The Writer’s Life: Tools of the Trade
Blacksmiths have their hammers and anvils, bakers their whisks and ovens. As for we writers, well, we have tools too. I’ve used a number of them and I still use more than one. Frankly, I’m not certain I’d want just one software to do all my tasks. I need tools that allow me to get right into what I want to accomplish, then stay out of my way.
If you’re new to writing or have been dabbling at it for a while, I have a few suggestions that may prove helpful. The first thing I’d recommend is the very place I started. And it’s a good place to start because it speaks the language all young writers appreciate: Free. The software is called yWriter. And it was developed by a programmer to meet his needs as an author. I haven’t used this in several years, but it’s definitely worth your checking out.
As far as my current usage goes, I use Scrivener.1 content example. subscript content example. There is a little bit of a learning curve when you first start using it, so I may do something of a tutorial article in the future. It’ll cost you $59.99, but this is my preferred software. While I use it for a fraction of what it’s capable of, I’ve never felt like it hindered me in any way.
Take a look at a screenshot from my writing this article:
You can spend an absurd amount of time changing colors and different details about the program’s layout, but this example is just a simple theme called ‘Solarized Light.’ They have eight alternate themes that provide some extra variety, but again, my aim is something that’s unobtrusive. And ‘Solarized Light’ is that for me.
I’ve also included those test highlight colors. This is something I plan to touch on in a separate article, but these calm highlights are so good. When I’m writing novel scenes, I write in highlights to remind myself of the POV. This was just a thing I started doing to help my own writing, but it’s a technique I find unusable in something like Word. The colors there are too harsh and distracting. But trying to use this technique in both Scrivener and Word really makes you appreciate Scrivener’s color choices.
The next thing I’ll mention is something you may already have. It’s called OneNote, and it’s attached to the Microsoft Suite. If you already have it, it’s worth investigating. I tried it for a while, but it was before I grew serious with my writing. It has a tabbing system and let’s you make layers of notes. I remember liking the flexibility but wanted a little more structure for my drafting. It still looks like a great aid for school or getting projects organized, so I may give it another look one day.
Up next is Obsidian. Another great software that speaks that universal love language of ‘free,’ and honestly, I have no idea why this is free. This is the second of the two softwares I actively use and I use it alongside Scrivener. Scrivener could absolutely meet my note taking needs, but honestly, I wouldn’t give up Obsidian for any other software.
This is where I keep and log my story bible—the book of lore and events that span Twilight Wolf’s series. Here’s a glimpse of something called the Canvas:
Don’t worry so much about the details—some of those notes are outdated—but check out the mapping you can do. This is a very small section of this board, which is basically a cork board. I use this to map out ideas and show their relationships to one another. And if you’re a plotter and like to map out your story’s structure, have a look at this one:
This image is zoomed out, but the horizontal bars in each colored block is signaling information within. This is just a high overview of my story’s structure, but rest assured that each block contains hashed out details of events that happen in those separate acts. The Canvas section is very intuitive. It’s extremely simple to create new text boxes, change their shape/color, and create interconnections between them. Before you know it, you can have your own sprawling map of related things!
This is another software that does far more than I’ll ever use it for. There isn’t much of a learning curve with this one, but it does have some Markdown-knowhow that will greatly expand its usefulness when organizing your notes. I recommend checking out this YouTube playlist. This YouTuber is very pleasing to listen to and he does such a great job explaining how things works. I only watched the first two videos, but you really need very little to get up and running with this software.
The next tidbit I have for you is a free website, which has a rather niche function that I use on occasion. The site is wordcounter.net, but here’s the feature I use it for:
Drop a block of text in the text window and check your keyword density. You can select your most frequently used words and they will highlight. With this you can check how close repeat words are to one another. Early on, word variety was one of my weakness and it really stands out when words show up too often. If in doubt, give this feature a try. It certainly can’t hurt!
The last thing I’ll mention is ProWritingAid/Grammarly. I believe these essentially do the same thing and while I’ve never used Grammarly, I do own ProWritingAid (PWA). Basically, these programs can help clean up your writing. Initially, I used it constantly, but I use it a lot less often these days. You can freely use PWA in 500 word blocks. Just switch out sections of your writing if your work is longer than the 500 word max.
You can unlock some extra features and an unlimited word count if you want to drop $30 for a month or $120 for the year. Both softwares have similar pricing and are browser based. Just use whatever meets the needs of your writing and budget.
But that’s all I’ve got to share for this one. I’ve tried a few other programs, but seeing as how I didn’t find them noteworthy, I chose not to include them. I’ve got several other topics in mind and pending for future articles. If you have a particular writing detail that you’d like my opinion on, feel free to ask about it. I’d be happy to share my thoughts.
Until then, happy writing!
JT
End Notes:
- Scrivener is an affiliate link.
