Orbis Writings

Writing Software

I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot of hits from people looking for software to help them write their novel. I went on this hunt a while back and I tell you, it’s very difficult to choose. The novel writing software market is a small niche and so a lot of the software out there doesn’t look that great and don’t make it easy for a beginner to get into the craft.

But I thought I’d compile a tight little list of the software that I have found to help everyone shorten their search.

I have only really used two pieces of software, PageFour and yWriter 4.

PageFour is the simpler of the two and provides a simple interface that allows a writer to break down their novel, or any writing for that matter, into manageable chunks. PageFour uses a folder structure to manage your writing and so you can create folders to manage your characters, places, chapters, scenes, etc.

yWriter is for story writers, short stories to full out novels and provides simple management of chapters, scenes and characters. Like other novel writing software, when you’re just starting out it’s a bit intimidating, but onces you understand the structure of a story, it swings. It allows you to calculate your daily quota word count so you can keep up and attempt to meet your deadline. Plus it’s free, so definitelly worth a look at.

I haven’t used anything else, so I’ll just list all the software that I have found. If you find anything else, or have a quick review or comment, please leave me a comment. As a quick note, most of these have free demos that you can download.

Windows

Mac

10 Comments

10 responses so far ↓

  • Tarald Stein // March 10, 2008 at 12:11 am

    Thanks! yWriter looks really good. It might come in handy.

  • Don // March 10, 2008 at 12:25 am

    I use yWriter regularly now and I love it. It almost does everything I need. And the author updates it fairly regularly with new features.

  • Sherri Cornelius // March 12, 2008 at 8:07 am

    Hi, Don! Thanks for the comment on my blog.

    I ran out of steam before I finished organizing my notecards. I typed a bunch of them into TextBlock, then ran out of steam on that. Nothing wrong with the program, in fact I found it to be simple to use, but I think there is a gap between what I want and what is possible. I just have to face it: I’m not a planner.

    Have a great day!

  • kd // May 8, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Hey Don,
    Great post. As a screenwriter, the only writing software I knew about dealt with screenplays, so I’ll check out the novel writing software. Still during the creative stages, I just write & worry about the ‘technical’ stuff & format when it’s done. Good luck on your first novel.

    http://kdwrites.wordpress.com
    Penned Blog

  • Unfocused Me // May 21, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    I use Scrivener (for Macs only), and I’m a huge fan. It has a number of helpful features, starting with “drag and drop” to insert documents (including PDFs) into your “research” folder — anything you might find useful that isn’t part of your main draft — which you can access with a click from any part of your project. It’s designed specifically for novelists.

    You can get a demo for Scrivener here:

    http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

  • Don // May 21, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    I have seen it, it looks damn amazing. Another reason for me to get a Mac.

  • Unfocused Me // May 22, 2008 at 10:59 am

    Plus, it makes you cooler.

  • kallioppe // June 3, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    I use Scrivener as well. My favourite aspect is then ‘corkboard’ — virtual index cards that you can colour-code and move around. Great for laying out chapter structure. Yay. No more remaking physical index cards every time I change my mind. Which is often. I’ve also tried Write it Now (Mac).

  • Don // June 3, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    I’ve been working with Google Spreadsheet a lot for the past few months for my novel and love the scene-centric management of a story. If I could find a very simple story editor that works from that perspective it would be great.

    Everyday I dream of getting a Mac and everyday Steve Jobs pisses me off more. But a Mac is slowly coming into the works.

  • Tarald // June 3, 2008 at 7:14 pm

    Does anyone know of a program to help me organize my poems for my next book? I love ywriter for my prose, but it doesn’t work with poems because of the limited ability to format the text.

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