Creative Writing Software

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back, and I promise more regular updates.

I’m always looking for a better word processor, something with less distractions, or alternatively, more features. In a twisted way, it’s just another tool in my procrastination arsenal. What I want is software that will just pluck the story from my brain and actually write it for me. I haven’t found it yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be sure to post about it here.

In the meantime, this is a list of various software packages for writers. Some are minimalist and promise to reduce distractions. Others are loaded with features that promise to help organize plotlines and timelines and chapters and so forth. I’ve only used Celtx and JDarkRoom; inclusion in this list is based on reviews and recommendations I’ve read.

The descriptions come from the product site and I’ve limited the list to products that offer a free trial. Nobody wants to spend a hundred bucks (or even twenty) on software someone else really liked just to find out they hate it. I’ve included links to donation or wish list information because I think it’s nice of people to make their software available for free and they deserve a little acknowledgement if someone uses it and enjoys it.

I’ve left out general purpose word processors, though I may write up a comparison of those later. If there’s another creative writing program you use, or you’ve written one, go ahead and leave a comment with a link.

For the Mac

Scrivener “Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.”	30-day Trial	Cost:$39.95
CopyWrite “CopyWrite is a project manager for writers of all kinds. Rather than focus on formatting and layout, CopyWrite stands apart in its project-oriented approach. Word processors and page layout tools are good at what they do – formatting and layout – but they offer no help at all to a writer during the creative process. In fact, the ‘gee-whiz’ features crammed into these tools do more to hinder writers, getting in the way of their work flow. Put simply, these tools constipate writers; CopyWrite is like a tasty bran muffin … with extra bran.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $24.99
StoryMill “StoryMill enables you to manage the creative process like never before. You can track, tag and filter characters, scenes, locations, research and more with the unique dynamic outline. For fiction writers, StoryMill provides features like word frequency counting, a cliche meter, and a progress meter to help you meet your daily writing goal.”	30-day Trial	Cost:$44.95
Jer’s Novel Writer “Jer’s Novel Writer is a relatively simple word processor with extra features to support large creative writing projects.This program is all about momentum, and reducing the number of things that break the flow when I am writing. Jer’s Novel Writer is designed to help me keep writing when the creative juices are flowing, and then find all the things I need to go over again when I am more in a nitty-gritty mood.”	Free Trial	Cost: $30.00
Ulysses “Ulysses was developed mainly for writers who work creatively with text and want or need to realize large amounts of text. Ulysses also wants to enable the writer to fully concentrate on the story he wishes to tell, without hobbling his creativity by means of unnecessary burden and distraction.”	30-day Trial	Cost: $122.00
WriteRoom “WriteRoom is not Microsoft Word. It won’t generate a table of contents, it won’t place borders around your documents, and it doesn’t have an animated paper-clip looking over your shoulder. Instead WriteRoom just provides the essential features required to get words on the page. Stay focused with WriteRoom’s distraction free environment. Stay on track with word count. Stay safe with autosave. You just type, and WriteRoom will do its best to stay out of your way.”	Free Or you can buy a license, but it’s not required	Cost: $0 License: $24.95

For Windows

This is just a small selection of what’s available for Windows. If you don’t see anything you like, just Google for more.

yWriter “A scene is a pleasant chunk to work on – small and well-defined, you can slot them into your novel, dragging and dropping them from one chapter to another as you interleave strands from different viewpoint characters and work out the overall flow of your book. You can also drop a scene completely if you’ve written yourself into a dead end, without feeling you’ve ground to a complete halt. Of course, you can’t just write a bunch of unrelated scenes. You need an overall design goal … your plot. yWriter will generate a number of different reports from your scene and chapter summaries, from a brief scene list to a comprehensive synopsis. If you update the ‘readiness’ setting for each scene it will even generate a work schedule showing what you have to do to meet your deadline for the outline, first draft, first edit and second edit.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate
RoughDraft “RoughDraft is a freeware word processor for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays. It’s designed to be as practical as possible, offering all the features you need, but without being complicated or awkward to use.”	Free	Cost: $0
PageFour “PageFour is a simple and easy to use piece of software. It was designed creatively for creative writers. PageFour is a tabbed word processor and outliner for writers. It has a simple structure based around Notebooks. Each Notebook contains as many Folders and Pages as you wish, and is structured in whichever manner best suits YOU. Every writer works differently, and PageFour recognizes this.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $34.95
Liquid Story Binder XE “Liquid Story Binder XE is a uniquely designed word processor for professional and aspiring authors, poets, and novelists. Writing software for those who require the editing ability of a commercial text editor as well as a document tracking system. It is for those who want the freedom to create, outline and revise but are tired of losing track of their work.”	30-day Trial	Cost: $49.95
DarkRoom “Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate via paypal button
Q10 “Q10 is a simple but powerful text editor designed and built with writers in mind. Q10 will clean your kitchen, walk your dog and make excellent coffee. Well, not really. But it’s really good as a full-screen text editor.”	Free	Cost: $0 Wish List
WriteMonkey “Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate via paypal button

Cross-Platform

(For Linux, Mac, and Windows)

Writer’s Café “Writer’s Café is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer’s Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay.”	Limited Trial	Cost: $45.00 CD: $50.00 Mac: $0
Celtx (I use this one.) Celtx is geared toward screenwriting, but it includes a plain text editor and many of the features are equally useful for writing fiction.”Celtx is the world’s first fully integrated solution for media pre-production and collaboration. It replaces old fashioned ‘paper, pen & binder’ media creation with a digital approach to writing and organizing that’s more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.”	Free	Cost: $0
JDarkRoom (I use this one, too.) “JDarkRoom is a popular, simple full-screen text file editor with none of the usual bells and whistles that might distract you from the job in hand. If you are writing a novel, essay, thesis or just need to be able to concentrate on your writing, then JDarkRoom may help you.”	Free	Cost: $0 Donate
Writer Writer is a web-based full-screen text editor.  It allows you to save your files in text format.	Free	Cost: $0 Donate