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. <\/p>\n
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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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. <\/p>\n
I tried Liquid Story Binder. There are a plethora of options \u00e2\u20ac\u201c binders, planners, storyboards, etc \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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? <\/p>\n
Two other requirements: It has to have a free trial download, and it can’t be too expensive (no more than $50 or so). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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