Writing software 2016

This is the last post on software stuff, I promise.

I’d planned to start by saying that all anyone really needs is a basic text editor, but then I ran across Writemonkey. It is the most basic text editor I’ve seen since 1982 – the only thing it does is text. No italics, no underlining, no fonts, no headings…just a completely clean screen and your writing. It produces plain *.txt files, which you can import into pretty much anything else. The point is apparently to avoid distracting the writer by eliminating visual clutter, but the no-underlining thing is a dealbreaker for me.

So instead I’ll start by saying that as far as I’m concerned, Scrivener and yWriter are still my vastly-preferred options for writing software. They’re both modular writing word processors which allow a lot of flexibility and places to stash your notes. Scrivener was designed for the Mac, but is now available in a Windows version. It still looks more Mac than Windows, which I expect would be an advantage for a Mac user switching to PC, but as a long-time Windows user, I find it a little uncomfortable. Which is one reason I like yWriter; it looks more like what I’m used to. Both programs allow for places to stash your pre-writing planning and notes, but don’t do a lot of hand-holding in that area. Both have a storyboard function and a flexible word processor that lets you rearrange bits and pieces and chapters easily. yWriter has the edge in manuscript analysis, but it needs more data entry to get it (not much; it makes it fairly easy to do as you go). Neither does submission tracking.

If you are looking for a workhorse writing program with good flexibility, I’d pick one of those. If what you want is something totally customized to your work process (and are willing to put in the time necessary to do the customizing and design), Liquid Story Binder is your program. You can micromanage every aspect of your process and work flow…but it doesn’t come with a default binder, so you have to design everything. The only thing it’d be a little tough to arrange is some of the analysis features; everything else, you can have as much or as little of as you happen to want. It’s still available, but hasn’t been updated since 2011, which makes me a little nervous. Also, it’s a long, steep learning curve.

Novel Factory was my favorite of the other programs I looked at. It has a clean interface, it’s fairly flexible, and its planning/plotting features get you to the actual plotting and scene-planning fairly quickly. Its plotting help is based around the standard three-Act structure with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey plot points, but that’s fairly easy to ignore (just don’t open their Roadmap or help). It starts with a one-sentence plot summary, then has you expand it to 500 words or so, then expand that into a multipage synopsis, then break that synopsis down into scenes. You can break off at any point to do some character and setting development…or not, if you’d rather not. It’s the only one of the planning programs that actually works the way some of the writers I know work.

Novel Factory also has a feature that made me actually buy the program:  an “Export to Scrivener” button, so you can do your planning here and your word processing/writing there. (Although their built-in word processor was just fine, as far as I was concerned, its scene management is a bit clunky compared to Scrivener.) Novel Factory also encourages you to summarize each scene from different characters’ points of view. This is a lot of work and has the potential to be a serious time sink, but it can be really helpful if one is stuck in mid-book. It has places to keep your research notes, and it even has submission tracking.

WriteItNow  doesn’t have much in the way of planning; it’s all about work flow, keeping notes, and analyzing. I really liked the feature where it shows icons of all your characters with a web of different colored relationships (customer, sibling, romantic interest, etc.), but not enough to buy the program. It’s worth checking out the demo.

Two of the programs I looked at, Contour and Dramatica Pro were planning-only software; neither includes a useful word processor, manuscript analysis, or submission tracking. Contour starts with four basic questions (who’s the hero, what does he/she want, who’s trying to stop him, does he win). Then you define your character’s role in four acts (Contour says it’s three, but Act II is twice as long and split in half, so it’s really four) by explaining how he/she is an archetypical Orphan/Wanderer/Warrior/Martyr (and apparently, being divorced qualifies a main character as being an orphan in Act I, as does getting fired, or even just “having a rebellious nature”). You then generate a one-sentence formula plot description and twelve plot points per act, and Bob’s your uncle, you’ve got an outline. If you think this way, or if you’re doing a Hollywood formula screenplay, it might be useful. Nobody I know plots like this, though.

Dramatica…Dramatica uses an insanely complex system of developing characters and plot structure on four different levels that would require several posts to do it justice. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. The Windows program hasn’t been updated since 1999 (though it still runs under Windows 10); the Mac version got a makeover some years ago. Dramatica has a steep learning curve – its terminology is non-standard and non-intuitive – and its system is incredibly abstract and totally character-centered. If you start with a plot and fit the characters into it, this isn’t likely to be much help. It’s still selling (at $90 a pop), though, and appears to have a moderately active community on its web site, so it’s obviously just the thing for some people. If you’re interested, I’d recommend downloading the demo and a bunch of their free articles.