Tools for writing
I’m talking at CraftFest today, the teaching arm of that great annual convention Thrillerfest, and promised students I’d put up a list of the software mentioned in the talk here for their benefit. You’ll find the list below. For the record my current portfolio of writing tools is Scrivener for the main work, Word for submission, Together for data storage and iPhoto for keeping photo records. All or most of these programs have demo versions. I suggest you find what works best for you, then stick with it and get on with the real job of producing a novel.
Programs for storing and cataloguing information
Mac
Together My current personal favourite - can store anything very easily.
Journler An interesting alternative, though not so great if you use multiple computers.
Devonthink Heavyweight data storage for lots and lots of stuff - quite hard to learn for me.
Windows
OneNote Part of Microsoft Office
WebResearch
Photo storage. For keeping pictures organised
Mac
iPhoto
Windows
Picasa
Journal software
Mac
MacJournal
Windows
WinJournal
Word processors aimed at authors
Mac
Scrivener
Storyist
Storymill
Windows
Liquid Story Binder
Power Writer
PageFour
Writers Project Organizer
Book Writer (www.yadudigital.com)
Mary Jo Robertiello | Jul 10, 2008 | Reply
Dear DH, I attended your talk on writers’ tools at Craftfest and found it very helpful. After hawking my mystery at AgentFest, I shall buy, actually pay for, one of your Rome books. Many thanks for the suggestions. MJR
David Hewson | Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Glad the talk was of some use, Mary Jo. Hope to see you at Thrillerfest next year - on the debut authors programme! Good luck with the writing.
Mike Jecks | Aug 2, 2008 | Reply
David - just been looking at Scrivener after being recommended to give it a try by an Apple rep, but I was wondering what is so special about it? Having used Word Perfect and Word for the last fourteen years, I am attracted to something that’s more intuitive to a writer, but I’m not sure that there would be a significant alteration. Have you any comments on the package?
Good luck with the travelling - you’re clearly building up a significant carbon footprint!
Mike
David Hewson | Aug 2, 2008 | Reply
Hi Mike. Now if you had been at Book Passage or Thrillerfest you’d have seen my talk on writing tools, part of which is about Scrivener. There are two articles about it here…
http://www.davidhewson.com/2007/08/06/scrivener-at-last-an-authors-word-processor/
And…
http://www.davidhewson.com/2007/09/19/scrivener-it-just-gets-better-and-better/
Basically I am utterly hooked. It allows me to work the way I think - in chapters and scenes, not as a big long glob of text. All I can suggest is you download the demo, peruse the excellent forum and give it a try.
All of my flights are offset for what’s it’s worth. But yes, it has been a busy year. Are you coming to Bouchercon? Word is there will be a meet the Brits evening so we will need people to help share around the drinking and fighting duties.
Mike Jecks | Aug 2, 2008 | Reply
Alas, no. Finances won’t allow, I’m afraid. Since my publishers had a severe argument with Waterstone’s last year, I suddenly discovered with some horror that my income had been slashed at the last royalty run, and I’m in limbo, hoping to see something improve for October. Sales look back to normal, but there’s been a big hole in the finances this year
David Hewson | Aug 2, 2008 | Reply
Sorry to hear that - will look forward to seeing on the circuit in the UK. All the best, David