Writing software for novelists
At last Thursday's writing workshop, the question came up of what kind of word processor to use when writing fiction–particularly long fiction. I've been down this road a number of times, and gave a quick response at the time. I thought I should flesh it out in more detail, though.
got my start with a mechanical typewriter and have since used IBM selectrics, UNIX terminals, VAXen, WordPerfect 4.2 all the way up to version 12, DeScribe, and lately, OpenOffice. You'll note I've never used Microsoft Word to write fiction; put that down a matter of personal taste.
In any case, each of the major word processors has its advantages and disadvantages. Over the years I've whittled down my requirements some basic ones:
- I have to be able to minimize my working environment (i.e. remove ribbon bars, menus etc.)
- It has to enable me to change the background colour and font, because staring at black text on a white background all day gives me migraines (a major flaw with Word)
- It needs a fairly sophisticated structural view of the document; with both WordPerfect and OpenOffice I keep a navigator pane open on the left side of my working document that shows the entire chapter/scene structure of the current novel, and lets me jump back and forth by just clicking scene titles.
- I have to be able to open multiple windows on the same document.
This is a pretty comprehensive list, and only WordPerfect and OpenOffice have been able to satisfy all of these requirements. Lately, though, I've been exploring alternatives.
If you're on a Mac, you should probably check out Scrivener. Scrivener is word processing for writers (not just white collar business workers). It has a raft of cool features that let you smoothly integrate non-drafting activities like outlining into the process, and I know a number of Mac-based authors who swear by it. A true writer's tool should be something that assists all the major activities of fiction writers, such as finding inspiration, keeping track of characters and plot arcs, etc. No standard word processor is going to do this for you; but tools like Scrivener can.
Scrivener is Mac-based, but luckily you're not out of luck if you're PC based. I'm currently exploring a program very similar to Scrivener called Liquid Story that has most of the features of Scrivener, some of its own, and is Shareware (costing $45). It has tools such as timeline tracking, character galleries, a character name generator, repetitive phrase and word searching, and several different ways of outlining. It's also a word processor with all the features you'll need to produce manuscripts and scripts.
There's a certain gimmick factor to programs that claim to be able to help you write. The attraction of Scrivener and Liquid Story is that they don't really pretend to do that. What they do claim to do is help you organize big and complicated writing projects in a way that standard word processors can't. And that is a very valuable quality.
In the end, you have to try things and find out what works for you. I know at least one major SF writer who still uses UNIX's old text-editor workhorse, EMACS. In the end it's just words on paper.
But exploring your options never hurts.
7 thoughts on “Writing software for novelists”
I use Scrivener. And vim. And OpenOffice. Whatever suits my current needs and working environment. I do find that I tend to do organization things on the Mac with Scrivener and the large screen, but then can write the component parts in whatever’s handy. This is greatly facilitated by using Dropbox or some other kind of backup/synchronization system so I don’t have to keep track of where I was writing what when.
Writer’s Cafe is another option for non-Mac users. It’s a less-elegant Scrivener-type application, but unlike anything else of that class that I’ve encountered it runs on Windows and Mac and Linux.
Just a quick update about Word: I don’t want to change your personal taste, but as far as I see, it fits your items.
– You can remove almost all menu items.
– You can set a “background color” for the complete text, or even switch to the old white-on-blue mode somewhere hidden in the options
– At least for my needs, the structural view is there (Table of contents, and you see were you are if you scroll)
– Multiple windows of the same doc are possible.
Apple’s IWork Pages has some nice features. For blog posts MacJournal is pretty good, it integrates with Word Press (what I use on madhatter.ca). StoryMill is a lot like Scrivener. Celtx is good for scripts (at least it looks good, I’ve never written a script).
It all comes down to what you are comfortable with. My mother-in-law is a Poet Laureate, she has been using Word Perfect for years, and won’t use anything else. I know a lot of people who use Open Office. Open Office has the advantage of working the same whether you run a Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris, or BSD operating system.
What I don’t know is anyone who is using Microsoft Office, except those who have an old copy that they can make work on a newer copy of Windows. Office is too expensive for what it delivers.
One last comment – I strongly recommend anyone who is writing professionally to avoid using Windows. You are far better off using Max OSX or some version of Linux, because when the inevitable Windows crash occurs you will loose valuable time. Charles de Lint had his computer blow up a while back, and lost two or three days of production. This is common with Windows. The question is can you afford to loose time like this? Of course you should be backing up regularly anyway, and you really should have a spare computer, but avoiding Microsoft’s known quality issues is a good idea.
Wayne aka The Mad Hatter
I use emacs, I’m happy with it for sure. I think you could summarize my feelings on the subject as generally “meh” or “whatever works from you as long as I get to keep emacs”
YWriter is the most feature-rich novel writing software I’ve ever used, it runs on WIndows, and it’s free – spacejock.com. It ate a couple of pages in a GPF, once, years ago, and I haven’t gone back.
I wrote my second novel in Scrivener on the Mac, and loved it. You know what’s awesome? Never having to save.
I’m switching to StoryMill for my new novel, because it has interesting timeline and character management features.
I use Word for writing, but then I use teh AutoCrit Editing Wizard for editing. It’s the perfect combination for me 🙂
Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.