Check Out My Top Three, Free Writing Apps for Artists and Writers

By Thea Fiore-Bloom, Ph.D.

Writing isn’t easy.

But when you figure out how to get out of your own way and write well you’ll increase your self-esteem and your sales.

It’s easier to learn to write well if you have some support.

So I say, why not take that a big heaping helping of support (at little to no cost) from tiny robots? 

Here are three, exceptional, low, or no-cost writing apps myself and other pro writers shamelessly cling to. 

There are NO affiliate links in this post. 

I just wanted to share the apps many productive writers lean on every day in case they might help you make your writing dreams come true.

 

# 1 Free Writing Apps Idea: Writing Timers

I still delude myself into believing that talking about writing counts as writing.  

But it doesn’t, does it?

There is no replacement for doing the actual work. 

“Talk Doesn’t Cook The Rice.” — Chinese Proverb

After all, talk doesn’t cook the rice. Effort and a steady flame are what’s needed. 

So how do pro writers stop thinking or worrying about writing and just start writing?

Well, we kinda have to set up a 6 foot high, red, Wile E. Coyote, U-shaped magnet contraption to pull us to our desks at times.

This contraption usually takes the form of a writing timer.

We promise ourselves things like; “Okay if you just sit here and write for 30 minutes until that damn timer goes off I’ll…. give you a cookie, or let you walk in the park, or buy you that Nina Simone song you want on Itunes.”

Humiliating but it works every time.

Writing app timers are usually offered with a  free and premium paid version. I usually like the free version just fine and I bet you will too. 

My favorite free writing timer lately is  Insight Timer. 

The timer on Insight Timer was designed as a gorgeous meditation timer with ambient background track options. You’ll also enjoy lots of free (literal) bells and whistles (and gongs) to get you to your desk to write.

But I also zen out to this free writing timer on YouTube which has beautiful music and a kaleidoscope effect. 

Or you may want to try the free writing app Focus Keeper instead. It’s a productivity/ time management app that is a HUGE HIT with artists and writers who deal with ADD/ADHD.

 

 

 

# 2 Lifesaving Writing Apps Pros Use: Distraction-Free Mood Setting Apps

Personally, the writing app OmmWriter is my secret weapon. 

Somehow these fine folks at OmmWriter have gotten their little robots to dance into a kaleidoscope to create an app that makes it pleasant to concentrate on your writing for extended periods of time.

It’s the only writing app I’ve used that transports me to another world where I enjoy heightened creativity and deep focus. 

You chose the sumptuous yet minimalist natural visual setting you want to be in. 

You choose the ambient soundtrack running in the background. 

(Some track selections are trance-inducing others stimulating and strange. Haunting passing locomotive sound anyone?) 

You even get to choose the sound effect you want your keystrokes to make. (My fave is the raindrop hitting the window pane one, but the old-fashioned typewriter keystroke is mood-inducing too .) 

You can try Ommwriter out for free here.  You can get Ommbits for as little as $1.99 but I think you’ll get much more out of the full monty Ommwriter for only $5 dollars more. 

There’s a word counter at the bottom of your Ommwriter page and the app takes up your whole screen so you can’t see your notifications–which is important for battling the terrible temptation to interrupt your writing to just check one tiny email.

“Constant interruptions are the destruction of the imagination.”

— Joyce Carol Oates 

 

 

 

 

# 3 Writing App Pros Love To Use: Organizational Programs for Big Projects

Got a big dream writing project?

Check a writing app/program called Scrivener.

Scrivener’s magic fairy robots will support you to outline and write your book or finish creating that series of online classes you want to teach.

Pick your template. There’s one for novels, non-fiction books, stage plays, screenplays, books of poetry, and even cookbooks. 

Mind you, Scrivner has a free trial but no free version.

But I say, not losing your mind while working on a big dream project is worth shelling out the forty bucks or whatever they are charging for it these days. 

 

 

I won’t lie to you, there’s a bit of a learning curve with Scrivener. But they put together an impressive series of how-to videos.  You can watch a bunch while you walk the treadmill at the gym and you’ll know your way round in no time.

The virtual corkboard feature in Scrivener allows visual thinkers like us artist-types to organize a project in pictures before we write down a single word.

I know this first hand from outlining my book (and helping my writing coaching clients outline theirs.)

The ability to first assemble a totally rough draft of a long project in images instead of words is a winning strategy for artists.

Never mind being a creative act in and of itself.

In fact, creating a picture outline on Scrivener may render you giddy; flooded with a mad-scientist-let-free-in-a-laboratory type of joy.

“Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”

– A.A. Milne

Bonus App for those who made it to the bottom of the page.

 

#4 Free Writing App –The Best Spell Checker.

Get the free version of a writing app called Grammarly.

It allows you to compose bold, clear, mistake-free writing by utilizing the best and latest Artificial Intelligence (again, tiny robots to the rescue!)

Okay, that’s all folks.

If you need someone to hold your hand through a big project like a book so you can make your writing dreams come true, I’m here.

Check out my down-to-earth, reasonably priced writing coaching packages for artists.

Good luck everybody! 

Do you use any helpful apps in any aspect of your life that? Let me know in the comments below!

You may also like these other Charmed Studio posts:

How To Write a Kick-Butt Opening Paragraph: With this Easy Paragraph Sandwich Template

Create a Gorgeous Email Signature for Free

Zoom Calls For Introverts: The Artist’s Guide to Looking, Sounding, and Feeling Good on Zoom

Artists and Priorities: A Magical Method for Organizing Your Time

Black Artists Matter: Supporting Artists of Color

Don’t Get Hacked on Instagram: 15 Minute *Fix for Artists

5 Best Books on Writing for Artists

How to Give Your Creative Dream Project Wings