Novel Writing Software
By Dave Hitt on Jul 16, 2009 in Featured, Personal Adventures
I’m about to start a novel that will have some complex characters and an intricate plot. After hearing writers sing the praises of Scrivener, which is a Mac only application, I’ve been looking for something that will do the same thing on a PC.
I’d like to be able to create an outline, character files, plot files, the text of various chapters, notes, random ideas, and of course the text of the novel, and have it all available on one screen. It should be easy to jump from one thing to another and if I change something – say, the position of the scene or the name of a file, everything should update automatically. I want to be able to add margin notes, like “research this” or “sounds clumsy, rewrite” and get to them quickly. All that stuff should be on a sidebar, or otherwise easily accessible. And when it’s finished I need to be able to export the manuscript to Word.
I tried Liquid Story Binder. There are a plethora of options – binders, planners, storyboards, etc – but they all look the same. Once the window is open you can’t tell what it is. I can’t figure out how to link things – nothing in the program is intuitive. The instruction manual is a joke. Even worse, the second time I loaded it, the files I started with are gone, and so is the example book that came with it. They’re listed on the file menu, but won’t come up. Since I don’t plan on writing the entire novel in one sitting, the program is useless.
Next I tried Keeper, which appears to be better, but has one fatal flaw: New pages are titled “Untitled 1,” “Untitled 2,” etc, and there’s no way to change it! It also keeps everything, including the example files. Evidently once you put something in there you’re supposed to keep it forever. Since I’m not writing about Sparta or the Greek Pantheon of Gods (the samples that came with it), I don’t need those in the sidebar. But they’re there, evidently, forever. At least until I uninstall the program, which I’ll be doing soon.
I’ve found lots of other similar software out there, but rather than spend days looking at various programs to find one that might do the trick, I’m asking you fine folks for advice. Is there any fiction writing software you’d recommend?
Two other requirements: It has to have a free trial download, and it can’t be too expensive (no more than $50 or so).
Well, this isn’t exactly for Novel writing, more for script writing. But it has many of the elements you are looking for. And it’s Open Source. http://celtx.com/overview.html
Chris | Jul 16, 2009 | Reply
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Dave Hitt | Jul 16, 2009 | Reply
Celtix is the kind of thing I’m looking for, but the real power is in script writing, which locks you into a script format. There is a plain text document, but when you use that you lose the ability to link to anything. I haven’t given up on it entirely, but I don’t think it’s going to do the trick. We’re in the right church, wrong pew.
Dave Hitt | Jul 16, 2009 | Reply
WriteItNow or Storybook is probably what you’re looking for. Storybook is free and open source. WriteItNow has a free demo but costs 59.95. Check them out here:
http://www.ravensheadservices.com/index.php
http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/
Secret Agent X9 | Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
Write it now has a demo that doesn’t allow saves. Idiots. I don’t have a problem with time limits or page limits (as long as they’re long enough to let you put something through it’s paces) but never bother with something that won’t let me save.
Storybook is only missing an editor, but it looks like it’s got everything else I want. I’ve been using Celtix to keep track of things, but I think Storybook will do a better job. Thanks. (And keep those recommendations coming.
Hittman | Jul 23, 2009 | Reply
I have found a great software in called ywriter5. It is totally free and makes it easy to keep track of everything on one screen. I use it when I compete in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)
Will | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
I’ve tried yWriter 5, and that’s the winner. I like the layout and the organization, and have used it to track everything I’ve written so far. It’s so handy when you need to find the name of a minor character or a reference to a specific event.
It has a text editor, like most of these programs do, but it’s pretty primitive (again, like most of these programs). I’m still using Word for writing, switching to yWriter to retrieve information or update something.
Dave Hitt | Sep 4, 2009 | Reply
Come on, “Novel writing software”? That’s a scam on the scale of religion. What will any of these do that you cannot do with MS Word?
I have been a professional writer most of my life and have written technical manuals, how-to books, a novel, and a screenplay. None of these required “special” software.
Novels are written with your brain. Almost any word processor will do any formatting you need.
Save your money and your effort learning to use these scams and devote it to writing.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 14, 2010 | Reply
I agree that writing is mostly in your head, but some of us need a systemized option to layout out writing projects. Being able to have you ideas in front of you and manuverable is an advantage.
Allen Daniels | Jun 2, 2010 | Reply
Dismissing something as a “scam” because it doesn’t fit your idea of how something should be done is a remarkably narrow view — not to mention smacking of defensiveness.
For myself, I find that after chapter 7 or 8 (which might mean 15 to 30 scenes), it gets a little difficult just to navigate around in the book, much less write it. So something like Scrivener can be extremely helpful.
Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything on Windows that’s as helpful. YWriter comes closest, but it’s hampered by a cluttered UI.
eric | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
As far as actual software, I’ve been surprised to learn that a number of these programs seem to work very hard to hide how you actually create or edit the text of your work.
StorYBook is a case in point. I can start it up and see how it organizes work pretty easily; I can create new scenes; I can place these scenes into new chronological orders. What I can’t figure out how to do is actually edit the scenes (apart from a small edit box attached to the scene summary).
Dead loss. Total waste of the time spent evaluating it. Others do the same thing, but I don’t have their names offhand.
As I’ve said, on Windows, yWriter is the best I’ve tried. On a Mac it was Scrivener, and yWriter comes closest to that. So maybe people should go out and pay Hal money for yWriter so he feels like it’s worth his while to spend more time on that instead of writing books…nah, it was just a thought. (That is the downside of yWriter: Hal seems to be a pretty competent professional software developer, but — like any dedicated writer — he’d rather be writing. So you get what improvements he is willing to make time to make.)
eric | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
As someone who has been a professional writer for over 30 years, I’ve found that specialized software contributes nothing. If you want to write, write. If you are using a computer, any text editing program will work fine. There are so many free programs like OpenOffice, or even the Text Edit programs that are on every computer (unless you deleted them) that will do the job.
Yes, programs like Word make formatting easier if you are dong, say, a screenplay. But how do you think these things were done before computers or even typewriters? Reams of paper and a pencil, that’s how. Most of the great novels of history were written that way.
Instead of focusing on the tool, focus on the product. The main advantage of writing on a computer is it makes changes easier to do. Other than that, write, write, write. Then get someone else to edit, edit, edit.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
Get someone else to edit? That’s like chopping out the first 1/4 of a sculpture and having someone else finish it.
Writing is editing, and rewriting, and editing, and rewriting some more. Having someone else do the COPY editing, the proofreading, is a good idea, and something most of us need. But unless you’re that one in ten million writers who gets it perfect the first time through, editing IS writing.
Hittman | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
Dave, speaking as a professional writer, I guarantee you that editing bu someone else, not just copy editing is vital. When you read your own work, you often read what you THINK you wrote, not what is actually there. Good editing will catch this and errors in consistency, logical mistakes, and even technical errors. I have seen all of these appear in my own writing and that of well-known authors such as Steven King, Patrick O’Brian, and others.
Yes, re-writing is important but good editing will often show you where rewriting is needed.
Ask any professional writer. I’ve done this for well over 30 years and I do know whereof I speak.
Doubt this? Let something you wrote rest on a “cooling box” for a few months and then read it after you are no longer so familiar with it. This is something Steven King does, or at least used to do before he became so successful he could afford professional editing for everything.
“Writing IS editing”? Sorry, but that’s the words and attitude of an amateur.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Jun 24, 2010 | Reply
Skip MS/Word ($400.00 a copy) and use the superior FREE totally compatible Open Office Writer. It does everything the MS product does, and it’s entirely FREE. I use it for everything and don’t have to pay Mr. Gates one red cent.
Excellent / professional / Free
Open Office.org
http://www.openoffice.org/
Curtiss | Aug 16, 2010 | Reply
So what’s the verdict? Was yWriter the true champion? I have a couple of stories in my head, but have a difficult time getting them written down because the project overwhelms me. I am looking for something that will allow me to focus on smaller chunks at a time. Once I have the outline and the major scenes, I think that I could arrange it all and tie it all together. I hope.
I am not a professional writer. I have written a couple of short stories just to get them out of my head, and now it’s time to do the same with a couple larger scale projects. Doing the important scenes and smoothly transitioning between them in a logical chronology is something I can do. Trying to do that within a giant block of text is where I lose my resolve. I never even heard about authoring software until very recently. This may be the pole I need to vault this beast.
So again…was it ywriter?
Martin | Feb 8, 2011 | Reply
I went with yWriter for the first draft. It was very helpful in keeping the time-lines and characters, especially minor characters, consistent.
The novel is finished, but it very much sucks, and needs a complete re-write. I just started playing with Scrivner for windows, which is a beta version, for the re-write.
Hittman | Feb 8, 2011 | Reply
I had kicked James Smith Joao Rammalammadingdong(or whoever he really is) off here when he started threatening violence in another thread. When he showed up again I thought I’d give him a another chance and see if he could behave like a grownup.
He can’t. My mistake. His tirade has been deleted.
Congratulations, James, or whatever your real name is. Of the thousands of people who have posted on this blog over the years, including some very nasty, insulting folks, you are the ONLY one to have been deleted and blocked. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Dave Hitt | Feb 9, 2011 | Reply
Thanks.
As for Arrogance XII Pope of All Writing, I think he’s missing a very important aspect of this discussion. I am not, and don’t believe anyone else is, looking for a program to write fir me. I am looking for a tool to help me organize my ideas and take on the monumental task of writing a novel in much smaller, more manageable chunks.
Did Shakespeare, Faulkner, or Heinlein use such a tool? No. Would they have, had they had it available? Probably.
How many awesome stories did we miss out on because the story tellers whose heads they were in weren’t wired in such a way as to allow them to write coherently for hours and days and weeks and, well YEARS at a time?
Write, write, write! I hear it and read it all the time, and believe it. But my brain simply does not lend itself to sustained writing, nor does the flow of my life. For all that I get a ton of words typed in a given month! Emails, blog entries, blog comments, work, play, and recreation, I write an awful lot!
The reason I began hunting for a piece of software to aid me, was that I think that I can write email sized chunks at a time and then worry about gluing the scenes together here and there. Once I have the majority of the important scenes finally committed to print, I can focus on transitionary scenes to make it flow, chronological notes to help it make sense, and then, with luck a first draft that I can edit or get edited, and maybe someday we will look back on this thread as the impetus to my entrance into the ranks of authors :)
Hopefully, when I am published and am at work on my second book, I won’t be as arrogant and snotty as that SOB that you wisely banished from your blog.
Thanks again for the info and encouragement.
Martin | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Hi! My name is James Smith João Pessoa from Brazil. I like to pretend I’m a writer, but when I’m not doing that I love to fuck goats. Big goats, little goats, boy goats, girl goats, it just doesn’t matter. Give me a goat and I’ll fuck it. Twice, if I’m not to tired.
Sincerely,
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil
Goat Fucker Extraordinaire.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
He’s been posting two or three messages a day here, each one snottier and goofier than the last, and I’ve been deleting them as soon as I see them. I can only guess what kind of pathology drives this guy. I’m not well versed in psychological disorders, but I’m guessing someone who was would diagnose it has a combination of jealousy combined with anger issues and being fucking nuts.
It’s rumored that Tolstoy had dolls set up on his desk representing his characters, and when he killed one of them he’d knock the doll over, to help him keep track. Mark Twain was enthralled with the typewriter, and bought one as soon as it was available, singing the praises of this wonderful machine that let him write more than he could before. I know some writers who like to write their first draft in longhand with a fountain pen – the feel of the pen on the paper inspires them. Others eschew word processors in favor of an old typewriter. Still others use index cards to arrange every scene before tackling the novel. Every one of them has made the correct choice – for them. Just as a chef may have a favorite knife no one else likes (not that he’d ever allow anyone else to touch it) or a carpenter may always reach for the same worn hammer, an artist’s tools are a very personal thing. Any “writer” who insists their method of writing and the tools they chose are the only legitimate ones is a non-artist, a wannabe, a failed writer, and a useless hack with nothing worthwhile to offer anyone else.
Dave Hitt | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Just the other day there was this brown beauty with a white stripe up his back. Damn, I fucked that boy for a half hour. I think he loved it as much as I did.
James, Goat Fucker
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Some people debate if you should cuddle the goat after fucking it. I’m in the cuddling camp. It lets them know you care.
James
Goat Fucker Extraordinaire.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
I’m particularly fond of Angora Goats.
When the villagers banished me from my hovel and chased me into this cave I found it difficult to keep warm until I adopted an Angora goat. Lots of warmth, lots and lots of good lovin’. It’s the perfect combination!
James
Goat Fucker Extraordinaire
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
I was put on trial for goat fucking, and asked my mom, who likes to get fucked by goats, which lawyer I should hire. She recommended two. One, she said, was great at the negotiating before the trial, but if he wasn’t able to get the sentence reduced he wasn’t that good in court. The other’s expertise was in picking a sympathetic jury. Although the later was more expensive, I decided to go with him.
I had to blow a lot of sailors to raise the money, but it was worth it. I remember the turning point in the trial, when I knew I was going to get off (so to speak). The woman who had reported me in was on the stand, and the prosecutor asked her for a detailed description of what she’d seen.
“It was disgusting,” she said. “After he fucked the goat he walked around in front of it and the goat licked his penis.”
One juror turned to another and said, “A good goat will do that for you.”
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
I got caught walking home with a goat under one arm and a sheep under the other.
Ok, I guess I’ll have to admit I’m bi-sexual.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Here’s a video of me and my dad celebrating my birthday:
http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V1566
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
I’m James Smith, I come from Brazil
I’m always in search of a thrill
I’m a wanna be writer
A pretend to be fighter
But goat fucking’s my only real skill
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
This is my picture, taken right after I fucked a goat.
http://www.davehitt.com/temp/james_smith_goat_fucker.jpg
That’s not a shit eating grin. That’s a goat fucking smile.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Be sure to read my book, “Stay Fit For Life by Molesting Barnyard Animals.”
Only five bucks, or the use of your goat for three minutes.
James Smith,
Goat Fucker Extraordinaire
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
Here’s a poem I wrote.
Goat Fucking, buy James Smith.
I fuck goats
Right down their throats
I by them coats
I feed the oats
Then I fuck goats
and then I gloat!
That there is some fine poetry writin’, yes sirree bob, I don’t care nobody says.
James Smith
Goat Fucker Extraordinaire.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
BTW, Folks, I’m mangling less than half the crap this idiot posts. (I’ve only got so many goat fucking jokes, after all.) I’m still deleting the rest. He’s made over a dozen posts in just the past few hours. Can you imagine anyone that pathetic? Well, you don’t have to. He’s right here.
Oh, and he thinks he’s going to sue me, and win. Yeah, good luck with that, Sparky. You’re harassing me, James, on my blog, after being repeatedly told to stay away, and you’ve got a case? Yeah, right.
Go fuck another goat.
Dave Hitt | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
So these goats, they really enjoy it when I sneak up from behind. Others may say baaaaaad things about me, but really, I know, deep in my heart, that the goats really love it.
Besides, when I try to get sex from human women they laugh and point and giggle and say mean things like “that look like a penis, only smaller.” Goats never do that.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 12, 2011 | Reply
My preference is for baby goats. Young, virginal, baby goats.
What did you say? Fuck you, I’m no pedophile! We’re talking goats here!
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 13, 2011 | Reply
Dead goats? That sick!
Ok, I admit it. I like a cold one now and then.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 13, 2011 | Reply
I have my appointment with an attorney tomorrow morning. I’m going to tell him how much I LOVE fucking goats, and find out if there are any legal ramifications. There should only be RAMifications if I fuck male sheep! Ha ha, I am sooooo clever.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil | Feb 13, 2011 | Reply
For the few of you who are following this thread, this will be the final chapter in the tale of this sad, sick, strange little man.
He’s still at it, leaving dozens of comments a day, all with the same repetitive insults and threats. I’ve been deleting them because I’ve run out of goat fucking jokes and am guessing you’re tired of them too. This trivial battle is not going to take over this blog.
He’s been threatening lawsuits since the start of his childish tantrum. He’s from Brazil, and he actually looked into extradition laws – that’s right, he’s such a pathetic loser he thought he could have me extradited for calling him a goat fucker. When he discovered he couldn’t, he claimed he’d have attorneys in New York come after me. I’m guessing he’s idiotic enough to have tried it, and right now at least a few lawyers in the state are telling their collogues: “You wouldn’t believe the call I got from this asshole in South America.”
So he’ll keep posting, and I’ll keep deleting. If you see any of his comments, and you will, just ignore them and celebrate that while he’s writing them some poor goat is getting a well deserved break. His crap will be deleted in a few hours, and he, pathetic loser that he is, will replace them.
His endless spamming of my site is over, not a political argument, not a religious argument, but a disagreement over something as trivial as using software to help organize the writing of a novel. If this is the way he reacts to something that simple on-line it’s hard to imagine the kind of life he has, if any, in the 3D world. All alone, in some pathetic hovel, without a friend to his name except for a few goats with very sore assholes. Which is appropriate, because being a very sore asshole is this goat fucker’s only accomplishment in life.
And James, I urge you to keep searching for an attorney. Being a lawyer is a tough job, and they need laughter in their life. And one final word to you: facts are the absolute defense against libel claims. No lawyer will ever take your case when they discover you really are a goat fucker.
Kiss Kiss,
Dave Hitt
Dave Hitt | Feb 15, 2011 | Reply
I have both yWriter and Storybook installed but I don’t know which one to use. Can you tell me which one is better please?
Ishaat | Aug 22, 2011 | Reply
I’ve discovered that Scrivner is the choice for most writing pros. They used to be just on the Mac, but now they’ve got a Windows version. It’s in the last phases of it’s beta test, and you can get it at their site for free, for now. When the trial runs out it’s about forty bucks, a real deal.
I’ve been using it all through their beta, and it’s great. I never used Storybook (although I think I tried it briefly.) I used yWriter quite a bit, but Scrivner blows it out of the water.
You can find it here: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
Hittman | Aug 23, 2011 | Reply