Write Your Own Novel - Professional

I have three main issues with it. The Submission tracker is great but is linked to the story - it would have been brilliant if it also had the option just to work as a tracker independently so you didn't have to open the story to work with the tracker.

This software could seriously do with a Grammar checker. It has spelling and thesaurus and the readability check will give you a word count but usually the most basic word processor comes with some sort of grammar checker included now and considering the price you feel cheated that one isn't included. On a side note regarding the price, having used the professional version I cannot imagine what good the standard would be despite the cheaper £ tag.

You can write into it no problem and export into an rtf file that any other software can open. The trouble with this is that it uses plain punctuation eg: straight 'quotes'. This is all very well but most word processing software types with curly quotes and the option to use the better format of punctuation would be nice as most WP software doesn't give you the option to then change it unless you want to plough manually through the document. It also exports in what they call a submission layout. Though close, the layout isn't perfect and not exactly what every publisher wants. The really annoying thing about this though is if you've done a couple of returns to indicate a paragraph the software changes this into double line spacing as well so each paragraph is exported with GREAT gaps in between. For it to work correctly you have to get used to typing all the lines right under each other and relying on the software to convert it for you.

The 'help' is about as helpful as any software - in other words you learn how to use by fiddling about most of the time and by looking at the example. Still, it's pleasant to work with - but a heads up to the designers - some add-on's would be great!


excellent tool for real writers   July 30, 2005
 25 out of 30 found this review helpful

This software is NOT for the writer who needs to be led by the nose through a formula for designing a piece of fiction; it won't provide you with a bunch of formulas or standard plots like so many of the other writer's software packages do. It's not intended to be a coach or trainer. This program is designed for the actual writing and for keeping all your notes, ideas, etc., in one place. This is a great convenience.

The outliner is very good both for checking sequence of events and chapters, as well as for navigation.

The links are very useful.

The interface is plain and pleasing without any flashiness. Programs like this don't need flash.

Programs like this also don't need all the bells and whistles of a "real" word processor, and this program doesn't have them. It's about writing, not playing with formatting toys and other fluff.

I've been using this software in various versions for about 2 years--it suits my way of working better than any other (and I've tried many). There are parts that I don't use, or don't use much, but that's standard with most software of any type--ignore the bits you don't need.

Over all, this is an excellent tool at a reasonable price.