I have a feeling you might scroll past this but if you’re a writer who has trouble finding time to write then please don’t! I used to be pretty dedicated to my ‘old faithful’ word processing software too I get it, but please read on.

Like me, you’ve probably been using the same application for years. After all; it’s familiar, your previous work is all formatted that way, and you can’t be bothered learning a new thing when inspiration hits. You just want to write.

I’m not going to try and convince you to switch permanently but I want to briefly highlight how useful Google Docs can be for writers. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been able to get a surprising amount of extra work done and this is thanks, in no small part, to Google Docs.

Quick Disclaimer (By the way, I haven’t received any payment or any other benefit from Google for this post. I genuinely find it useful and thought that other writers may find it useful too)

Before I start the proper list I’d be foolish to skip one of the most obvious benefits; it’s free. I’m not going to list this as one of the ‘real’ benefits, mainly because so many other excellent word processing programs/ apps are available for free as well.

My all-time favourite free word processing program/ app is still OpenOffice. It has a layout similar to a very early Microsoft Word and also comes with the added benefit of customisable predictive text. This means that a suggested word will come up from your custom dictionary and you simply hit enter to have the word typed into the document for you (a massive time-saver and writing-speed boost).

However, recently I’ve come to realise that there are some clear and distinct features of Google docs which combine to offer a really unique and useful writing experience for me (and, I would imagine, any writer). Here’s the list:

1. Access anywhere

I used to text myself notes whenever I was out and about and had a flash of inspiration. This was my simplest way of keeping track of my writing when I couldn’t access the actual document.

Notebooks didn’t work for me as I would always forget to bring them with me when I left the house. I have a drawer of lovely, special notebooks with attractive covers and a comfortable feel. All of which were purchased whilst out and about, only to be filled with a page or two of notes and then forgotten the next time I left the house.

Google Docs are in the cloud, I can access them using any device (including my phone) at any time. I have separate folders for different projects. Inside these folders are various documents with notes on the plot, characters, etc.

If I have an idea now, I can open the relevant document on my phone and add the note to the correct place. This saves me wasting time hunting through text messages or handwritten notes for that idea I had last Thursday or, worse still, losing ideas completely.

Losing ideas completely!? That brings me to the next brilliant feature…

2. Always saved

Whether your PC goes on fire, you drop your phone in the toilet, or your tablet is stolen by a rampaging bear. All your work is still safe.

When I was working on my master’s degree we were all given MacBooks by the university. They were great, (and, you know, free), so I fired it up and got on working on my thesis, saving everything I did in that one portable, easy-to-use device. Then it died…

Three months of notes, saved sources, and around a chapter of my written thesis were on that hard drive and apparently (according to the university tech guys and the Apple folk they spoke to), no force on this earth could bring them back to me.

For a month I looked for options. Then for another month, I learned a lot more about how laptops (and hard drives) work. With the help of online message boards and hints and tips from a few really nice computer experts, we managed to discover a way to hack into the hard drive and get some of my files back using a different operating system running from a USB drive.

Overall, (even with the online help) it was a nightmare to fix and it used up a significant portion of my time and energy, only for me to retrieve a fraction of what I had. I never looked at saving my work in quite the same way after that.

From that point onwards I was meticulous about saving copies of work. My work is now saved in multiple places and in multiple ways (I also vowed to myself that I would never use another Apple product, but that’s a whole different thing).

For many years I’ve saved a copy of all my books (and draft projects) in a Google Drive folder, a Dropbox folder, on my personal PC, on a backup hard drive, and on a USB stick. I also have at least one full printed copy of the first draft kicking about the house for beta reading and editing. It seems like overkill, I know it’s overkill, but I don’t care.

However, the one downside of all these copies was that, despite all the different storage locations, I could only edit the document on my home PC as the format was for OpenOffice.

Fast forward to my switch to Google Docs: I now save a copy of each book in the Google Doc format as well. It’s a little slower to load for reading but the upside is that it’s fully accessible for editing on any device (as I said above). This means that I have a safely stored copy of my current work in progress that automatically gets saved the second I make a change to it.

So long as I’m connected to the internet I can edit on the go. If I close my device my work is still saved right up to the moment I last edited it.

In fact, Google Docs even helps me with my edits:

3. Google Docs has Grammarly built-in

There’s a streamlined, free, beta-test version of Grammarly built into Google docs.

It catches basic spelling errors and also gives you hints about four key measures in your writing.

It will tell you whether what you have written would score high on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. Each hint they give you is colour-coded to highlight which area will improve with the suggested change.

I haven’t yet, but you can also go ‘premium’ with Grammarly (for an additional charge). Those premium features will also be added to your Google Docs experience. This would offer you more comprehensive insights into your writing, along with deeper explanations regarding grammar and style suggestions.

As I say, I haven’t subscribed to Grammarly’s premium features. I feel that what you get is just enough to help without getting in the way of your writing.

After all, I use a real-life, human editor for my books who can help me fix much (much) more than the issues that Grammarly premium would spot.

Importantly, I also prefer to have a pair of human eyes take a look at my text (computers will always miss something) so I would be paying for an editor anyway.

4. Notes

There are multiple ways to utilise the ‘notes’ feature on Google docs but one of the most useful is the collaborative option.

So far I haven’t used it this way with my books but I have used it on copy with my copywriting clients multiple times. You can invite multiple users to access your document and add notes.

The editor for my books prefers to work with a paper copy. I understand her thinking, paper copies offer a distraction-free reading experience. On top of this, a paper copy allows you to write notes on top of the text itself.

However, if you were working with someone who is happy to work digitally the notes option is a fantastic real-time resource for suggesting and tracking changes to your document.

5. Compatibility

Speaking of collaboration, if you need to have multiple people access your document Google Docs is a great option. You don’t need them to download software, they simply go to the document link you provide them and log into their Google account to access it.

From here anyone with an internet browser can read, comment on, or edit your document (depending on what level of access you give them).

This said, there will always be a stickler out there who prefers a particular document format. Fortunately, you can cater to them as well, as Google Docs allows you to save your work in a number of different formats.

This means that you can easily turn your text into (most) recognised document formats, as well as save your document into epub format (meaning it could be read on an e-reader such as a Kindle).

That’s pretty much it!

I’ve had great experiences so far using Google Docs for parts of my day job (the copywriting bits at least), and this year I’m starting to make use of the benefits of using it for bigger projects like my books.

Limits! (It can get a… bit… slow…)

There is one drawback which I’ve already hinted at. Currently, Google Docs is a bit slow and clunky with larger documents.

Once I pass around a hundred pages I definitely see a slow-down in what Google Docs can handle. However, it still works and still offers all the features I’ve mentioned above.

For the most part, I write children’s books. Most of my books are fifty thousand words or less. However, even at this, I can see some slowing. If your work is longer than this I might suggest saving your book as separate chapters and editing each one individually.

Having a newer device with a faster processor and more memory for your web browser to use will apparently help.

However, in my case, the problem seems to persist to a certain degree on all of my devices (no matter how new and/or powerful) so some of the problems are likely on Google’s end. I like to hope that any server-side issues will eventually be improved by Google as well.

As I said at the start, I don’t expect anyone to change from their favoured software. Nonetheless, I’m also all about helping make it easier to write (for myself and other writers), so I hope you give Google Docs a try. If you do, please pop back and leave a comment about your experiences.

As always, thanks for stopping by my site,

All the best, John