Tools talk: What tools do you use to write?

Hello, this is something I think about a fair bit - how do *you* write? No, no, I'm not asking where your ideas come from, we all know the answer to that is the perverted demon that floats above your head and whispers to you while you sleep - I mean what word processing tools or productivity software do you use?

Some of you will say, I just click on "add chapter" and start typing on CHYOA and when I'm done I hit Publish. That's wild to me, I can't imagine living like that but it's awesome that some people do! I would bet money right now someone is on a bus and adding a chapter on their phone and that's incredible.

But I , to put it mildly, am not like that. When I started my first story I googled around and found some free writing software. I wanted to be able to write on my PC, and also see my work on other mobiles devices like my iPad. So I found http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html a totally free application that is a basic but functional writing tool. You can use a cloud service and sync your projects between installs and devices. It's... ok. I used it fine for a few months, but after a few syncing errors where yWriter *deleted my entire projects* I got mad and looked for something better. But still, if you don't need to use it across multiple computers I think yWriter could be useful for people. Also, super free.
(oh yeah, thank god for Dropbox, it let me restore old versions of my projects and saved huge amounts of work. Also, yWriter has a stylized "W" as a logo and I stole it for my avatar lol)

I have an iPad I like to work on, I bought a cheap Bluetooth keyboard and it works wonderfully. I used the Pages software to write for a few weeks, it's basically like using Word. It worked really well for simply writing a story like you'd type out a book report. But it won't *help* you write a story.

After some research I decided on Scrivener and it's been *amazing*. It's not exactly cheap, especially if like me you want to use it on different devices, but it was instantly worth it for me. The tools took me a few hours to really get comfortable with, but it's increased my ability to imagine my plot immensely. I love how it helps me keep organized, and it's tools for backing up my work and cross-platform work is fantastic. If I'm on my PC or my iPad, or at work on my phone, I can always look at everything I've done.


This is the PC version, it looks better on iOS (and this version will be updated soon).

I've seen people using Ulysses, which is very similar. I've also investigated software specifically for outlines and plotting, but I haven't gotten *that* crazy yet. There are a number of editing tools out there but honestly I'm not trying to write an actual novel here, I just want to tell my goofy stories as well as I can.

So, what do you guys use? I realize that not everyone wants to spend actual money on this nonsense, but if you have any questions about Scrivener or yWriter I can try to help. Or if you have a great setup that really helps your writing, let us know!

 

IMO it's inexcusable to not use the free version of Grammarly. It catches plenty of small, easy to make errors.

Otherwise, I just stick to writing in my browser. Using Brave, I have it set to 'continue where you left off', which will bring up any chapters I was editing in case I accidentally shut the browser off and forget to save (note, this might not work if you shut your computer down).

I also dabble with ProWritingAid, and whilst its an excellent program, it's only worth it if you're making (or planning to make) money off of your writing.

 

It's funny, I've seen a million ads for Grammarly but never once checked it out. So, if I write in Scrivener and then just past my chapters into CHYOA, would I just need one extra step? Is it something that runs on it's own or do you have to paste your passages into their system?

Really, I have issues with tense when I'm writing 3rd person, would Grammarly help with that? (I guess I can research this on my own but thought I'd ask lol)

Also Ben Rosewood just have to say that your work on School Drop Off, and daciadesire's, is some of my favourite around. Love the strange wholesomeness of the whole setup, and great character work.

 

I use Microsoft Word with a premium Grammarly extension. I actually got a 1 year Grammarly account for 10 dollars on Redditbay. I write mostly on my computer with a mechanical keyboard. I can't imagine how people write on their phones.

I don't think Grammarly works with points of view, wilparu.

https://prowritingaid.com/ is also good too. You can use it for free but just copy and paste snippets for the premium version.

Besides that and just some various erotic thesauruses.

 

Grammarly will work on most browsers so all you have to do is paste it. It'll only correct spelling/grammar, and I don't agree with it 100% of the time, but it's a handy thing to have.

And thanks for the compliment

The free version of PWA does restrict you to 500 words. There might be other restrictions which is worth keeping in mind for those who haven't paid for the full version.

Also, considering you have the internet, writers should make use of online thesauruses and researching various sex acts. You've got the information highway right at your fingertips folks, use it.

 

Heh and one pro tip: remember to go incognito! I always do when I’m looking up anatomy (never hurts to make sure you’re using the right name of a body part!) and also when you research other things. A couple of times I wanted to know how to describe women’s clothing and didn’t remember incognito mode and I’m STILL getting google ads for dresses and lingerie on YouTube

 

Notepad and Google.

 

I just use Notepad or write on here directly. One really old-school thing I do is outline all of my stories with pen and paper. I think it's just a habit from creative writing classes that I took in the past.

I really like how Scrivener looks from that screenshot. Might give it a look.

 

I mostly use the Grammarly desktop app for writing single chapters.
You can also put your chapters on Wordcounter to check it with Grammarly.

Then I have Notepad++ (rather a development tool) to search the whole story for information. It allows searching with regular expressions, so you could search for "(ass|butt|buttocks)" and it will find any occurrence of these words in all files of the folder and subfolders, in all open files, or in your current file. (You could set it up similar to the structure in the picture. On the left, you would see the actual folder structure where your files are in with each chapter being a file.)

Google Docs might be useful for collaboration purposes.

 

Scrivener is lovely!

I've used it for quite a while, for writing and pen-and-paper RPG planning.

As folks can see from Wilparu's screenshot, it is ideal for Chyoa-style story branches as well.

Previous to Scrivener, I used a program called Keynote NF for similar things, as it uses the same kind of nested structure. I believe it has gone unsupported for years by the original developers, but I looked it up for this response, and it looks like it has been updated as recently as 2017. (https://sourceforge.net/projects/keynote-newfeat/). It might work well for folks who like that part of Scrivener, but don't have the funds to shell out.

 

I use Word with Grammarly, I agree with Ben, madness not to use Grammarly, it’s very good. I’ve not paid for the full version, I’d be interested if anyone has the paid full version, is it worth it?

my top tip?
I have, in large red bold type, at beginning of my next chapter a heading called ‘remember’.
As I write I drop reminders in there, small things I may otherwise forget to add in the next chapter. Eg a character says they need to visit the doctors, I’d drop in the reminders for inclusion in the next chapter. It’s great for those small things that run through multiple chapters.

 

Incredible respect for anyone who writes in the browser. Using a word processor with Grammarly seems like a good idea, but I like to have everything at hand wherever I am and don’t love the idea of having smutty Word docs in my Dropbox folder. One thing I did like about using Pages in iOS was it let you lock documents with a password. Not that anyone uses my iPad but me but... still.

@ThreeNipps the pen and paper is awesome. I’m also incredibly jealous you took a creative writing class, for some reason it’s just never occurred to me but I bet I’d enjoy something like that. Not that I’m looking to go back to school or anything, but a course with some basic instruction would be nice. Might fill in some of the holes in my writing, or even encourage creativity in general. I wouldn’t be able to talk about my actual writing though lol.

 

Google Docs is an alright editor, at least for me and I used it throughout my whole writing career the moment I found an editor that had a cloud.

They've installed a brand new grammar checker too, but ever since I've picked up Grammarly, it's been my goto. I'd still recommend Google Docs if you're on an iPad or even phone as it's a Godsend for Cloud and offline writing(note that the grammar checker is dead when you're offline, but it's recommended that you do revising after writing a chapter anyhow. At least that's what my Cyborg Aunt tells me.)

 

I use software called MacJournal, which I originally got as part of a bundle deal years ago. (It was pay software back then, but the current version is freeware.) Looks like it's somewhat similar to the software from the first post in this thread.

Basically, I have each interactive site I write on as a separate journal, and then each possible story as a separate entry -- some of them just have a link to the place where I might add (as shown here), and some have half-written chapters within.

 

I use a vibrating Fleshlight and a gif of Natalie Portman’s lesbian kiss in Black Swan.

 

I actually do write, edit, and add all my chapters on my phone and without any additional apps. I like the immediacy of it and feel like if I started using a laptop with more features I would get bored with the additional steps added. For me, passion trumps polish, though I do appreciate the stories that take time to add some flair.

 

Depends on what I’m doing. I write most of my chapters when I’m in my car on my breaks at work, so I use the Note app on my iPhone. When I tossed the appendices for The Affection Multiplier, I did it on my ChromeBook, and used some weird version of notepad I found on the chrome store. iOS has a spellchecker built into it and predictive text for almost anything you can write in so it works pretty well for me most of the time. The only thing it’s missing is a really good copy/paste tool, and for that I have the laptop (which will have even more functionality once I brutalize it into running Linux).

And most of my ideas come from the voices in my head when I’m on the toilet.

 

I have become a fan of open office writer not so much for any special editing tool per say but because it routinely auto saves. I live in a place where there are massive pine trees so one good wind means we could loose power for a couple of hours which has happened once already this year. When you open the program back up you can retrieve the document and it will be right were I left off.

 

Since this thread is a couple years old I figured it would be worth breathing some new life into it.

I've actually been doing most of my writing in the free version of OneNote. I create sections for each site that I write on, pages for each story, and subpages for each branch in the story. It really helps keep things organized. Plus it's super easy to add story notes.

I mostly use the browser based version of OneNote, but there is an app version that's not terrible to use. The nice part is everything syncs with OneDrive, and since the notebook file size is small there is no need to upgrade to the paid version of OneNote.

Are there any other good writing tools that have popped up in the last couple of years?

 

A good tool is text-to-speech on whatever device you use. Listening to the words spoken back to you, even with the limitations of a voice synthesizer can really help you spot run-on sentences and irregular flow.