As a writer, I know as much as anyone does that inspiration can sometimes come from the strangest places. Whether you’re on a walk through a scenic forest or staring blankly at a blank screen, ideas of what to write can come at any time. How many ideas have heard that started on the back of a napkin or in the shower? Well, if you have a mobile device, you’ll no longer have to go scrambling for a piece of paper and pen. There are plenty of apps on the marketplace to enhance your writing and having you get things down instead of searching your mind for anything of substance.
Office 365
Unless you’ve never used a computer or are from another planet, you have heard of Microsoft Office. But are you aware of how integrated their mobile area is? You can access all of the staple Office products, like Word, Slideshows, Spreadsheets and more. And when you save your documents, you’re saving them to the Microsoft One cloud. That makes retrieving them later when you’re in front of a desktop or wanting to work on your project again as simple as loading them from the same place. So go ahead and add Office 365 to your mobile device, start that novel you’ve been thinking about for ages, and have the peace of mind you can access it whenever you want across all platforms.
Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder
Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder is by far the best virtual voice recorder on the market. Rather than paying upwards of $50-$100, download this handy little app. The Hi-Q referenced is 44 kHz, giving you top quality audio playback and crisp, clear voice recording. Stuck in traffic or at the grocery store and don’t have time to pluck away on a keyboard or notepad? Fire this app up and just record your notes verbally. They’re easy to organize, tag and are synced to your Dropbox account for easy access. If you’re on your desktop, they’ll open as MP3’s, saving you from downloading additional software. You can add handy widgets to your device’s home screen, adjust the quality and gain of your notes and transfer them with ease via a WiFi connection.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/celtx.com/production/www/cx-static/5.53.3/assets/5.53.3/images/whiteboard_thumb.png
Celtx
If you’re into more elaborate projects like scriptwriting or comics, then Cetlx may be the app for you. It offers creators the chance to collaborate with teams, organizing duties, budgets, deadlines and more as you work together on projects. And while there is no standalone desktop software, they do offer a more extensive version of the program online. You can also have access to index cards to keep your projects organized and you can view statistics such as how long you put into each session and where you’ve put in the most effort.
Monospace – Writing and Notes
If you’d rather something simple and straight to the point, you may be interested in Monospace – Writing and Editing. Gone are the fancy bells and whistles of a lot of the other apps listed on here. Instead, you get a simple stylish black or white layout, where just your words and a handful of font options are what’s stopping you from creating that killer essay. Saving is as easy as putting a hashtag where you’d like the archiving and you can export the documents into anything from Tumblr coding to Word files
Final Draft
Final Draft is the go-to screenwriting software of writers and executives alike. And the reputation is not unearned. With a sleek interface and helpful shortcuts when coming up with your masterpiece, it has a learning curve but with every new release it improves and adds more features. It lets you outline the plot, create character profiles, paint vivid settings and study your biting dialogue. You can work on your piece while on your mobile device, whether on a long morning bus ride or a sunny afternoon at the park. Then, when you get home, just fire up the desktop version and pick up where you left off. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better scriptwriting program out there.
Scrivener
They say once you go Scrivener, you never go back. This detailed outlining iOS app is great for putting together your writing projects before you jump into things. You have a virtual bulletin board, detailed scene descriptions, the ability to move things around, character biographies, and integration of all sorts of notes, whether it be inspirational photos or research articles on the topic of your writing. Most appealing may be the summary options, which allow you to gather any or all of your outlining and combine it into elaborate outlines. You can then save it, print it, or export it with several different options. Once you’ve put together the skeleton of your framework, it’s just a matter of filling it in with muscles and mass of the prose and heart of your tale.
Evernote
Are you on the go a lot and don’t have time to sit down and fill pages of a notebook or a Word document? Why not try Evernote? It’s an extremely flexible and easy to use note taking app that allows users to note websites, thoughts, audio clips, music, photos and more. If you’re travelling and come across an ideal location, just snap a picture of it and add it to your notes. Hear a song that’d be perfect for a love scene? Add it to your notes. Evernote takes note-taking to the next level, so scrap the notepad and download it today.
What are some top writing apps?
Whether you’re writing school assignments or that screenplay idea that’s haunted you since high school, our mobile devices are powerful and interactive enough that you can get just about any writing done on them. And like all things, planning and organizing your thoughts and ideas is as important as the actual destination. The apps listed on here can only get you so far though. You still need to put keys to touchscreen or keyboard and churn out the wonderful words that are itching to get out.
