By the time you read this piece, it’s been through 4 different tools on its road to jaunty near-perfection 😉

The 4 tools are:

  1. Obsidian (paid for syncing capabilities) – This is where the content is born and lives. Over time I plan to link together the pieces that connect. I write all the first drafts here and then paste in the final draft from Hemingway once it’s done. I’ve banged on about it before, so I’ll leave it there.
  2. Hemingway – This is a very cool web-based tool that parses your writing. (Well, I use the browser-based version anyway…it seems they have a downloadable app too). It highlights difficult sentences, phrases with simpler alternatives, passive voice, and adverbs. The idea being you edit out or cut all those and end up writing like Hemingway.
  3. Grammarly (paid) – I use Grammarly for everything these days. It keeps me from making (most) grammatical gaffes. I use it for personal emails, client work, web-based forms, Hemingway, LinkedIn—anywhere it launches.
  4. ConvertKit (paid) – It’s not perfect, but I like it. It’s subscriber-based, not email-send-based. It’s simple to use (for me, so far). And you can create nice-looking emails (even if I do say so myself) without much customization.

It sounds like a lot, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s as minimal as it can get. Plus, there’s something nice about seeing the same piece in 3 different interfaces.

For tools,
James