Novel writing app/software recommendations

[OldCorpse]

I really hate to do this, because I know this question has been asked only a million times, but as time goes on and platforms change, so too there might be changes to recommendations.

So, the question is extremely simple (on one level): what is a good app or software for writing novels?

I have an M1 MBP, and an iPad Air 3 on which I’d be writing. I know that not all apps have moved to the M1 architecture, so this is part of why I’m asking for recommendations. I’d like an app or software that can easily transfer files I’m working on between the M1 MBP and the iPad, because I’ll be writing on both. That also implies that the app would have versions for both iPadOS and MacOS.

I am willing to pay (reasonably), but don’t want to and will not accept subscriptions (so stuff like Ulysses is out).

My wishlist is pretty short - I don’t need huge granularity with tons of features like Scrivener, which strikes me as overkill for what I need/want.

Here’s my workflow (a little weird, but oh well) - I basically work on a long document “MyNovel” and I give it the title of the day’s date, so whatever I wrote today will be say MN020621 (MyNovel Feb., 06, 2021). Next day on which I work on “MyNovel”, I take the previous one “MN020621” and ADD the new day’s writing f.ex. tomorrow MN020721, so the new document MN020721 incorporates MN020621. And so on. So I end up with a new document every day I write, and by the end, if I’ve written for 90 days, I end up with 90 documents each incorporating the previous one.

This means that by the end I am working on a very long document (the whole novel!).

Therefore, what I need is for the app to be able to easily handly VERY LONG DOCUMENTS - this I know is a limitation. Many apps have claims like “great for writing essays”... erm, no, I need NOVEL LENGTH document handling capability, not essay length; or “great for writing for blogs“... erm, no, I need NOVEL LENGTH document handling capability, not blog posts. Etc.

It should be simple without a ton of bells and whistles. Just a blank page onto which I can write with no distractions (unlike Word with its ribbons and sidebars and whatnot). Simple interface. Scrivener is an example of massive complexity of features that only gets me lost. I don’t want style checkers, I don’t even need spell checkers, I don’t want suggestions, prompts, creative “help” and so on. I don’t need to insert images, make complex formatting choices, append other media, graphics, I don’t need as special place for research notes, I don’t need or want index cards and on and on and on in endless features. I JUST WANT A SIMPLE PAGE on which I can write - and that’s IT. Dark mode would be nice, that’s about it.

It has the ability to keep documents in folders. Folders is where I’d be keeping drafts by date.

I want to store my documents locally - this means that I don’t want something that only works online.

It has to be reliable - I don‘t like losing work, because the app lost a document or crashed.

To sum up:

1)Ability to handle long documents - this is KEY. It cannot suddenly - like Word is liable to - crash, because the document is too “unwieldy”.

2)Simple interface. No bells and whistles necessary. I don’t want to have to make 50,000 choices before I can put a word down. I want to sit down, open the app, document, and WRITE, period - I don’t want to endlessly fiddle with the software or go through a ten level tree to get to my current document.

3)Dark mode.

4)Folders.

5)Interoperable between MacOS (M1) and iPadOS

6)Keeps the documents locally.

7)Is reliable, without losing documents or crashing.

8)No subscription.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to be thorough.

From my previous research I have investigated Apple’s Pages app. I like that it’s free and interoperable between MacOS and iPadOS, but there are a couple of questions I have about it. I’m not clear about whether it can truly handle LOOOOONG documents. Like, what if it’s 400 pages? Will that be a problem? Also - and possibly I’m super low IQ, but I find it not intuitive to use. I tried finding how to do simple stuff and it was super hard to do (for me - again, it’s probably because I’m a moron). A more intuitive app would be nice, but I guess I can simply learn the thing by watching youtube videos.

So - I think this looks like my best bet so far... maybe?

I have iAWriter for iPad - I like it all rightish, have not bought the MacOS version. I find it a bit frustrating with the whole “markdown” paradigm, but I suppose I can learn to live with it. That looks like my second choice, maybe?

Scrivener - I don’t know, it’s probably simply gross prejudice, but I just cannot warm up to Scrivener. I know it gets recommended up the wazoo, but I just find it WAY too fiddly and overwhelming and busy and bellwhistly. Feature creep - I want to WRITE not spend time fiddling with the software, setting it up for hours on end, and it feels like Scrivener encourages endless fiddling. Also, I‘ve come across posts claiming that Scrivener lost them tons of documents wholesale - the kiss of death for me... that is not tolerable or acceptable on any level. Again, I suppose I could revisit Scrivener for the upteenth time and try to love it this time, but... I have always failed before. I just don’t seem to mix with it, like oil and water. YMMV.

Anyway, I’d love your thoughts! Thank you in advance everyone!

 

[monokakata]

The thing about Scrivener is that you don't have to use -- or even see -- all those bells and whistles. I've been using it for long-form writing for 10 or 12 years and I've never yet used a single template. For me, they are not helpful at all.

I recently published a 265 page non fiction piece about a 50 year old murder, and the Scrivener project had in it the first 8k word version from 2017, a 10k and a 15k version from 2020 (these were all meant for submissions that had word limits) and then, when I bulked it up to book length, two book-length versions -- all in the same project.

If I was working on the final version but wanted to see how I'd handled the same material in, say, the 8k version, it was only a matter of seconds before that earlier section appeared in one pane of the dual-pane setup I use. That quick.

This is of course because I always break what I'm working on into fairly small chunks (often chapters but sometimes just sections) and they have descriptive names. So it's trivially easy to find sections and inspect them, or move them.

I work in Dropbox, so there's always a copy up there in the cloud. And, similar to your procedure, I save often with a new name that has the date embedded. The final version with everything included was 9.7 mb.

Anyway, I suggest that you give Scrivener another try. Don't use a template. Don't let it tell you what to do. Simply create a generic document ("New Project," "Blank"), move in as much of your Word document as you like (I'd suggest chapter by chapter, for maximum granularity) and start experimenting.

You can PM me if you want more specifics.

 

[Plett]

I use Scrivener as well and only use what I need. My work requires a good bit of technical research, and having it available in the same app for reference is useful.

I would point out that the Mac and Pc versions of MS Word have a "Focus" view that removes all of the superfluous menus, rulers, etc. Similar to Scriv's "Composition Mode".

Those are the only two that I have used, and both allow you to store locally and synch to a cloud solution. At least the last time I checked, Scrivener did not let me use iCloud, so I had to set up DropBox, and it works well enough for synching to my iPad.

P.S. let us know if you discover something more interesting.

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

I use Scrivener mainly, but Pages can handle many hundreds of thousands of words without any problems at all (on both Mac and iPad). It’s very comfortable to write in.

 

[spooklog]

I would look into MacJournal, Nisus Writer and Nisus Writer Express.

MacJournal is a barebones journal program, but it keeps documents in folders in the sidebar. I'm a writer and at one time used it for very long documents. However it is only for the Mac -- no iOS version is available.

Nisus Writer Express is my favorite go-to word processor. At $26, it's an excellent value, and it can handle long documents. By default it saves documents in a Nisus folder. But there is no iOS version at the present time. Nisus Writer Pro is a more full-featured program but is also more expensive (still an outstanding value at $65). Both Express and Pro have been around for years and years, and they are quite stable and well-supported.

Professionally, I use Scrivener. I've used it long enough so all the features don't puzzle me too much, but I know exactly what you mean. On the other hand, it's been around forever and it's very stable, and that is really important when working with novel-sized documents.

Take good care.

 

[OldCorpse]

Thank you everybody for your excellent recommendations and insights. What’s interesting, is that the iOS/iPadOS and MacOS app integration is still not perfect, even in something as purpose dedicated and longstanding as Scrivener (having to use dropbox instead of iCloud). Only Pages seems to bridge that divide smoothly (it would be disappointing if it not, because it’s an Apple product!).

I will keep all these recommendations in mind, and try out gradually, unless I get stuck on one that works right off the bat ... so I guess I’ll give Scrivener another spin at some point.

My current plan is to start with Pages. The reasons are twofold - one, the tight iPadOS/MacOS integration and confidence that Pages is reliable (in that work won’t get lost) what with Apple being certain to continue supporting Pages in a timely manner - not a trivial consideration, as the OSes continue evolving and the chip architechure just changed with M1.

To make Pages work for me, I have to crack how to use it and develop a workflow. The next step therefore is to hit the web and locate some tutorials so that I can get past the - to me - unintuitive interface. And then I can finally get to the actual writing as opposed to struggling with apps. I’m frankly sick of this aspect of fiddling with tools. I have friends who write, who keep changing their apps, never satisfied, always searching - I don’t want this to be me. I want an app I can master and then forget it exists.

Say what you will, but the simplicity of old school writing tools - pen and paper and then typewriters was unbeatable. I grew up with computers, but I started out still with pencil and legal pads - and it worked pretty well! I used mechanical pencils (so no sharpening issues), erasers, scissors and yellow legal pads. Blessed in its simplicity and no worry about bugs, compatibility, disappearing text etc., etc., etc. Yeah, computers have their advantages, especially when editing, but it’s funny how many writers to this day, at some point go ahead and print out a draft to read it on paper! I do too, for the final one

Again, thank you everyone!

 

[jive turkey]

I have worked with Scrivener and really like some of what it can do, but for now I write full-length nonfiction in Pages. I probably don't get up to "novel length" as you would do, but have easily gone over 300 pages in works before. You will be fine using Pages, especially if you just want to write. But depending on how you will be publishing, you might have to export it to Word and tinker with some of the formatting before sending it off. That isn't required for all publishing options but keep it in mind so you aren't surprised when it happens.

I use OneNote for research, Pages for the outline and writing, and that is it. I found that while Scrivener is great for outlining, rearranging, keeping everything together, etc., it worked against the way my mind works. I was way too tempted to jump around from section to section as I thought of things, and that caused me a lot of headaches. For those who have a different process, I would highly recommend the app. My only concern would be that the development team is so small (I think they have a grand total of one Mac developer listed on their website but I'm guessing there are a few more), if you run into a big bug or heaven forbid something happens to the developer, you might be up the creek.

Good luck with your project!

 

[Aggedor]

I am a full-time, bestselling author, and I use Scrivener. As others have said, you don't need to use all of its features. I think I probably use... 10%?

Happy to answer questions, but that and MS Word are my recommendations. Scrivener for drafting, then MS Word for everything else (as Word is the industry standard).

 

[jagolden]

Well, I suggest "Notes" where your requirements are so stringent.
Pages is a good alternative, can’t really get simpler or easier than that.
As to if Pages can handle a 400 page document, I suggest importing one of your older, large documents to see if it can handle it.

 

[jammurdo]

I really hate to do this, because I know this question has been asked only a million times, but as time goes on and platforms change, so too there might be changes to recommendations.

So, the question is extremely simple (on one level): what is a good app or software for writing novels?

I have an M1 MBP, and an iPad Air 3 on which I’d be writing. I know that not all apps have moved to the M1 architecture, so this is part of why I’m asking for recommendations. I’d like an app or software that can easily transfer files I’m working on between the M1 MBP and the iPad, because I’ll be writing on both. That also implies that the app would have versions for both iPadOS and MacOS.

I am willing to pay (reasonably), but don’t want to and will not accept subscriptions (so stuff like Ulysses is out).

My wishlist is pretty short - I don’t need huge granularity with tons of features like Scrivener, which strikes me as overkill for what I need/want.

Here’s my workflow (a little weird, but oh well) - I basically work on a long document “MyNovel” and I give it the title of the day’s date, so whatever I wrote today will be say MN020621 (MyNovel Feb., 06, 2021). Next day on which I work on “MyNovel”, I take the previous one “MN020621” and ADD the new day’s writing f.ex. tomorrow MN020721, so the new document MN020721 incorporates MN020621. And so on. So I end up with a new document every day I write, and by the end, if I’ve written for 90 days, I end up with 90 documents each incorporating the previous one.

This means that by the end I am working on a very long document (the whole novel!).

Therefore, what I need is for the app to be able to easily handly VERY LONG DOCUMENTS - this I know is a limitation. Many apps have claims like “great for writing essays”... erm, no, I need NOVEL LENGTH document handling capability, not essay length; or “great for writing for blogs“... erm, no, I need NOVEL LENGTH document handling capability, not blog posts. Etc.

It should be simple without a ton of bells and whistles. Just a blank page onto which I can write with no distractions (unlike Word with its ribbons and sidebars and whatnot). Simple interface. Scrivener is an example of massive complexity of features that only gets me lost. I don’t want style checkers, I don’t even need spell checkers, I don’t want suggestions, prompts, creative “help” and so on. I don’t need to insert images, make complex formatting choices, append other media, graphics, I don’t need as special place for research notes, I don’t need or want index cards and on and on and on in endless features. I JUST WANT A SIMPLE PAGE on which I can write - and that’s IT. Dark mode would be nice, that’s about it.

It has the ability to keep documents in folders. Folders is where I’d be keeping drafts by date.

I want to store my documents locally - this means that I don’t want something that only works online.

It has to be reliable - I don‘t like losing work, because the app lost a document or crashed.

To sum up:

1)Ability to handle long documents - this is KEY. It cannot suddenly - like Word is liable to - crash, because the document is too “unwieldy”.

2)Simple interface. No bells and whistles necessary. I don’t want to have to make 50,000 choices before I can put a word down. I want to sit down, open the app, document, and WRITE, period - I don’t want to endlessly fiddle with the software or go through a ten level tree to get to my current document.

3)Dark mode.

4)Folders.

5)Interoperable between MacOS (M1) and iPadOS

6)Keeps the documents locally.

7)Is reliable, without losing documents or crashing.

8)No subscription.

Sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to be thorough.

From my previous research I have investigated Apple’s Pages app. I like that it’s free and interoperable between MacOS and iPadOS, but there are a couple of questions I have about it. I’m not clear about whether it can truly handle LOOOOONG documents. Like, what if it’s 400 pages? Will that be a problem? Also - and possibly I’m super low IQ, but I find it not intuitive to use. I tried finding how to do simple stuff and it was super hard to do (for me - again, it’s probably because I’m a moron). A more intuitive app would be nice, but I guess I can simply learn the thing by watching youtube videos.

So - I think this looks like my best bet so far... maybe?

I have iAWriter for iPad - I like it all rightish, have not bought the MacOS version. I find it a bit frustrating with the whole “markdown” paradigm, but I suppose I can learn to live with it. That looks like my second choice, maybe?

Scrivener - I don’t know, it’s probably simply gross prejudice, but I just cannot warm up to Scrivener. I know it gets recommended up the wazoo, but I just find it WAY too fiddly and overwhelming and busy and bellwhistly. Feature creep - I want to WRITE not spend time fiddling with the software, setting it up for hours on end, and it feels like Scrivener encourages endless fiddling. Also, I‘ve come across posts claiming that Scrivener lost them tons of documents wholesale - the kiss of death for me... that is not tolerable or acceptable on any level. Again, I suppose I could revisit Scrivener for the upteenth time and try to love it this time, but... I have always failed before. I just don’t seem to mix with it, like oil and water. YMMV.

Anyway, I’d love your thoughts! Thank you in advance everyone!

Hey - not exactly what you're asking for, but I created a free tool here that sifts through a docx manuscript to automatically help you create a glossary and find some errors. Trying to flag in a few author tools forums, but not a writing tool itself. Cheers! James