Is there a "best writing program"?

I think it depends on the writer and what one is trying to write.
I think all programs have their pros and cons. I personally like Scrivner, but I know it's not for everyone. Also, no matter how fancy your writing program, it can't and shouldn't solve 'blank-page syndrome'. But it can help to motivate if the program helps you put together your ideas.

 

I heard about Scrivener a long time ago but tried it just recently, and I really like it.
Of all the programs I've ever used, it's the best one so far.

But in general, it's hard to say which program is the best, because there are many different good ones, and for each writer that one "best" can be different. It's better to try a few and then decide which works the best.

 

It sounds like you have a strong preference for Word and other familiar tools like Google Docs and LibreOffice. These platforms offer features like voice-to-text and robust navigation abilities that align well with your writing style. Additionally, the integration with other applications like OneNote and Excel provides a seamless workflow for managing related information alongside your writing. It's all about finding the tools that work best for you and leveraging their strengths to enhance your writing process.

 

In my opinion, it is better to find an essay service than some kind of program! When I started searching for reliable essay writing services, I came across an insightful review at [spam link deleted] highlighted Spam as the perfect solution for all your essay writing needs. I was skeptical at first, but decided to investigate further. To my delight, the praise was justified. With a diverse team of talented writers, Spam has ensured exceptional quality across all subjects and disciplines. Their commitment to excellence surpassed any other service I have ever encountered.

 

Talk about an epic fail in the market research department. An essay writing service might be useful to lazy students, but not to people working on actually writing.

 

It depends on how you use their services. For example, I sent them my work for proofreading and to hear an experienced writer's opinion on what could be improved in my piece and what should be added. Of course, ordering an essay from scratch is unlikely to improve your writing skills, but it will definitely improve your grades in college. So, you are right, generally it's for lazy students, but it can also be used to your advantage

 

While I understand the base desire behind your choice. I would suggest looking for a professional editor, as a better option. An essay service MIGHT be okay for a Non-Fiction project, but that is still outside their focus. While professional editors, are more focused on specific genres. And each genre has its own conventions, which these editors will know, and allow more genre specific feedback for you.

 

Reading this thread, I'm amazed at just how many programs are out there because oddly, I've never really thought to look for one. I use OpenOffice - and I've used it for so long, that I don't even recall why I stopped using MS Word instead.

 

I use Scrivener a lot, I love it.
I also use Atlantis Word Processor, it's awesome and has a lot of features.
I also use Final Draft, and Fade in (they also have options, for writing novels)

 

That awful ribbon thing, maybe?

By the way, anyone still using OpenOffice should move over to LibreOffice ASAP. Its the 'true' continuation of the OO project, after Oracle bought the OO name. LibreOffice is kept much more up to date.

 

I see back in 2018 I posted in this thread about the allure Mellel had for me. It's still my primary word processor.

For complex formatting, such as brochures, I use Affinity Publisher, curating my copy in either a BBEdit notebook file (like an itty-bitty Scrivener) or in Mellel.

Mellel is way cool. It's rock solid. It may have its own way of doing certain things, like its auto-title system, but I found it worth learning how Mellel thinks.

And, best of all, it doesn't really think. No AI at all, just like I like it. ;-)

 

I like prowritingaid personally. Its critique feature is generally helpful, it does make some... awkward mistakes sometimes so it's not like you just go, "Click... click... click..." You have to actually think about what it's asking you to correct or rewrite, and it's coming out with new features. One will tell you if there are any plot holes, the other will predict how well audiences will like it. It's probably not going to be perfect, but it will be helpful.

Of course, it has some pretty big limits if you decide to go with the free option. Namely, you only get ten rephrases a day and the word limit is I think like 4,000 words. Also, like I said, some of its suggestions are weird like if you say that the walls had been painted, sometimes it suggests, "Someone had painted the walls." Or sometimes it switches between first and second person. And things that I'm not even sure what it was thinking when it suggested it.

Personally, I think you should go with prowritingaid for story advice and other websites for grammar and maybe passive voices.

 

I used to like it as well, especially as the basic premise was their suggestions were just that. You decided whether to accept or reject them. Of course, several reports were nonsense (sticky words for example) but you only ran the reports you considered useful. Recently, however, the CEO's obsession with AI has meant the product has gone backwards in my view. Although you can turn off the AI elements and ignore those you cannot switch off the software has gone from reasonably stable to frustrating to use. They dumped support for the desktop version without telling anyone which forced me into using the PWA Everywhere version which is not as stable. There are very few developments except for AI features and they refuse to have a proper bug reporting system which would allow users to monitor progress on fixes. I suspect because there is little resource allocated to fixing bugs.

Rant over. My question is whether there are rival products with similar functionality. I exclude Grammarly which I do not like.

 

Yeah, not big on Grammarly myself. And I have noticed that prowritingaid has some weird reports like the dialogue checker. Too much dialogue makes the percentage go up but more often than not the dialogue it wants me to remove is actually important to the scene. That's why I think it'd be better for small things or paired with something else.

Personally, I'd like something that can help with pacing. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure how descriptive I should be and that can make the pacing suffer a bit. Prowritingaid does detect this but it doesn't make any suggestions, all it does is link to an article that explains why too many slow paced or fast paced paragraphs in a row can bog down a story. Just a tiny suggestion would help.

 

One development in progress in PWA (not AI - Praise Be) is a writers community managed via the software. I think a few Beta readers would be a lot more helpful than the PWA pacing report. Jury is still out on it for me. Some of the paras it flags as slow paced are not. The successful writers in my genre - crime fiction - all have lots of slow paced paras anyway. Peter Robinson (RIP) probably the best example but even Peter James throws in quite a few.

 

Is there a "best writing program"?

The best writing program is a program of self-education in SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) as well as syntax (sentence structure), and paragraph structure. Get yourself a good style manual (like the Chicago Manual of Style, or the Gregg Reference Manual) and keep it open on your desk all the time. Get one with a spiral binding, so it can lay open without constantly trying to close up. Those are designed for constant reference, like a shop manual for writers. Read through a section of it every day. And also of course read a lot of novels or stories, and read like a writer (not just for enjoyment, but actively check how things are being done). I do use the spell checker that was pre-installed in my Mac, but like all other writing programs (and the style manuals themselves), they're really designed for essay writing or office writing, not for stories, which often use uncommon styles and approaches. In order to write creative fiction it's best to absorb the 'rules' and know them so well that you no longer need to keep checking. And then rely on critiques, beta readers and professional editors (aka people who have specialized in learning all these things). Computer programs can only check to make sure your writing fits a statistical average, a lowest common denominator, they can't see what creative style you've decided to use and take that into account. Only a human operator with deep training in the language can do that. So you need to become that, it's sort of your life's mission. The basics that we learned in grade school (which was once called grammar school) are enough for most people, but then most people aren't writers. When you decide to become a writer you're moving the bar, setting it higher, and your education needs to adjust for that. Plus of course most of us forgot much of what we learned in grade school (and failed to learn all of it anyway, because we weren't excited about writing then).

 

Thought so. In that case, I'm just not going to worry too much. All of the paragraphs that PWA has flagged as slow paced are ones where I'm literally just describing a room or having the character in question analyze their surroundings. It's rarely ever more than a paragraph or two. I'll obviously go back and decide which details should be kept and which need to be dropped, just to make sure I'm not pulling a Twilight.

 

Ot, rather than getting a hardcopy style manual, each time you wonder about some unsusual construction or a spelling, do a search online. Use terms like rules for commas, or rules for syntax. If you do some of this each day for a while, your knowledge will increase massively.

 

Yeah, the computer-based writing programs (and even the style manuals) are generally pretty decent for spelling and basic grammar, but they're not helpful for syntax or paragraph structure unless you're writing something very formal and non-creative like an essay or a memo or inter-office letter, where there are strict rules that must be obeyed. That's the only way a computer can navigate something like writing, it must have a rigid set of rules programmed in. They can't really do creative writing.