Another vote for Kingsoft Office. The only downside is that I've occasionally found I couldn't import a .doc file back into LibreOffice after editing it on my tablet.
Just to update if anyone is interested in Kingsoft Office. The app has been renamed as WPS Office. For Apple users, I'm not sure whether this app is in AppStore. Kingsoft Office/WPS Office is compatible with Microsoft Words, but you have to realign your writing when you're swapping software.
It's far from perfect but I use Google Docs to write in most of the time. I have the Google Drive and Google Docs apps on my phone, which I nearly always have with me, so I can write basically anywhere. It autosaves every edit made, which is great because I'm spectacularly lazy, and all I have to do to access the file on my computer is log in to my google account. Much easier than saving and transferring and dealing with all that crap. When I want to print my manuscript I just import it into a .doc on a usb stick and I'm set. I don't own a printer at the moment so I do have to take things to the library to print them, but at 20c a page that adds up fast when you're talking about 200+ pages.
On the topic of notepads, if your "notepad" is beautiful, it becomes inspiration in and of itself. I want one of these: http://alexlibris999.deviantart.com/art/Gothic-leather-journal-435989912
Another thing I want from that guy is if I ever get published I want him to bind one or two copies of my book. Just having a copy of my own book properly published would be great but can you imagine having one of only two finely-bound copies in the world?
I wonder about the legal side of this. What access does Google have to your intellectual property in this case, and is it a concern?
One could argue that since it came from my mind, not Google's, they have no rights to it. They only provided the word processing software. The crayons, if you will. If Google has a claim to royalties on my writing then Crayola has a claim to royalties from anything created with their products. For my co-writer and I it's the best option. Much easier than emailing back and forth and it allows for dynamic real-time dialogue.
Well, you are storing your information on Google's servers. Probably you agreed to some document they shoved in front of you at some point. I'm not saying it's a problem. I just wondered. I have this idea that Google regularly data mines the stuff under their roof. Maybe that's just a myth. However, following the general dictum that you "don't get something for nothing" I'm ever suspicious of Google's motives.
Google makes their money [craploads of it!] from advertising revenue. I would, however, be lying if I said I read the terms and conditions in full. I don't think Docs even HAS terms and conditions. The only ones I agreed to were for my Google account, not for Docs itself.
"the cloud" is now ubiquitous and mature, so I guess it's reliable enough, but I've never been comfortable with it. You're trusting someone else with all your files, and you are dependent on an internet connection to access anything.
The internet connection part is a pain in the Heineken. My internet connection is unreliable at best. Having the one particular file in the cloud is necessary, to make it easy for both myself and my co-writer to access it. The rest I only have there because my computer doesn't like having six programs open at once. As a default I have my browser, itunes, a program called blink [manages my internet], Curse [voice chat program for gamers] and minesweeper or solitaire open. They help me think. If I were to add a word processor on top of that I'd crash my system.
