Here Are Some Free Online Writing Tools That Boost Writer Skills

We're living an age where online writing tools make learning writing skills much easier and more fun than it's ever been. Learning such skills is and always will be an important part of a student's education. In fact, you might say that today it's more important than ever. Online writing tools make it easier to achieve, too.

Job markets have become more competitive than they've ever been since self-publishing began its meteoric rise. As such, a student's ability to communicate with words will affect how successful they can be. Writing is an essential part of effective communication in so many areas of life beyond school and business. Being a better writer can:

• help you to promote yourself to a potential employer or business partner.
• help you to generate actionable ideas and goals that you'll stick to.
• showcase your intelligence and expertise.
• make you more persuasive and trustworthy.
• assist you in being better understood by others.

Below is a list of online writing tools that can sometimes slip between the cracks of our awareness, which makes them hidden gems in their own right. These tools will help students hone their content and generate beautiful ideas as they become the great writers they were meant to be.

Online Writing Tools for Editing

• Wordcounter—Wordcounter ranks frequently-used words in any given body of text to help you see if you're overusing any particular words, or to help locate keywords.
• Hemingway—Hemingway helps you write like the great man himself; simple, clear, and bold.
• Cliche Finder—Like the name suggests, use this tool to help you spot any cliches in your content.
• Grammark—One of three copy-and-paste tools featured in this post to help you perform a simple and fast grammar check on your writing.
• Grammarly—Grammarly helps you hone your writing skills by finding and correcting many more errors than a standard word processor.
• Grammarcheck—Paste in your content and do a free check for spelling errors, style suggestions, or grammar suggestions.
• Autocrit—This is an online manuscript tool for fiction writers. Quickly self-edit your work anytime, anywhere.

Online Writing Tools for Writing

• Calmly Writer—Distraction-free writing tools like this will surprise you with their simplicity. Don't let the blank white screen fool you—click on the icon in the top-left corner for options, or begin typing your thoughts right away.
• My Writing Spot—This clutter-free online writing workspace features autosave capability, a word counter, a built-in dictionary/thesaurus, and document groups for organization and collaboration.
• Ohm Writer—The original distraction-free ambient writing space, and still a favourite with writers of all kinds all over the world.
• Focus Writer—This one has a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of your screen. Available in over 20 languages, it features timers and alarms, daily goals, customizable themes and sound effects, spellcheck and autosave, and much more.
• Ilys—Unlock your creativity by locking yourself in! Tell Ilys how many words you want to write, and then be warned—once you begin you can't go back, delete, or edit anything until you have reached your goal. It may sound frustrating, but it's an incredibly useful and challenging exercise.

Online Writing Tools for Brainstorming

• Stormboard—A versatile multicoloured collaborative space where you can add sticky notes, photos, and videos to a shared wall.
• Wridea—Wridea is a web service that lets you share, organize, and improve writing ideas collaboratively.
• Bubbl.us—This is a fun and simple mind mapping tool that lets you organize and plan ideas and present them to colleagues in a clean and stylish manner.
• oTranscribe—This transcription tool lets you use long voice memos or interviews. Add an MP3 or WAV file and start playing it; all controls are located right inside the app, which means no need to be switching between your sound file and your word processor while you transcribe.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Originally published Apr 8, 2018, updated Dec 15, 2021