Tools of the Writer's Trade

This one's mostly for authors

[if only I could get all my “writing tools” working together like this… apparently cherubs help]

Good questions focus me and get my thoughts flowing. That’s a good topic for a post of its own, but too late for that now, I’m already focused and flowing in the direction of a good question! This one was posed by a member of PRESS, our online writers’ group that meets twice a week on Zoom, and which will soon have its own Substack.

The author said,

“I’m tired of Grammarly and have been trying to decide which software to switch to… Scrivener is a bit overwhelming, The Novel Factory requires paid subscription, Focuswriter only seems good for first drafts, ProWritingAid has great reviews, but what about Hemingway?… I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks for letting me pick your brain.”

My reply, lightly edited for your reading pleasure:

Unfortunately, aside from Scrivener, I don't have personal experience with those apps because I've never used them (I wade in barefoot!). But colleagues and clients do talk about them, and this is what I've heard: 

• Scrivener: I love this beast. Years ago I took a Joseph Michael webinar to learn how to use it, and it helped hugely. Since then, his webinar has grown into an online course; I’m sure it’s well worth the money. He is a great teacher. If you're interested in his all-the-frills training+coaching, get on his mailing list and wait until he offers it for at least 30% off. He offered an 80% discount at one point, during the couple of years I was keeping an eye on his promotional emails, but he said that was a one-time deal and I believe him. Discounts will come around if you're willing to wait six months to a year for the opportunity.

  • I’m no Joseph Michael, but I can show you some things on Scrivener myself. Perhaps we could do an online PRESS event on a weekend? We could call it "Let's Play with Scrivener!" I'll share the idea with a couple of colleagues who might want to join us.¹ You never know who might be a secret Scrivener maven!

• The Novel Factory: meh. I've heard very little about it, and none of it counts as "praise." So, not enough data to form an opinion, but also not enough common enthusiasm out there to make me curious enough to seek the opinion-forming data. I hope that makes sense. 

• Focuswriter: you are my sole source for this one. Never heard of it. Tell me more, when you've used it for a while! 

• ProWritingAid: this gets good buzz from authors, and from my editor-colleagues (except for those who are morally opposed to editorial usurpation OF ANY KIND from apps and bots). So yes, for some reason, this is "good." Worth a look, might be worth an investment if it's in your budget. Maybe. Share your opinion when you have one.

• Autocrit: authors either love it or hate it, and I don't know why. I mean, I hear detailed praise, but the criticism is general or ambiguous. Might have something to do with the user interface, which does not sound super friendly. Maybe Linux and Windows people like it but Mac people don't? Because it is a more Windows-native UX? Purely guessing here. I'm not even sure I'm right about the user distribution. Maybe I'm wrong and Mac folks predominate! It's supposed to be a powerful tool, much more so than Grammarly or ProWritingAid, but also a bit cult-y, possibly because you have to join a user group to figure the damn thing out! ;-) Everyone who loves it seems to belong to an online Autocrit-focused writing group of one kind or another. Consider such a group part of the cost of the app. I have never even visited its website, but my impression is that it is NOT cheap. Autocrit users have their own lingo; the app gets really technical, both tech-wise and linguistic-analysis-wise.

• Grammarly Premium: see ProWritingAid. The two seem to be in a healthy competition, and very similar to one another, even in cost (maybe?)... but I'd love to have a Grammarly fan and a PWA fan disabuse me of that notion while they fight it out. ;-) 

• Marlowe: just heard Troy Lambert talk about it. It's new, AI-enhanced, and can even help you with your story structure and scene structure (similar to Autocrit in that respect, but in normal chatbot-English?). I know nothing else about it. Troy said it sounded impressive. 

• Bear: I bought this app years ago, since it had so many strong reviews and recommendations. It's supposed to help you write on your phone or tablet, then export to Word or Pages or Scrivener for editing and final document creation. The few persons I know who still love it use it on an iPad to write during their bus or train commute. Its magic didn't work on me. Unless you write a LOT on your phone, Bear probably isn't for you either. I use Notes instead for drafting things on my phone, it's a free iOS app, similar to TextEdit on the Mac, but with simple folders to provide some level of in-app organization of your Notes (You can pin notes to the top in each folder too). On the Mac I do use TextEdit for drafting: it’s a bare-bones no-frills ASCII text editor with a few pleasant surprises just when you think "Of course, it won't have this feature." (But you'll usually be right… like Notes, it has humble aspirations —and achieves them perfectly.)

• Plottr Pro: I am experimenting with this right now, and I love it. It doesn’t help with the actual prose, it helps organize scenes and themes and ideas! The company is very small (but growing!) and the software has had occasional problems with synchronizing and back-end stuff. (Fixed now, afaik) But I love the features, the visual nature of it, and the infinite expandability of any story without losing track of the plot lines and overall story arc. And the slowly growing collection of story beat and story structure templates is intriguing and fun to play with. I am doing a structural edit for a client right now and I am tracking five separate plotlines with no trouble at all. It’s the best tool I’ve ever found for making a proper working synopsis.

• Prezi: another visual tool that I love, but it’s too easy for me to get lost in it. The online app is easy to use, but even after years of development it isn’t resident on a computer, so it can’t be used offline (not very well anyway). Beautiful presentation tool, interesting brainstorming and planning tool… but not great for writing in general. 

I hope this helps somewhat. I would love to have your perspective & opinion on any of these, and any other tools you might run across. 

Grace and good tools to you,

—Nic

1. Consider yourself one of those colleagues! Interested in collaborating, on this or something else? Email me: Nic@WordsmithWritingCoaches.com