Fantasy friendly writing software?

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Rhys Cordelle

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I've been using yWriter, which is great, and have just downloaded Storybook to see if that's better, but neither one of them entirely supports what I'm looking for.

For one thing, they don't allow for custom calendars. Does anyone know of any writing software that lets you fill in your own day, month and year names?

They also don't seem to offer the ability to create custom fields, in which you could detail each characters special powers, if they have any, and things like that.
 

Ruv Draba

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I have ywriter, but when I'm doing heavily-researched writing I prefer Liquid Story Binder. It lets you create dossiers for characters or places with whatever fields you like; it lets you add pictures, and you can create timelines with whatever labels you want.

LSB is more document management software than word processing or writing process software. It gives you basic formatting ability (enough for most manuscript purposes), and keeps things very organised, but if you want complex word-processing or some support for writing process you might find it short in some respects.

Below is a screenie of LSB on one of my fantasy stories. You can see that I snarf a lot of images for inspiration as I write. :)
LSB.jpg

These days I tend to research in LSB, plan in Power Structure, and write in Power Writer. You could it all that using carefully-structured folders and a simple word-processor, but I often have multiple projects on the boil and lots of notes, and I find that the right tools helps me keep the ideas organised better.

Hope that helps.
 

Aphotic Phoenix

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I agree with Ruv. Liquid Story Binder is good for projects that need a lot of documentation. The ability to couple info+picture easily is a huge plus in my book. The gallery option is IMO a great way to save pictures that capture the mood you want for a scene. I also agree that the word processing aspect is a bit lacking, although some features are handy. The repetition finder is easy to use, and the thesaurus seems decent.

It's not a perfect piece of software however. Certain aspects are unrefined, and are more difficult to use than necessary. For example, I wish the color coding in the Mind-Map tool was hereditary. The file system is antiquated, and exporting/importing files could be more streamlined.

Honestly the best part is: you can try the software for free.
 

defyalllogic

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writeitnow is what i use for organizing things like that. - you can try it for free.

(there's an events tab and you can arrange the timline in order and link it to chapters)

LSB is great and i did the first draft and planning in it but it gets distracting and complicated for me. i find myself spending so much time fiddeling that no writing got done...
 
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defcon6000

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I agree with Ruv. Liquid Story Binder is good for projects that need a lot of documentation. The ability to couple info+picture easily is a huge plus in my book. The gallery option is IMO a great way to save pictures that capture the mood you want for a scene. I also agree that the word processing aspect is a bit lacking, although some features are handy. The repetition finder is easy to use, and the thesaurus seems decent.

It's not a perfect piece of software however. Certain aspects are unrefined, and are more difficult to use than necessary. For example, I wish the color coding in the Mind-Map tool was hereditary. The file system is antiquated, and exporting/importing files could be more streamlined.

Honestly the best part is: you can try the software for free.

I REALLY like this. I love to have pictures with my writing. But I dislike the whole TrialPay thing. Yet, I'm short on cash. *sigh*
 

defyalllogic

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it's more of an organizer than a word processor. it's not that great as a word processor.

if you want to use it to "build" your story that would be where the time lines and links and pictures and dossiers come in. you can make character and place profiles and mind maps...

the list of things you can have/do From the LSB website:
Dossiers
Create Dossiers for major characters and settings.

Timelines
Plot your novel by organizing cards along colored timelines.

Storyboards
Combine images and text to create a visual reference board.

Journals
Create a writing journal, or even fictional journals for each one of your characters.

Outlines
Create a collapsible tree of plot ideas.

Mindmaps
Link ideas together using lines and text.

Image Galleries
Organize your reference images into galleries.

Builders
Organize complex scenes using titles, descriptions, and color indexing.

Position Memory
Liquid Story Binder XE remembers just where you left off.

Manuscript Building
Combine multiple chapters into a single manuscript automatically.

Printing
Preserve your font and paragraph editing with Format Printing.

Workspaces
Preserve your favorite window layouts for quick access.

Project Goals
Words per day, words left to write, days remaining, multi-document word counts.

Color Schemes
Create the perfect writing environment with your favorite window colors.

Recordings
Record yourself reading your own novel. Test for pacing and time.

File Listings
Organize all your files into easy-access file trees.

Backups
Every Chapter has its own backup repository. Never lose a single word with automatic version and session backups. Compress your whole archive into a single ZIP file.

Shortcuts
Quickly access your favorite external software and documents.

Statistics
Times, Word Counts, Goals, Sessions, Versions, Days.

Reader
Read over your work in a easy to view columned window, free of editing distractions.

Music Playlists
Add your MP3s and sort them into playlists. Set the mood for writing.

External Editing
Open your work outside of Liquid Story Binder.
 

Rhys Cordelle

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And you write fantasy? Wow, how do you manage that?

I've got notes all over the place for the various religions, organisations, towns, traditions, cultures, etc. etc. etc. There's no way I could stay consistent without preplanning.

I played around with LSB last night and I do reeeeally really like it, particularly the ability to create dossiers, timelines and storyboards, but it is quite daunting looking at all those options. Guess I'll play around with it for a few days and then decide whether I want to buy it.

What is it about the word processing that people don't like? From the quick go I had with it, I was quite impressed. It's formatted in a way that looks like you're reading a novel, which I find quite cool (and preferable to reading from one side of my screen to the other). The ability to add indented notes by starting the line with '..' is so handy too, and anything you include in those notes does not get counted in the word count, or get printed out when you're ready to print the manuscript. What's not to like?
 

dclary

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Remember, Ferret, the great fetish of (many) fantasy writers is pre-writing...
 

AceTachyon

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Well, as I said, I don't preplan. I create as I write. And I only create a spreadsheet when I start having trouble keeping everything straight in my head.
Haven't tried a spreadsheet. Or anything like the mentioned software.

Still strictly paper for me. Scrawled notes eventually get typed up and printed out. Maps are drawn on paper. Everything in an accordion file.

And I'm not even writing fantasy. I'm writing cyberpunk.

In this case, these notes and maps serve as a series bible just to ensure consistency over the current 10 episodes.
 

Paul

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it's more of an organizer than a word processor. it's not that great as a word processor.

if you want to use it to "build" your story that would be where the time lines and links and pictures and dossiers come in. you can make character and place profiles and mind maps...

the list of things you can have/do From the LSB website:
[SUP]Dossiers
Create Dossiers for major characters and settings.

Timelines
Plot your novel by organizing cards along colored timelines.

Storyboards
Combine images and text to create a visual reference board.

Journals
Create a writing journal, or even fictional journals for each one of your characters.

Outlines
Create a collapsible tree of plot ideas.

Mindmaps
Link ideas together using lines and text.

Image Galleries
Organize your reference images into galleries.

Builders
Organize complex scenes using titles, descriptions, and color indexing.

Position Memory
Liquid Story Binder XE remembers just where you left off.

Manuscript Building
Combine multiple chapters into a single manuscript automatically.

Printing
Preserve your font and paragraph editing with Format Printing.

Workspaces
Preserve your favorite window layouts for quick access.

Project Goals
Words per day, words left to write, days remaining, multi-document word counts.

Color Schemes
Create the perfect writing environment with your favorite window colors.

Recordings
Record yourself reading your own novel. Test for pacing and time.

File Listings
Organize all your files into easy-access file trees.

Backups
Every Chapter has its own backup repository. Never lose a single word with automatic version and session backups. Compress your whole archive into a single ZIP file.

Shortcuts
Quickly access your favorite external software and documents.

Statistics
Times, Word Counts, Goals, Sessions, Versions, Days.

Reader
Read over your work in a easy to view columned window, free of editing distractions.

Music Playlists
Add your MP3s and sort them into playlists. Set the mood for writing.

External Editing
Open your work outside of Liquid Story Binder. [/SUP]


Em, wow.

Unfortunately by the time i learned all that i'd have a novel written.

150,000 using ms word - course it's a mess, so maybe...
 

Aphotic Phoenix

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Em, wow.

Unfortunately by the time i learned all that i'd have a novel written.

150,000 using ms word - course it's a mess, so maybe...

Honestly it took me about an hour or two of playing around to determine what features I would use, and which ones weren't for me. Don't attempt to learn this program during writing time, because it will just lead to distraction in both.

I just opened each individual feature, played with it for a few minutes, maybe opened a help file here and there, and then on to the next.
 

Adam

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I've tried Ywriter, but found that I spent more time pratting about with it than writing. :)

Instead, I'll just open a new text file on OpenOffice (my WP of choice) and make whatever brief notes I need to.
 

Etola

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I think I'm debating heavily which ones I'll need. I've been using WikidPad as a story bible (and it has worked fantastically), and Word for the actual writing and note-taking, but it doesn't really have robust graphical interfaces like storyboards and timelines. Which may come in handy, or which may distract me.

I'm always careful with investing time or money into new programs mainly because I'm not sure which will actually become a helpful, integrated part of my writing process or which will be gimmicks that I play around with a little and then forget about. But LSB and/or yWriter might at least be worth looking into...
 
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