10 Apr 2012
2 CommentsFree Novel and Fiction Writing Software
![steampunk-typewriter-a-really-old-typewriter-mike-savad[1]](https://i0.wp.com/silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/steampunk-typewriter-a-really-old-typewriter-mike-savad1.jpg?ssl=1 "Free Novel and Fiction Writing Software 2")
Free Novel and Fiction Writing Software
For working writers and amateurs alike, there are a lot of commercial products out there to help you along the way with your writing career. The problem is that many of them are very expensive or have some kind of unnecessarily steep learning curve…or both. Here is some free software you can use to write and help you along with your writing. I’m gearing this article towards fiction writers, but this software is extremely useful to writers of all types.
1. yWriter
It wasn’t until I got serious about my own writing that I realized just how awesome and powerful a tool yWriter is. It is a program for writers created by a writer. yWriter is billed as a word processor with extra features to help you organize your novel. But I think of it as more of a story management tool.
Not only can you write in it, but you can ORGANIZE with it. You can use it to break your work down by scene and chapter. You can make a database of characters, places, items and notes. In fact, of everything in this list, it is probably the most useful, versatile and powerful piece of free writing software. For each scene, you can add a description, POV characters, individual scene notes and goals. It’s all there. – http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html
2. yEdit
yEdit is a simple text editor. You can think of it as notepad but with a couple of extra features. It is very no-frills and no-nonsense. This tool is useful for those of you that need to just type. Save the editing for later. To help with that, yEdit includes a target word count feature. For example, you put in 3000 as your target word count and you can watch it count down to zero as you type the words. This is helpful if you are trying to write with a daily word quota. – http://www.spacejock.com/yEdit2.html
3. Q10
Q10 is a full screen text editor. If you do not know what that means, think of the old word processors. It takes up the entire screen leaving you free of any background distractions. Much like yEdit, this can be a great tool for those of you that need to just sit down and write. It has word count settings and a timer alarm as well. For fun, or just to change it up, it can use typing sound effects.
I use Q10 whenever I want to just write. To put that in perspective, I use yEdit when I am writing segments or scenes. I use Q10 when I just want to pound out a few thousand words with no distractions, which is typically how I start most of my writing. – http://baara.com/q10/
3.5 Dark Room
Dark Room is similar to Q10. It is also a free full-screen writing environment. I have never used it, but I see it come up often, so I’m including it here as a bonus. – http://they.misled.us/dark-room
4. Roughdraft
I LOVE Roughdraft. It’s so simple and it just works. Now, Roughdraft is no longer maintained, so it may look a little dated, but it also still works, which is the most important part. — “Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for creative writing: novels, short stories, articles, plays and screenplays. It’s designed to be as practical as possible, offering all the features you need, but without being complicated or awkward to use.” —
I found Roughdraft very useful for organizing my writing along with my notes (which Roughdraft saves along with the current file in the same directory). That is to say, I think it’s a very useful tool for when you are first developing your story and just writing out some scenes as you try to figure out what it is all going to be about. – http://www.salsbury.f2s.com/rd.htm
5. Notepad
Yes, I said it, Notepad! You don’t need anything more than that to write. Notepad files take up very little space and the interface of notepad is very minimalistic. A bunch of icons, menu items and sidebars will not distract you. I honestly do not know why people do not use it more often.
Since it’s just plain and simple text, anything you write in notepad can then be imported into any other program including all of the ones mentioned above. If Notepad is not enough, there are other notepad-like editors available free with a lot more features. I personally like Notepad++ because it has tabs, which can really help when you need multiple text files open or if you want one to write on and one to keep notes etc. You can also try Notepad2 or TED Notepad or even WordPad if you want.
Now, there are a LOT more free writing resources out there, but I wanted to keep this to the things that I use most. There are also some excellent free word processing programs out there like AbiWord and OpenOffice. I will write another article on other free programs and tools, including free online-only apps.
I have been writing articles and poetry for a good long while now, if you want to follow me on my journey to writing my very first novel, then you can start here: https://silenciobarnes.net/writing/writing-the-first-draft-of-my-first-novel-01/
For those that are curious, on this novel, I am using yWriter and yEdit heavily. That’s probably why they got the top spots on this list
![ts_solarflare_free[1]](https://silenciobarnes.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ts_solarflare_free1-220x160.jpg "ts_solarflare_free[1]")
22 Apr 2012
1 CommentWriting the First Draft of My First Novel 02
The writing hasn’t been going too well 🙁
When I started, I was on a small vacation from work. Unfortunately, when I started back up at the 9 to 5, the writing stagnated. I did do a lot of thinking about my story, and that’s good. But thinking about it ain’t writing it.
It’s not just the regular job though. I heard several times that for writers, especially discovery writers, the story might not make itself apparent until you are several thousands of words in. I can attest to that and say it is absolutely true. Approaching the 30,000-word mark, I started to finally see the beginning of the shape of my story. That disturbed me…greatly.
30,000 words is a lot of words. I did not want to think that all of this writing was for nothing. Keep in mind that I said that I am only just STARTING to see the SHAPE of my story.
That means I have 30,000 words that are pretty much worthless. And it also means that I hit a stumbling block. Everything in me wants me to just start the whole thing over from the beginning with all of the changes I need to make. I need to make my main character more of a dick. I need to start further back in the timeline than I initially started with. I need to set up the situation in a completely different way than I originally intended. I need to start from scratch.
But all of the masters have told me that I need to keep going forward. I need to finish this rough draft.
Two things here: First is that statement about going back in the timeline and the other is the idea of a rough draft.
Timeline. A constant failure of mines is thinking too far back. Stories are supposed to begin when something changes. Unfortunately, I tend to think of everything in epic scale. For instance: I had an idea for an epic fantasy series. I started writing it as I do most things. No forethought, just sit down, start typing, and see what comes out. Well, once I started typing, I started thinking of all the things that happened to lead up to that current moment. I had a female protagonist, but then I thought about her parents. What was it about them that made her who and what she was? Well, thinking of her parents led me to conjuring up an entire epic fantasy series dealing with her father and his cousin. Yes…a whole trilogy.
Plotting out that series in my mind, I THEN had an idea for an epic fantasy SERIES that dealt with the progenitor of one of the secondary characters. This would be a series that took place in the far distant past. So I started thinking on that. Overwhelmed by it all, I just gave up altogether, but I never stopped thinking about all three epic storylines. But do you see the utter madness of it? That’s why in my previous post, I said I realized that I was not ready for the epic fantasy.
And this problem of mines has come back to haunt me. Once I started realizing the shape and path of my current story, my mind just started adding to it and adding to it. I wanted this to be a single book with a beginning, middle and end. But the more I think about it and the more I create, the more there is to add. I am already thinking about setting up things that will not bear any fruit until book 3 or 4. But I haven’t even made my way through book 1 yet! It makes me want to just stop altogether.
The other thing is the rough draft. From what I can see, the terms “first” and “rough” are interchangeable. But I’m starting to suspect that discovery writers always have the burden of writing at least one extra draft. I know that when I make it through this very rough draft, it is probably not going to be anything like a coherent story. This is my rough draft. When I’m done, I’ll have to turn it into my first draft. Once I do that, then I will be able to really dig into it and start the process of putting it together correctly.
And that’s ANOTHER thing that has me frozen like a deer in the headlights. I suppose for some, this must come easy. But to me, it’s one of the hardest things I have ever attempted.
So the writing has stagnated. I started writing this post a few days weeks ago. In the meantime, I’ve been doing some writing ABOUT my story, but no actual story writing. As I stated above, the problem is that the story has changed. I don’t know how to continue with the writing.
To give an example: I figured out a few things about my main two characters, which changes everything that I have written about them previously. Now, how do I continue with what I am writing when the things I am writing about are no longer true to the story? Do you see what I’m saying?
I had three ideas to try to make it through.
I figure I could go with all three ideas. I can outline the new backstory and early chapters up until the point where I currently am, and then I can jump just a little bit forward in the story and just go from there. Of course, once I make it to the end, I can go back and rewrite the whole beginning.
Does any of that make sense? Even with my many split infinitives and sentences that begin with conjunctions? Well, it makes sense to me. And it’s for me that I’m writing this blog post…so there 😛
Oh yea, in my last post I promised you people links! I’ll add them to the next post. I’ve been sitting on this post for so long, I figured I’d just get it out. I will add some audio like I promised though 🙂
Also, if you are interested in some of the free writing software I use then check out my article here: https://silenciobarnes.net/writing/free-novel-and-fiction-writing-software/
Share this:
Like this: