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Old 06-13-2012, 12:17 PM   #114
DarkScribe
Apprentice Curmudgeon.
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Posts: 427
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Runaway Bay, QLD, , Australia
Device: Kindle DX Graphite, Touch, Paperwhite, Sony, and Nook.
There is no software that will improve the ability to write in a creative sense, though some programs make the writing process a little easier.

Dramatica is a good example of a failed concept - I have yet to meet anyone who has been enthused by it. You effectively have to have the whole book - plot and characters - developed before you can use it. For anyone who allows the characters to develop at their own pace such a program is ineffective. Writer's Blocks is useful to some but it is basically a simplified version of Scrivener - and it costs more. Character Writer seems pointless to me, I don't want to psychoanalyse my characters, just describe what is necessary about them. Sometimes when I read a novel from a new author who spends paragraph after paragraph describing the personality and psychological motivations of their characters I wonder whether they have purchased Character Writer and are determined to justify the purchase.

Many advise against using Word - I have no idea why as it is fine. You can open a new file for each section or chapter if necessary. The output is not suited to conversion to many eBook formats, but that is only if you output the file as a Word file and not as an HTML or Rich Text file. I use Word, and once I reach a certain stage, well past the first draft, I might use Scrivener to make changes that are more than minor edits. What I do find useful is having two screens, one for writing in, the other for research, notes, music etc. With some work, to give finer control over layout with text that has a lot of images, tables etc., I will use Adobe's InDesign.
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