Software to help you write your novel!

MS Word is all I'll ever need... I have my notebook notes (an actual paper notebook), I have a 'novel' file, so I can track my total word/page count, and I have a separate file for each chapter. What else do you need to write? If you really need something to track what elements appear in each chapter, open up an excel spreadsheet.

 

If people are curious how useful writing software is, starting around October 25th, Scrivener will be offering a beta test of its new Scrivener for Windows.
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/
MS Word and OO Writer are fine but I like the enhanced ability to organize notes.

 

I like full-screen text editors for writing. I use Pyroom in Linux, and WriteMonkey or the Liquid Story Binder editor in Windows.

Scrivener looks cool, but I think LSB offers much of the same.

 

... Yeah, I just use Open Office 'cause I'm too stingy to download Word and it's the next best thing - better, some might say, if they're anti-Microsoft - and it converts flawlessly to word format so it's not like you're going to be screwed over when it comes to sending over your files.

Thing with fancy writing programs is that they can really help you concentrate - I've seen some good free software that, more than even Word's "hide the top bar and pretend to be full screen" options, remove all distraction. For getting the words out for a first draft, they can be really really good.

And some people do need the organisation, though again I'd really only go with free online ones... There are lots of good ones out there.

 

Or they can distract you with bells and whistles and googaws from what you should really be doing - writing.

 

Naw, I meant a couple of good ones I've found or been shown lately which are literally a canvas for writing on - they have text editing features, but vanish when you aren't hovering over them. They're totally different from the writer's programs that want you to plot and plan and give an index card of every character blah blah blah - they're helpful in the sense they know writers have the attention span of gnats, so they try to reduce things down to 100% minimalist without the crappy text editing options of Notepad. I mean, I know writers who use Notepad to avoid distractions, but then are really annoyed when they have to format it. These programs I was shown save you the formatting stage between draft and edits.

 

The attention span of...what'd'ya say??

 

im one of those people where when i get into something i tend to buy everything that could possibly help me through that hobby/activity.

one thing i have learned however is that to get really good at something, use the basic stuff where ever you can.

in this example, use word or open office if you don't already have word. at the end of the day it will be you skill as a writer that makes or breaks you NOT the software you use.

i would really advice that you don't buy any software at all. let be honest about it. A really good story written in notepad will get you far further than a crappy one written in a £5000 piece of software.

 

Ideas on plotting software?

So, using the terminology from the sticky: https://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=10677

I originally intended to write a series of short stories. It worked almost like archaeology. What I thought was a shark tooth ended up being attached to something much larger. I tried using an academic outline which is fine for essays, but not fine for keeping track of many characters and events at once.

I am a bit of a mathematical and visual thinker so I went to "How can I spread all of this out in an organized manner?" I thought of a vector type timeline that let me 'zoom in' from my macrostory to my mezzo story, and in from that to individual events and scenes. Software that will do this probably doesn't exist and while I would love to use all 10 feet of this room's wall to do this, I'm dysgraphic and writing is a huge chore.

So, as I'm a computer science major I have free access to Visio and other Microsoft software, but Visio is overkill and absolutely demands the usage of real life dates...plus I don't know how to work it.

Is there anything else out there that would let me put all of my ideas out there, on a timeline graph or plot, where I could organize them?


...I'm so longwinded. My ideal plotting software would let me use digital '8 1/2 x 11' sheets for big events, then 'notecards', and then 'sticky notes' all on a timeline/graph. Does anyone know of anything like this, if not, anything remotely close?

 

Visio isn't that hard to use, and if you have it available, go for it. You can use the flowcharting shapes, and if you don't want to use real dates, don't.

Just don't get so caught up in diagramming you procrastinate from actual writing.

 

I use an excel spreadsheet for plotting. Each line across is a scene, in the order of the plot, and there are one line breaks between chapters. The scenes can be moved around easily, and chapters broken up etc. when necessary.

Going across the columns I start with the chapter number, then you can have POV for that scene in the next (but my novel is written in one POV only so I don't), the third column is word count, and the longest column at the end is an outline of the scene.

I colour code each scene so I can see where my subplots are placed throughout the novel, and at times colour code different sections of scenes where more than one subplot is a main feature. I also have a word count per chapter autosum set up, and a total word count at the end of the word count column.

The whole spreadsheet is well over 100 lines but it is very easy to read, especially with the colour coding.

For characters I organise their profiles in their own word files.

Hope this is of use.

 

Why didn't I think of that? Excel would be almost perfect for doing this. I wonder if there's a way to link cells to files/parts in Visio?

 

I have a version of NewNovelist around here somewhere. I bought it years ago, back when I still thought it was necessary to plan things out to a ridiculous degree before I could even start writing the story.
It was a great big pain in the bum, and I reckon other programs are going to be just as bad. You spend so much time going from one part of the program to another, filling in this information and that, that you never actually get around to writing anything even remotely worthwhile.
The fact is, YOU have to write the story and I didn't find anything in NewNovelist that made that any easier. Writing, while enjoyable, is still hard work. You still have to come up with the ideas, decide what will happen and to whom, and when and why. Writing software doesn't do any of that for you.
Save your money and spend it on a good book

 

Does anyone here know how to set page numbers on your entire manuscript? I've been trying to do that as of lately, but for some reason MW 2007 only wants to do it per chapter so I have to keep repeating the process for every single chapter. Is there just a way I could do it in one swoop?

 

It probably has something to do with how you are creating chapters, or when you set up your headers and footers. By default, headings and footers should automatically continue from section to section.

Create your headers and footers before you start making chapters. Preferably, make them part of your document template for manuscripts.

 

Probably been mentioned before, but yWriter5 is free. Worth a try.

 

Well ... it looks like OpenOffice is currently undergoing a sort of schism at the moment, with a lot of the founders forking the project to the new LibreOffice. This new office suite aims to be developer-centric whereby OpenOffice is kind of a exclusive club in terms of getting patches accepted.

I used to be a Word guy until I tried update twenty years worth of documents. It seems that Word 2003 had problems reading Word 6.0 files never mind files written on Microsoft Works. So, I converted all my files Open Office, for its open file document type (zipped xml). I never need to pay a toll again to read my own work.

The problem with OpenOffice is that it is just kludge. I feel like I'm riding a drunk elephant. These days, I find myself drifting towards Google Docs so I can have cloud based backups. My goal as a writer is to always have access to a legal office suite so if I'm using a different computer, I can just download, run, and write.

But honestly, at the end of the day, a good old fashioned pencil and notebook will do fine.

 

OpenOffice works great for me. No problems with it. But I prefer a full-screen text editor for writing.

 

My father gave me one, Story Wizard, which has word count, spelling and grammar checker and most importantly, tips on how to write your story based on your selected genre. But I don't really use it, because I just plain prefer Microsoft Word. I do sometimes look up tips using Story Wizard, though.