7 Great Tools for Productive Writing

As a blogger, poet and lyricist, I do a lot of writing and have deadlines to meet- every single day. It's not easy. Some days it can be downright draining, especially when I'm less than inspired.

But it seems the only way to get through that is to keep pushing through, keep writing. Because when I stop, it's harder to get started again. And the longer I wait, the more difficult it becomes. Don't get me wrong- I love writing, it's a passion of mine, but doing it day after day after day can be pure agony sometimes.

I'm sure many of you can relate, no matter what it is you choose to write. So here are a few resources to check out.

First, the basics- I use these every day:

Dictionary.com - Often a word will pop into my head and I'm unsure of its exact meaning, and I'll need to look it up before choosing to use it. Or, I'll use it with the following link, if I question any of the results-

Thesaurus.com - When writing lyrics and poetry, I hate using the same word more than once (unless, of course, I intend to do so). Or if I dislike a certain word and want a synonym (or even an antonym), I'll use Thesaurus. It saves a lot of time and effort, and seems to work about 95% of the time.

RhymeZone - I usually don't have much trouble rhyming words, but every now and then I'll fall into a rut, and this usually digs me out. Not always, but it inspires ideas, regardless.

Wikipedia - I like to do a little research before writing sometimes. Wikipedia is a great source of information, and often cuts my time in half, as I can usually find what I'm looking for without having to go through several pages of search results.

Here are some other resources, which I don't personally use, but have tried and feel could work for others:

Dark Room - This is a free downloadable app for Windows, a clone of WriteRoom for Mac OS X. Full screen and distraction-free, it encourages you to focus on your writing.

Write or Die - The catchphrase explains it well- "putting the 'prod' in productivity". This app pressures you to keep writing by punishing you for inactivity. Personally, I can't get anything done in this manner, but a lot of people could benefit from it.

FreeMind - Free java based mind-mapping software. This is a great way to map out and organize your ideas- perfect for bloggers.

Of course, every writer thinks and works differently, so some of these may work for you, while others may not. Give them a try- you never know.

Do you have any writing productivity tools you'd like to recommend?