ooh, ooh, pick me!

[punkfluff13.livejournal.com]

so, i haff another query.
is it normal that i'm doing my writing between Microsoft Word and my notebooks...
is there a better computer program to be using for it, or is Word my best option?
this may seem odd, but it's something that bugs me a lot....

Comments

[purpleinkpen.livejournal.com]

*Innocent look* Me? Collect writing programs like a katamari?

YWriter is great, especially if you're someone who likes outlines and structure.

Papel is better for those loose cannons, since it's basically a pile of postits. But these won't fall off the wall and doom your brilliant ideas to dust bunny devourment.

Writer's Cafe is somewhere in the middle, stringing postits in an organised structure. It also has some really nifty features like a prompt generator and name generator that I get heaps of use out of.

I've heard good things about Scrivener and Q10 from friends and on the forums, although I've never used either personally.

That said, I do most of mine in Word. Sure, it's a nagging beast about spelling, would fail third grade English, and flies into hysterics over the tiniest thing, but... what was I saying again?

[randomdream.livejournal.com]

I like the sound of the name generator thing.

But do Papel and Writer's Cafe really have you writing your entire novel in post-it-like things? What is it, like moveable chapters?

[purpleinkpen.livejournal.com]

Papel Screenshot: http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/17/l_98cfb4bf8ba4455092476aab900a2575.jpg

Papel is... well postits is really a good description. You can arrange them in any pattern, and put any content you like in them. If you're the artistic sort, or just especially anal retentive, you can add or change the icons to look like anything you want. If you're a sci-fi writer, maybe you need a special icon for descriptions of alien spaceships. Or whatever genre specific note you need to make. It's very free form, very intuitive.

Writer's Cafe Screenshot: http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/47/l_48de4fe35c0a48d9bb911dbfa3f0c935.jpg

Writer's Cafe organises 'cards' in tidy rows and colums to create a flexible timeline and a bird's eye view of your novel. The block in the upper right hand corner of the screen is where you would type the scene that card represents. (Note: I've shifted things around to give a good view of the things in each part of the screen. You can make any of the sections bigger or smaller to suit you.)

[randomdream.livejournal.com]

OMG. I love the look of the Writer's Cafe timelines. You should see the bit of crap I have right now of sticky notes and line paper, that's all being held together with tape.

So... I googled them, and their website appears to lead me to kind of sort of believe this is free.... holy crap.

THANK YOU.

[purpleinkpen.livejournal.com]

LOL. Yes, they have a free version, which is what I use. You can pay for more features, but it's so awesome without them I don't see the need.

Good luck with getting that taped together mess sorted and streamlined!

[randomdream.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is a little harder to figure out than I would have anticipated. I'm not sure if I ought to be spending so much time tinkering with this. Maybe if I'd gotten used to it before November.

Sigh. Thanks anyway. I'll try and figure it out after I make my wordcount goals each day.

[eyeslikeplanets.livejournal.com]

I do that too! I really had a thing for YWriter for a while, then there's the oldtimey yet somehow alluring yeahwrite! And sometimes I just need the dark simplicity of Blackword. But I don't yet have Writer's Cafe! To google! *zoom*

[purpleinkpen.livejournal.com]

LOL. Oooh, Blackword? I'd never heard of that one. Race you to Google!

[eyeslikeplanets.livejournal.com]

Blackword's pretty plain but at least it cuts down on distractions and I have this strange love for dark backgrounds when I'm typing. I think it's from a failed relationship with a typewriter in my naive young author days. *sigh*