What software do you use for writing?

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ap123

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After an unfortunate incident involving long time nerve damage, a glass of iced tea, and a fried something or other, I have a new laptop.

I've always used Word for writing. I like it, I'm comfortable with it, but now I don't want to pay to purchase it (or anything else) again.

Does anyone use Google Docs for their manuscripts? Pages? Thoughts/help?

Thank you!
 

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I use Google Docs, and have for about three or four years now. Not a lot of frills, but it does basic word processing just fine. I do notice lag before letters appear on screen once a document gets around 60-80K words (for some reason, varies by document), so when I'm drafting I start a second document around 50-60K to avoid that. I recombine the two docs when I'm editing. That's the one drawback I can think of, but it's not hard to deal with.

Things I really like about Google Docs: it saves automatically all the time, so there's virtually no danger of losing work. Once when I was trying to reformat, I even selected a whole manuscript, hit the wrong key and deleted it. Was able to retrieve it almost instantly from one of the autosaved backups. It's also handy to be able to work on any device that's online, or to work offline on my own device and have it sync up next time I reconnect.
 

ap123

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I use Google Docs, and have for about three or four years now. Not a lot of frills, but it does basic word processing just fine. I do notice lag before letters appear on screen once a document gets around 60-80K words (for some reason, varies by document), so when I'm drafting I start a second document around 50-60K to avoid that. I recombine the two docs when I'm editing. That's the one drawback I can think of, but it's not hard to deal with.

Things I really like about Google Docs: it saves automatically all the time, so there's virtually no danger of losing work. Once when I was trying to reformat, I even selected a whole manuscript, hit the wrong key and deleted it. Was able to retrieve it almost instantly from one of the autosaved backups. It's also handy to be able to work on any device that's online, or to work offline on my own device and have it sync up next time I reconnect.

Thank you, that is very helpful!

I've actually not worked with any type of cloud type thing before, but it does seem to make sense at this point. *eyes busted laptop with all the files trapped in it*
 

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Pages with iCloud is awesome. I use it and Scrivener a lot for books. My publishers who use MS Word have so far not had issues with me delivering files created, edited, tracked within pages and exported as word.doc files.

Really. It handles long documents much better than Google Docs does.

Consider getting a hardrive case from macsales.com and popping your old hard drive into it; you can retrieve your files, and you'll have a backup drive.
 

ap123

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Pages with iCloud is awesome. I use it and Scrivener a lot for books. My publishers who use MS Word have so far not had issues with me delivering files created, edited, tracked within pages and exported as word.doc files.

Really. It handles long documents much better than Google Docs does.

Consider getting a hardrive case from macsales.com and popping your old hard drive into it; you can retrieve your files, and you'll have a backup drive.

Thank you! I've been sitting and playing with Pages, it's seeming similar enough to Word to feel comfortable. Knowing it can handle long docs and no problems with conversion to Word is exactly the information I needed.

I will look up the hard drive case, thank you. I honestly wouldn't recognize a hard drive if it bit me, but I'm sure I can find a friend who can, and I'm assuming that would save $. Great tip, very appreciated :)
 

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Pages with iCloud is awesome. I use it and Scrivener a lot for books. My publishers who use MS Word have so far not had issues with me delivering files created, edited, tracked within pages and exported as word.doc files.

Really. It handles long documents much better than Google Docs does.

Consider getting a hardrive case from macsales.com and popping your old hard drive into it; you can retrieve your files, and you'll have a backup drive.
I must agree with ap123 on this one - Scrivener is a brilliant program that's built with writers in mind. I was thinking about using MS Word before I got started on my first book, but then I asked myself, "There has to be software aimed at making the management of all the data that I would organize around my creation a lot easier." Because let's face it: Depending on the genre of your work you may likely have:

  • various web sources that you're using for research,
  • texts copied from wikipedia or quora for future reference (more potential research, in other words),
  • photos and images for inspiration,
  • character sheets for your main and supporting characters.

And if you are one for managing an outline for your novel, you'd have that, too.

I wanted a solution that handled ALL of that, and I got that with Scrivener. It usually costs $40 (one-time purchase; you can sometimes find it on sale for as much as 50% off), but it's worth it.

EDIT: Regarding cloud storage, I've set up my instance of Scrivener to sync all content to my Google Drive account, allowing me to access and work on my book from both my desktop (at home, where I usually get most of my work done) and my laptop (because sometimes grabbing a table at the nearest empty lounge with wifi serves as a great place to work).
 
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mccardey

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Word. Only because it's what I'm used to.
 

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I use Word, but I'm going to be experimenting with Dragon Dictation soon. Apparently its a great way to speed up your word count.
 

writeonleanne

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I use Google Docs because I like the cross-device functionality. But I have to work on each chapter in individual documents before combining them into my final manuscript in Word. Google Docs definitely does not handle long documents well. It works for me because I prefer approaching each chapter as individual pieces. I get muddled when I try managing 60K-80K in one document, instead of broken out into different tabs. Plus I—weirdly—like writing on my phone sometimes.
 

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There's so many text based editors to choose from, and I've used most of them now, including Scrivener. It really comes down to what makes the most sense for you, your writing goals, and your budget.

Word​

Has the benefit of being the de facto standard upon which all others are based. Very powerful editing tools, but can get costly for the individual. Though I will say that if you got a new computer, you really shouldn't need to re-purchase the license as this can be re-used wth a simple call to Microsoft. The application is also cross-compatible across many operating systems.

The historical pricing model was it's downside in that it was not very cheap to get or maintain if you needed to upgrade to a new version. As many companies are moving to cloud-based licensing, and the ability now to get multiple software applications as part of a yearly subscription model has kind of changed the game here a little. For a meager $70/year, you can get a base model of Office 365 which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For that price it really don't seem that bad, but you are locked into a recurring payment.

My biggest complaint though here is that because Word has become the de facto standard, it has evolved to include many many functions. As with any software application, the more functions it houses, the heavier and bulkier the footprint becomes on your work station. I have often found Word takes a long time to load, save, and even refresh documents that are large.

Overall though, for the now cheaper price, I can see the value in using Word over other editors. Take this with a grain of salt though, because my day job pays for my applications and because of that, I can install on both my work and home computer legally without incurring an additional charge, so it's easier for me to sing the praises here. That said, there are other options out there that have certain appeal.

OpenOffice​

This is an open sourced version of Word. It has the benefit of being both free, and most of the characteristics of Microsoft Word. The downside is that if you are used to MS Word, it does require learning a new user interface (UI), but enough is similar to get the majority of people through probably 90% of what they'd done in the past.

LibreOffice​

Similar to OpenOffice, though this is the one I've not really used to any great extent. I tried it on a Linux box during testing once or thrice, but never really got serious into using it as my primary editing tool.

Pages[​

The nice this about Apple's Pages application is that it not only comes native to the OSX platform, the UI is a smooth seamless and intuitive add-on to the entire Apple experience. If you grew up on Apple, the interface is very easy to learn. It also syncs well with iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud based services, with iCloud being obviously the most seamless of the three mentioned. My personal nit here is that it does seem a bit heavy in its templates, which ironically is also my nit with Microsoft Word. What this means is that if you try and copy/paste it from the native application to anything like Notepad, EditPlus, or some other true text-based editor, code starts showing up in weird ways.

Scrivener​

I am relatively new to the Scrivener interface and design, but picked it up fairly easily. Now granted, I am probably considered by most to be something of a power user, so learning the interface was likely a bit easier for me, but the combination of features and the low cost of entry for usage is pretty sweet comparatively speaking to the standard gorilla of Microsoft Word. Now that even Microsoft has moved to a subscription based service, the price of $70/year for the entire Office suite of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint isn't as bad, but if you don't use the latter two, then it's a bit overkill. Scrivener does everything a writer could need and instead of a recurring license, its a one time cost. One of my favorite features here is that not only is it a one time purchase deal, I also love how small the footprint is. It takes up very little in the way of storage space, loads quickly, and is just a robust, smartly designed writing tool.

Google​
Docs


The advancement of cloud based services like text editing, spreadsheet like functions, and such have all come on the heels of the original cloud-based tools developed by Google. It's super slick when you need to share files and collaborate with others, because everything is available to everyone all the time. It does start to become sluggish, as others have mentioned, when either the file size gets heavier, or when there are a lot of people "collaborating" at the same time. I also am not a huge fan of cloud-based services that let you get up to 2-6GB of data on there, then say "Hey you're almost out of free storage, so sign up for our paid services."

It immediately raises red flags as kind of a bait and switch mentality, but I get the business model, and in reality, when you consider that Google is really an ad-based company, and they deliver advertisements to you based on your search history, web pages visited, and now email content, I believe it's only a mattter of time before they start scanning your online documents and start sending you ads based on that content. A little too big brother-y for me...of course I say that while still having about 6GB of data on their service, and still use their email daily even though I told myself I would stop and move to a more secure mail service, so take this review here with a modicum of a grain of salt! LOL :)
 

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Nothing fancy. MS-Word or Libre Office Writer, depending on which computer I'm using, and a lot of the time Yellowlegalpad 1.0 with remote operating system Ballpointpen 1.0 when I'm not. I do a lot of rough draft stuff on the latter system.

caw
 

ap123

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I must agree with ap123 on this one - Scrivener is a brilliant program that's built with writers in mind. I was thinking about using MS Word before I got started on my first book, but then I asked myself, "There has to be software aimed at making the management of all the data that I would organize around my creation a lot easier." Because let's face it: Depending on the genre of your work you may likely have:

  • various web sources that you're using for research,
  • texts copied from wikipedia or quora for future reference (more potential research, in other words),
  • photos and images for inspiration,
  • character sheets for your main and supporting characters.

And if you are one for managing an outline for your novel, you'd have that, too.

I wanted a solution that handled ALL of that, and I got that with Scrivener. It usually costs $40 (one-time purchase; you can sometimes find it on sale for as much as 50% off), but it's worth it.

EDIT: Regarding cloud storage, I've set up my instance of Scrivener to sync all content to my Google Drive account, allowing me to access and work on my book from both my desktop (at home, where I usually get most of my work done) and my laptop (because sometimes grabbing a table at the nearest empty lounge with wifi serves as a great place to work).

This is helpful, thank you. :)

Word. Only because it's what I'm used to.

I'm used to it, too. The prospect of different software is as terrifying as a different computer to my luddite self.

I use Word, but I'm going to be experimenting with Dragon Dictation soon. Apparently its a great way to speed up your word count.
Thank you!

Word and Scrivener
Thank you.

Thank you.

I use Google Docs because I like the cross-device functionality. But I have to work on each chapter in individual documents before combining them into my final manuscript in Word. Google Docs definitely does not handle long documents well. It works for me because I prefer approaching each chapter as individual pieces. I get muddled when I try managing 60K-80K in one document, instead of broken out into different tabs. Plus I—weirdly—like writing on my phone sometimes.

Ok, it's looking like Google Docs is not going to be for me, which helps.

There's so many text based editors to choose from, and I've used most of them now, including Scrivener. It really comes down to what makes the most sense for you, your writing goals, and your budget.


Word​


Has the benefit of being the de facto standard upon which all others are based. Very powerful editing tools, but can get costly for the individual. Though I will say that if you got a new computer, you really shouldn't need to re-purchase the license as this can be re-used wth a simple call to Microsoft. The application is also cross-compatible across many operating systems.

The historical pricing model was it's downside in that it was not very cheap to get or maintain if you needed to upgrade to a new version. As many companies are moving to cloud-based licensing, and the ability now to get multiple software applications as part of a yearly subscription model has kind of changed the game here a little. For a meager $70/year, you can get a base model of Office 365 which includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For that price it really don't seem that bad, but you are locked into a recurring payment.

My biggest complaint though here is that because Word has become the de facto standard, it has evolved to include many many functions. As with any software application, the more functions it houses, the heavier and bulkier the footprint becomes on your work station. I have often found Word takes a long time to load, save, and even refresh documents that are large.

Overall though, for the now cheaper price, I can see the value in using Word over other editors. Take this with a grain of salt though, because my day job pays for my applications and because of that, I can install on both my work and home computer legally without incurring an additional charge, so it's easier for me to sing the praises here. That said, there are other options out there that have certain appeal.

OpenOffice​

This is an open sourced version of Word. It has the benefit of being both free, and most of the characteristics of Microsoft Word. The downside is that if you are used to MS Word, it does require learning a new user interface (UI), but enough is similar to get the majority of people through probably 90% of what they'd done in the past.

LibreOffice​

Similar to OpenOffice, though this is the one I've not really used to any great extent. I tried it on a Linux box during testing once or thrice, but never really got serious into using it as my primary editing tool.

Pages[​

The nice this about Apple's Pages application is that it not only comes native to the OSX platform, the UI is a smooth seamless and intuitive add-on to the entire Apple experience. If you grew up on Apple, the interface is very easy to learn. It also syncs well with iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud based services, with iCloud being obviously the most seamless of the three mentioned. My personal nit here is that it does seem a bit heavy in its templates, which ironically is also my nit with Microsoft Word. What this means is that if you try and copy/paste it from the native application to anything like Notepad, EditPlus, or some other true text-based editor, code starts showing up in weird ways.

Scrivener​

I am relatively new to the Scrivener interface and design, but picked it up fairly easily. Now granted, I am probably considered by most to be something of a power user, so learning the interface was likely a bit easier for me, but the combination of features and the low cost of entry for usage is pretty sweet comparatively speaking to the standard gorilla of Microsoft Word. Now that even Microsoft has moved to a subscription based service, the price of $70/year for the entire Office suite of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint isn't as bad, but if you don't use the latter two, then it's a bit overkill. Scrivener does everything a writer could need and instead of a recurring license, its a one time cost. One of my favorite features here is that not only is it a one time purchase deal, I also love how small the footprint is. It takes up very little in the way of storage space, loads quickly, and is just a robust, smartly designed writing tool.

Google​
Docs

The advancement of cloud based services like text editing, spreadsheet like functions, and such have all come on the heels of the original cloud-based tools developed by Google. It's super slick when you need to share files and collaborate with others, because everything is available to everyone all the time. It does start to become sluggish, as others have mentioned, when either the file size gets heavier, or when there are a lot of people "collaborating" at the same time. I also am not a huge fan of cloud-based services that let you get up to 2-6GB of data on there, then say "Hey you're almost out of free storage, so sign up for our paid services."

It immediately raises red flags as kind of a bait and switch mentality, but I get the business model, and in reality, when you consider that Google is really an ad-based company, and they deliver advertisements to you based on your search history, web pages visited, and now email content, I believe it's only a mattter of time before they start scanning your online documents and start sending you ads based on that content. A little too big brother-y for me...of course I say that while still having about 6GB of data on their service, and still use their email daily even though I told myself I would stop and move to a more secure mail service, so take this review here with a modicum of a grain of salt! LOL :)

And what I can learn without panicking. ;) But yes, you're absolutely right. I'm glad I asked the question, bc the answers are really helping me to narrow in on what to look into further based on how I write. Thank you, your summaries are very helpful!

Nothing fancy. MS-Word or Libre Office Writer, depending on which computer I'm using, and a lot of the time Yellowlegalpad 1.0 with remote operating system Ballpointpen 1.0 when I'm not. I do a lot of rough draft stuff on the latter system.

caw

I'm definitely not looking for fancy, just idiot proof ;) Oddly enough I use a similar system to yours for notes and outlines, the BlackandWhiteCompositionBook 2.0 with the Number2Graphite 1.0 remote.
Thank you!
 

Chasing the Horizon

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I've been using Scrivener pretty much since it was released and love it for the organizational power, its ability to handle extremely long documents effortlessly (I have one Scrivener project with over 500k words in it), and its Mac-inspired interface. It's totally and completely different from Word, though, so might be a big learning curve for someone who's used to Word.

Most people I know who like Word but didn't want to pay for it use LibreOffice instead. It's apparently very similar and also very stable on all platforms.
 

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Can I use Scribus or Scrivener for preparing manuscripts for POD services and for e-books? Are they also good for developing your first/second/etc drafts?

I use GIMP to design my cover art and LibreOffice to write and prepare my manuscripts. But I think I want to branch out. I've heard a lot about Scribus, Scrivener, and Latex. Also, GIMP is annoying for CMYK files (but awesome for everything else).
 

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Scribus is a more-or-less WYSIWYG page layout program, roughly equivalent to Adobe InDesign. It has fairly decent handling for CMYK separations and some support for spot colours. Its primary export format is PDF, and there are no built-in methods for exporting other ebook formats (unless it's been added in the most recent versions—I'm still on 1.4.6), so if you want to use it for that, you'll need plugins or an additional toolchain. It's good for working stuff up for print, although it used to get really laggy when presented with a long document (haven't tried that in a while). If you're actually doing layout for print with open-source software, GIMP + Inkscape + (text editor or word processor) -> Scribus is a common workflow.

LaTeX (yes, it's capitalized that way) is a typesetting language originally developed for publishing academic papers. It is not itself a program, although there are several programs for working with it, with differing degrees of WYSIWYGness. It's extremely flexible, but the entry barrier is high. Export formats will vary from program to program, but again, PDF is common. Some print publishers may accept LaTeX files directly.

Neither is really suited for developing first drafts in (it isn't impossible, but they're more awkward to use than most word processors).
 
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James W

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Guys, if you haven't tried Scrivener, you really should.

It's not super-intuitive and takes a little while to get going with it. But, if you put in the time to learn it, it really pays off.

As other people have stated, it actually works out cheaper than Word these days, which is kind of ironic as it does a heck of a lot more.

If you want to save even more money, there are usually some good deals and discounts available over at scrivenerville.com/.

One of my favourite reasons for using Scrivener is the ability to set a quantified writing target and then clearly see my progress towards it. Pretty cool if you ask me!
 

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I also like Scrivener. I would recommend new users stick to the blank template, which offers a shallower learning curve.
 

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I prefer Word myself. I have no qualms with Open Office/Libre Office, but, one thing about them, is that although they are file compatible with MS Office files, advanced formatting is not compatible, and does not come out the same when you switch one over to the other. So, if you use one, stick to one.

One note though - for Ipad users, the MS Word app is free, and it is nearly fully functional, more so than the free online Word that comes with your MSN account. Couple it up with a keyboard, and it can be a viable alternative to a desktop or laptop with a paid version of MS Office. I actually use it for quick edits and typing short blurbs when I'm on the road or sitting on the can.
 

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While at home on my desktop, I use Scrivener to do my writing. That's also what I use to organize my story.

Everywhere else, I use Google Docs. Docs is great because I can use it on any computer with an internet connection. I use it to write during my down time at work and on my phone while riding the bus.

Scapple is another program I use, albeit not for the writing itself. Rather, I use it to organize my thoughts.
 
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