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Best wordprocessor for story writing?

appleguy123

appleguy123

macrumors 604
Original poster
Apr 1, 2009
6,873
2,589
15 minutes in the future
What is the best word processor you can recommend for writing a fictional novel? I am currently using Pages and am finding it a big long in the tooth as far as finding outlines, character maps, and the other essentials that go along with story writing. I am really looking for something made especially for novel writing. Please recommend anything better than Pages for this task but these features would make it even better.
> Seeing the outlines in the same window as the word processing.
> Hyperlinked character(meaning characters in a story) name sensor that could bring you to their character map with a click.
> Easy online sharing and collaboration tools like iWork.com. This is not a necessity but it would enhance the way I use it. Really just a request and not a requirement.
Thanks for all of your recommendations in advance.
 
appleguy123 said:
I am really looking for something made especially for novel writing. Please recommend anything better than Pages for this task but these features would make it even better.
Click to expand...

Hi,

In the course of years, I've tried probably all of these creative writer's apps (including StoryMill), only to come to the conclusion that nothing comes even close to Ulysses ( http://www.the-soulmen.com/ ). Ulysses is not overloaded with features, but has quite everything you need (and for a creative writer's environment, the features are rather rich). The only problem of Ulysses from my point of view is the lack of commercial skills of its creators, who are unable to convey all the strengths of their own program. Ulysses is rock stable (it only crashed a few times during the beta-period), very intuitive, well priced, well designed, fast even with very large texts / projects... As I've said, it has quite all you need as a novel-writer.

I'm a full-time writer writing almost exclusively novels, so I know what I'm taking about. StoryMill has never got much further than Avenir, an old app it's built upon.

My advise is to use the try and buy versions... After a time on Ulysses you'll understand my enthusiasm about this application.

Good luck,
sash
 
I must say I have to agree with bleeper. Scrivener is the absolute best as far as I am concerned. It can do all that you want and more. Check out the video on their site and you get a tutorial with the package that is great help. I write all my stuff with scrivener and then I copy paste it to Nisus Writer Pro, another great program that works really great with Scrivener.
 
microsoft word for mac. its as advanced as u can get, well maybe apple works or iworks or something, all ive tried was ms word and i like it the most.
 
pcs are junk said:
microsoft word for mac. its as advanced as u can get, well maybe apple works or iworks or something, all ive tried was ms word and i like it the most.
Click to expand...

The OP is interested in a quite special tool, developed for creative writers (sometimes called 'creative writer's environment'). With all disrespect to M$, its Word is something entirely different.
 
As an enthusiastic writer myself, I'd have to recommend Scrivener. Its really designed beautifully and works with the writer during the creative process.

Scrivener introduces some fantastic features that really work into its core category as a word processor. I mean, most everything you need to do while you write can be covered completely and efficiently within Scrivener. Entire projects can be completed across only one powerful platform.

While there are other word processor applications designed for creative use, I've found that none can compete with the immersive and efficient environment that Scrivener offers.
 
Okay I purchased Scrivener and downloaded StoryMill. If anyone has any other suggestions that are better than these (I prefer StoryMill so far) I would be glad to hear it!
 
appleguy123 said:
If anyone has any other suggestions that are better than these (I prefer StoryMill so far) I would be glad to hear it!
Click to expand...

Try Ulysses, really. I've been using CWT for years now, have tried probably all of the other tools, and nothing comes even close to Ulysses.

Ulysses team invented full screen, now copied by almost every word processor. Nice thing about Ulysses is that it has bunch of such gems -- not to mention that you still find the best implementation of this fullscreen feature, despite the copycating, in Ulysses.

Yet another thing. I don't know any other app of such wonderful stability. 2009 was quite a fruitful year, I've thoroughly revised 2 novels, written one new novel and started another one: in all this time it hasn't crashed once. I write every day, no single crash.

Avenir, StoryMill, Scrivener, Storyist etc. -- they all have their supporters as well as their strong sides. But Ulysses is simply the best, although you have to explore its rich possibilities and features.

sash

PS -- I'm not associated with their dev nor sales team in any way; here is my personal site: http://www.skorobogatov.com/ .
 
sash said:
Try Ulysses, really. I've been using CWT for years now, have tried probably all of the other tools, and nothing comes even close to Ulysses.

Ulysses team invented full screen, now copied by almost every word processor. Nice thing about Ulysses is that it has bunch of such gems -- not to mention that you still find the best implementation of this fullscreen feature, despite the copycating, in Ulysses.

Yet another thing. I don't know any other app of such wonderful stability. 2009 was quite a fruitful year, I've thoroughly revised 2 novels, written one new novel and started another one: in all this time it hasn't crashed once. I write every day, no single crash.

Avenir, StoryMill, Scrivener, Storyist etc. -- they all have their supporters as well as their strong sides. But Ulysses is simply the best, although you have to explore its rich possibilities and features.

sash

PS -- I'm not associated with their dev nor sales team in any way; here is my personal site: http://www.skorobogatov.com/ .
Click to expand...

Do you have books published?
 
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