for almost every piece of writing, and I can certainly vouch for how these apps have helped me be a more accurate writer. These are –
I first used Writebox in 2013 when I was on a quest to write more articles and increase my earnings as a freelance writer. Writebox is a text-editor like MS Word. The difference is that the Writebox software does not prompt you to correct spellings, improve sentences, or correct grammar as you type content. Because there is nothing to slow you as you type, it gives you the freedom to write as freely as you would if you were to use pen and paper. Writebox is the closest you can get to writing digitally at the speed of thought.
Hemingway App tells you how difficult or easy it is to understand your content. Once you paste the content on the app, the first thing to look at is the readability level of the content. For instance, ‘grade 8’ means that the person reading the content should have at least a U.S grade 8th education. A higher than 10th-grade score means that your content has jargon, complicated words, and complex sentences.
The app claims that Hemingway’s content had a writing ease of 5th grade, despite the fact that he mostly wrote for an adult audience.
Choosing simpler words, writing in an active voice, minimising use of adverbs, and breaking down complex sentences, will allow your writing to reach a wider audience.
I am a recent Grammarly convert. You see I just finished the draft of my first eBook. I speak and write English fairly well, but am not well-versed with the nuances of grammar. Instead of hiring a proof-reader to do the job, I decided to buy the annual subscription plan of Grammarly.
Grammarly helps write mistake-free on MsWord, WriteBox, Gmail, and social media accounts. Take the one-month subscription plan to get an idea of how the app can help you. The annual subscription plan costs approx $140 and saves you about $19 a month.
These are just some of the writing tips I have to share from my experience as a freelance writer. I am writing an eBook which will help any aspiring freelance writer break into the highly competitive world of online content writing. Follow my blog and Facebook page to stay updated.