Writing Programs

[Schutzstaffel]

I really like minimal writing programs and I don't like to write in the tiny posts boxes. The best for me are ones that remove all the clutter and just leave you with a fullscreen of your words. So I am going to share these with the guild because I'm sure a lot of people don't know about their existence. If you prefer some other program with more organizational features for novelists and such, feel free to share them here.

PyRoom
Linux only
I like PyRoom. It lacks some features but it is what it is, a barebones writing environment.

PyRoom

FocusWriter
Linux, Windows, OSX
FocusWriter is my absolute favorite. It features a robust theme customization. For example have a look at some themes this person developed. There is also a really neat feature with focus writer that relays typewriter sounds as you press down keys and press enter to make a new line. Also there is goal settings. So you can measure your performance. You can set a word limit that you want to hit, or just a time limit that you want to stay focused writing for.

FocusWriter

WriteMonkey
Windows
WriteMonkey is for windows only. And If I used windows I would use WriteMonkey. It is feature rich with a large thesaurus, customizable themes, customizable typing sounds and progress tracking. There are also many community created plugins!

WriteMonkey

Well that's all for now, there are many others. I just wanted to introduce a few. I hppe you give them a try and see how they really help with your writing. Again if you prefer a more feature-rich novelist program with chapter, plot, character organization-features share your experiences and recommendations!

[mdk]

I use Liquid Story Binder. It's not exactly intuitive, but it's extremely powerful. Highlights are you can add chapters, notes, timelines, character profiles, pictures, music, and more to a single 'workspace,' call them up and manage them in a 'planner', assemble the chapters in a 'builder' and rearrange them at will.... it's cool stuff. But it is hard as hell to figure it out.

[Elsa]

Late to the thread I know but Scrivener is my best friend.

[Ellri]

We generally just use LibreOffice for single-user posts and Google Docs for collabs. With a bit of modification, google docs look pretty good too. We've got ours with nice dark gray background, with typically forest-green text on it.

[mbl]

For writing RP content, I will generally either go with Microsoft Office Word or Notepad++ for simple convenience, but when I am writing stories on my own I use spacejock's ywriter, it is a story organize similar to the one mdk posted.