Tools For Writing
October 2, 2022•486 words
created_at: 2021-05-15
Half a year ago, I began the process of writing my first book. This book is special to me because it attempts to teach middle schoolers and those without experience, quantum. By using fairy tales everyone is familiar with, it is easier to teach new topics. I found that younger audiences were able to learn new material better when that knowledge was introduced in the context of popular stories. In this way, I will use stories from around the world to help teach many people the basics of quantum and inspire them to learn more.
When writing this book, I found a few valuable resources to ensure writing quality and consistency.
Google Ngram was particularly useful as I could often find the "perfect" word for a phrase (really the most common). I also used Google Ngram to determine which words were more common, thus, writing a more timeless book. Secondly, I reduced unintentional repetition using online-utility's word analyzer; however, this tool only reported the total frequency of each word and I needed to know if I used the same word in close proximity.
To handle this issue and have many tabs of the same sites, I wrote a web extension that helped with the writing process tremendously. I called it Writest — much like better to best, Writest brings you from a writer to the writest. With this extension, I could quickly analyze my book without needing to copy and paste it into three different websites. Instead, I'd click the extension and get all the information I needed:
readability,
lexical density,
n-gram search,
phrase frequency,
and window frequency.
When writing a book, be sure to check out the Repetition Analyzer and Google Ngram, and if you'd like an all-in-one writing tool, my Writest extension should help.
When I was finally ready to have more eyes on my writing, I was grateful to have written it on Google Docs. I could simply share a link and have my friends and family make suggestions and fixes. I recommend using a word processor that allows you to share your work and collaborate easily. It made requesting help simple, encouraging me to get more edits than otherwise.
Finally, I needed an illustrator to bring my vision to life. I used Fiverr to find an incredibly talented artist and she made my book something I will always treasure.
Having a professional touch to your work makes you proud, but it also encourages you to continually improve it.
It became very difficult to continue working at times; however, the illustrations reinspired me again and again.
I hope you found these tips helpful! I've linked my favorite resources below, and, in case the extension is unavailable, click here to download it.
Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/
Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/
Google Ngram: https://books.google.com/ngrams
Repetion Analyzer: https://www.online-utility.org/text/analyzer.jsp
Writest: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/writest/bicihfnmkdnfelbedknblndigjejbgcc
