Writing isn’t that easy all the time. You not only need a good idea and an interesting headline but also have to find the right words to express your thoughts and arouse the reader‘s interest. Moreover, you have to stay completely focused for a certain time period. Luckily there are a ton of free apps available to help you concentrate on what you really want to do: Writing

IO is an easy to use text editor for your Mac. Its interface is designed to keep writers focused and although it first might seem like a simple Note-taking app, IO grows to a really powerful tool when starting to use Markdown, a markup language which I already covered in one of my previous articles.

“A new way of writing with confidence” — This is how Writefull is described by its creators. The free to use app helps you whenever you are insecure about certain phrases or words. It lets you search for the frequency of use, synonyms and will even find words which fit into a specific context. This way you can make sure all your formulations are correct and will no longer be insecure about things you‘ve written. It really is “a new way of writing with confidence”!

Noisli is a web app I’ve already written on in a single post. Briefly described, it lets you set up a productive sound environment by using ambient sounds and combining them. Therefore Noisli offers a large variety of sounds and different presets which can be customized in any way. Personally, I would recommend adding some Jazz music in order to complete a perfect sound environment.

Bear is my favorite app when it comes to working on less complex projects where you don‘t need to do intensive research. All my Medium articles were written in this app and after several months of using it, I don‘t want to switch anymore. Bear combines the idea of a simple interface like it can be found in most Note-taking apps with a highly functional text editor. Supporting Markdown, Bear is very powerful when it comes to time efficiency. After finishing a text, it can be exported into other file formats like (only Pro-Version — $1.49 monthly, $14.99 annually) *docx* or *pdf*. Bear has a dedicated “Focus Mode” built in which allows you to display nothing but the text you‘re working on. The option of using tags and Cross-Note links extends its many features even further.

When it comes to more complex articles, Notion is an excellent choice. Although it was initially built for teams and companies, it also offers great features for authors. Using blocks and combining them to a page, you can do pretty much everything you want and embed Maps, Tweets, Files, Videos, Images or even InVision Projects. Several authors can work on one project, extend it with lists, headers, dividers, insert Web Bookmarks and start a discussion right where the text is. Especially for larger projects, where you first need to do research, you will learn to love Notion!

The last thing I want to mention in this post is the “Sharethrough Headline Analyzer”. The free Web App is an easy way to check your headlines which get rated on a scale from 0 to 100. It gives you tips what to improve and tells you what you’ve already done well. The headline for this post for example received a score of 69.

Thank you for reading my article! If want to make any additions or have a question, feel free to leave a comment underneath.