After many years of just thinking nervously about it, I have decided to try my hand at doing some writing. I mean, more than just posting to boards like this and writing emails and memos at work.

Years ago, a boss of mine commented that I would never improve my writing until I got good at using the computer for writing. He was a scientist, and when he meant good at writing, he meant good at writing papers for publication in journals. For that he used Microsoft Word. When I am writing these days, I continue to start the process by doing it longhand. I find that writing things out with a pen allows me to get my thoughts out with the least amount of foofraw getting in the way. I then use this first draft as the starting point for my computer draft. For many things, I will continue to do things with a pen, but I am beginning to agree with my former boss that if I want to do some serious laying down of words I need to do it on a computer. Plus, I need to have the ability to rewrite easily.

I have about 4 papers to write at work. These will be submitted for publication. I am going to begin using some of my free time to do some outside of work writing. The goal of this is publication as well, but a different type of publication. Not in scientific journals. Either on the web, or through some other venue, I haven't figured that out yet.

Now to the question-I am looking for something that doesn't have all of the gewgaws that something like Word does, but I am looking for something that is more capable than something like texedit on the Mac or Notepad on Windows. Stuff like spellcheckers, some rudimentary formatting, and a few other tools would be nice. Since this is the Outlinersoftware forum, then integrated outlining would be nice. Also the ability to generate a file with a clean format.

Right now, my home computer(the one this is being written on) is a MacBook. I use a PC at work running Windows XP. I am thinking of buying another PC to use just as a writing machine. My company has a program that allows us to buy machines that have been replaced for pretty cheap. That one won't have all of the stuff that I have on my other computers that can distract me from just writing.

Any suggestions?

Not asking for much am I?

Jim.

If you already have Word, one possibility is to just prune the menus and tool bars. Word (at least for Windows, probably for Mac) has the ability to customize the menus and tool bars, adding or deleting items.

Beyond this, there is a plethora of word processors that can read Word .doc and .rtf formats.

Well, for the MacBook let me be the first in a long list of people who will recommend the amazing Scrivener. There are many of us who switched to a Mac mostly so we could have access to Scrivener.

It isn't perfect, but it's as close to perfect as I've seen. It is well thought out, well supported, and has a very active community of users. I won't go into detail, because you can check it out at

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/

Steve

It depends upon what type of writing you are going to do.

If you need to include citations and a bibliography, then I strongly suggest you try the relational database Brilliant: www.brilliantdatabase.com. Brilliant allows you to create folders into which you can store note records created from your research of technical or academic journals and books. Just like in Windows Explorer, Brilliant allows you to nest many levels of subfolders and to move, copy, demote, and promote the folders just as you would in Windows Explorer. (This involves more dragging and dropping than I am used to in the outliner software I use.) Relating tables, called forms in Brilliant, is a snap. There is a one-to-many relationship between the Articles table I created an the Research Notes table I created. Ditto for the relationship between the Books table and the Research Notes table. There is a many to many relationship between the Authors table and the Articles and Books table since one author can write many books and articles and since one article or book can have many authors. The key difference between Brilliant and every single other relational database manager are the folders which I use as levels in an outline. Each folder is a topic and I can drill down to as many subfolders/subtopics as I wish.

Mitchell Kastner, Esq.

For the Windows world, the recently discussed Sense http://www.silvaelm.co.uk/ is a tool worth investigating. Another writer-oriented word processor that has been praised here is PageFour http://www.softwareforwriting.com/pagefour.html

SuperNoteCard http://www.mindola.com/snc/index.html is available for both Mac and Windows. Its paradigm --structuring cards to assemble the full text- is well suited to various kinds of writing.

An interesting tool, currently under development, is Storybox http://www.storyboxsoftware.com I mention this more as reference, as it has not reached version 1 yet, though one can already work with it.

Last but not least, Storybook http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/ and yWriter http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html are two free / open source tools available for Windows and Linux.

I guess I'm pretty late in adding my 2 cents, but here it is anyway.

MS Word (and its free, open source counterpart, Open Office) are word processors that let you do both writing AND formatting. They are both very powerful, and ubiquitous. Nearly everyone on earth uses them, and the Word file format, ".doc", is universal. However, they're actually not that great for either just writing, or just formatting, and because they're programs that try to do both things, end up being over-complicated. Both MS Word (or rather, MS Office) and Open Office are available for Windows or Macs. (Open Office is also available for Linux. There is also a version of Open Office called NeoOffice, which runs better on a Mac.) iWork is available for Mac, and is Mac's equivalent of MS Office, and includes a word processor. These are all the heavy hitters in the Office Suite application world. Apart from Open Office (and NeoOffice), they're also very pricy, and overkill for just writing.

If Word seems overly complicated (and no one would argue this), then there are a couple of free alternatives that are simpler but will still do the job. Take a look at AbiWord, Jarte, or PolyEdit Lite. (All Windows only, I'm afraid.) Then there's also GoogleDocs, which lets you write in the Word format -- but you will be doing it over the internet and using a browser for an interface. I have never been quite able to cotton to this way of writing, but one advantage is that you could keep your work stored off of your computer and have it available anywhere you can get a web connection. Some people like this for when they're doing long-distance collaboration. These still are applications that try to do both writing and formatting, but they're less bloated and use less of your system's resources. Plus they're free.

For just writing, you only need a minimal text editor - one that can do some minor formatting like italics, or bold, and some paragraph formatting. Beyond that it gets too complicated when all you want to do is get the words down and all organized in the right order so it makes sense to the reader. At a minimum, you also want to be able to do some printing with it, as most people find that proof-reading or editing is easier with a printed copy of their work.

Picking writing software is very personal. Everyone has different writing styles. I, for example, almost always start with pen and paper, and sort of noodle around with ideas until I feel that I have developed them to a point where they are intelligible or concrete. This is especially true when I'm writing something fairly technical but for a non-technical audience (i.e. upper management) and I'm really struggling with how to be both thorough and clear. Then, depending on what I'm writing, I switch to yWriter (free, excellent, and for Windows only), or MS Word. yWriter is especially good for fiction writing, letting you track characters, objects, and timelines, and also word count, and is designed to make sure you've always got your work backed up six ways to Sunday.

I have also used NoteTabLite (free, excellent, and for Windows only), which allows me to keep separate sections on different tabs. Windows itself comes with not only NotePad, which is a very minimal text editor, but also WordPad, which allows you to do the minimal formatting that you would want for just plain writing. However, neither of these do much for helping you keep track of different chapters, sections, or word count -- thinks that are important for longer form writing.

You can always use note taking software for this sort of writing, too. I've used Keynote (yes, it's ancient, but I love it) and TiddlyWiki for the early stages of my writing, and then cutting and pasting the texts into other writing software.

Many people like to use a minimal, barebones writing application which fills up their entire computer screen. In theory, this prevents distractions. There is WriteMonkey for Windows, and WriteRoom for Mac. (WriteMonkey also has old-fashioned typewriter sounds available, which can either be a huge distraction, or a fun way to feel like you're a budding Hemingway or Fitzgerald. Just light up a cigar and knock back a Cuba Libre.)

I had a Mac for several years, but I hated it, and rarely ever used it, so I can't speak about Mac software -- except to say that it seemed to me that there was a far wider variety of software applications and a larger range of price points for the Windows platform. This could make selecting software at once harder, as the choice could sometimes paralyze me, or easier, as I could find the exact software that suited me and my pocketbook the best. On the other hand, most Mac applications are highly polished, and some people find this aesthetically inspiring.

Formatting -- which is to get the text into a form that a publisher would want -- is another specific task, and usually easier to do after you've written your piece. Many people write using some sort of text or writing software, and then import their work into Word (or Open Office) and use that for the final presentation formatting -- setting margins, paragraph indents, line spacing, fonts and font sizes, headings, page numbering, footnotes, etc.. For technical articles that use lots of formulas, some swear by LaTeX, or some variant of LaTeX, such as MikTex, MacTex (for the Mac), or LyX. (I've tried these, but found them to be extremely complicated to learn, and really most suitable for academic writing.)

Hi Jim,

Although I'm a happy Mac user, I agree with Grapeshot's overall approach. I like writing in a barebones text program, then bringing that into a full-fledged word processor for formatting. Mac comes with a perfectly good text app called TextEdit, but lately I've been using Notational Velocity because it's even more stripped-down. For finishing touches, I use Pages (from iLife) instead of Word. It's a very elegant program, can import and export Word .docs.

Two other things I sometimes use:

If I'm writing bits and pieces out of sequence, I'll write in OmniOutliner, as it's very easy to move paragraphs around, re-organize, collapse and expand, etc.

And if I really want to turn off all distractions and write in full-screen mode, with no Dock or Menu Bar, I'm using the beta of a wonderful app called Ommwriter. Quite wonderful. http://www.ommwriter.com/

But the bottom line is to try various approaches and see what works for you. And also to realize that one size doesn't always fit all. You might want to try different approaches for different needs and circumstances.

Good luck.

I know this reply is way late, but it might still be useful to anyone else asking themselves this same question.

The best writing tool depends on what you're trying to write -- fiction or non-fiction. Fiction writing involves developing and tracking the narrative, the worlds (yes, all fiction stories have a world they exist in), the characters, and the stage, scene, and setting. Non-fiction writing requires gathering facts and laying them out in the most effective order. In some instances of non-fiction writing, developing and maintaining a source list is also critically important.

Word, and other word processing software is actually not that useful for either type of writing. (I will qualify that by saying I mean for writing a long-form piece of work, such as a book.) I found that Word was hopeless at allowing me to track the development of a story. Something as simple as re-arranging scenes became very difficult once I had gone more than two chapters in my story. Even organizing the work into chapters was clumsy and awkward. It seemed that I was spending more time trying to keep my work organized and on track than I was in writing it. (However, Word can be used once you have finished your work for final formatting so that your manuscript can be submitted for editing/publishing.) For me, using Word was frustrating.

I discovered that as you begin trying to write something, part of what you have to do is figure out for yourself what methods work for you. I cannot tell you what software will universally work, but I can point you to software that I use. I work on the Windows platform, and found yWriter, which was developed by a published author for his own work. I found it to be nearly perfect for my needs. It handles chapters and scenes, allowing me to move them around, and makes version control easier to manage. I can track my timeline, my characters, my objects, and my settings. It shows me my word count (which I discovered is surprisingly important), and lets me see if I'm overusing certain words, and I can even set wordcount goals. It has only rudimentary word processing capabilities, which I discovered turns out to be all one needs for writing outlines, first drafts and subsequent revisions, but there is an option that allows an external word processor to be used if someone cannot do without their favorite. For final formatting, or for printing for reviewing, it can export into several different formats, chiefly to html (to read in a browser) or rtf (to open with Word). It can even serve as a voice reader, which some writers find useful to hear their passages. yWriter can be used as a portable application, and many users have found ways to make it work on Linux, but there is no Mac version, and despite requests, the author has no plans to develop a smartphone version. The most surprising thing for me was that all these features served to allow me to focus just on the actual writing, and how much it lifted the burden of tracking and organizing the work-in-progress.

Some writers find that storyboarding, or outlining, is also useful for them. I sometimes do this, but find old-fashioned index cards to be sufficient. I also sometimes use mind-mapping software for brainstorming sessions, but for me, plain old paper and pencil works the best for that, too. (I turn these into PDFs for future reference, but usually incorporate the ideas into my outline almost immediately.) StorYbook is a free software that allows you to create a story using storyboards. I tried it, but since storyboarding isn't a method that I find congenial to the way I write, I can't speak about how well the software works. (For the few times I do storyboarding, I use the Hipster DIY PDA index card template set, which includes storyboarding pages for index cards. Hipster DIY PDA)

There is a plethora of paid software for creative long-form writing, and you can spend a LOT of money if you want to, but if you're just trying writing out to see what you can make of it, why spend money if you don't have to? Besides, writing software will neither do the work for you, nor will it automatically make the result interesting for readers. After all, lots of great works were written using paper and pen, or even papyrus.

If I were to write non-fiction, I would never consider using yWriter, or any other creative writing software at all. Although I suppose you could bend the software to do your will, I would instead do the bulk of the work using some sort of outlining software, preferably one that can keep my source notes well organized, allow me to do an outline, and allow me to modify the outline easily. Also, because I always have several projects in progress at once, I'd rather have something that allowed me to keep them separate, rather than have an "omnium-gatherum" outliner, but this, too, is a personal preference.

Tomorrow a beta version of Scrivener for Windows is to be released, with the launch of the paid-for version in early 2011. It's described as very similar to the current version (1.54 I think) of Scrivener for the Mac.

Scrivener for the Mac 2.0 is due to be launched towards the end of this week. If it's only judged by what the developer has already outlined, it looks to be a major step forward. There are many details in the developer's blog on the website provided by Steve Z. upthread.

For pre-Scrivener outlining on the Mac, I'd use Tinderbox or OmniOutliner or the Steven Berlin Johnson method with DevonThink Pro for factual work, and Tinderbox or Curio for fiction: Curio is slightly more freeform- and imagination-friendly in my view.

Conversely, however, some writers appear to be moving away from the Mac back to Windows - see davidhewson.com. While still a Scrivener fan, David has reacted against some of Apple's approaches to hardware and software and says MS Word 2010 and OneNote are ideal for his thriller-writing needs. Word 2010 seems to have overcome its previous problems with re-arranging text, referred to by grapeshot above, with its navigation pane, and David likes its two-page layout for editing: he also likes the new OneNote's ability to tuck itself away as a sticky research and notes side-panel.

Microsoft may have noticed some of what nimbler rivals like Scrivener are doing. Isn't competition a wonderful thing?

Interesting that David Hewson has switched back to a PC. It's something I'm considering, since I too find Apple far too repressive in its policies. Still... I've invested in a lot of Mac software, and as much as I would like to give Steve Jobs a black eye, I will probably make my next computer another MacBook.

I would second Hugh's endorsement of Curio -- now out in version 7.0 with some significant improvements (and a slightly higher price!). For those intrigued by Hewson's praise of OneNote, I would suggest that Curio is the closest thing on a Mac. In some ways it is better than OneNote -- though it lacks the collaboration functionality or OCR.

Steve

Hope you'll still get your review of Curio out into the public domain, Steve. I for one will be interested to read it.

Hugh wrote:

Hope you'll still get your review of Curio out into the public domain, Steve. I for one
will be interested to read it.

Thanks, Hugh. It was scheduled to go up yesterday, but I had to add an addendum to briefly cover the new features. I expect it any day, and will let you know when it is up.

Steve

Hi Steve.

I've also been checking daily for your review of Curio :-)

Franz

There's nothing wrong with writing your first drafts longhand. Lots of successful professional writers work this way. Elmore Leonard, for instance, writes his first drafts on yellow legal pads and he's one of the most prolific writers out there.

Don't believe the hype about how you have to use a computer to be a productive writer. This is just nonsense. It's not true. Period. You can be just as productive--maybe more so--writing longhand or on a manual typewriter or whatever. You should use whatever writing tool is most comfortable for you. If you're more comfortable writing your first drafts in longhand, then that's how you should work.

Most people say they can write faster with a word processor, but what they really mean is that they can TYPE faster on a computer keyboard. That's great, but TYPING is not the same thing as WRITING. Typing speed has nothing to do with productivity.

Let's say you can only write ten words per minute by hand. That's 600 words per hour or 4800 words in an eight-hour day. That's extremely prolific by anyone's standards. So don't buy into this myth that you have to use a computer to be a REAL writer. Personally, I think that the main reason guys like Elmore Leonard are so productive is because they DON'T use computers. Word processors are superior EDITING tools, but when it comes to COMPOSITION, they sometimes just get in the way. (I'm supposed to be writing right now for instance).

End rant.

Scrivener 2.0 for the Mac has now been out for 24 hours. It really is a very good writing tool. I thought it would be hard to improve on 1.x, but 2.0 achieves that in substantial ways: for example, free-form index cards, customised meta-data in the outliner view, quick reference panes, true comment and footnote marginalia, collections of non-sequential documents, revamped compiling, page views, document templates, improved text statistics and targets, better document concatenation, automatic back-ups, synching to iPad applications etc. etc. I have also found it very stable.

Update: here's a good, fair-minded review of Scrivener 2 by the thriller author David Hewson: http://davidhewson.com/2010/11/03/some-brief-thoughts-on-scrivener-2-0/#more-6089

H