With Writing Aid, You'll Never Have To Worry About Writer's Block

Writing Aid — Definitions, Synonyms and Meanings ($0.99) by Benjamin Mayo is much more than just a dictionary — it’s an essential little tool that should be in the arsenal of every writer out there.

As you may already know by reading this, I write quite a bit every day. It’s my livelihood, and I also just enjoy writing even in my spare time. However, there’s always that dreaded writer’s block that I, and every other writer in the world, experiences sometimes. We just don’t know what to write, or even worse, we’re stuck trying to think of a single word that fits in the context of what we are trying to say. That one word that you know exists, but can’t quite recall exactly what it is. Even if you’re not a writer, I’m pretty sure that this has happened to you at least once in your lifetime. With Writing Aid, you don’t need to worry about that one word anymore.

Writing Aid features a barebones, minimalistic interface that makes it incredibly intuitive to use while placing the emphasis on the words themselves, and nothing more. When the app is first launched, you will see nothing on the screen besides a text field at the top for you to type in the word or phrase you’re thinking of. When you hit “search,” the app will bring up a list of several words that match your query, with all of them being in a large, easy-to-read font so you don’t have to struggle to find what you’re looking for.

The magic with Writing Aid is that you aren’t limited to just looking up the definitions or synonyms of words. If you’re trying to think of a word to go with something you’re thinking of, this app is great for that. For example, typing in “orange pink” will bring up several color choices that match that description, such as “coral,” “salmon,” “apricot,” and more. You can even type in a phrase, such as “copying someone else” to bring up a list of words that have that meaning. If you leave the word list up for a few moments, Writing Aid will bring up even more (if available) options for you to consider, complete with a gorgeous transitioning animation.

Tapping on one of the words will bring up multiple definitions of the term, and if there are synonyms available, they will be scrolling in a ticker along the top, underneath the search bar. If you want the definition of one of the synonyms, just tap on it as it scrolls by.

All definitions come from Wiktionary, so the database is quite wide, though sometimes you may not find what you’re looking for (I found a word that was missing a definition). Of course, this is to be expected from any app that pulls data from an online, crowdsourced database.

So far, I’m getting some great use out of Writing Aid. It’s definitely a helpful little tool that should be around for every writer, especially for those times when you’re struggling to find the right words to use. The current URL scheme (writingaid://?search=QUERY) is also useful to include in your Launch Center Pro setup for quick access, and the developer is considering adding in more x-callback-urls in the future.

The only thing that this app needs is perhaps a history of your searched words and phrases, in case you need to recall them for future reference. Also, an iPad version is really needed.

If you’re a writer, then you need to check out Writing Aid for your writing toolkit. It will prove to be an invaluable app to have around for your writing sessions. Get Writing Aid in the App Store for your iPhone for $0.99.