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Spectacular
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"Fair product"
Version: yWriter 5 5.2.0.5
Pros
Simple, helpful in completing your story from start to end
Cons
Packaged with Trojan. Make sure you decline the add-on and use the advance install to avoid the unwanted toolbar install.
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"Best of the bunch"
Version: yWriter 5 5.2.0.5
Pros
On the whole intuitive, and not too prescriptive.
Cons
Some features are to my mind unnecessary but they can be ignored.
Summary
Like others, I've tried a number of writing programs from Writer's Cafe to new Novelist - yWriter5, overall, is the best one.
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"It helped me to write a novel"
Version: yWriter 5 5.2.0.5
Pros
yWriter 5 helped me to keep all the vital information related to my novel in one place. Characters' info (description, bio, notes, etc.), locations, items (like Frodo's ring) - everything in the same writing environment, in the same program. Create scenes, assign them to chapters, instant word count, and your progress tracking.
Bottom line, I don't need anything else.
yWriter does what I need. After all, David Eddings wrote his novels in longhand.Cons
I didn't find any particular cons in yWriter 5. I wish it allows you to keep a list of characters open as the Storybook does, but it is not a big deal for me.
Summary
I've checked several programs, including the Writer's Cafe, Scrivener (for Windows), and Storybook 4. The first two are for the writers who write non-linear style and thus did not worked for me. I read good reviews about these programs, but found them not suitable for my purpose. I don't use index card (real or virtual) and I don't really thuse nitty reference features. Those, I think, are mostly for the research papers. The Storybook is free and its interface looks very nice, but you have to pay for the Pro edition if you want to export the files into any format. I also had problems with fonts (too tiny for me, and I couldn't figure out how to change the default)
What I needed was a way to keep a list of names, locations, scenes, something to help me track all those characters (who, where, why).
I used to keep a list of names in one spreadsheet, outline with chapter by chapter in another, list of scenes in a third, images in a separate folder. I tracked my writing time and counted words using my own forms. I've ended up with dozens of files. I had to update this file and that. I've designed a timeline for my novel in Visio. So I used Word, Excel, Visio (and Notepad).
With yWriter you don't need them. Well, the Word will be useful when you start the final editing, but until that the yWriter will keeps everything in one place. Create your scenes and take a look at the storyline - you will be able to see your timeline from different POVs. You can changes the order of scenes by dragging them around. You open a project and can easily get to the characters description to find his/her date of birth or some other details, look at the image of mountain you would like to describe, create or combine scenes into a chapter, export text as HTML or RTF or text.
There is a built-in word counter and the program follows your progress.
After testing several programs, I found the yWriter5 is the best for my needs. (I'm about to finish my 95,000-word fantasy novel!).
My advice: try several programs and look for the features you really need. If you don't know exactly what you need, no program will help you to write. The best approach will be to start writing in WriteMonkey until you encounter some problems (like too many characters, or scenes). Then you can search for a program that helps you to solve those problems. yWriter5 did exactly that for me. I'm sure Steven King doesn't use any programs, but then, again, I'm not him. Good luck.
And, by the way, thanks, Simon Haynes. Great job!
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