Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), no work I ever did for a living required me to use my hands for anything more taxing than typing on a keyboard. Still, both my fiction and copywriting work eventually led me to create my own digital toolkit.
That's what this blog post is about. The computer programs that make up my writer's toolkit. If that sounds useless to anyone who doesn't write on a daily basis, that's because it is. But since it amuses me to write about this stuff, I'm going to indulge myself and do it anyway. You've been warned.
Here are the programs that are always open when I write:
Tool #1: Text Processor
My favorite writing software is Google Docs. It looks sleek and feels great to use, it has a good spellcheck, it doesn't take any harddrive space, it can be accessed anywhere where there is internet, and it works splendidly with Google Drive Sync. I use it for all my copywriting work.
Sadly, Google Docs becomes unbearably slow when editing text files longer than a couple thousand words. For this reason, I do all of my fiction writing in LibreOffice, which is an open source (free) version of Microsoft Word.
LibreOffice has a ton of features (99% of which I don't use, but hey), works like a charm even on my crappy laptop, and doesn't need online connectivity, so there's that.
Tool #2: Music Player
As far as yours truly is concerned, writing in silence is a miserable experience. I use VLC Media Player (free) to play music files directly from my computer, but you don't actually need dedicated software for this. YouTube, Spotify, online radio, or similar streaming services will do the job just fine.
Tool #3: Dictionary
A good and easy-to-use dictionary is a must, which is why I use WordWeb. It's a cute little dictionary program that's free as long as you pretend you've never been on an airplane when it asks you if you've flown this year.
"But Mijat, why bother with a dictionary program when you can just Google the words you don't know," I hear you ask. Because it takes too much effort, dear reader. Googling requires me to open a new tab in Chrome, type in the term I'm looking for, followed by "meaning" to make sure Google gives me what I want, and then wait a few seconds for the search to load.
With WordWeb, I can just click on the program on the taskbar, type in the word, and get everything instantly. Convenience and efficiency are essential when you're writing thousands of words every day. Also, it prevents me from getting distracted by my Google searches.
Tool #4: Translator
I'm not a native English speaker, okay? When I'm tired and/or hungover, I sometimes find it difficult to remember certain words. Luckily, the free Microsoft Translator that you can get via the Microsoft Store is basically the same thing as Google Translate, only better.
As with the dictionary, Microsoft Translate allows me to cut straight to the chase and skip the entire *open new tab, type "serbian into english", wait a few seconds for Google Translate to load, get my answer* process. Give me convenience, or give me death.
* * *
So there you have it. These are the four programs that I always use while writing. There's also some hardware that I can't imagine writing without, but I guess I'll leave that for a different post because this one is already way longer than I thought it'd be.
Oh? What's that? You're wondering if I was paid to shill for these programs? Heh. I'm touched that you'd think that's the case here... and saddened that it's not.
