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Tip Tuesday #39

Hello all - I hope you had a great holiday weekend! I have another fabulous tip from S. Kyle Davis today. Please check out his website and blog on your way out.

Ok, I'll make this short and sweet. Go get this software. I just downloaded it, and it's the coolest software I've seen for writers. I've seen some fancy stuff with plot assistance and all that sort of thing, but honestly I tend to find that sort of thing tiresome. This is simply a project editor. And it's free.

The software eliminates the problems of having either a single huge file that tends to get corrupted, or else a bunch of tiny files that you can't navigate through. It works by creating a number of .rtf files on the back end, but as far as you're concerned, you can edit through this software, including global find/replace.

It will also help you keep track of characters, important items, locations, etc. It doesn't take long to enter all the basic info for your characters (if you enter the goals, etc., it may take longer), and then you just use the "automatically add characters" command, and it links everything up. There is even a "problem words" tool that helps you find overused words, etc.

I actually had the idea for software like this, but didn't have the programming chops to do it. I'm so glad someone else has done it!

http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

I tried an earlier version of this software and it was pretty darn cool. PageFour is another free writing software I've played around with. It can be nice to get out of Word and try some features geared just toward writers. Thanks Kyle!!

14 comments:

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Thanks for the info, Casey. Going to look at it now.

Matthew MacNish said...

Ooh, what a cool idea! I'll have to check it out.

Unknown said...

It is definitely cool software. As I mentioned in this post, it's especially great for editing and trimming down once you have a draft of the novel written.

Thanks Casey for the link!

Kristine Asselin said...

I used the Ywriter software to draft my wip. It's pretty darn cool, even though I don't use all the features. Just to be able to write in scenes/sections without having to page down every time, is a lifesaver. Go check it out!

Anonymous said...

Wow, awesome. Downloading this tonight.

PJ Hoover said...

Thanks for the tip, Casey!

SJ Stone said...

Sounds interesting. I have tons of little notepad files and notes jotted down in a couple of Moleskins. I like the old-school method, but at the same time, I'm always open to 'better'. We'll see.

Tahereh said...

how cool!!

thanks for another great tip, Casey! and a big thanks to S. Kyle Davis as well!!

Empress Awesome said...

Wow, I've seen something like this before! I actually downloaded it too, but it there's a lot of prep work involved and it felt like a long questionnaire to me, but it was still pretty cool.

kathrynjankowski said...

It looks like this is for PCs, not Macs. Guess we'll have to stick with Scrivener. ;-)

Unknown said...

@Empress: The good thing about this software is that you don't have to do all the question stuff unless you want to. The best part of the tool is just the chapter/scene division, which keeps each scene as a separate file. This helps prevent having huge files which can easily become corrupted.

Unknown said...

Oh, and thanks everyone! Glad y'all found it useful. :-)

Heather Kelly said...

This sounds wonderful. I have tons of little files all over the place, and if I don't write for a few days, I forget where everything is. Thanks for the tip!!

Martina Boone said...

Awesome! Another great tip. Stopping by your blog always gives me new ideas :) Many thanks to S. Kyle Davis and you, Casey!

Marissa