The Best Writing Software
choose carefully
the right tools can improve your craft
I always find it interesting (and somewhat amusing) when I’m giving talks about writing, how the first question many people ask me is: “what do you use to write? Pen? Pencil? Notebook? Typewriter? Computer?” The answer is all of the above. Each tool has its own place and time, and I think a good writer knows how to use all the tools available to them, much as a good carpenter knows which saw is best for different woods, different projects. While I use pen and paper, iPad, dictation and other writing tools (all covered in other blog posts), my primary tool is my computer, usually my laptop. And when using a computer, one of the most daunting tasks is deciding on which software to use.
The first software I used to write in the early 1980’s was a program called Wordstar, which no longer exists. Wordstar was one of the first WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processors, which showed onscreen such things as accurate line breaks and page breaks. While that seems quaint now, since all programs can show fonts, design elements and much more. While the idea seems “duh” now, it was a breakthrough at the time. From there I graduated to Wordperfect, the defacto word processing standard in the 80’s and 90’s. Along the way I’ve used Appleworks, Microsoft Word, Apple’s Pages, and probably a few more I’ve forgotten that I tried and rejected.
But those are all word processors. That term has always amused me, reminding me of a food processor. I have this image in my mind of hundreds of handwritten pages thrown into a blender, a hand holding down the top while pushing the blend button. Then you shake out the strips of paper with words into the counter and try to make sense of it all. That’s word processing. Fine for correspondence, the occasional term paper or internal business report, but not the best tool for writing a screenplay, or a book of short stories or any other long-form writing (obviously you don’t need any special program for tweets or texts). Fortunately somewhere along the way smart programmers began to develop programs for specific audiences: page layout programs like QuarkXPress and InDesign for layout artists (magazines, newspapers, printed marketing materials); screenwriting programs like Final Draft for film, television and playwrights; web design software like Adobe Pagemill for web design, and what concerns us most for the purposes of this blog post: writing software for book authors (or any type of long-form writing involving many thousands of words).
My current writing software of choice is a fantastic program from a little British company called Literature & Latte. Founded in 2006, their website says they are “a software company founded by writers for writers.” Their main program is called “Scrivener” (a reference to Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, that’s how you definitely know they are writers). I’ve been using Scrivener for about ten years, and I love it. Scrivener is a fairly complex program that can do many things, including formatting and exporting for ebooks, but you don’t have to use all the features. In fact, one of my favorite features is “Compose” mode, where all you see onscreen are your words—no formatting tools, no menu bar, nothing but your brilliant, beautiful words.
I say “current writing software” because, as I referenced at the beginning of this blogpost, software is constantly changing, and the best writing program today may not be the best program ten years from now. When I made the switch from word processing software (which I still have on my computer, BTW, for writing shorter things like letters) to dedicated writing software, I first used a program called Ulysses, which still exists and has many loyal followers. I just found that Scrivener fit my needs better. But you may feel differently and find a program other than Scrivener works best for you. I encourage you to try a few different programs before you decide. It isn’t easy learning a new program, so best to figure out from the very beginning which you prefer.
Going into all the different features of Scrivener is beyond the scope of this post; there are many free tutorials on YouTube, as well as books and excellent paid courses on Udemy, Linkedin Learning and Skillshare. Scrivener is available in Mac, Windows and Apple iOS versions. One of my favorite features is its ability to sync files between the Mac OS and iOS versions, so I can write and edit the same project on my desktop, laptop and iPad, even my iPhone.
The bottom line is that if you are interested in being a professional writer, then you need professional tools. Choose the software that meets your needs, and then spend the time to learn how to use it. You will be happy you did.
