Every year after 2010 is becoming more and more mobile, and people’s every day lives are made substantially more easy because of so many readily available sources of information. In the very palm of our hands, many of us have these portable devices that link our lives together from one end of the planet to the other, and back again, within the blink of an eye. What was once amazing in itself – the every day cellphone – has evolved into the very pinnacle (and best example of) modern technology, and all of it fits in your pocket.
The more exciting the world of cellular technology becomes, the more excited the creative thinker will get exponentially. As their ability to log every tidbit that crawls through their brain at any point of the day becomes heightened with useful gadgets and applications, it’s easy to see why a writer would use their mobile device as their most precious tool. Replacing the all-mighty pen (and shrinking the all-mighty keyboard) is no easy task, and you would need other things writers use on a day to day basis, compiled all into a palm-sized nugget of technological practicability.
Luckily, the Apple company introduced another useful product into our lives – the iPhone, one of the most popular mobile devices used in the world. This device, as well as many others that will be increasingly compatible, offer a number of devices that the aspiring writer will find endlessly useful in many different parts of the writing process. Whether you’re an editor, a freelancer, or a creative writing genius, this helpful list of apps can help you with all your organizational needs as well as make the process itself far more convenient.
Writing Apps
These applications are suited for your actual writing itself, presenting the best and most credited ease of use and accessibility. They are Momento, AuthorJotter, and ScriptWrite. These three apps seem to have the greatest number of satisfied users, and the least amount of issues with the iPhone.
Momento
Often referred to as “self-tweeting”, the Momento app twists together micro-blogging and mobile authoring to create a beautiful knot of convenient writing excellence. It’s great for those momentary snaps of genius, or the “light bulb over your head” feelings you always seem to get when there’s no laptop or pen within an arm’s reach.
AuthorJotter
This app is very often hailed as one of the very best available for any sort of writer. This app is free, and held in high regards because of it’s ease of use and simple yet organized capabilities. You can write, save, and back-up everything from spontaneous creative ideas to entire chapters of your book-to-be.
ScriptWrite
This app is great for scriptwriters as well as anyone looking for a “clean slate”, so to speak. It’s easy and maintainable, and now that the newer versions have fixed any scrolling issues this app seemed to have, it seems like one of the smoothest to use writing apps available for a mobile device.
Organizational Apps
Only two apps are praised and noted enough in the writing community to be listed here, because they deal with things writers have to deal with on a daily (more like hourly) basis; keeping track of what you’ve done, and keeping track of what you have to do. These two applications are WorkLog and YouNote.
WorkLog
This free app is known to be simple and great at keeping writers (as well as other people with shifty schedules like photographers, musicians, even surgeons) on task and on appointment. WorkLog tracks the time you work on your projects, and it lets you make notes and suggestions on each one to be sure you’re doubly prepared.
YouNote
This app is free if you get the Lite version, however the full YouNote iPhone app costs just over $7.00. Your notes on YouNote are easy to manage as well, and can include audio and image along with your text. You can also make notes to certain websites you view on your device with YouNote, making your surfing experience more research oriented.
Writing Tools
The tools writers need on occasion are more and more accessible every day. Now, with these simple apps, you can get all the help you need right on your iPhone, without moving from wherever you happen to be sitting. The most useful apps for helping writers are the Dictionary.com app, VocabDaily, and WikiMobile.
Dictionary.com
This indispensable website has now become an even more indispensable app for your iPhone, lucky you! As you could have probably guessed, this is an app that can be endlessly useful, especially since definitions include synonyms, suggested usages, origins, inflections, and all that other great stuff you usually expect from Dictionary.com.
VocabDaily
This app is great, because as our vocabulary changes from day to day (and it does!), we can keep up with it and change our writing styles to avoid confusion – and in many cases, offense. A good writer is constantly increasing their vocabulary as language and writing itself evolves, and this app in that way is pretty genius.
WikiMobile
As you would expect, the wealth of knowledge and research capabilities that is Wikipedia has gone even more mobile than your laptop, and now exists in your shiny iPhone. Ever want to spend a few moments learning about something fascinating, and then write about it at length, without even having to move anything but your eyes and your fingertips? Well now, you can. Isn’t technology wonderful? (To be fair, there is an alternative to this app called Wikipanion that also is raved about quite often. Honorable mention!)
Now that you’ve got a list of neat goodies to try out on your iPhone, I suggest you get writing and let technology help you do what you were born to do – think, and work!
Helpful Information from:
TopTen Reviews from costumers of various iPhone Apps,
Sales and popularity ratings from Apple.com, as well as
reviews and information compiled from AppCraver.com.