Writing Software

[Anastasia]

Hi Everyone,
I have a terrible imagination - I find it very slow to come up with ideas and my brain gets terribly distracted (I have a neurological problem which doesn't help). Anyway, because I've found various tools useful in my degree course, I thought I'd have a look for something to help my writing.

The software I've been playing with is called NewNovellist2.

Has anyone else had any experience of it? It gives you some questions to ask about your characters and scenarios (to fill in their backstory, that sort of thing) and then it gives some suggested chapter outlines for different types of stories. I bought it because of a review which said words to the effect: "If you're the sort of writer who tends to play Spider Solitaire rather than writing, buy this package, so at least when you twiddle at the computer, you are achieving something useful to do with your writing".

My plan is to use it as a structure for my twiddling, get a better idea of chapter structures (how long they should be, what fits in them etc) and then probably abandon the whole thing and go off on my own tangent. Which is kind of what I do, LOL

[flynx]

I :heart: spider solitaire.

I :loath: things that tell me how I should organise. Being unorganised (and scruffy to boot) I shy away from things that try to stop me from being lazy too.

Whenever I try to prepare the 'proper' way: plot lines, character keys, chapter headings I usually find that they drain my enthusiasm for the project and prevent me from actually writing (very much like Spider solitaire)

This may just be me and one day I'll find a method I've rejected for years that actually helps. (Like disdaining Eminem for years and then suddenly finding that I actually quite like his work)


As the saying goes: If the cap fits.

[Dragonlady]

I used new novelist for the first novel i completed a draft for, it helped me to shape the plan as I'd never written something that long before. Just see if it helps you, and don't stick rigidly to it, if it's easier to do your planning/writing somewhere else, but you like the advice of the programme, it can still be very useful, that's basically what I did.