Wrangling the Writers' Brain--Writing Software

When I was looking for a writing software to help organize my chaotic writers' brain, I researched at least a couple dozen. I downloaded at least a couple dozen. I tried at least a couple dozen.

And I tossed at least a couple dozen.

Back to my plain old boring Word.

An exercise in pure frustration, I decided. Who was I trying to fool? Fitting this psychotic, schizophrenic gray matter into a linear, technical computer program? Pfffftttt! Procrastination at it's finest.

Then I found out about Scrivner. Which looked like exactly what I wanted -- all the cool facets of the other programs rolled into one...only, it was for Mac OS only. I have Windows. (At that time, I--evidently--signed up to be sent an email if/when Scrivner was ever available for Windows, which is how I came by the information below.)

*Sigh* Back to plain old boring Word.

Little while later, a friend turned me on to Liquid Story Binder. And, wow. I LOVE it. Has everything Scrivner had, but it was for Windows. I could have multiple windows open at one time, see multiple chapters side by side or a chapter with photos of the scene and characters as I wrote. I could create outlines, character sketches, even music play lists. Very cool.

And, while I'm very satisfied with LSB and plan to stay with it, I just learned that Scrivner will soon (very soon) be available for Windows. So, I thought I'd let other writers know about it. And while you're checking out software, look into Liquid Story Binder.

(No, I have no affiliation with either, receive no compensation, kickbacks or the like for posting these links. Just sharing info...writer to writer.)

Scrivner for Windows

From the email:

It's a writing program that allows you to split up a long text into lots of small chunks, to edit them independently or together as one long document, to rearrange them on a corkboard or in an outliner, to view other documents - such as images and PDF files - alongside your text, and then to compile your manuscript into one long document for exporting to a word processor such as Microsoft Word, or for printing. I designed it to help me with my own writing as a wannabe novelist and someone who had to write a long dissertation.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/

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.

LSB is specifically designed for fiction writing. XE includes all the standard features such as spell-checking, thesaurus, smart quotes, templates, font and paragraph styles -- everything you need to write your next great novel.

http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/index.html

If you have other info or enjoy a particular writing software, share your experience in the comments section.

Enjoy!