For years, the biggest hurdles in my writing process were slow typing, making revisions, and proofreading my work before publishing. I would easily labor several hours or couple of days to complete a blog post. But over the last year, I have replaced apps like Grammarly and ProWritingAid with these Ai writing apps: Willow Voice for capture, Cotypist Pro for writing assistance and Raycast AI for quick revisions.
Here is how these three tools work together to power my writing process.
1. Voice Dictation with Willow Voice
Back in the day, I used voice-to-text apps like Dragon Dictate and Apple’s built-in dictation feature. Both apps required me to dictate word by word or sentence by sentence. They were helpful, but sometimes frustrating to use.
About two months ago, I decided to start voice dictating at least 70–80% of my writing, mainly because much of what I write is just for me and does not need to be revised unless I want it to be.
I’ve tried several AI voice dictation tools, including Wispr Flow and AudioPen. They were both good, but I decided to commit to Willow Voice (referral link includes one month free when you sign up) because it felt faster and more intuitive. (Please note that I still recommend trying Wispr Flow and AudioPen to see which works best for you. All three apps have unique features that make them stand out.)
Over the last few months, I have dictated 69,000 words using Willow Voice, with an average speed of 96 WPM, according to the app. That is significantly faster than my typing speed of 40 to 50 WPM. And while the “Time Saved” is hard to measure, there have been days when I’m in the flow and doing a lot of writing, and I know it’s saving me time.
Though Willow Voice doesn’t require speaking word for word, it can’t read my mind, and it requires coherent thoughts. But depending on what I’m writing, I can easily speak, and Willow Voice will transcribe what I’m saying, even if I don’t always speak in clear sentences.
Willow Voice lets you build a personal dictionary to teach it words such as “Cotypist,” “Bakari,” and “macOS.” Words I want it to learn can be selected and copied to the dictionary using the notch icon above the Mac Dock. You do not have to open the app to add words to the dictionary. Willow Voice also includes a Style Match feature for the types of writing you want to produce, such as Casual, Formal, and Extremely Casual. Extremely Casual might be useful for social media posts or text messages.
If you struggle to use voice dictation, I suggest opening a text editor and doing stream-of-consciousness dictation. The more you use the application, the easier it gets to dictate your thoughts.
2. Augmenting the Flow: Cotypist Pro
Before I started using Willow Voice, I discovered the writing assistance app, Cotypist. Cotypist, an AI-powered autocomplete that I use daily, including for writing this blog post.
Unlike traditional AI tools that might try to write the whole paragraph for me (and lose my voice in the process), Cotypist is subtle. It predicts the next few words or the end of a sentence based on my current context. I can accept these suggestions word-by-word, which keeps me in the driver’s seat. It’s particularly helpful for reducing repetitive typing and maintaining momentum. Because it processes everything locally on my Mac, I don’t have to worry about the privacy of my drafts. It’s the perfect “co-pilot” that augments my unique style rather than replacing it.
You have to see and use Cotypist in action to truly appreciate how it works. It’s similar to the predictive typing on the iOS keyboard, but it’s much more sophisticated. (Note: that last phrase, “it’s much more sophisticated,” was generated by Cotypist, as was the rest of this sentence, including the quotation marks and closing parentheses.)
Cotypist is super context aware. It can see what is on your screen to help predict the next word or phrase. It can’t of course read your mind, but it can read your screen and predict what you might want to type next. Cotypist can also read your clipboard to understand what you’re working with and predict what you might want to write based on the content.
Your input involves accepting or rejecting the suggestions by clicking the Return or Tab key to accept one or more suggested words. Cotypist will also depending on the context of your writing, include the appropriate punctuation, and parentheses. It also reduces the number of times you have to type the same word or phrase. It can also do emoji completions when click the colon key. 😎
My total completion statistics are over 37,000 words, and I wouldn’t consider that heavy use. There are days when I use it to auto-complete fewer than 100 words, but when I’m writing a blog post or other long-form content, it auto-completes a few hundred words and phrases.
Cotypist Settings
Cotypist has numerous settings, including a selection of language models, settings for specific apps, and maximum completion length. I have mostly used the default settings. The 4- to 7-word completion length works well for me.
Cotypist can be a little tricky when you need to click the Return key to create a new line of text. I usually click Command+Return or the Escape key to create a new line when I need one. I would say that nearly every sentence I’ve typed in this post has included Cotypist suggestions as I type. Cotypist is a great tool for Mac users who write a lot and want to increase their writing speed. As you work with app, learn how to use shortcuts to dismiss suggestions.
As you use Cotypist, change the shortcut keys to fit what works best for you. You want to make sure that your typing speed not slowed down too much by accepting or dismissing suggestions.
Cotypist has been in beta for well over a year. Version 0.22.1 was released this week. Its pricing includes 100 free completion words per day. If you’re not a heavy typist, the free version should be more than enough. But if you want to increase your writing speed, the paid version is worth it.
You might be asking why use Cotypist instead of voice dictation. For me, while voice dictation is great for writing without manual typing, it’s not always the most efficient way to write. I often pause too long to think about what to say next while dictating, and sometimes manual typing helps me develop my thoughts as I type. Cotypist assists me in the writing process by suggesting words and phrases I can use. It often provides phrases I was struggling to come up with. So, it offers writing assistance that I can’t get from voice dictation.
3. Quick Revisions with Raycast AI
When I need to quickly tighten up my writing, I use Raycast AI to select the text and make improvements based on my AI instructions, which include combining sentences, correcting grammar, and remove unnecessary words.
After the improvements are made, I can prompt the AI to make other types of revisions or improvements, including expanding ideas or converting the text into an outline.
Why This Stack Works
The beauty of these AI writing apps is that address the three distinct phases of writing:
- Willow Voice handles the Capture (getting ideas out of my head).
- Cotypist Pro handles the Drafting (keeping the momentum going).
- Raycast AI handles the Editing (making the text presentable).
By delegating the mechanical parts of writing—the literal typing and the tedious grammar checking—to these AI tools, I can spend more of my energy on the actual thinking. It’s not about letting the AI write for me; it’s about using the AI to clear the path so I can write better, faster, and with far less friction.
