How to Write a Novel: Writing tools and software

Some authors write by hand on paper, some dictate, some use a laptop or a phone to get the words down, but at some point, you need your manuscript in electronic format on a computer file.

Software won’t write a book for you, but it can definitely help with organizing your ideas, managing your writing, and structuring your novel. Here are some tools that might help.

MS Word/Pages/Google Docs

Many writers use basic word processing options for their manuscripts. It doesn’t have to be complicated!

Turn off formatting options so you don’t get distracted by typos and grammar in the first draft.

Consider creating a document per scene or chapter, rather than just one long document, since it can become unwieldy and you might change the order of things later in the editing process.

Scrivener

I used MS Word for my first novel, but then I discovered Scrivener. I’ve used it for every book since then, both fiction and nonfiction, including this one.

As a discovery writer, I write out of order, and Scrivener makes it easy to write my scenes, add placeholders for things to write later, and drag and drop things around toward the end of the process.

Once I have a rough draft, I use the Inspector pane to make sure I’ve achieved my goals for each scene. Is there a cliff-hanger that makes the reader want to turn the page? What are some of the open questions I need to answer later?

I also use Project and Session Targets, so I can track word count per session. It turns green when you reach your goal, which helps with motivation.

You can find Scrivener at www.TheCreativePenn.com/scrivenersoftware

For a walk-through of how I use Scrivener, check out my tutorial: www.TheCreativePenn.com/scrivenertutorial

Plotting software

You can use Scrivener for plotting and outlining. It has a corkboard view and other tools that make it easy to add detail. But there are other software options if you love outlining and want to plot. I haven’t used any of these, but they are recommended by others in the writing community.

Plottr.com helps you add and arrange scenes, organize your timeline, keep a story bible up to date, and automate your outline. You can even use one of their structure templates to kick-start your story.

PlotFactory.com is a collaborative story planner that helps you organize your story universe, create rich characters, and generate plot outlines.

Granthika.co helps manage story elements and narrative structure, keeping track of people, places, things, and events. The award-winning author of Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra, who writes sprawling novels, created it when he couldn’t find software that worked for his fiction needs.

These software tools should help you write a novel, not procrastinate by filling everything in for months on end! Make sure you spend more time writing than playing with software.

AI writing tools

Artificial intelligence underpins much of the modern writer’s life, from powering Google search to improving editing software, and when the book is finished, it drives discoverability and marketing on the major online stores.

You can also use AI tools in the creation process — but, of course, I recommend using them in an ethical manner.

I sometimes use Sudowrite as a creative collaborative tool that provides all kinds of off-the-wall ideas. Sudowrite can help you brainstorm ideas, create characters and twists, expand your descriptions, experiment with different styles, and more.

You can use it to generate first-draft words from a prompt, but personally, I prefer to write my own stories in my voice and use Sudowrite more for idea generation and help with sensory description.

If you use text generation, make sure you run your manuscript through a plagiarism checker, as covered in chapter 5.5 on editing tools.

There are other AI-powered writing tools, but nothing I have found to be as useful as Sudowrite for fiction writers.

You can find Sudowrite at www.TheCreativePenn.com/sudowrite

For a walk-through of how I use Sudowrite, check out my tutorial: www.TheCreativePenn.com/sudowritetutorial

Back up your manuscript every time you write

This might seem obvious, but I frequently hear from authors who have lost hours or days of writing, sometimes even whole manuscripts, because something technical went wrong.

Make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

I write in Scrivener, but the same applies if you write in any kind of online or computer-based software. At the end of every writing session, I export my draft to .docx and save it as a new file in my Draft folder on my laptop.

I date every draft, so I end up with lots of documents within the folder, each representing the progress of the book, for example, Desecration120422.docx, Desecration130422.docx, and so on.

The Draft folder is automatically backed up on Dropbox in the cloud. I also email the file to myself every time. I do this for every writing session, and sometimes twice a day if I have two separate sessions.

This might seem a little over-the-top, but it’s like having insurance. If you have it, chances are you never have to use it. If you don’t have it, and something happens, you end up regretting it.

Questions:

• What tools do you use for writing? What are the pros and cons of them?

• What other tools might be worth trying and why?

Resources:

• Dropbox — www.TheCreativePenn.com/dropbox

• Granthika — www.granthika.co

• PlotFactory — www.PlotFactory.com

• Plottr — www.plottr.com

• Scrivener — www.TheCreativePenn.com/scrivenersoftware

• Scrivener tutorial — www.TheCreativePenn.com/scrivenertutorial

• Sudowrite — www.TheCreativePenn.com/sudowrite

• Sudowrite tutorial — www.TheCreativePenn.com/sudowritetutorial