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I always disdained the idea. I mean, most of the great novels were handwritten or typed on a typewriter, and we already have the great advances made possible by word processing. Who needs an additional type of software? That's for wimps, people who don't take writing seriously and need some idiot-proofed software to hold their hand through the process.
Then, I downloaded Write It Now as a trial, because I thought it might be worth a try for NaNoWriMo. I registered it the same day, and had just enough money in my PayPal account to pay for it, which is cool.
Now I know why writing software exists. For people like me.
People who have tons of ideas and have a lot of trouble sorting them out and keeping them organized. People who tend to neglect details until they're needed later in the stories, then panic and quit in frustration.
People who need to be able to jot down notes when they get a flash of an idea, but never do because they don't know where to put it, and figure they'll remember it later (but don't)
The novel I'm considering working on for NaNoWriMo is one that I've been playing with for while. I've never written it, I have been working on the outline, the development of the story. I started by using Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method and I got further into the development of this story than any previously. But that method isn't completely right for me - it's too rigid, too dependent on the prior steps. My brain flies all over the place, it's not good in sequential, step-by-step story development.
Now, however, I have a place to jot notes. A place to plan out scenes and events. A place to put in my character notes, keeping track of birthdays, the relationships of each character to another, etc.
While working on the character sheet for one character, I came up with the idea for another one - the best friend of the protagonist. I realized that she would be perfect to reveal aspects of the protag's character - immediately began a new character sheet for her, (one click of a button) and then went and typed in several paragraphs of notes.
Before I would have continued what I was doing and gone back to the new character later, and most likely would have forgotten all about it. This morning when I returned to my work, I didn't even remember what I named the new character or several other main points that were safely stored in my new system. Had I continued with the old way of doing things, all of it would have been lost. Then...a few days later or even hours later I would have remembered my new character, but by that time I would have been further into the story without her, and would be frustrated and angry with myself and not want to bother with all the changes.
So... to all those who get frustrated with the writing process and feel like you never can keep track of all your ideas and notes or just want a better organization system than the one you're currently using, I encourage you to look at the different types of writing software out there. Some are more expensive than others, and have different features (I downloaded several trials before deciding on this one) but it's definitely worth checking into if you feel some of the frustration I've described here.
Oh, and another cool thing I haven't used yet but hope to - the software will print in manuscript format, and has a neat tracking feature to help you keep track of everyone you've submitted to and what their responses are. It also exports your work in rtf format so you can back up your work easily, or open it in a word processor if you have need to.
[ October 26, 2004, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: Belle ]
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