Novel Writing Software – do you need it?
There is a plethora of novel writing software on the market, each of them doing different things. But before you even consider investing in one of these, you need to decide if you need any novel writing software at all. The answer, of course, is that you do not. All the great masterpieces, and indeed all the lesser works, were written without novel writing software, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that you cannot write your masterpiece without using it.
However, those classic novels were also written without computers, and no modern writer would turn up her nose at her trusty word processor because of that. The word processor/computer/e-mail etc is just a tool to help in the process of writing a novel, and novel writing software plays the same role. It should be judged on its own merits, of course, but there’s no need to dismiss it just because it’s a relatively new concept. It would almost certainly be worth your while to research the products and see if any of it would benefit you.
The different novel writing software products vary enormously in what they do. The most basic ones are just a specialised word-processor, and I’m not sure they’re worth the cost or the time to learn them. Your existing word-processor is all you need.
The more complex products are worth considering however. The next most complex is a kind of virtual index card system, which you use in the same way as you would a real index card system. I found it much easier, however, to manage the virtual cards than real ones – the real ones had a habit of getting lost in the piles and it being impossible to find the right one. That problem doesn’t arise with the virtual cards. You can even pick your colours so that colour-coding is simplicity itself.
The next level of complexity is software which guides you through writing the outline of your story. This type of product will prompt you to answer questions about your characters, plot, theme, setting, etc etc. Some of the questions are challenging – one even has you answer the question of what plot holes have you got, and then gets you to fill them. Difficult, but extremely useful. These vary from reasonably loosely structured to forcing you into a rigid template – said template of course being one which has proven itself such as the Hero’s Journey.
Other option on the various software products are things like drop-down menus offering you various character traits, visual timelines, mind maps showing the relationships between the characters, keeping track of dates and characters’ ages and so on. Nothing you couldn’t do on a separate file, but it’s very handy to have it to hand always.
You do have to remember, of course, that none of these products will write the novel for you. And that’s good – where would be the fun in that! What they will do is to help you create, and/or keep track of, the various elements which have to flow together seamlessly in order to create a well-written and satisfying novel.
About the Author
Tracy Culleton is a best-selling Irish author. Her comprehensive website www.fiction-writers-mentor.com covers all you need to know about writing a novel, and she also has a website critiquing and reviewing novel writing software.
silverwing chracters from the novels (computer art)
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Human-computer Interaction Novel Interac (Paperback) $136.67 Description not available. |
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Tron: Betrayal (Paperback) $9.89 Sam Flynn is the rebellious 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer who disappeared when Sam was just a child. When Sam looks into his father`s disappearance, he finds himself pulled into the same world of brutal programs and gla… |
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Chobits Omnibus Edition 1 (Paperback) $16.16 After leaving the country for a cram school in the city, Hideki Motosuwa has humorous and unusual experiences with Chi, a “persocom,” or miniature android and personal computer. |
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The Silicon Jungle: A Novel of Deception, Power, and Internet Intrigue $17.59 What happens when a naive intern is granted unfettered access to people`s most private thoughts and actions? Young Stephen Thorpe lands a coveted internship at Ubatoo, an Internet empire that provides its users with popular online services, from a … |
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50 Robots to Draw And Paint (Paperback) $14.93 Provides instructions for drawing and painting fifty fantasy-art robots, and includes suggestions for adapting and modifying designs. |
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Steve Jobs, Steven Wozniak, And the Personal Computer $26.77 “In graphic novel format, tells the story of how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak developed the personal computer”–Provided by publisher. |
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Tron (Paperback) $14.86 Jet Bradley, the son of the original TRON programmer, has managed to escape the computer world, but his experieces within cyberspace have damaged him emotionally, and now something in the computer world wants him back. |
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Knowledge Representations for Planning Manipulation Tasks (Hardcover) $89.84 In this book, the capability map, a novel general representation of the kinematic capabilities of a robot arm, is introduced. The capability map allows to determine how well regions of the workspace are reachable for the end effector in different orien… |
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Haptic Systems Architecture Modeling (Hardcover) $95.09 The present work showcases a novel approach to modeling systems architectures by utilizing Lego bricks and RFID technology. The presented solution can be used by systems and software architects to communicate their design decisions with other stakehold… |
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Computer-based Modeling of Novel Carbon Systems and Their Properties (Hardcover) $124.79 The multiplicity of possible carbon structures has posed in the last two decades a formidable challenge to theoretical and computational physicists, since not only a number of different methods (such as simulations based on empirical potentials, tight-… |