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Research & Writing Productivity Apps?

by mchelle
5 replies
I am looking for ways to write faster and be more productive in tasks that just take some time.

I already write fast - averaging 2000-4000 words a day, but I just want to streamline some of the repetitive things I do each day. Ideally there would be an "all in one" solution that can help with everything, but haven't found it yet.

Here's my current workflow:

1. Research Keywords/Article Topic Ideas - this one is pretty streamlined already

2. Research and curate content for the article - currently using Evernote Web Clipper to take notes from various articles and resources {ie: wikipedia} - would love to find something more efficient!

3. Copy/Paste notes into the WP text editor
4. Start the Writing process - however since I do this in the WordPress text editor I am missing cool features like thesaurus, spelling/grammar/etc. - Also, most of my articles fit a pretty standard "format" - it would be nice if I could have some sort of template that is preformatted.
5. Create an image for the article
6. Proofread/format
7. Publish

Surely there has to be a way to streamline this all that I'm overlooking? Also would really like a way to be able to write better in the text editor, or if there's a way to take notes more efficiently and just write in one place and then export to WordPress that would be awesome too.

I would LOVE to hear any ideas/suggestions you may have!
#apps #productivity #research #writing
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Take a look at Scrivener (not an affiliate link). You'll be able to apply or create templates, research, curate and edit within the program, and then publish/export in a range of formats.

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  • Profile picture of the author Christopher Fox
    Mr. Donovan beat me to it. Scrivener is absolutely the best writing program out there, my opinion, of course. It ain't free (I think I paid $35 a few years ago), but is well worth it. The organization it brings to all your different writing projects is pretty sweet, and I am actually surprised it took someone so long to come up with it, for as useful as it is.

    Definitely look into Scrivener.
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  • Profile picture of the author nmwf
    Hey - This post showed up in my Google alerts! I like your ideas of streamlining, and like you, I'm really curious about streamlining research as well. So far, all I've found are scraping tools. But as a real writer, I'm sure you know those can be a complete waste of time. I'll be happy to hear of some nice solutions. Thanks for posting the question.
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    • Profile picture of the author mchelle
      Thanks all - I am trying out Scrivener- any tips or tutorials for ways to use it for research? It does make writing a bit easier
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    For headlines, you might want to try headlinr or some similar tool.

    You get ideas on how to create attention-grabbing viral headlines that catch on fire on social media.
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