As I wade back into the writing waters after my own self-imposed hiatus, I am beginning to do some warm-ups. I’m playing with words and word games. I’m reading – non-fiction and writing process. I’m re-reading bits and pieces of old manuscripts. I starting looking at my favorite writing exercises to get my brain pumping and then started wondering about world of software for writers and how far it had progressed in recent years. I remember thinking a few years back that I was surprised the field of creating software for writers hadn’t progressed faster than it had. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been too surprised as there are still a great many writers who don’t use a computer at all and don’t spend all their time online like so many of the rest of us. Still, I thought it would be fun to go looking for brainstorming and story building software and see what was out there. I might even buy one to play around with. One project I am going back to work on is a book that I’ve been working on for over 20 years. I need a fresh approach if it is ever going to get done and maybe playing with it in computer program might be just the ticket. No program will write the book for you but sometimes, as with sharing your work with a critique group, you can jumpstart your brain to start thinking about your story in a very different way.
So here are some of the more popular programs I found.
- Story Weaver
- Power Structure
- Story Craft Pro
- Dramatica Pro
- Story View
- Power Writer
- Story Base
- Write Way Pro
- Thought Office
- Inspiration
Story Base sort of intrigues me. It looks like fun (possibly useful procrastination?) Some of the others look like too much work. How about you? Have you used any of these or other programs for brainstorming or story building?
Just because I’m lazy . . . what do these programs basically do or what are their differences?
Hey, I know – just write us another post all about ’em! 😉
I know…I thought I should wait until I had tested everything and report back but then it would be another week or two until I blogged and it has already been so long since I blogged regularly and I owe so many people replies and, and, and ….
You get the idea.
I will get back to you after I play around with them some.
thanks for the list Susan, and your take on them.
I haven’t tried any of them, but I’m looking forward to hearing what others think
The one I’ve heard sworn by, especially for NaNoWriMo participants, is the Snowflake method I’m not real sure how well it works. (A friend of mine swears by it though.)
The other one I’ve heard about (but don’t know anything about really) is NewNovelist
Unfortunately, I am the poorest poor to every poor, so I just use random notes in a word processor file. (Although I do swear by OpenOffice. I like it much better than MS Works Word Processor.) Eventually, I want to get a dry-erase board to hang near my computer for some notes.
Yes, I have a few friends who also love The Snowflake method. I like it in theory but for play, I wanna push buttons on the computer. 🙂
NewNovelist is new to me. Will have to check that out too.
And I understand poor. I have dry erase boards but no place to put them – argh!
I have a place to put them, just none to put up! I might get some tomorrow while doing the weekly shopping. Give myself something to look forward to maybe. (I hate grocery shopping. HATE HATE HATE)
A few more that I know nothing about:
Liquid StoryBinder –Someone said they liked it on one of my writing forums. *shrugs*
yWriter — I’ve never tried it, but it is FREE and some people swear by it.
Rough Draft –I’ve heard of it before, but never tried it. Not many people like it, because you can’t insert page breaks, and it is very, very basic.
–This thread here at Absolute Write has some other programs, and has some listed that I’ve never even heard of!
If you try one, you’ll have to let us know. 🙂
Many years ago, when I was young and rich, I threw $250 into buying Dramatica Pro. Waste of money. The manual that came with it was an inch thick, and it had its own Tolkein-esque language, every concept had its own nonsensical name. I tried to plot a novel with it but realized I was taking so long I could have written the whole first third by then, and just gave up.
herding cats
Thanks for the list and I like reading everyone’s experience w/ these programs and their ideas. I’m good at creating an initial plot, characters, and I know the ending – but as an experienced writers at developing ideas and characters but a new writer at COMPLETING projects – it’s developing the story that stumps me. My right brain is ALL OVER the place, so it’s like herding cats….
Thank you for this list!
I haven’t tried any of these, though Writer’s Blocks (http://www.writersblocks.com/) always appealed to me–that whole index card mentality! I tried downloading a trial version and couldn’t get it to work, though.
I recently saw (and now can’t find) a reference to software that was a lexicon…you could type in a word, like boats, and get to all sorts of words related to boats, oceans, shipbuilding, parts of boats, etc. I think it had Menu in the title, but I’m not sure. Has anyone heard of this one?
Laura