750words is a website dedicated to morning pages. These pages were first mentioned in Julia Cameron’s the Artist’s Way, as a simple writing exercise. You basically freewrite for 3 pages (I think it’s A4 or US letter) in the morning, which comes up to 750 words, more or less. In true Internet fashion, 750words.com is a minimal writing site that encourages and gamifies morning pages, helping you get started.

Now, first thing to note, I like 750words. I do agree that morning pages are better than meditation in a few ways. It acts as a confessional of sorts, focusing on stream of consciousness. Some people get emotional experiences. Some become more creative, and so forth. Me I find it useful when I wake early enough to type them, but this is not always going to be the case.

750words has a hidden subscription price which, while cheap, is not something I want to pay for right now. Especially not when there are plenty of alternatives, such as:

WriteaDay (Android only)

WriteADay is a wonderful and colourful tool to keep you writing.

It’s colour-coded by day, so the more you write, the more gradients you get. If all you need is just a quick app that motivates you to jot down thoughts throughout the day and you’d like to gamify yourself, this is an excellent tool. When you’ve written a few entries, you get a lovely streak of colour.

Bonus? You get free backup to Google Drive AND a Night or Day mode – the latter is excellent if you don’t like the blinding white background. You can also change the font to something a little more readable (2 options). Did I mention that these are all in the free mode?

Paying for the app gets you extra font options, password protection (PIN+Fingerprint) and one more viewing mode (Dusk). There’s also a pretty damn good range of affordable subscriptions: monthly is the cheapest at USD2 (cheaper than a cup of coffee!), yearly will cost you USD10 (one month discount) but I think the Lifetime is the best bang for buck at just a measly USD25.

Journey (Cross-platform)

Journey is a more feature-packed journal writing software compared to most others on the market.

In some cases you can think of Journey as the replacement to when Google Docs took out the option to publish HTML and other networks. It tags your entries by location, date and time. A snapshot of the weather is also attached.

There’s also the option to add photos (videos are a premium/cloud feature), your own tags and write from all devices. PC, Mac, phone… these are all enabled by default. Prices start at Rm7.99 per device but the Cloud price unlocks everything across all devices at Rm18.99 (currently on sale with a 20% discount).

Google Docs

Free, online, and easy to use. Just make sure you close all other tabs to prevent distractions.

Q10

Despite the fact that this software is more or less orphaned, I still love Baara’s Q10. I would not have written as much nor focus if it were not for this minimalist app.

You can still install it from the website, and here are instructions in case Windows10 or Win7 gives you issues. And yes, I’ve tried a few others but I love Q10 the most.

Putting it here because if you are the kind that likes an offline app this is most likely to fit your needs. Set the timer, and just write.

So what will you pick?

So many writing tools, so little focus to write, no?