Writing apps

[PennLady]

Found this article on Slate.com that discusses four or five writing apps, including yWriter5, A Novel Idea, and Scrivener. The question on the headline is "do writing apps make you more creative," but I thought people might like to check out the apps if nothing else.

http://www.slate.com/articles/busin...a_persona_tech_to_boost_productivity_and.html

 

[Swilly]

Nice find.

Anything that makes you come at something from a different angle might spark something creative, or it may give you food for thought that can help make you a better writer.

 

[redzinger]

I've tried yWriter but never continued using it.
I'm set in my ways, and Word is enough for me, for 60-80k novels. I've started an Excel spreadsheet instead to track facts and characters though.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've used yWrite and Scrivener. yWrite was okay if you started the story there, unfortunately I just reach for Word most of the time. Scrivener I just couldn't get used to.

As for character sheets and event sheets, once again word is the easiest and handiest.

Mostly my character sheets are just for keeping track of characters names and a little blurb about who they are. I also use it to keep track of events and places and things. Two three pages of a word doc and I'm golden.

 

[Handley_Page]

This may be a bit off-track, but has anyone got the Equation Editor for Word 2003 ?
I have a technical thing to do.

 

[49greg]

I got the trial thing for Scrivener about 10 months ago. I never made it through the tutorial, but I think I get a lot of hours of free use before it makes me pay.

I left Word for Libre Office due to cost and simplicity.

I guess the ultimate simple writing tool would be pen and paper. Or typewriter. But I like a laptop. I can get ideas down faster than with pen and paper. And correct before I print, unlike a typewriter.

 

[sr71plt]

I think the ultimate writing tool would be the brain.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

 

[49greg]

Yup. that would be it.

 

[Aurelius_PG]

Scrivener (Windows) for me. I think its popularity in recent years is for good reason. I've evaluated most of the writing apps in my time, and think it's value for money at $40. I'm a programmer by day, and have a lot of admiration for what the Scrivener guys have created.

We should use the right tools for any job we do, whether it's putting up a shelf or writing a story. The benefits of using something like Scrivener instead of MS Word are so numerous I wouldn't know where to start. It's designed for writing novels, not letters.

In answer to the original question, "do writing apps make you more creative?" No, not as such, but what doesn't distract is good.

 

[PennLady]

Scrivener (Windows) for me. I think its popularity in recent years is for good reason. I've evaluated most of the writing apps in my time, and think it's value for money at $40. I'm a programmer by day, and have a lot of admiration for what the Scrivener guys have created.

We should use the right tools for any job we do, whether it's putting up a shelf or writing a story. The benefits of using something like Scrivener instead of MS Word are so numerous I wouldn't know where to start. It's designed for writing novels, not letters.

In answer to the original question, "do writing apps make you more creative?" No, not as such, but what doesn't distract is good.

Part of me really wants to get and try Scrivener. The other part doesn't want to part with the money. Maybe someday.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

I tried using my note 3 to write. Typing takes too long and auto co is a pain in the ass. I tried using the pen to text feature and it has it's limits. I like the voice type but until it learns to add in basic punctuation, and spacing it's about useless. Ill stick to my trusty laptop and whatever word processing it has.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Part of me really wants to get and try Scrivener. The other part doesn't want to part with the money. Maybe someday.

They have a 30-day free trial. That's 30 days of actual use, not necessarily from when you first use it, so it's pretty good for trying it out.

 

[PennLady]

They have a 30-day free trial. That's 30 days of actual use, not necessarily from when you first use it, so it's pretty good for trying it out.

Thanks, I'll have to look into that. I suppose I could buy it and if nothing else, use it out of guilt for having spent the money.

 

[3113]

Vote for Scrivener

I don't consider Scrivener an "app" so much as a writing program like Word. And I like it a whole lot better than Word as when things get Novel length in Word things can also go wonky (loss of paragraphing, wrong spacing, even wrong fonts when one cuts and pastes). Now, to be fair, Word does a whole lotta shit and I only use a fraction of it. But I still don't want things to go wonky because it's not streamlined to create novels.

Scrivener, on the other hand *was* created for novels first, and all the other stuff later (it will now create e-publications). It is complicated, but, once again, anything that can do a lot of shit is going to be. And in the end, I don't use but a small fraction of what it can do. But that fraction is worth it to me.

What I like about it: (1) A side bar that shows all the chapters of my book, my research (pictures included), etc. So I can jump to anything I need easily. (2) Split screen—worth the money for just that. I'm writing up Chapter 10...what did I say in Chapter 2...up on the split screen and there's Chapter 2. And I can move a paragraph from chapter 2 to Chapter 10 across that line. (3) The note cards. Some writers use those a lot for working out the story. I don't. But they are useful. What is in chapter 21? If you remember to write it on the note card, then when you bring up the chapter, there's the quick reminder ("Hero faces dragon..."). Along with a picture of hero and dragon is you put them in to that info area.

Most of all, I really like Scrivener will compile all my chapters into a whole book. Which my old Word program (a new one will soon be out that may do all this), doesn't. To get all my chapters into a book, I have to put them all into one file. Which leads to all those buggy problems named above.

So, I think Scrivener very much worth it. It's rock steady and reliable. Yes, there are a lot of bells and whistles. but that's because each writer needs different things. You won't use all, just what works for you.

 

[3113]

Checked out "List for Writers" and got it! It's actually got quite a lot of lists of things from body types to cities to phobias. I wouldn't use it as the primary or only tool for creating protagonists/antagonists, but I think it'll be good at giving me ideas on how to fill out an anemic character, or for side characters.

And any help getting unstuck when one is stuck is good. The spark of an idea may not be in any of those (of necessity) limited lists, but something on those lists may get me thinking and lead me to that spark