[UPDATED AUGUST 2017]
One of the benefits of working as a freelance writer is that your workplace is not limited to a specific location. As long as you have your Android phone charged, there are plenty of work-related functions you can perform while you are away from your usual desk. Use it to work on projects, track projects, create characters and more.
Benefits of Downloading Android Apps for Freelance Writers
Why would you want to download apps to your Android device? Let me get a show of hands from everyone who thought that becoming a freelance writer was a great choice because you love to write….OK. I see all of you, including the people in the back. It’s important that you like what you do, because this is a hard work if you don’t really enjoy words and writing.
Once you start involving clients in what you do, it takes on an entirely different tone. Now you are a business owner. You need to keep track of assignments, deadlines, client preferences and style guides, and you may find that you have little time to work on your personal projects.
Android apps provide you with the following benefits:
- Help you stay organized for client work
- Provides writing prompts
- Create characters and plan stories
- Gives you word processing capabilities when you are away from your desk for notes, ideas, or even full projects
These applications can help you become more effective in your work and may even free up more time to work on your personal projects. See if you agree with our choices for the best ones for freelance writers.
The 11 Best Android Apps for Freelance Writers
1. tagg.ly
Do you take your own photos or videos to accompany your work? As a freelance writer, it can be challenging to remember to label them properly when you also need to keep track of projects, due dates, and other important information. Tagg.ly is a free app automatically adds names, locations, time stamps and logos to any photos or videos you take with your phone. It’s also available for the iPhone.
2. Days Left Pro
If you are the type of person who likes to keep track of the number of days that you have left before a deadline, you may want to consider downloading the Days Left Pro widget. At only $1.40, it’s an affordable way to remind you of projects, as well as birthdays, bill payments and anything else you don’t want to miss.
3. JotterPad
JotterPad was named the “App of the Week” in February 2015. It still is one of the best writing apps on Android today. If your work involves creative writing, this plain text editor app is worth considering. Features include a built-in dictionary, phrase finding, word and character count. Check it out for free and see what you think!
4. Lists for Writers
Do you need writing prompts or help with ideas for an essay, short story or a novel? The Lists for Writers app has you covered with names, occupations, character traits, obsessions, plot lines, action verbs, and more. Get all of this help for only $3.38.
5. iA Writer
This app doesn’t have any formatting settings, which makes it very simple to use. Its interface is available in English and German. iA Writer uses plain text files, and can be uploaded to Dropbox with ease.
6. Google Drive
Take advantage of Google Drive (free) and have all of your files within reach from your smartphone. Your files will be backed up so that you won’t lose them. Invite others to view, edit or leave comments on them.
7. Power Writer
Writer is a free application that lets you get down to the business of writing anything from notes to a complete novel. It’s a no fuss, no muss app that tries to keep things as simple as possible.
8. Character Creator for Writers
Would you like some help creating characters for your writing? Use the drop-down lists in Character Creator for Writers to build characters. You also have the option of adding your own character traits. The will put them together to create a realistic character description.
9. Story Planner for Writers
Story Planner is a powerful story-mapping and organizational tool. At only $1.89 to buy, it is reasonably priced for the features you get, including writing as many projects as you wish, creating characters and locations for your stories, writing scenes step-by-step, linking characters and locations to the scenes, and getting story stats.
The story stats feature allows you to see the entire story at a glance, lets you choose the right outline for the story, allows you to choose a structure for novels, and get cohesion and balance for novels and screenplays.
10. Dream Writer
Do some of your best ideas come to you when you are catching a few zzz’s? Dream Writer is a free app that helps you keep track of what is going on in your subconscious by helping you to remember and record your dreams.
Since what you see in your dreams can be very intense while you are asleep only to slip away shortly after you wake up, you’ll need to record it shortly after you wake up – usually within a few minutes. This app is designed for simplicity. You can use it in the moments after you awake to record your dream. Categorize your dreams with tags so that you can look them at a later time; Dream Writer also lets you expert and restore your database into a file on the root of your SD storage as a backup.
11. Writer’s Plot Generator
Are you looking for an easy way to generate plot lines for stories? Use the Writer’s Plot Generator to put together 10 elements of a plot:
- Genre
- Theme
- Setting
- Character 1
- Character 2
- Connection
- Situation
- Action
- Words
- Dialogue
If you want to make story generation an even simpler process, use the one-click random plot generator. Save plots to your favorites list and then copy them to your device clipboard. Download this Android app for only $1.10 and start using it to help with plot lines.
12. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a well-known time tracker. It “runs as software on your desktop or as a mobile app making it easy to track time. Once the time is tracked you can invoice clients, pay employees, and see in-depth reporting.”
If your business has grown to the point where you outsource your work or you have other writers working for you, Hubstaff will take care of monitoring their time – as well as yours, so it is also useful for a single-person business. Hubstaff can also send invoices to clients, freeing up some of your time. You can get the Android app here.
Hubstaff has more to offer than time tracking. They launched six months ago, and their user base has grown to 20,000+ freelancers. Note, though, that it isn’t solely for freelance writers. Called Hubstaff Talent, this platform is essentially a venue to find jobs. It is 100% free, and can easily be a source of new jobs.
How about you, do you have any Android apps to recommend?
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