Writing Software

Confucius quote via besotted blog

You really don’t need any special software to write, a pen and paper will do just fine. Michelle and I are finding in getting ready for Nanowrimo and doing our practice runs to see if we can actually hit the daily 1667 word mark (so far no dice) that long form writing can get disorganized very quickly.  We are currently using a shared Google Drive folder, the new ‘document’ feature is very much like Word so it’s not like you have to re-learn any new software (a plus), and the other plus is that we both can access the drive on line and in real time. The downside is that it is a virtual blob of all of our thoughts and the documents are rapidly piling up into what could only best be described as total chaos. We decided to look into software, not wanting to invest too much, but if something seemed a fair price then maybe. We not only discovered fair we discovered to our great delight generous! We compiled some resources (mostly Mac since that seems to be harder to find than a pc compatible software and that’s what we use).

Scrivner

This was the first software we looked into because it was developed specifically for Mac’s (but is now available in a PC version too). We looked through the tutorials and it seems very straightforward for us to learn. It also looks thoroughly organized and we can organize the way that best suits our style and if our style changes midway through this project we can re-organize a totally different way down the line. It’s very affordable at only $45 USD, but here’s the generous bit–the Scrivner developers Literature and Latte offer Nanowrimo a free trial for the entire month of November and extend it until December 7th for good measure, if at the end of November you reach your 50k word win/goal they offer the software at 50% off!  We’ve read nothing but good things about this software and this is the one we are leaning most towards. Nanowrimo 2015 offer.

Ulysses

Their motto is ‘Write anything. Anywhere.’  It’s an app for Ipad and IOS systems (your Iphone)  it is lauded for its minimalist design. Ulysses is free for anyone writing during Nanowrimo 2015! This app is not just for aspiring novelist either, journalist love it as do bloggers! Free extended trial here.

Storyist

I love that you can download the desktop, Ipad and Iphone version and sync!  It always seem that you get a brilliant idea when you are no where near a computer, but your phone? Well, that thing is usually glued to you right? Storyist has a free trial and is also offering a 50% off to all that meet the 50k word goal at the end of November

Lastly a little extra help…

Grammarly

Grammar is my Kryptonite, a bigger person might never put words out in the world if their grammar was as poor as mine, but my desire to write eclipses my fear of looking like a dolt. For you dear friends I brave the grammar police daily, hold my breath and hit ‘publish’ with aplomb. Luckily there’s a new tool to help those that feel baffled in the face of punctuation and it’s called Grammarly. It’s a subscription based tool where you can upload your writing and get your grammar checked, yes, I do need this.

If you have been on the fence with writing software maybe these free trials might offer more incentive to give them a go. Again, totally not necessary to write, but as we are quickly finding out, could be super help for more long form writing (which both Michelle and I don’t have any experience with). If you have tried any writing software that you love please let us know, we would love to share the resources! Here’s to happy writing for this November challenge!

2 thoughts on “Writing Software

  1. I hope you are enjoying the first few days of Nanowrimo so far! :) One of my favorite options is Ommwriter (www.ommwriter.com). It is very simple, but creates a relaxing, distraction-free writing environment that I have enjoyed using!

    1. Hello Lisa, thank you for the recommendation! Michelle and I both had performance anxiety on day 1, but we made it through! This is absolutely one of the most daunting self-imposed tasks that I have ever taken on, I feel like an Everest climber, only it’s extreme mental feats I am trying to perform, at least extreme for me, hitting a quota is really intimidating, but it’s also thrilling! Thank you for your visit!

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