Video: Book Writer

Hello, all.

For as long as I've known about Absolute Write, I've been bugged by this unsettling fact that soooooo many writers out there use Wordpad/Word for their writing, without much knowledge of alternatives that were designed specifically *for* creative writing.

Even though there's nothing wrong with using regular word processors (I wrote my first novel in Wordpad) I put it to myself to chip away at a video in my daily free time (which is *incredibly* limited nowadays, because of what I've got going on at the moment [partial list]) explaining my absolute all-time favorite writing program, Book Writer, so that you can better understand some of your available alternatives. (...and yes, there are some other good programs too, that I recommend even more than the awesome new Word 2007). I mean, let's face it: a writer's writing program is like a golfer's golf club... it ain't going anywhere, so if you're going to spend your entire career using just one program, you've got to make sure you've weighed your options!

And in light of that:




Notice: The video is targeted at people who can at least somewhat find their way around a computer (you've found your way to a forum, so hopefully you'll feel right at home), and focuses on a program that you have to buy. (I know the majority of writers use whatever came pre-installed on their computers)

Bear in mind also that I mention a coupon-code in the video, that will give you 65% off Book Writer, which I was able to talk Yadu Digital into doing only for people watching this video! Please don't go post on your blogs that there's this coupon-code floating around that can be handed out like candy... but if you post the video itself along with it, that's fine.

And also, this is going to come up, so, before you ask, no, I have absolutely nothing to do with the makers of Book Writer, and don't make a dime off of this... I made the video for 2 reasons: 1) to relieve my own personal distress in seeing people write their entire novels in Wordpad/Word (where I wrote my first novel) and, 2) as practice for a video series I'm going to work on later this year, or early next. I've been hammering out all kinds of videos in my spare time, in order to make all my mistakes now, and occupy myself when I'm between things... and this video so far is one of three I've done, as I work on isolating my mistakes.
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I enjoy making these, and started a Part 2 covering other technological aspects of the writing process, but unfortunately had to scrap it before it evolved into an all-encompassing technology University bent on world-domination. (Oh, and my video project file got corrupted, and turned both this and the Part 2 projects into mashed-potatoes... probably for a divine purpose. Fortunately, this one was already finished, and I was able to render it out in segments, and piece it together without too much trouble... but I can barely edit it anymore, which is why I didn't post it for critique first, because I probably can't even make any further changes.)

With each video (such as this one, for my video game's testing phase), I feel like I'm learning all kinds of things that I need to know (or work on) before I start my more serious video series later on. This video was actually the first one I recorded, quite a while back, consisting almost entirely of screen-recorded footage... (though the intro was added very recently, after all my other videos). I'm gradually moving more into live-action cam stuff, but I'm still trying hard to improve my speech. I'm not yet happy with it, but it's wayyyy better now than when I first took my voice to the mic... and I'm almost completely devoid of recording-butterflies now.

Anyway, enjoy, all!

Dario, do you mind if I give this a plug in the Newsletter, too?

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Nope, sure don't.

Gotta assume the 65% special offer code applies to the full price? Which comes to what, just under $60?

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$33... (the whole thing is explained in detail in the video).

tehuti88, I completely understand what you're saying - indeed, a program won't affect your actual writing skills - but what I love about word processors that have these features (Page Four is another pretty good one) is that they help you "get back to writing" much faster, when you have to stop and self-reference... *especially* if you're writing more detailed, complex novels, in which you have to stop and search for things a lot. I know my first draft was simple, and pretty linear (I just wrote, wrote, wrote, without much prior planning) so I didn't have all that much use for a good word processor... but the final draft (rewriting the entire book from scratch) was so much more detailed, that I simply didn't understand what I would do if I didn't have some of these tools.

The entire purpose of choosing a good word processor is simply to reduce the "not writing time", thus it's a far greater help to someone working on a more complex novel, or just self-referencing / note-collecting a lot. My writing has changed a great deal over time - it's much more careful (and tedious) than when I started, because so much is going on my head now - so, if I'm just using a simple word processor, I can lose hours, or just frequently lose my "groove" whenever I have to stop and look up something I wrote earlier, or do some other sort of referencing task.

But yeah, I get where you're coming from. I'd sum it up by saying that not everybody here will have much use for a good word processor, particularly if they're lucky enough to be writing something that doesn't demand a great deal of self-referencing.

It's one thing to say "This program works wonderfully for me, and I'm excited to share that" and another thing to characterize people who use other software as benighted toilers who have yet to See the Light.

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You know (and I say this light as a feather), I honestly had sneaking suspicions that I was completely overdoing it with the friendly, inviting tone, and 10 or so mentions in the video that my stance was entirely passive, and that the viewer could make his own choice about whether or not he saw the program as useful.

Saying, "This program works wonderfully for me, and I'm excited to share that," is what this is all about.

Update: The video has an obvious issue with the text becoming garbled (which was the only way I could keep file-size low enough for low-bandwidth people), so I decided to also post a higher quality version that is much, much easier to look at as far as on-screen text.

Link: [high-quality version - requires Divx or Xvid codec] - 250mb
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Oh, and this also qualifies as a *bump*... Wow, this forum moves far too quickly.

Just wanna bump this, so it can be seen this year too. Also, website/blog-owners, feel free to link to this thread, etc...

Update: LOL, I didn't realize, but I started this thread a year ago, today. Happy Birthday, Thread!

Another bump, for more watchers.

motormind said:

That tool looks very chapter-based. I don't decide on chapters until way later in the process though.

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Having chapters is just a feature. You don't have to use it. There's still all the other stuff that speeds things up vs. Word/Wordpad.

Matera the Mad said:

I also find it hard to imagine people who can barely use 1/100 of Word's capabilities using that thing.

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Me neither. That's why I made the video, showing how. (rather than just talking about the program, like in a review)

Think of Book Writer as a great gift with too much wrapping paper (for some people). Once it's off, it's off, then you only ever see the gift from there.

I'm actually really excited to see what it becomes in the future. I'd like to see it make use of some kind of modern interface (like Word 2007, or some of the Adobe CS4 programs, which even have a brightness slider that changes the entire interface), and some kind of Dark Room (screenshot) feature, that shuts out everything but what you're writing, and barely shows your wallpaper behind it. (note: don't actually use Dark Room, unless your book uses no formatting of any kind... It doesn't support bold, italics, etc)

ETA: and isn't this a self promo thread?

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Promoting what? Did you read the first post? (explaining that I didn't make this program)

Regarding the rest, you haven't watched the video, have you?

Tell me why this is different.

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Watch the video.

I specifically didn't make a list off all the features covered, because then most people would be thinking they understand what it's all about, just by reading the list (which, on paper, looks identical to every other creative writing program), and shrug the whole thing off, and leave.

See, a list would say:
-Lets you divide your book into chapters (which even sounds BAD on paper. Nobody, myself included, wants their beautiful book-document split into 20 different files, unless there's a darn good reason... and there is, but it has to be shown)
-Has better word-search and word-replace than Word
-Supports notes

After reading that, the magic/wondering is gone, and most people will just hit the browser "Back" button, and completely miss out on the goodness, thinking they quite simply understand.

But you're promoting something that will require money changing hands

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No, my intent is to show writers a great app, not "promote" something in a commercial context.