Making the Write Connections: Linking Writing Support Tools with Writer's Needs

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how existing writing support tools meet creative writers' needs, revealing gaps in research and practice, and providing insights to guide future tool development for more comprehensive support.

Contribution

It systematically maps the landscape of digital writing tools and research, highlighting overlooked areas like pre-writing and visualization, to inform future tool design.

Findings

Research mainly focuses on active writing, neglecting pre-writing stages.

Identifies underexplored areas such as visualization in writing tools.

Provides 10 key takeaways for future research and tool development.

Abstract

This work sheds light on whether and how creative writers' needs are met by existing research and commercial writing support tools (WST). We conducted a need finding study to gain insight into the writers' process during creative writing through a qualitative analysis of the response from an online questionnaire and Reddit discussions on r/Writing. Using a systematic analysis of 115 tools and 67 research papers, we map out the landscape of how digital tools facilitate the writing process. Our triangulation of data reveals that research predominantly focuses on the writing activity and overlooks pre-writing activities and the importance of visualization. We distill 10 key takeaways to inform future research on WST and point to opportunities surrounding underexplored areas. Our work offers a holistic and up-to-date account of how tools have transformed the writing process, guiding the design of future tools that address writers' evolving and unmet needs.