You might wonder whether writing software and apps can actually make you a better writer. With so many tools available today for drafting, editing, organising, and even generating ideas and text, it’s easy to assume the right software could improve your writing skills.
I’ve used many writing tools over the years, and they can certainly make parts of the process easier. They help with organisation, revisions, structure, formatting, and managing research and notes.
But they don’t improve your core writing ability: how you think through ideas, shape sentences, build arguments, and make decisions about clarity and flow.
And it’s that judgment about clarity, structure, and decision-making that ultimately determines the quality of any piece of writing.
From a Commodore 64 to AI writing tools
After years of writing with a pen and paper, my first real step into writing software was on a Commodore 64 with a basic word processor.
It sounds prehistoric now because I had to plug it into my TV to use it. A little later, I had an Amiga with a floppy disk drive to save my work and a noisy dot-matrix printer.
Since then, I’ve used countless writing programs, apps, and online tools.
But despite all the enormous advances in technology, none of them has fundamentally changed the way I write.
My writing still follows the same process of turning my ideas into something worth reading.
Whenever I look through the years of saved writing files on my computer, I’m often surprised by the number of different file extensions.
Most are still in use, such as TXT, DOC, DOCX, PAGES, and RTF. But some are very old, and I can’t find a program to open them, or they are corrupt files.
Yet it’s a little bit like a history lesson for me, as I keep all my writing files.
While I can clearly see how my writing tools have changed over time, the core of my writing process hasn’t really changed.
Just as I did on my old Commodore, I’m writing this article with my word processor, but without having to use a TV.
Writing starts with thinking, not software
Writing is a thought process. You think about the words you want to use to express your ideas, much like you do when you speak.
The main difference is that writing records those thoughts, which is why we need tools or software.
You can even combine the two when you think about dictation software.
Whether it’s a pen and paper, a note-taking app, a cloud-based novel writing tool, or a simple word processor, they all perform the same basic task of recording your thoughts in words.
If your ideas are unclear or even flawed, no software tool will improve the result.
Writers are fortunate today because we have access to countless tools that can improve the accuracy of our writing.
Few writers now would work without a grammar or spelling checker to catch typos and obvious mistakes.
But accuracy has little to do with meaning, imagination, or creativity. No amount of correction will improve weak ideas.
The same applies to artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools.
Yes, AI can produce grammatically correct text at remarkable speed, but it cannot produce insight, experience, imagination, or judgment.
That’s why technology can be so tempting as a shortcut. Genuine writing is always a slow process, no matter how fast you type.
I’ve tried almost every writing tool under the sun, and many of them are helpful for mundane tasks such as research, organization, analysis, and correction.
But not one of them can think for me.
That’s why I believe a writer’s choice of software makes very little difference to the quality of the writing itself.
What writing software should you use?
The simplest answer is to use whatever works best for you.
I know many authors who use Scrivener, while others prefer distraction-free, text-only writing tools.
For many writers, Microsoft Word is still the go-to app, and for Mac users like me, Pages remains a reliable workhorse.
There are now so many free writing apps available that you’ll never suffer from a lack of choice.
But if you’re looking for the best solution, think carefully about what helps you write most comfortably and efficiently.
Most often, the best choice is the software that makes writing feel easy.
You don’t want to think about software, tools, options, menus, code, or macros. You only want to think about writing.
What will improve your writing?
If writing software doesn’t make you a better writer, then what does?
The answer is easier than you might think.
Improvements in writing most often come from how you think, what you read, and how you practice turning your ideas into words.
Clear thinking
Good writing starts with ideas and clear, logical thoughts.
If you don’t understand what you’re trying to say, no tool will fix that for you. Writing is simply the process of making your thinking visible to others.
You can clarify your ideas by using an outline or even jotting down a few quick paragraphs before you begin writing.
Reading
It’s easy to overlook, but reading can have a positive impact on how you write.
You can read novels, essays, newspapers, journals, or even writing advice articles such as this one.
Reading helps you notice techniques and ideas that you can use to improve your voice, tone, rhythm, structure, and clarity.
It might be seeing how using short sentences for making a point and longer sentences for telling a story work smoothly together with parallelism.
Rewriting
Your writing will almost always improve in the rewriting stage after a first draft.
Software can help you edit and correct, but it can’t decide what should stay, what should go, or what you should rethink.
These are judgments only you can make, and each time you do, you learn more about your writing.
Time and attention
Writing always improves when you give it more time.
Rushing usually leads to weaker ideas and less clarity. Slower thinking often produces the strongest writing.
A good tip is to leave space and time between your first draft and your revision session to give you extra thinking time.
Summary
Writing about my old Commodore 64 on my new MacBook tempts me to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. But I won’t.
What I will say instead is that all writers need reliable writing software that is easy to use and takes care of file saving, backups, and security.
These are important practical considerations. With a reliable tool in place, you can focus on what matters most: writing.
So yes, choose your primary writing tool carefully. Then worry less about technology and more about your ideas, imagination, and creativity.
Related Reading: Writing Rules You Can Break Without Ruining Your Style
