Software Tools for Writers
Blogging and Writing (with an intentional capital W) are two overlapping but certainly very different activities to me. I consider blogging to be about publishing and marketing — blogging is my “job;” writing is my aspirational dream and a greater part of my identity.
I aspire to run as few programs as possible — to exercise a work flow that incorporates not every piece of software I can use but only those that I can’t live without. It seems like I’ve tried out ten times as many writing tools as I’ve actually adopted.
When I was working exclusively on Windows PC systems, I whittled my everyday tool set down to a Firefox browser (with Web Developer plugins — can’t live without a live CSS in-browser editor — and default tabs set to my WordPress dashboards) Adobe Photoshop (for composite web layout grids and graphics) and just about everything spilling into and out of my uber-drafting virtual sketchbook MS Office OneNote.
OneNote
There’s never been a piece of software that I have loved and used more than MS OneNote. When it first came out, I felt that someone had actually written a direct interface for my brain and all its various compartments — from rough-drafting words, to dumping code, to scrapbooking images and links… You name it, there’s nothing I worked on that didn’t live at least partially in OneNote.
Up until 2008, all my articles, tutorials, and non-fiction books were written using OneNote (compiled into PDF using Adobe Acrobat Professional).
OneNote’s super-extensible, customizable notebook binder concept rocks. I can hardly stand to use anything else that comes out of Microsoft, yet here was the one shining example of what they were capable of creating.
It pains me that there is (as yet) no version of OneNote for Mac Office. And no, I’m not willing to run Windows on a partition on my MacBook — it’s too awkward to turn my computer usage into some pretzel-like, Windows-addicted frankenstein for one program. I will happily be the first in line to download OneNote for Mac if and when it happens. Last year I finally got to switch back to Mac and I am totally satisfied with my Windows-free work life.
For those of you who are writers using Windows PCs — there’s no program I would recommend more highly than OneNote.
Evernote
After switching to Mac about six months ago, I transferred the bulk of what I normally did in OneNote to Evernote — a free program that’s available for both Windows and Mac systems. I had dabbled in Evernote years ago, but it felt a bit like OneNote’s kid sister, with a similar concept and many overlapping features… but, eh, not quite.
Over the past few years, Evernote has evolved in a fantastic direction. Like OneNote, it has an extensible notebook/binder concept and is also one of those local machine wiki-like databases that never requires you to hit a Save button.
Evernote can also handle anything you want to drag and dump into it — from words to links to images to entire web pages to HTML/PHP/CSS code.
One cool bonus feature with Evernote that I do really dig is the built-in, user-friendly “cloud” function — Evernote automatically syncs everything you throw at it with an online version of itself. Every writer knows the pain of data-loss — for this reason alone, not to mention the free price tag — you should absolutely (at least) work with Evernote, no matter what kind of system you’re running.
MS Word
Of course it’s either ubiquitous or universal — very cross-platform compatible — but after switching to Mac I also wanted MS Office for Mac because Word on a Mac offers one lovely optional feature borrowed from OneNote — “Notes View.” Notes View has a notebook/binder concept with a drag-and-reorder tabs function for outlining and working on larger, more complex document structures.
But here’s the maddening oversight that absolutely makes me crazy and renders Word for Mac near-useless for me:
When you compile as a PDF (a must for ebooks and other downloadable documents when you’re running a web-based business) Word for Mac strips your freaking live links out of your PDFs! What were they thinking?! Is it a bug or just sheer stupidity? Who knows… I could hardly believe it.
iWork Pages
If you want to open, edit, save Word document formats on Mac, but you want to compile PDFs, then just use iWork Pages for God’s Sake. No “Notes View” or notebook-esque concept, but at least the PDF security features are super user-friendly and obvious.
OpenOffice
Of course, there’s OpenOffice.org if you’re looking for an open source (totally free) alternative to MS Office for any platform.
(Unfortunately, I must say that OpenOffice runs a bit slow for me…)
Now, let’s talk specifically Creative Writing
Scrivener
In 2009, I began working on some larger projects — two levels of an imminent professional intuitive training program as well as a return to working on fiction, specifically novel-writing which I had allowed to simmer on the back burner while building my blogs and web presence.
Writing fiction and becoming a published novelist is probably my highest aspiration. I needed a program that specializes in longer-format fiction/novel writing.
I have been using Scrivener to outline and draft my non-fiction professional intuitive training programs — partly as an experimental usage of the program before loading it down with fiction.
So far, I absolutely love Scrivener. If you’re a creative writer working on a Mac, you can’t beat the functionality or the gorgeous $39.95 price.
Storyist
I am also playing around with Storyist — another Mac program very comparable to Scrivener, but with a $59 price.
So far, I can’t say that there are too many features that justify the extra $20 over Scrivener — other than the ability to store character-profiles and more word-processor-like text formatting.
Both Storyist and Scrivener have built-in systems for script and screenplay writing, as well as short story and novel templates — with an emphasis on printing industry-acceptable manuscript submissions.
I believe if I had to choose between Storyist and Scrivener based on price, Scrivener wins out and will do most of what I require this kind of software to do. For longer-format non-fiction books, Scrivener also accomplishes everything I need it to.
For fiction? Really character-driven stuff? I’m leaning toward Storyist for organizing notes and tags and profiles around casts of characters.
Links — Writing Tools, Programs, and Software
Literature and Latte, the maker of Scrivener, also has a great resource page with links to outlining, mind-mapping, and writing tools for creative writers.
The Links Page has a collection of many popular writing programs – for both Windows and Mac systems — as well as useful descriptions summarizing the features of each.
What writing programs do you use?
Please share your recommendations in the comments.
Slade Roberson is an intuitive counselor, ATP®, professional blogger, and the author of Shift Your Spirits, Automatic Intuitive Response, and the PageCoach Problogging Tutorial Series. Slade on Blogging shares behind-the-screens internet marketing, self-publishing, and blogging strategies with other personal development writers, coaches, and healing arts practitioners.
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9 Responses to “Software Tools for Writers”
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A great list, Slade! My essential tools are:
1) Q10 text editor for pure typing
http://www.baara.com/q10/
my review: http://emilyjoyner.com/2009/04/24/cool-tools-q10-for-journaling/
2) Windows Live Writer for blog publishing
http://download.live.com/writer
This post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to review WLW. Unfortunately, both of these programs are Windows only.
My only problem with MS One Note (and it’s my problem, not One Note’s) is that it’s a little too easy to use. My notebooks tend to turn into junk drawers of information where ideas are jotted down, then forgotten. I still use One Note, but just in the last week I’ve started moving more stuff to physical notebooks where it’s easier to cull and condense and keep only what’s immediately relevant to me. Still, it’s a great program.
When I saw the title of this post I hoped that Scrivener would be one of the things you’d mention! I’ve been using it for a few months and I love it. It’s really helped me get out of the mindset that everything has to be written linearly.
In my Scrivener projects, I just keep character profiles in a folder all together. What about Storyist makes it better for that? I didn’t see anything about characters glancing through the website.
[...] week, Slade Roberson posted a list of his favorite software for writers and asked folks to chime in with their own recommendations. I mentioned the text editor Q10, which [...]
Emily,
Thanks for weighing in and for the pingback to your post!
Clare,
Scrivener and Storyist are very similar. The one thing that’s slightly more character-juicy in Storyist is a kind of “Polaroid cork board” for characters (similar to the cork board note cards in Scrivener). I like the “image card” option, and there’s also a means of tagging the different sections of your manuscript according to characters… But really, you could just as easily create a tagging system in Scrivener that does the same thing, essentially.
http://storyist.com/features/cards.php
Also, some story-sheets for character bios (again, you could do something similar with Scrivener research sections)
http://storyist.com/features/storysheets.php
Storyist also has more full-bodied font and text formatting or styling built-in. (Scrivener is a little barren in that department — but essentially, you export into Word or Pages anyway and can style there…)
Well, I use the Windows PC. After reading your post, it seems I’m doing some extra work that may be unneeded. I’ve been drafting in MS Word (so I can see the formatting I want to use when I post into my Wordpress blog), then copying to Notepad, then copying to Wordpress, then reformatting using the Wordpress editing tools.
Any suggestions on how to make this process faster?
For example, would using the live CSS in-browser editor in Firefox that you mentioned work? I’m thinking that if I could use that, then I wouldn’t have to do all the copying and pasting from word to notepad to wordpress, correct?
2nd question – Your post recommended using Evernote no matter what kind of system you’re running. I have OneNote but haven’t been using it. If I started drafting in OneNote, what would I use Evernote for? Just for those instances of stuff I want to have backed up online using the cloud feature?
Thank you for the great info in this post!
LaTonya,
I really only use Evernote now as a “second best” to OneNote because I’m not working on a PC anymore. (Yes, the automatic Evernote syncing feature is definitely a nice feature…)
The live CSS in-browser editor for Firefox is really a benefit more for layout and design of your blog at the template level, rather than for formatting articles.
I tend to compose in HTML and use tags as I go. I also don’t use the “Visual editor” in WordPress, but write in the code view. So, as I’m drafting in OneNote, with tags around obvious things like sub heads and unordered lists, I can simply copy+paste between OneNote and the WordPress post edit screen without having to “switch” modes.
I’ve been editing CSS and HTML a loooong time, since long before the Visual Editor that is standard now when creating your blog posts. I’m glad for that, as the Visual Editor creates a lot of unnecessary extra tags…
I’d recommend you compose in OneNote and use the font formatting features there to get a look and feel for how you want to break up and style the article. (Skip Word, because you can do all that in OneNote). Then post into WordPress, which won’t hang on to any font styling from OneNote anyway. Still, you know what you “want it to look like” from drafting in OneNote — you can then go through quickly and tag your headers and lists with the WordPress Visual Editor.
Hope that helps — thanks for your questions!
LaTonya — a PS here — this post was really geared toward writing tools, as opposed to blogging tools — such as longer format short stories, novels, screenplays…
Yes, Slade,
Your comments certainly did help! Thank you!
“The Journal” version 5 just came out last week. The developer, David Martin, is very supportive via email and through the forum which is quite active. It is intuitive and easy to use, very reasonably priced. It is not just for keeping a daily journal as the name belies. It has a variety of uses which are too numerous to list. You can individualize it for your own needs.
The other I would recommend is Writer’s Blocks. It is a digital version of index cards. I usually write an idea down on a scrap piece of paper and they are all over my house. Then, I collect them up and transfer the idea to the Writer’s Block and so each idea has its own block. Blocks can be maneuvered and even ordered and converted to a manuscript view. A new version, which I have waited years for, is in the works. It may fill the gap for pc users that want a Scrivener like application. Maybe.