Top 5 tools for real-time collaborative writing

Discover the best writing apps offering synchronous collaboration

The pandemic may not have invented real-time collaboration, but it sure gave it a turbo boost. What started as a necessity to work remotely quickly became the way you and your teammates get things done every day—whether you work from different continents or just opposite desks.

Writers and narrative designers are among the creatives reaping the most benefits from synchronous collaboration. With the right tools, your writing team can brainstorm, outline, draft, and revise together in real time, with features like autosave, notes, comments, and notifications across platforms.

Since remote collaboration is here to stay, the right solution can make all the difference, ensuring your team’s workflow is smooth, efficient, and—dare we say—fun!

Benefits of real-time collaborative writing

Real-time collaboration, in particular, enables faster decision-making, smoother workflows, and a more dynamic exchange of ideas—all essential for producing high-quality work.

The benefits of real-time collaboration are evident in all stages of writing:

• Brainstorming: collaboration sparks creativity and generates a wide range of ideas that one person alone may not have considered. It also leads to a broad and diverse scope of ideas and themes.

• First draft: collaborators tackle different sections simultaneously, speeding up the writing process and boosting team morale. The project progresses more quickly as writers address multiple fronts at once.

• Editing: team members provide constructive feedback from different viewpoints in real time. Since each writer brings unique skills, collaborative editing combines everyone's strengths, eliminating errors and resulting in a more solid final product.

• Accountability: in a real-time collaborative setting, team members naturally stay engaged and support one another, providing encouragement and timely feedback. This shared involvement helps keep everyone motivated and aligned, making it easier to stay on track and build momentum together.

• Consistency: real-time collaboration helps maintain a consistent voice and tone across a large piece, as team members can quickly align to and maintain the overall style throughout.

• Problem Solving: With multiple minds working together, complex problems in the writing process (like finding the right angle or solution to a challenging concept) can be solved much more effectively. Collaboration fosters quicker identification of obstacles and more creative solutions.

• Overall: when collaborating in real time, writers continuously challenge and refine the project, allowing it to evolve organically and ensuring an efficient path to completion and final delivery.

Why finding the right tools is important

While the benefits of collaborative writing are clear, the real challenge is finding the right tools that align with your team's needs and ensure an efficient workflow. For writing teams, success depends on overcoming disruptions in communication and productivity, throughout the pipeline.

Whether you're writing a draft, reviewing a colleague's work, assigning tasks, or organizing deadlines, the right tools can make all the difference. They help ensure smooth collaboration by simplifying feedback exchanges, tracking changes, and coordinating who's working on what—ultimately making it easier to meet deadlines and improve the overall quality of the writing.

Now, let’s dive into five tools designed to eliminate those barriers and help you collaborate more effectively.

Top 5 tools for collaborative writing

1. Arcweave

Arcweave is a narrative design and collaborative writing tool designed specifically for interactive storytelling. Perfect for game designers, writers, and content creators working on non-linear narratives, Arcweave allows teams to collaborate on creating complex, branching stories in real time.

Its intuitive interface lets writers visualize and organize story elements in a flowchart-like structure, making it easy to see how different story branches connect. Real-time collaboration ensures that writers can work together, share ideas, and make changes without disrupting the flow of the project.

Strengths:

• ✅ Excellent for interactive / branching narratives and game prototyping
• ✅ Intuitive, visual interface for narrative organization
• ✅ Unlimited collaborators even in free accounts
• ✅ Great for game designers and writers working on non-linear stories

Weaknesses:

• ❌ Requires internet connection
• ❌ Free version item limit—large projects require a Pro account

2. Obsidian + Relay

Obsidian is a powerful note-taking tool that lets writers build webs of ideas by interconnecting notes with hypertext. When paired with the Relay plugin, it upgrades to a multi-player platform with real-time collaboration capabilities, allowing writers to efficiently share ideas and drafts.

Due to its interconnectivity approach, Obsidian is especially useful for writers working on complex projects, such as a thesis or a novel, where research tends to get heavy. 

It’s perfect for organizing ideas, developing story arcs, and keeping track of writing progress.

Strengths:

• ✅ Offers flexibility with extensive customization options
• ✅ Excellent for long-form writing and idea organization
• ✅ Works offline
• ✅ Free Relay version supports 3 collaborators.

Weaknesses:

• ❌ Customization may overwhelm beginners
• ❌ Plugin requirement for real-time collaboration

3. Miro

Miro is a visual and versatile collaboration tool that enables writing teams to map out concepts, draw diagrams, and plan their content structure on a real-time whiteboard.

It shines in the early stages of a project, where you can use sticky notes and connections to structure your ideas into flowcharts or mind maps, create mood boards, manage your research, or just doodle. But its value persists throughout, allowing you to efficiently structure your material, create storyboards, organize edits, make revisions in real-time, and keep your team aligned as the project evolves.

Additionally, Miro offers built-in chat, video conferencing, and commenting features, ensuring the best possible communication during the design process.

Strengths:

• ✅ Great for brainstorming and mapping out ideas
• ✅ Real-time collaboration with visual tools
• ✅ Multiple templates for different workflows
• ✅ Easy to use with drag-and-drop features

Weaknesses:

• ❌ Not designed for actual writing and drafting
• ❌ Can become cluttered if not organized properly
• ❌ Limited offline functionality

4. Trello

While Trello is primarily known as a project management tool, its visual board system of cards and columns excels at managing both workflow and content. You can organize your team’s tasks, set deadlines, track progress, and break down content into chapters, scenes, or blog posts, all while managing your editorial calendar in one intuitive interface.

Trello also integrates with a variety of other apps (like Google Drive and Slack), allowing writers to easily link to their work and communicate within the app. While it’s not as focused on real-time writing, it’s perfect for coordinating different stages of a writing project.

Strengths:

• ✅ Free version available with plenty of features and flexibility
• ✅ Easy to use with drag-and-drop functionality
• ✅ Great for project/content management, structuring, and task tracking
• ✅ Integrates with other apps (Slack, Google Drive, etc.)

Weaknesses:

• ❌ Not ideal for the actual writing (needs integration with other tools)
• ❌ Free version offers limited customization options
• ❌ Can be overwhelming for smaller teams if too many boards are used

5. Google Docs

An all-time classic, Google Docs is one of the first apps offering real-time collaboration, and it remains a go-to for many teams working remotely. Its intuitive interface allows users to quickly create, share, and edit documents in real time. The ease of commenting, suggesting edits, and tracking changes makes it an indispensable tool for writing teams.

One of its strongest features is version history, which allows you to view and revert to previous versions of a document. This is particularly useful in collaborative settings where multiple contributors might have different ideas. Additionally, Google Docs integrates seamlessly with other Google Workspace tools, enhancing team collaboration.

Strengths:

• ✅ Free with a Google account
• ✅ Contributors can leave comments
• ✅ Easy sharing with customizable View/Edit permissions
• ✅ Integration with other Google tools (Drive, Sheets, etc.)

Weaknesses:

• ❌ Offline functionality is limited to individual documents
• ❌ Primarily a word processor with limited content management features
• ❌ Not ideal for complex narrative design, e.g. screenwriting or game writing

Screenwriting Honorable Mentions

Let’s not forget the unique needs of screenwriters and highlight two excellent apps that offer real-time collaboration. If you’re working with a team on a feature film or TV pilot, be sure to check out:

• WriterDuet is a screenwriting tool designed for real-time collaboration. It offers robust formatting, real-time editing, and offline functionality. While it supports basic scene organization, its strength lies in seamless integration with tools like Final Draft and Celtx, making it ideal for collaborative scriptwriting.
• Arc Studio excels at structuring large, complex narratives with specialized tools for scene breakdowns, character arcs, and beat sheets. It allows writers to map out their stories in detail, and its clean, minimalistic interface is perfect for those who prefer a distraction-free environment focused on story organization.

Stuck on which to pick?

Your team's quest for the right tool can be daunting, but finding the perfect fit will elevate your work to new heights. If you're seeking a versatile platform that simplifies the creation of interactive narratives feel free to jump in and check out Arcweave for yourself—it's completely free and there's no downloads needed!

The Arcweave team is incredibly passionate about empowering both solo writers and large studios, and are always ready to discuss how our platform can enhance your narrative design process. If you have any questions at all, consider reaching out via our contact page or hop into our Discord server. 

Featured photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.com