Dedicated Writing Apps
- Book Writing Software For Mac
- Best Writing Software For Mac 2018
- What Is The Best Writing Pen
- What Is The Best Writing Pen On The Market
What constitutes the best app for writers depends on their process, genre, and conditions in which they are most productive. Additionally, it depends on what they intend to do with the finished work: publish it online, send it to an agent, or shoot a film. There is no single best app for all writers, but there are plenty of excellent writing apps that cater to different needs, work styles, and genres.
Priced for the Starving Artist (Mostly)
- Manuskript (Mac, Linux and Windows) is a free and open-source writing tool for writers with features similar to Scrivener. It's still in heavy development, so be careful when using it for serious work.
- Conclusion on Best Writing Apps for Mac So, these were some of the important writing apps for the Mac. Many people across the globe are using those apps and came with some of the best of the writers.
Apps for writers tend to be less expensive than other kinds of software. Many sell for a one-time fee, although a few require a subscription. The least expensive writing apps cost only around $10. Final Draft, one of the most expensive writing apps, costs $249.99, but even that is a one-time fee, meaning you pay once and own the software for life. Ulysses used to sell for a standalone fee but recently moved to a subscription model, now costing $39.99 per year. If you own an older copy of Ulysses, it's still yours to keep and use, but you won't receive any updates.
Writing a story that will inspire people starts with two things: a book outline and the best writing software. To make writing your next story fun, entertaining, and interesting, you should look beyond Microsoft Office Word by choosing the best book writing software for your project.
When an idea strikes, many writers want to be able to jot it down or immediately add it to an ongoing project. To do that, they likely need a companion mobile app to go along with their desktop software. Support for mobile apps isn't particularly strong in the writing category. A few companies that make software for writers offer iOS apps, but it's rare to find anything for Android. Additionally, mobile writing apps typically cost a good deal more than what people are used to paying for an app. Scrivener for iPhone and iPad, for example, runs $19.99. Storyist's iOS app is $14.99. To get over this price hurdle, I recommend thinking about the combined cost of the mobile and desktop software together and considering it a bundled purchase.
What's the Best Screenwriting Software?
As a genre, screenwriting has unique requirements. Scripts for movies, television, and the stage must make clear the difference between direction, setting descriptions, spoken dialogue, and so forth. This allows all the people involved in creating the final product—actors, film crew, editors, and directors—to do their jobs. As a result, the formatting for screenwriting is exceedingly precise. A few writing apps cater specifically to professional screenwriters. Final Draft is one, and it continues to be an industry standard. If you're actively employed in film or television, you might already own a copy. When you purchase Final Draft, you can use the app on two computers, and it's compatible with both Windows and macOS.
Another app that specifically handles scripts is Adobe Story. The app costs $9.99 per month, but it's also available to anyone who has an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Story is unusual because it's not just writing software. It also lets you make notes about the actual production of a script. For example, you can write a detailed description of shots you want to see or provide information about shooting locations. The app can generate a production schedule based on all the metadata associated with each scene. Adobe Story is also compatible with Adobe Premiere, so after the footage has been shot, you can pipe in the script to run alongside the video, helping the editors do their job, too.
Alternatives to Microsoft Word
Why would a writer use a dedicated writing app instead of Microsoft Word (or Google Docs, Apple Pages, or any other typical word processor)? There's no reason you can't use any of those apps, but they don't have many of the special features you get from apps that are specific to writers.
Fiction writers, book authors, and screenplay writers often change the order or scenes, sections, and chapters. That's easy to do when an app is designed specifically with professional long-form writers in mind. With the right drag-and-drop tools, you can quickly and easily reorganize your files. It also helps if footnotes and endnotes renumber accordingly, when you move parts around.
Another feature that office apps typically don't have is a writing target. It's common for professional writers to strive to meet a daily word or page count goal. So while Word, Google Docs, and Pages all have word count features, they don't have the same options for setting and tracking goals over time.
Some writers need to keep exhaustive notes regarding plot points and characters, and possibly even visual references, such as an image of a shoot location or faces that inspire characters. The best writers' apps include tools that make it easy to see reference material and notes whenever the writer needs, and then get back to writing quickly.
Finally, the word processors in suites are generally heavy-duty apps that can do everything from formatting and footnoting to headers, footers, and special pagination. That's handy for many kinds of business and academic writing, but for the average creative writer, all this may just be a major distraction.
What's the Best Distraction-Free Writing App?
Writers who find themselves in the less-is-more camp will want a writing app that strips away anything that could possibly be the least little bit distracting. Distraction-free writing apps are a dime a dozen; the trick is to find one that also offers the tools you need when you need them. The best distraction-free writing apps hide the tools you need until the appropriate time, rather than omitting them altogether.
With that criterion in mind, Ulysses is my favorite distraction-free writing app, and a PCMag Editors' Choice. A well-designed interface makes Ulysses easy to use and easy on the eyes. It has good tutorials and help menus for newcomers, including a cheat sheet for Markdown language. Markdown is a very lightweight set of codes that can be used instead of the rich formatting options that are common in word processors. If you've ever typed asterisks (*) around a word in a chat app to make it bold, that's similar to Markdown. It's very simple, and takes no time at all to learn, especially when you have a cheat sheet to guide you.
The idea behind Markdown is that you can apply basic formatting, like marking titles and subtitles, bold and italic text, without moving your fingers from the keyboard. It's also less distracting than having a panel with 50 alluring typefaces that you're dying to try. Ulysses is only available for Mac and iOS. Windows users might also try yWriter.
Note that we have reviewed Focused (for Mac), but it didn't score well enough to make this top-ten list. If you're curious why, please feel free to read the review.
What Are the Best Writing Apps for Novelists?
Book authors spend a lot of their time simply organizing their manuscript. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, the work doesn't always shape up as the author originally intended. Chapters sometimes move. Stories aren't always told in a linear fashion. And scenes sometimes become more effective when their order changes.
To facilitate the shaping of a story in this way, you need a library, or a pane within the writing app showing file folders and their organization. Not all writing apps have one, as you can see from the chart above.
Writing for Medium, WordPress Blogs, and More
Book authors and screenwriters aren't the only types of writers, of course. Many writers create shorter pieces that they publish online directly, without ever passing through the hands of an agent, publisher, or movie producer. If you're publishing on Medium or WordPress, it sure is handy to have a writing app that can export each piece directly to your platform of choice.
Ulysses and iA Writer both have integration options for those two platforms. Like Ulysses, iA Writer is a distraction-free writing app, but it's much more pared down. It has some neat functions, such as text transclusion, that can be fun to learn for people who think more like programmers than traditional writers. Text transclusion allows you to create a final document of many smaller pieces by, essentially, giving commands about which files to pull together and in what order. 'First display the introduction. Next add an image. Then include my argument. Finally, show my author bio.' The text of your document could be all of four sentences long, but it might whip together a piece that, when exported, is 25 pages.
Your Writing, Your Choice
Every writer has unique needs and desires. Do you need an app that works on both Windows and macOS? Is learning a new way to format text a deal-breaker? Does your final submission need to meet industry standards the way screenplays and teleplays do? The range of software dedicated to writers is impressive. If nothing tickles your fancy from the full reviews linked below, you should also read our short synopses of many other apps for writers, as well. Finally, if you decide that a dedicated writing tool just isn't for you, and you'd rather just use a plain old word processor, we've rounded up the top office suites, too.
Featured Writing App Reviews:
Final Draft Review
MSRP: $249.00Pros: Well tailored for screenwriters. Powerful tools for both writing scenes and crafting the larger story. Plenty of view options. Offers a variety of templates. Collaboration supported.Cons: Collaborative editing restricted to one person at a time. Inadequate default auto-save and revision history.Bottom Line: Final Draft is the software you need if you are in the screenwriting business or aspire to be. It has all the tools you need to get the script right, both from a story perspective and a technical one.Read ReviewScrivener Review
MSRP: $45.00Pros: Excellent tools for organizing writing. Ample collection of templates. Competitive price. Multiple installs allowed. Also available for Windows and iOS.Cons: No web app. No native collaboration features.Bottom Line: Built with writers in mind, Scrivener 3 has everything you need to research, compose, organize, edit, and finish a piece of writing, all for a ridiculously reasonable price.Read ReviewUlysses (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $39.99Pros: Beautiful and clean interface. Excellent selection of distraction-free modes. Flexible. Tracks writing goals. Filters help organize content. Can publish directly to WordPress.Cons: Now sold as subscription. Requires some learning, especially for those unfamiliar with Markdown. No audio file uploads.Bottom Line: Ulysses is the most elegant distraction-free writing app for Mac. It's ideal for writers who prefer a minimal interface and total flexibility, rather than a lot of structure and hand-holding.Read ReviewAdobe Story CC Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Screenwriting and preproduction in one app. Generates shooting schedules. Feature rich. Collaboration features.Cons: No mobile apps or desktop apps; online only. Monthly subscription makes it expensive over the long run.Bottom Line: Screenwriters who not only write but also direct and produce their own work won't find a better outlet for their creativity than Adobe Story.Read ReviewScript Studio (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $199.95Pros: Excellent feature set. Helpful sample scripts included. Attractive and organized interface. Also available for Windows.Cons: Expensive. No mobile apps. Some crashes in testing.Bottom Line: With a professional interface and wealth of tools, Script Studio is among the best writing apps you'll find. Its high price may dissuade some from trying it, though.Read ReviewStoryist (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $59.99Pros: Very good templates for scripts. Clean, clear interface. Includes tools for storyboarding, outlining, character sheets. Supports importing and exporting many formats.Cons: No collaboration features. Mediocre auto-save functionality.Bottom Line: Storyist packs the power of a full word processor into an app for writers. If you don't get distracted by having too many features, it's an excellent Mac app.Read ReviewiA Writer (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $19.99Pros: Inexpensive. Uses distraction-free style with Markdown language. Offers transclusion method for embedding images, tables, and so on. Can export directly to Medium and WordPress.Cons: Few tools for organizing and arranging files. No templates for genres. Not ideal for code-phobic writers.Bottom Line: Taking minimalism to the extreme, iA Writer might be the writing app with the fewest built-in distractions, and it's inexpensive, too. But this Mac app is also BYOE: bring your own everything.Read ReviewyWriter Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Good structure. Rich tools for story and character development. Plentiful stats. Free.Cons: No Mac app or mobile apps. Doesn't include screenwriting tools or templates. Support for third-party backup options could be more apparent.Bottom Line: The free writing app yWriter has a stats-heavy, technical feel to it, which is great for writers who crave organization and data about their work.Read ReviewByword (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $11.99Pros: Distraction-free writing app with support for Markdown language.Supports direct publishing to popular online sites. Good export options. Inexpensive.Cons: No library or tools for reference materials. Best controls for fortnite mac. Not ideal for long-form writers. Lacks templates. Solutions to common technical problems require macOS Terminal.Bottom Line: Byword, an inexpensive writing app for Mac and iOS, publishes your work directly to Medium, WordPress, and other platforms. It's not ideal for long-form writers, however.Read ReviewWriteRoom (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Distraction-free, lightweight Mac app for writing. Inexpensive. Some neat view options.Cons: Does not support Markdown formatting. No mobile apps. Lacks a library view/folder structure. No preview before PDF export. No collaboration features.Bottom Line: WriteRoom is an inexpensive Mac writing app with a less-is-more approach that helps you focus on your words. It's too bare-bones for book projects or screenplays, but, for shorter works, it can get the job done.Read Review
November is known for turkey, Black Friday sales, not shaving, and—since the year 2000—the month when writers try to (finally) craft the Great American Novel. We're talking about the sixteenth annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
What began as a little event in San Francisco in July 1999 (it moved to November the next year) has ballooned into something far more than national. It's a worldwide phenomenon, backed by a non-profit company created by the founder, Chris Baty, that doubles as a major cheerleader for writers.
It's free to participate, but your tax-deductable donations are encouraged to keep it afloat. That's because you don't really need the NaNoWriMo site to get a book written. But consider how you 'win' at NaNoWriMo: You have to write a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days. That's 1,667 words a day. Stephen King might snap that much off before lunchtime, but the rest of us need encouragement.
Take the first step by announcing your novel at NaNoWriMo.org, and on November 1, start recording your daily word count. You'll earn badges along the way and get advice via newsletters (some by famous authors) and the forums. You can build a community of fellow WriMos online and through local events.
In the end, you'll have a novel. It will probably be crappy. No, it will definitely be crap-tastic. But that's okay! The only rule of NaNoWriMo is to finish—because that's the hardest part. Some famous modern novels, such as Wool, The Night Circus, and Water for Elephants all started life as NaNoWriMo novels. Over 250 traditionally published have come from NaNoWriMo. That's not counting countless more great self-published books. 325,142 people tried to write a NaNoWriMo book in 2014 alone—and 58,917 met the 50,000 word goal!
To truly succeed at NaNoWriMo you need things we can't help you with, like an idea, and a plot, and characters, not to mention the gumption to spend hours each day clacking at the keyboard. But we can point out some of the absolute best software and apps you can get to make it all a little easier to write, plan, and count all those precious words. After you finish that 50,000-word draft—that's the same size at The Great Gatsby!—you'll have all the tools you need on hand to keep writing. Always keep writing.
Desktop Writing Software
There is one primary tool any writer needs first and foremost: a word processor. Of course, the primo processor in the world is Microsoft Word. Plus, Word is available for Windows, Mac, and a simplified version for iPad, the latter being 'the first app that gets tablet-based word processing right,' according to our review). All are available as part of the Microsoft Office 365 Personal subscription for $69 a year (you can't even edit a document on iPad without a Microsoft Office account). There is no better tool for word-smithing overall.
Mac users may prefer to stay with the home team, which means Pages ($19.99), Apple's own design-friendly word processor. It happens to work with Microsoft Word documents. Pages can be accessed on the Web via iCloud.com (free, but you have to upgrade to iCloud Drive) or go through an iOS app ($9.99).
Having both Word and Pages are totally overkill for NaNoWriMo, of course, but chances are you have one of them on hand if you use a computer.
Oh, you like overkill? Then don't get a word processor that's for everything—get one that's ultra-powerful and designed with novelists (like you) in mind. Scrivener is that tool. Now available for Mac OS ($45) and Windows ($40), it contains extras so specific to fiction writing that you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. That includes corkboard outlining, story and script templates, and character files. For WriMos, there's the all-important ability to set up writing goals for the whole book, but also goals per writing session. It also can output books directly to self-publishing services like Amazon Kindle Direct. Whole books have been written on how to master Scrivener.
The free Scrivener trial lasts for 30 days, but there's a special version for WriMos—download it now and you can try it free til Dec. 7, 2015. If you reach your 50,000 word count, you can buy Scrivener for 50 percent off. If you don't reach the word count, you can still get 20 percent off using the coupon code NANOWRIMO when buying Scrivener from its website.
Storyist (Mac, $59; iOS, $14.99) is nipping at the heels of Scrivener, focusing on fiction writers with specialized tools to track the plot, settings, and characters of your novel. On the desktop, it comes with a component to make scripts that meet the Hollywood standard. That iOS version allows writing on the go, even on iPhone—and mobility is a key item for the serious WriMo in this day and age. It also has tools to make outputting your final novel a breeze if you plan to self-publish.
Apr 29, 2016 Mac OS X v10.6.6 or later to install via the Mac App Store (v10.6.8 recommended) 7 GB of available disk space. To install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks (currently unavailable) or OS X 10.10 Yosemite.you need one of these Macs: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion purchased emailed download code here. Free mac os update for 10.5.8. Jul 25, 2011 The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that. Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and resolves issues with:. Transferring personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion. Jul 25, 2011 About Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that. Apple Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard builds on a decade of Mac OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange.
Ulysses (Mac, $44.99; iPad, $19.99) has a NaNoWriMo trial edition (expires Dec. 7, 2015 that comes with a special version of Writing a Novel with Ulysses by novelist David Hewson. (He's also written a similar edition for Scrivener.)
There's also yWriter (Win/Mac/Linux, free), which does a lot of the above—tracking characters, chapters, etc.—but even in version 5.2 it's looking pretty old in the tooth these days. Consider it if you like your apps old-school.
New to the game is Bibisco, an open-source tool for Windows and Linux, complete with novel and scene organization, character development tools, even charts to show distribution across the book of where characters and locations and more appear. For a free tool, its and up-and-comer.
Distraction-Free Writing
Book Writing Software For Mac
The above are all examples of power tools for getting words down. To rid yourself of on-screen distractions, there is a breed of full-screen word processors that provide minimal disturbance—nothing appears on the screen except your story. There are a lot of them, for installation on the desktop or to use on the Web. To be fair, Ulysses, Microsoft Word, Scrivener, and most word processors have a full-screen mode that'll do this, but the bells and whistles could still be a diversion. Ain't nobody got time for that—you've got words to write!
Best Writing Software For Mac 2018
On the Mac, there's iA Writer (Mac, $19.99)—it's so minimalist you can't even pick a font. Pair it with the $9.99 iOS version and $4.99 Android versions for a fully mobile distraction-free ecosystem.
The competition at WriteRoom (Mac, $9.99) has been called a 'Spartan writing utopia' by the New York Times. If you like the look of green-glowing-type on black, the kind of thing we had 25 years ago on the Apple II, you'll agree. (You can change the look with special themes).
What Is The Best Writing Pen
Windows users should check out CreaWriter (donationware), which lets you customize the background image and add musical accompaniment via MP3 files. WriteMonkey (free) has multiple languages and even sound packages so you can feel like you're at an old-school typewriter. ZenWriter is $19.95 after a free trial, which is a little steep, but it does support changes in background, music, typing sounds, and more.
For those with multiple operating system options, OmmWriter Dana is available for Mac, Windows (minimum price of $5.11, but you can give more), or iPad ($4.99), and features noises and specially designed backgrounds to keep you free from interruption. Finally, FocusWriter is tip-ware—you pick the price from $1 to $20—and it comes for Windows, Mac, and even Linux, in multiple languages. You can throw a cool background behind it to make it a little less austere (like this).
Online Writing Tools
Downloadable programs aren't required to get your novel written. It's the Internet! All the tools you need are right online.
Let's start with the uber-powerful tool of choice: Google Docs, the word-processor part of Google Drive/Google Apps, is just about as powerful as they come. It's free to anyone in the world with a Google account, and all the files are stored online. That might be a downside—needing online access—but you can get around that by using either Google Chrome as your browser (set it up on each computer by clicking More>Offline when in Google Drive) or by installing the Google Drive program to sync your online files with your computer. Google Docs is also available to edit your files via Android or iOS devices.
Microsoft Word is also available online, as part of Office Online. It looks a lot like the full-blown version of Word, but it's in the browser and OneDrive is used for online storage. Word users who want a mobile option should save docs to OneDrive and try Word for iPad or Android tablets. Don't forget that Apple's Pages program has an online version you can access at iCloud.com.
Web-based writing tools aren't limited to the big three of Google, Microsoft, and Apple. There's cool little startups trying to make a big splash. The latest is Novelize , which works like an online-only version of Scrivener. The cost is $5 per month or $45 for the year after a free 17-day trial. Unlike Scrivener, since it's Web-based and prepped for any screen, Novelize works for desktops, mobile device, and Web-only devices like a Chromebook. Plus, it has a distraction free writing option.
Novlr is also a relatively new entry with a clean interface and Scrivener-esque sensibility. It's online only, free during NaNoWriMo, then $10 a month after if you want to keep using it.
Prefer working with other writers? Quipis a free, communal online office suite with word processing and spreadsheets. It shines as a collaborative tool—great for anyone doing some kind of group NaNoWriMo novel. Quip offers free apps for iOS and Android, so you get full online, mobile writing options. Quip stores all your files on its own servers.
Dropbox, the much beloved file backup-and-synch service, just announced a new tool called Dropbox Paper that takes on Google Docs and Quip in some ways, providing an online tool for collaboration. Users can add images and videos and links based on what else is stored in their drop box, but for WriMos the tool of choice is using it as a whiteboard for writing. As of this writing Paper hasn't launched yet; sign up for the waiting list.
Online Research Tools
Tools for WriMos aren't limited to just getting down the words. There are other aspects of crafting a novel that have to be taken into account, such as planning and research.
Outlining tools take (some of) the pain out of plotting and writing a novel. It all depends on what kind of outline you want, and what kind of outliner you are. An ultra basic outline with indented lines is a breeze with WorkFlowy (iOS/Android/Web, free) or SimpleNote (iOS/Android/Mac/Web, free)—and both have mobile apps, so you can work on the outline via phone or tablet. Trello (iOS/Android/Web, free) organizes lists into cards that looks like a Pinterest board—pretty great for storyboarding a book as if you're making a movie (and it works with multiple users, so great for the collaborative novel). If you're willing to learn Markdown language—a way of creating rich text without a rich-text editor—build an entire wiki with a free tool like scribble (Web, free). If you want to try a mind-map approach to planning, check out a free, personal account at SpiderScribe (Web, free limited to 3 private maps).
What about all that great research material you run across online, all of it fodder for creating more and more words each day of NaNoWriMo? It goes without saying that you should have an Evernote account. It's the ultimate storage space for everything you find online, type on your phone (via the free apps), or photograph. If you don't believe it, check out PCMag's roundup of the 30 Tips Every Evernote User Must Know.
Microsoft's Onenote (Windows/Mac/iOS/Android/Windows Phone/Web, free) is a different kind of note-taking beast, but still useful and accessible online, with the content syncing no matter what version you use. One great feature for WriMos is OneNote's Ink to Text—when using the software in tablet mode with a stylus, you can 'handwrite' notes that get converted to text, which you can then use as part of your novel's word-count.
One thing we haven't talked about yet is keeping track of your word counts, an all-important aspect of 'winning' at NaNoWriMo. Mostly, it'll be on you to keep track of that in your word processor of choice (in Word, just type Cntrl+Shift+G). To track the numbers, and your progress, consider Word Keeper Alpha, created by a former WriMo, or WriterStat Nuwa. Each tracks your progress and goals for projects with some splendid looking graphs.
Mobile-Only Apps
I've mentioned a bunch of mobile apps already that will get you going and keep you going on a NaNoWriMo novel; most are offshoots of existing desktop programs. Word for iPad, Google Docs for iOS and Android, Storyist for iOS, Pages for iOS, and Quip for iOS are all great for writing; for research you should load OneNote and Evernote on every mobile platform, ASAP. But there are a few mobile-only tools with no desktop equivalent that might work well for those eschewing the full-size keyboard.
One app written just for this very novel-writing occasion: Novel in 30. It's for the iPad only and costs $4.99. It's probably not the most robust word processor for a tablet, but that's not what you want—this is program to help you meet goals, get support, and make backups so you don't lose all that work. Shame it's not also useful on the iPhone. To make up for that, the developer of Novel in 30, also offers My Writing Spot (Android $2.99) which syncs with a free Web-based version; the site lists iPad and iPhone version that don't appear to currently be available.
Foremost among app-only writing tools is arguably Drafts (iOS, $9.99). It's ostensibly for making quick notes, a lot like SimpleNote, but with more options for where to save the data (services like Dropbox or Evernote, or post to Facebook and Twitter). In fact, you can use it as the front-end writing interface for a lot of different services.
On the Android side, check out Write ($1.99): it's listed as a tablet notepad/journal, but enjoys a lot of the same great features as Drafts—with an emphasis on keeping track of word count, great for WriMos.
Byword (iOS, $5.99) supports a lot of the same features as Drafts. Editorial (iOS, $9.99), is similar in that it saves to Dropbox, but otherwise it uses Markdown to provide some rich text editing as you go. It's also full of automation functions to turn Editorial into your personal workflow nirvana, if you're into that (or you've got the skills and patience to write the scripts—not the Hollywood kind).
Want to use your phone to keep track of your NaNoWriMo word count? It's a little easier than making a spreadsheet. WriteChain (iOS, free) is an extra-basic way to do it. Just slap your word count in each day, and each 'link in the writing chain' will eventually add up to show when you will likely hit your word count, based on the end goal. Writing Journal (iOS, free; right) is a little more involved, more like a writing stop-watch that tracks not only word count, but the amount of time it takes per session to get all those precious words.
Quick tip for those with iOS—you don't even need to type. iPhones and iPads take almost full voice dictation. Just click the microphone icon next to the spacebar on the on-screen keyboard and start talking. You say things like 'period' or 'open quote' or 'new line' or 'all caps'.. here's a full list of everything you can tell iOS (or Siri) as you give dictation. This instant transcription is a great way to get a little more writing done on the sly (don't do it in the car.)
What Is The Best Writing Pen On The Market
You've got a few days before Nov. 1. Start planning that novel, and when the big day comes, hit the ground running.. and write!