Finding a creative approach to storytelling these days doesn’t come easy – not only are we still figuring out how to adapt to this life of quarantine and face masks, but it’s made it more difficult to focus, feel inspired, and come up with fresh new ideas.

Maybe you haven’t been able to escape writer’s block and could really use a boost of motivation, inspiration, and, quite frankly, a quick and easy way to help turn on your creativity light bulb.

If you’re on a tight deadline and need a quick resolution, you’re in luck! You can download these five smartphone apps to get you back on a creative track.

BrainSparker

Brainsparker is the perfect app to help you reignite that creative “spark.” The free app provides hundreds of creative cards that offer words, images, questions, and quotes to help trigger your imagination, initiate new ideas, and give you the inspiration you need to overcome a creative block.

Whether you’re a writer, journalist, blogger, student, teacher, or maybe you just need a boost of inspiration, this app has you covered!

Werdsmith

The Werdsmith app makes it easy for writers on the go and serves as your own “portable writing studio.” Whether you’re at a coffee shop or outdoors, you can quickly jot down your thoughts and ideas the instant you feel inspired, any place or any time.

The features are simple and not difficult to use, which makes for an easier writing experience when you’re in a time crunch. Before you begin writing, choose from different themes and formats tailored to your novel, poem, story, or blog. Users can even set up writing goals and rituals for motivation.

You can also access extra features with the Werdsmith member program and unlock more themes, formats, tools, and hundreds of writing prompts. Other features let you share your content with your “Werdsmith pals” for constructive feedback and share directly to your social channels.

Bonus: You never have to worry about losing your work as it can be backed up and saved to the cloud on your iPhone, iPad, and AppleWatch.

WordPalette

If you’ve hit a mental block – WordPalette is what you need. This app will provide you with motivation to refresh, refocus, and let your creative energy flow.

Not only is the app’s design simple to use, but it includes a fun word palette to play around with. When you get started, you’ll see your “Word Palette,” which are jumbled blocks of words to help kickstart your creative mind. You can also shuffle your words around to help you create short phrases, as well as switch back and forth to your keyboard to write down your thoughts.

What makes this app unique is that you can import your favorite text sources — quotes, poetry, song lyrics, or your own philosophies — and have them converted into word palettes. This makes for a fun and easy way to break up your writing and spark inspiration.

WordPalette makes it easy to get into a consistent writing habit and stay productive.

Writerly

Writerly provides you with more than just a way to store all your thoughts, ideas, and stories in one place – it’s also a toolkit for writers of all backgrounds to help strengthen their writing skills and boost productivity. It comes with some fun features and exercises that will help enhance your writing abilities.

Writerly’s exercises are more like creative writing courses to help motivate, inspire, trigger new ideas, and bring out your creative energy. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned writer, Writerly has everything you need to develop your skills, keep you focused, and unleash your creative juices!

Mindly

If you’re like me, your mind is constantly running a mile a minute, making the ability to focus on one thought or concept challenging.

The Mindly app will help you structure the commotion in your mind and keep you focused on your concepts. If you’re a visual learner, you’ll love the look and functionality of this mind mapping app. Mindly is simple to use, eliminates needless clutter, and is visually appealing – making it easier to concentrate on your thoughts and brainstorm your ideas and associations.

The functionalities allow you to attach notes and images, change color schemes, and even create a visual clipboard of your inspirations. Mindly is the perfect way to stimulate your mind, ideas, and kickstart your writing.

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Celina Anton is a content distribution subject matter expert at Cision. You can follow her at @PRNhotels and @PRNFood and connect with her on LinkedIn. She’s passionate about the food and wine industry, as well as enjoys a good HGTV show to inspire her DIY home projects.