Hate Microsoft Word? Trouble Focusing? Want a Better Writing Experience? Try out These Programs

My attention span nowadays is horribly pathetic. Everyone wants to blame it on technology, but I call bull shit. At least in my case. For personal reasons that I don't need to mention in this blog, my attention span has greatly diminished so much so it's almost impossible for me to sit down and commit to writing anything. I've struggled with this for some time and I had no idea what I could do to fix it. There's almost always ideas swimming around in my head and they're great ones, stuff that really should be written down, stuff that would make a fantastic story, but whenever I would open up Microsoft Word, all the ideas would fly out of my head. Or, if by some miracle, they didn't instantly fly out of my head, I would only be able to write a little bit before my mind would wander and my creative juices would stop flowing and my writing would come to a complete stop. However, I found a solution to my problem (well, kind of)!

The internet is a wonderful place and it helped me to find several writing programs that really do help you focus. I'll list them below, in order of best to least best, and I'll include links.

Seriously, if you ever have trouble focusing, or writing, PLEASE try out one of these programs.

1. ZenWriter
• Free trial | otherwise $17 to own | If you really can't afford it, the creator urges you to email him to work something out | Includes customizable backgrounds, ambient music, and typing sounds | This is my favorite writing software, however, my trial ran out and I didn't have it in me to pay $17 to own it, so I went with a cheaper alternative (mentioned below) | But if you have $17 to shell out BUY THIS

2. OmmWriter
• Must donate to own | A minimum of $4.11 is required | Includes chanagble background (though you can't upload your own), ambient music, and typing sounds | I purchased this on Tuesday and I completely love it. The background music (there’s 7 different, very long, songs to choose from) is absolutely perfect to help you concentrate. It’s almost like white noise, but a bit more melodic, and its so much better than listening to music that has words | So, if you can't afford Zenwriter, this is the software I would recommend to buy instead

3. FocusWriter
• Completely free | Includes very customizable themes | No background music or typing sounds | I do think this program is very well put together, you can do a lot with it, however, it just wasn’t my style, so I went with Ommwriter instead. But if you’re not a style snob like me, then this should definitely be up your alley, because, most importantly, IT’S FREE.
I’ve tried a lot of other writing programs other than these 3, but I haven’t liked any of them, to be honest. I need something that’s visually stimulating as well as well constructed. So these 3 are definitely the best Microsoft Word alternatives out there.

So if anyone decides to use these programs, comment and let me know what you think of them!