I'm just getting started with any lengthy writing and haven't used anything enough to have a real opinion myself. I know most people use MS Word for document creation, but I dislike the modern toolbar stylings and I don't want to have to subscribe to an office suite. My go-to for regular word processing is LibreOffice Writer, whether on Windows or Linux. It has conventional toolbars and anyone who's used any version of MS Office from 97 up will immediately feel right at home. It is open source, MS compatible, and completely free. I have been experimenting with other programs as well. Lifehacker recommended a few a while back, specifically with content creation in mind. FocusWriter is available for multiple platforms and seems very popular, but it might be too much for me. Q10 is another I like, though it is Windows only. It is incredibly basic, but that can be a good thing. I spent a lot of time in the MS text editor writing batch files back in the DOS days. Q10 reminds me a lot of that, and I imagine that nostalgia will be of benefit once I get more serious about writing. I feel like words will come easier in locations away from home and the distractions of everyday life. I have an old Eee 701, which is incredibly portable and still works great almost 10 years later, but the tiny keyboard can be a chore at times. I've got my eyes peeled for an inexpensive fullsize laptop, but I haven't found anything reasonable yet. That has led me to consider just using my 7" Android tablet when I'm on the go, with an inexpensive bluetooth keyboard, but I haven't experimented with any apps that might work with it. What platform and software have you tried? What have you been most successful with?
I use Scrivener. It costs $40US and if you go to their website, you can download the fully functioning program for 30 days of non-continuous use. Scrivener is not a word processor in the sense of layout, but it has all the usual word-processor text manipulations. It was written by a single person, a writer who wanted something that imitated a paper-and-typewriter, notecard, pages-in-a-binder way of working, where scenes can be ordered easily. While writing, I use the full-screen typewriter mode. This is just the paper and the text. https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
