Technology that Writers Love and Hate at the Same Time!

Around the time I thought of writing this blog post, Wordle got sold off to the NYTimes for a cool million dollars or more. My family are understandably ashamed of me for having completed an engineering degree in computer science and still not come up with such a simple and lucrative idea.

I’ve blogged before about tools we can’t live without, but this whole saga got me thinking of modern technology that we writers loathe and long for in equal parts!

Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/ANY SOCIAL MEDIA ARGHH!!

I am a relatively light social media user, and I don’t spend hours scrolling through any of the feeds. But on days when I do, I get sucked down a rabbit hole of never-ending stories and videos that have nothing to do with what I am writing or want to write! I hate how addictive social media is and can be, but I must say it’s also been a fantastic tool to get in touch with writers and fellow creatives across the globe! Connect with me here on Twitter and Insta.

Scrivener

This is one of the latest additions to my arsenal of writerly technology. Scrivener is like one of those elderly relatives you love some aspects of, but at the same time you wonder why they’re so weird and difficult to understand! I guess the complexities are part of what makes it lovable!

Name/Word/Prompt Generators

I mostly love these with a passion because they do help my writing, but on the days that my brain doesn’t work I want to tear my hair out. Sometimes I wonder – why, even with all the prompts, can’t I pull out a coherent story???

Google

Love it or hate it but you can’t live without it! Sometimes I wonder how we managed with those bulky multi-volume encylopedias, and even if we gravitated towards CDs of Encyclopedica Britannica, it just doesn’t feel the same given we now have ten times that amount of information at our fingertips.

Microsoft Word

Is Word perfect? No, but it is numero uno among word processors in the world! Say what you will about it, but there’d be far fewer writers in the world without the editing features of MS Word. Google Docs is another favourite but I’ve been using Word for so long that I haven’t bothered to make the transition – I am still a Word Dinosaur!

Is there any software that you use and can’t imagine writing without? Let me know in the comments!