Get the best brainstorming, researching, writing, and editing tools

Whether you’re trying to weave together a jumble of ideas, fix split infinitives, or nail down that hard-to-think-of word, there are lots of writing apps that will help you. But vetting those tools and determining which fit best with your writing style takes time.

That’s why we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. The next 15 writing tools allow you to brainstorm, research, write, and edit better and faster—and they are all liberated to use.

Tools for Brainstorming and Organizing Your Thoughts

Sometimes, the part that is hardest of writing is finding out what you need to write about. Other times, you understand precisely what you intend to write about, but your opinions are way too disorganized to maneuver forward. If you are struggling with either issue, these tools will help you brainstorm and organize your opinions, getting them out of your head and on the screen.

MindMeister (Web, iOS, Android)

Best free writing software for expanding your ideas

Mind mapping is a great brainstorming exercise for all kinds of writing projects. Whether you are capturing thoughts for a term paper or thesis, putting together an overview for a long blog post or ebook, or coming up with ideas for a new novel or book series, mind mapping can help you capture your ideas and brainstorm new ones by triggering associations.

And even though you could create a mind map written down or a whiteboard, MindMeister offers more flexibility. MindMeister is a tool designed specifically in order to make mind mapping easier, giving writers a way that is simple capture their ideas, organize them, and share these with others.

No matter what size your brain map gets, MindMeister expands to give you as much room since you need. Capture all of your ideas in a file that is single rearrange and organize your ideas by dragging and dropping them, and connect ideas no matter what far apart they are on your mind map. With reasonably limited plan, you may also attach files that are related images to reference later.

MindMeister Pricing: Free for up to three mind maps; from $4.99/month when it comes to Personal do my homework plan which includes unlimited mind maps and file attachments.

Like to find out more about mind mapping? Check our mind mapping tutorial out, or discover nine ways to use mind maps to jumpstart your projects.

WorkFlowy (Web, macOS, Windows, Chrome, iOS, Android)

Best free writing software for creating content outlines

Well-structured writing starts with a well-structured outline. WorkFlowy makes outlining straightforward: the app enables you to quickly create an organized summary of any writing project and all sorts of of its parts bullet that is using and nested lists.

Focus on the strokes—section that is broad, big ideas, themes—and nest related details and research beneath those bullets. WorkFlowy also offers hashtag-based tagging and search features, so that you need not be worried about creating too many lists or letting bullet points run wild.

You can zoom in on any list by simply clicking the bullet point that is corresponding. Plus, in the event that you hover over a bullet point, you will see choices to complete, add an email to, share, export, duplicate, or delete that item. Use the Complete solution to tick off parts of your outline while you finish writing them, or drag and drop bulleted lists to organize your outline into logical sections.

WorkFlowy Pricing: Free for approximately 250 list items every month; from $4.99/month when it comes to Pro that is workFlowy plan includes unlimited lists and items and customization options.

If WorkFlowy isn’t best for your needs, check out our guide into the best outlining tools—many of which have free plans—to find a very good app to your requirements.

HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator (Web)

Best free writing software for brainstorming ideas

If you have a general concept of what you need to write about but need to expand your opinions, mind mapping helps. When you have lots of ideas but want to organize them, outlining helps. Exactly what about if you want to create something but have no idea what things to talk about?

In that scenario, HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator helps. Enter as much as five nouns to the generator, also it produces titles for five blog posts (or 250 if you are willing to provide email address). Although the titles it suggests are somewhat formulaic, it will provide ideas for unique angles you are able to take with your piece.

For example, say you know you need to talk about conferences but they aren’t sure what you would like to say about them. Enter conferences in to the Blog Ideas Generator, and you’ll get suggestions like “Conferences: Expectations vs. Reality,” “The Next Big Thing in Conferences,” and “This Week’s Top Stories About Conferences.”

You can take those suggestions and run through them to try and trigger other ideas for topics and angles you’re interested in writing about with them, or read.

HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator Pricing: Free

If you attempt these tools and are usually still looking at a blank page, take a look at a few of the most popular writing strategies for generating ideas and overcoming writer’s block.

Once a topic is had by you at heart, it’s time to conduct your research and compile your notes. Whether you will need to transcribe a job interview, access paywalled research papers, or see just what else has been published online, these tools might help.

Evernote (Web, macOS, Windows, Chrome, iOS, Android)

Best free writing software for compiling research

You could compile notes for the content by taking screenshots associated with extensive research you wish to include and pasting those screenshots in a Google Doc, scribbling down handwritten notes in a notebook, or creating a custom directory of bookmarks. But all of these options are time-consuming and hard to search. Evernote provides a less complicated option.

Using Evernote’s web clipper, you can easily capture full articles online in a few clicks. The articles are then added to Evernote where you could organize collected research into different notebooks, read the full-text of articles you’ve saved, search all your collected research at a time, and share your collected research with others. Plus, you can easily automate your note taking with Evernote’s Zapier integrations.

With Evernote’s premium plan, you can use its mobile app to scan in handwritten notes, pages of books, and business cards. Scanned documents are also searchable, rendering it simple to find what you are looking for regardless of its format. This makes it an excellent place to keep things you may have to reference within the

Evernote Pricing: Free for up to 60MB uploads monthly, 25MB maximum note size, and Evernote apps on up to two devices; from $7.99/month for the mobile app scanner, searchable PDFs, higher upload and note-size limits, and Evernote apps on unlimited devices.

If Evernote is not right for your needs, find an alternative solution inside our guide to the note that is best taking apps.

Unpaywall (Chrome, Firefox)

Best free writing software for finding free copies of paywalled research

You conducted a Google search and discovered an effect for a study paper or article that seems you need to cite like it has exactly the data. Unfortunately, you can’t read it due to the fact site you landed on wants you to definitely pay a fee to gain access to the full-text version.

In the place of ponying up to learn a paper that could or may not have the information and knowledge you will need, use Unpaywall’s Chrome and Firefox extensions to see if there is a free copy of this paper available anywhere online. It to open a free copy of the paper when you land on a result for a paywalled paper or article that’s available for free elsewhere, a green unlocked icon displays; click.

Unpaywall harvests data from sources like journals’ open-access repositories and university and government databases, ensuring you are never infringing copyright when you access a paywalled article at no cost.

Unpaywall doesn’t work on everything—for example, it’s not going to enable you to get past the paywall on the favorite news site—but yourself some time and money if you need to reference paywalled scholarly articles from time to time, it’s absolutely worth installing to save.

Unpaywall Pricing: Free

oTranscribe (Web)

Best free writing software for transcribing interview and video content

If section of your writing process consists of transcribing audio or video interviews or content, oTranscribe removes a few of the more time-consuming areas of the method by putting your audio controls and word processor on a single screen. Simply upload your audio or video file, press play, and begin typing your transcription on the page that is blank.

This removes all of the back-and-forth of playing audio in one single typing and app in another. Plus, keyboard controls enable you to play and pause the audio easily by tapping the Esc key. Other controls allow you to