Resources

AbiWord:
http://www.abisource.com ($0.00)

Book Writer 5.01:
http://www.yadudigital.com/writing-tools/book-writer.php ($89.95)

Dramatica Pro:
http://www.write-bros.com($244.00)

Dramatica Writers DreamKit:
http://storymind.com($49.95)

IdeaWeaver:
http://www.ideaweaversoftware.com ($49.95)

Jarte Plus:
http://www.jarte.com/index.html ($19.00)

Liquid Story Binder XE:
http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com ($49.95)

New Novelist:
http://www.newnovelist.com ($54.99)

Novel Writer:
http://www.vidatech.co.uk ($61.00)

Page Four:
http://www.softwareforwriting.com/ ($34.95)

PlotCraft:
http://farook.org/PlotCraft.htm ($0.00)

Power Structure:
http://www.write-brain.com/power_structure_main.htm ($179.00)

Power Writer:
http://www.write-brain.com/power_writer_main.htm ($129.95)

Rough Draft:
http://www.richardsalsbury.com ($0.00)

Story Wizard:
http://www.storywizard.co.uk ($54.99)

Storybase Online:
http://www.storybase.net ($0.00)

Storybase Software:
http://www.storybase.net/software/software.html ($99.00)

StoryView:
http://www.write-bros.com ($179.95)

StoryWeaver:
http://storymind.com ($29.95)

SuperNoteCard:
http://www.mindola.com/products.html ($29.00)

Text Block Author:
http://www.textblockauthor.net ($49.97)

Typing Chimp's Character Pro:
http://www.characterpro.com ($69.99)

Typing Chimp's Character Writer 2:
http://www.characterpro.com ($39.99)

Typing Chimp's QuickStory:
http://www.characterpro.com ($49.99)

Write Sparks:
http://writesparks.com/ ($0 - $77)

Write This:
http://www.theprint.dk/writethis.html ($0.00)

WriteItNow:
http://www.ravensheadservices.com/index.php ($49.95)

Writers Blocks:
http://www.writersblocks.com ($149.00)

Writer's Café:
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/ ($45.00)

WriteWay:
http://www.writewaypro.com/ ($79.00)

yWriter 4:
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html?yWriter4 ($0.00)

----

Thanks to suej from the Think Sideways forums who compiled this list.

Note that these are in US dollars and most have free trials, some with time limits some without.

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

Do you think she will mind if I add all the free ones to our soon to be updated resource page???

My idea of hell is being trapped in a room with no books!

Wow! and robust is the word. What a huge long list!

Now we need you to do a feature comparison for us Kerryn :P

http://nzchris01.livejournal.com/

Hi all, I am selling my copy of Power Writer as it does not work on Vista or Mac.

details of this amazing writing software is here:

http://writersltd.org/writersblog/

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

Awesome list, Kerry

These are just my opinions, they are brutally honest. Your opinion may be different. post your thoughts here as well.


Jarte Plus -- just a word processor. [removed]

Liquid Story Binder XE -- looked promising but turned out to be crap. [removed]

StoryWeaver -- I don't understand it.

WriteItNow -- looks good

Writers Blocks -- no thanks, it's like writer's post it notes, but hey, everyone writes differently

Quickstory 5 looks good. Seems to do everything except wash the dishes.

Writesparks -- I had the lite version. Found the "sparks" were crud
[removed]

Write this is for people with writer's block, me thinks.

yWriter 4 -- never did get it to work on my Vista. [removed]

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

WriteWay Professional looks REALLY good, pity about the price

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

I was wondering if you emailed SpaceJock about the ywriter issue? He is usually on the ball with this time of thing. I know during NaNO lastyear he answered questions and helped people get things working.
Its the one and only program I like to use.

Plus thanks for the reviews, I agree with the Liquid Story binder.

My idea of hell is being trapped in a room with no books!

Yeah I did. I know Simon, read his Hal series. Very nice guy, and he said it worked on Vista, but not for me. For some reason Y4 wouldn't get going.

I tried a few times but in the end Vista won out. Vista is a really good OS but it is like part Mac and part PC (safari browser works on this machine), but most of the PC parts don't match with the XP parts, drivers are different. It's a hassle, sometimes, but Vista is seriously a decent OS on Acer. And it is easier to use.

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

Have y'all heard about this writing software:

http://www.mynovel.biz/

My Novel.

I downloaded the trail and it seems okay, so far but I have no time to really test it out at the moment.

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

I've tried a whole bunch of writing software, not all of which is listed above. I found that I either 'clicked' with a piece of software or I didn't. I think writing software, well any software really, must be able to be opened and intuitive enough so that you can get into it and apply it to your latest WIP without having to sit through an hour tutorial or read through the help. You don't have to understand every function this intuitively but it must be usable, you have to be able to 'work it out'.

From the list above here are the ones I've tried and what happened:

Dramatica Pro: ...see Liquid Story Binder XE.

Liquid Story Binder XE:
Tried this one and it looks like it's got a lot of potential to do everything a writer might need... if I could understand how to use it.

Rough Draft:
I had a look at this one but just looks like a simple word processor.

SuperNoteCard:
A nice simple outlining tool that allows you to keep track of characters and scenes in index card style. This would trump Storylines if I could drag and drop cards leaving column gaps between them.

Write Sparks:
I tried Write Sparks Lite and it's okay for writing prompts but there are plenty around the internet that you don't need to download software for.

Writers Blocks:
I tried this one, liked how it worked in blocks but it wasn't enough to fork out $150 and the trial is 30 days (from memory).

Writer's Café: Has a bunch of stuff including Storylines which is an application within an application. It is great for outlining and you can write your story or script right in there in very much the same way as yWriter. yWriter beats it in this function because it is less cluttered. Writer's Cafe also has writing prompts, places to story those scraps of ideas, a notebook and journal. I ended up forking out for this one so that I could use more than 50 cards in Storylines to outline my current novel.

yWriter 4: I love yWriter. It fits with how I work, I find it easy to use and I know there are a whole bunch of features I haven't even gotten into yet. I use it for writing the first draft, scene detail for summaries and for scene by scene editing. I use the character area to keep track of my characters.


So, I use Writer's Cafe Storylines for outlining and yWriter for writing/revision.

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

Oh, and xengab, go ahead and post the free ones up on the resources page.

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)