So you want to write...
Mon 1 June 2009
11:37:07
...but you and your typewriter have had a falling out. The missed dates, the slammed doors, the stuck ribbons, the feeling that there is more. Well, there is! It's called a computer. They are not just for surfing porn anymore! There are a number of excellent writing tools you can use to keep track of all of your notes, bits of text, pictures, etc. that you use when you write.
The only hardfast and important rule for writing is write! Write anything about anything. Keep the words flowing. When you are blocked, just start writing drivel. Eventually, the words will start flowing again. Don't worry about logorrhea. That's what editing is for.
But, there is the issue of what to use for writing. In the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, writers made cramped notes on crumpled packing paper using ink made from burned twigs and spit and a quill pen they stole from a goose that chased them about the yard. These days, life is much simpler. Today's analog method is index cards--you know, those 3"x5" things you used to make notes on for making a speech in class and were always out of order when you did your best to mumble your way through your presentation on Hans Brinker. But, remember. You are a writer, not a speaker. And a pile of index cards, filled with ideas, notes and character sketches can easily be reordered into a cohesive whole. Legal pads and spiral notebooks are the choice of the longhand writer. Write on one side though, so there is plenty of room on the facing pages for notes, ideas, additions, revisions, etc.
If you want to save a tree or two, however, the computer is the way to go. I use a Mac, but only because the Atari ST family is no more. (A moment of silence...) You can use any computer you want, really. As far as I am concerned, the older, the better. Older means: simpler, less distraction, no Internet. However, make sure that you can get your text onto a storage medium that can be transfered to another computer, if needed. There's no use using that old Famicon with add-on BASIC and saving your file to a 128K QuickDisk if nothing else in the world can read it.
Now, to writing tools. On the Mac, if you just want to type away, there are a number of word processing programs, from Simple Text on up Word 2029 from Microsoft. This article isn't really about them. Any program that can edit text will do if all you want to do is edit text. What you really need is a way to organize yourself so that when it comes to write, all your ducks are in a row: all your notes are at hand, your plot has been carefully hashed out and dutifully recorded or, for you organic types, you have several points in the story and how your characters get there are as much a mystery to you as it is to them! So, without further ado, here they are:
Scrivener: is the jack-of-all-trades and master of none. It is the Mister Potato Head of writers software. The potato is well-formed, but all the features--the eyes, nose, ears, mouth--have all been randomly chosen and stuck on haphazardly. Do you need index cards? They're there, but are painful to use. Outliner? Yup, it's there too, but only slightly more useful than the index cards. The Bindery--the hierarchical storage system where you stuff all your text and ideas is the part that really shines here. Strong and robust, you can nest folders to your heart's content and nothing seems to phase it. Everything else is like warts. One of the best forum communities. Version 2.0 should be out later in 2009 and, hopefully, the program will be given a complete makeover so all the half-baked stuff will be fully baked.
Ulysses: it's pretty and all, but the features are too limited to really be able to use for anything serious. There is no hierarchy to the file storage. It's one good feature is great number of little windows that can show various bits of your text all at the same time. Oh, and it's kinda purty to look at, too.
CopyWrite: A nifty little program that has all the features you could want except hierarchy. The storage is flat as a pancake, although you can click a tab and have just characters show up, or just plot points, or whatever categories you have created to squirrel your little nuggets away. The program is solid, lightweight, and if the lack of folder storage doesn't bother you, it's very recommended.
StoryMill: ugh. I tried to try this one, but it's just awful. Download the demo and make yourself cry.
WriteItNow: Ugly as sin, and Java-based, but not in a good way. Three thumbs down!
SuperNoteCard: probably the finest Java application ever written. Aside from a few quirky navigational things that are un-Mac-like and would need to be hard programmed, it's a very well thought out and flexible system that uses the index card paradigm and does so very successfully. You will be able to feel the paper cards in your fingers as you navigate around in your stacks of cards. The Global Find and Replace function is phenomenal; spellcheck is flexible and fast and you can feed it your own word file; and the flags and Factors features can be used for anything once you realize the simplicity of the concepts. The only downside is that you will need a newer operating system with lots of memory and at least 1Ghz of processing power to run the software. (Java virtual engines are notoriously slow. Shame on you, Sun!) As well, while you can pop open anything in a separate window, there's currently no way to split the screen to view two items at once, so there is a bit if window fiddling, but this should be addressed in the next update. Also, the forum is a bit quiet.
Z-Write: The ur-program that seems to have started it all. It appears to be moribund now, but it was written in RealBasic to run in Classic. A simple window that kept track of all your files on the left and allowed you to write on the right. Revolutionary after years of one-window-at-a-time word processors with constant shuffling and resizing.
Jer's Novel Writer: The tool for the serious inner Hemingway in you. Has a brilliant sticky note system that is elegant and incredibly useful and satisfying. So good, in fact, that Apple appears to have ripped it off for Pages. (Apple, be nice and give Jer a million bucks. It's nothing to you and he could probably use the money.) Unfortunately, every thing else about the program is a bit of a nightmare to me and not very elegant at all. The hierarchical filing system for chunks of story is strictly B&D and slavish to the XML that sits beneath it. After I entered in my huge outline, I could hear the program creaking as it threatened to collapse. The database is very inconvenient to use. But just for the sticky notes, this may be the program for you. Excellent community in the forum.
Classic-Only: The best solution I have found is NewNotePad II. While it is not strictly for writing, it is a very well-implemented and elegant notes program that can be nested with folders inside of folders to your heart's content. All of your data is saved in a single file that can be opened as text in any other program if you ever need to perform a rescue operation. There are three flaws with the program that I have found: the tab key is strictly for navigation, there is no spell check, and there is no split screen. However, typing up in a separate word processor set up to take up half the screen while NewNotePad II takes up the other half is the perfect symbiotic relationship. There is only the extra step of copying and pasting your chunks of text from the word processor into a new note, which is incredibly simple. Anything pasted into the window generates a new note entry automatically.
For the word processor, I recommend Nisus Compact, the old freeware version of their software, still available for download. It has spellcheck, the Webster's Thesaurus (the British version has an insane number of bizarre words in it!), and a wonderful word count feature that counts everything from punctuation and spaces to average letters per word. It also gives you two reading level indicators. The Flesch Reading Ease indicator is a number from 0 to 100 where 0 is impenetrable text and anybody can read a 100. (I believe "Green Eggs and Ham" came in at about 110.) It also gives the reading Grade Level, from 1 to 12, meaning the number of years of education needed to easily understand your writing. Take these with a grain of salt, but they are a good indicator of how convoluted your writing style may be. Oh, and avoid IdeaKeeper. A fine idea for its time, but the implementation is clunky, at best. NewNotePad II is far more elegant and usable.
This set up should run on anything that can run System 7.5.x on up to OS 9.2.2 and even in Classic mode if your Mac is OS X only.
What do I use? For my master, I use SuperNoteCard on the big iBook. This is the final word for everything. On my little 5300c laptop, I use the NewNoteCard II/Nisus Compact setup. Simple and quiet with no Internet to distract me. Compose here and using a Compact Flash, copy and paste the stuff into SuperNoteCard later. Good way to back up and pleasant busy work while I think about how the next chapter is gonna go.
Final Recommends: SuperNoteCard (for Mac, PC AND Linux!) and/or NewNoteCard II/Nisus Compact.
Runners Up: Jer's Novel Writer and CopyWrite.
Wait for version 2.0 of Scrivener before going there. It will probably take the lead.