For working with subject matter experts or pair writing, a tool that allows more than one person to work simultaneously, and which tracks changes without creating multiple versions of files, is crucial. Often, content isn’t created by one person alone. Its stubbornly unconfigurable use of monospaced text isn’t to everyone’s taste. The grandfather of distraction-free text editors for writers, iA Writer has some great features such as focus mode, night mode and reading time calculator. Its distraction-free writing view is useful for blocking everything else out, and its excellent mobile apps mean you can carry your content around in your pocket. Ulysses is especially good for writing books, with tools that allow the structuring and organising of multiple files or chapters. It’s designed for taking and organising notes, but it also makes an excellent tool for writing longer content. BearĪ big improvement to Evernote’s bloat, Bear has beautiful typography and an effortless interface. Or, for the ultimate in stripped-down geekishness, you could just use a plain text editor: Sublime, Atom and Brackets are all good. These prioritise usability for writers, with minimal interfaces, often using Markdown for basic formatting. In recent years, a backlash against Microsoft Word has resulted in a new wave of simpler, more elegant text editors. Formatting, complex functionality and interfaces can get in the way of forming the words. The best tools for writing aren’t the best ones for word processing. If your brain insists on using straighter lines from the outset, and outlining rather than mind-mapping, this is worth a try. Though it doesn’t have the single focus that MindNode or Coggle have, Miro’s combination of power and intuitive interface makes it hard to beat. Miro’s mind maps are simple to make and collaborative. Useful for running online workshops, complete with virtual sticky notes, Miro (formerly Realtime Board) is a multipurpose whiteboard tool that does just about everything, bar making tea. Once you have ideas and themes laid out in a mind map it should be simpler to find a good, logical, narrative thread. Outlining also has its fans but we prefer mind mapping because it allows you to organise the ideas before the structure takes shape. It gives a bird’s eye view of structural elements and makes it easy to move things around.

As a first step planning tool for content, it’s great because it forces you to structure ideas in a non-linear way. A mind map is a diagrammatic representation of thoughts and ideas.

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