Do you get all your writing done by hand, with a combination of multiple notebooks, walls covered in Post-it notes, and corrective braces for your inevitable carpal tunnel? Probably not. But even if you do, if you want to publish your book in any form, you’ll have to get it onto a computer at some point. 

Complain as we do that everything is digital these days, computers have countless obvious benefits for writers. You can instantly send your draft to friends, beta readers, agents, and editors. Spell-check and grammar checks will help you look more polished and professional.

But more than that, depending on the type of drafting software you use, there are lots of tools you can implement that would be impossible to replicate on a physical page. 

Your Basic Word Processor

Most computers come with some form of basic word processor for free. If you have a PC, you’ll have WordPad. If you have a Mac, you’ll have Pages. If you have a Google account, you’ll have Google Docs. 

These word processors, in their most basic sense, are the written page on the screen. You type, the words appear on screen, you press Save, and presto! You’re already a step above your notebook. 

If all you want is to be able to type on a computer and save your files, that free word processor is really all you need. However, there are a couple of perks your word processor offers that it would behoove you to figure out. 

It isn’t good enough to just press Save on your document, for one thing. You put so much work into your writing, so you need to put a little more effort into keeping your work safe. Spilling coffee on your laptop will destroy your manuscript just the same as it destroyed your notebook, because if your hard drive gets fried, then all the data saved on it is gone. 

Invest in a good external hard drive and make sure to back up your laptop on a regular basis. To be extra safe, back up your information to the cloud, so you can simply log into your account from any computer and access your information. 

For another thing, even the most basic word processors have some kind of commenting function. Turn this on to leave yourself notes in your draft and allow your beta readers to suggest changes that you can easily take or leave. 

Scrivener

Scrivener is an extremely popular software option for creative writers of all types. It’s famous for having almost infinite options for organizing your drafts, making notes, creating characters, forming an outline, and on and on. Even before you start writing, Scrivener sets you up with a custom template depending on what kind of document you’re writing. Even academic writers, who need intricate documents full of research citations and notes, find Scrivener to be endlessly useful. 

The choices can be overwhelming. But Scrivener has all these options not because you have to learn to use them all; it’s so you have those options. 

Lots of writers share their favorite Scrivener features online so others can learn to use their system and, of course,  Scrivener has its own tutorials as well. The best way to proceed is to think of what you’d really like from your software. An easy way to access an old draft if you aren’t sure you like the new one? A way to organize character sketches and world-building data so it’s easy to access while you’re writing? A toggle to make the digital page take up your whole screen so you aren’t tempted to surf the web? 

Then use the Scrivener tutorials to find those tools and implement them as you need. From there, it’ll be less intimidating to dive into the other kinds of tools it offers and see if you have options you hadn’t even dreamed of. 

Dedicated Writing Devices

Maybe you want the best of both worlds: the document-saving, typewritten drafting that only a digital device can give you, but none of the extras and none of the temptation to mess around online instead of working. 

Lucky for you, it’s easy to buy a device that you only use for writing. At the top end of the line, “smart typewriters” from companies like Freewrite offer modern conveniences for old-fashioned writers. They offer paper-like screens to save your eyes from blue light. They force you to just type out your draft and get the words on the page instead of obsessively editing as you go. They eliminate the endless distractions of your laptop. And they’re made to be portable and easy to take on the go. 

However, they do come with a hefty price tag, with the lowest-end models running at over three hundred dollars at full price. For the same amount of money, and sometimes maybe even less, you can also just buy a regular tablet. 

Tablets can run the mobile versions of software like Scrivener and will come with whatever standard word processor their parent company makes. You can turn off the internet to help you focus and, of course, tablets are built to be easily portable. 

You might feel silly buying a totally separate device for writing when you have a perfectly good laptop. But if you’ve ever noticed yourself drifting onto social media on your work computer or checking your work email on your phone at home, you know how hard it is to use one object for multiple deep focus purposes. 

Experiment

You have to be willing to try new things, or you’ll never know what you’re missing. Even if you think you have a perfect system, ask yourself if there’s something that would make writing easier for you. 

Drafting an entire novel is hard enough. Don’t make it worse by refusing to learn how to use a useful tool! 

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.