[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I never got on with YWriter, it's too boxy and anal for me. I hate having to fill in details in so many boxes, then do it all again in other boxes. Never tried LSB.

You already have your way of writing, your process, so this post isn't really for you, but for anyone else that comes along--I think you misunderstood YWriter. You don't, ever, enter stuff twice. You really only enter it once--that's kind of the beauty of it. The trick, if there is one, is to play with it and see how it works. There's simplicity and beauty, really, to Ywriter, and most importantly, some pretty awesome functionality.

For example--the leftmost pane's default view is the Chapter list. On the right--the scenes in that Chapter. That shows the Viewpoint, words per scene, the Scene Title, Status (Outline, Draft, 1st Edit, 2nd edit, Done), whether it's an action or reaction scene, the filename (where the RTF is located), letters (characters rather than words--I admit, tht's more anal than even I wish to be), Character list for the scene, Location(s) list, items (props, cars, etc.), the date/time the scene takes place, and the file date.

In the pane below the Chapter list, we see the Chapter Title, and the Chapter description. Immediately below that, you get a total word count, and an added today number, if any.

In the pane below the Scenes list, you have the current scene upon which you are working. The tabs allow you to see the Content; the description for the scene; the Characters, Locations, Items, Scene Notes, and the scene's Goal, Conflict and Outcome.

That's the main working interface. Like Scrivener, you can drag-drop Chapters and/or Scenes around to your heart's content.

There really is nothing--nothing--repetitive in YWriter. Granted--it's not "pretty" like Scrivener (or LSBXE, or, or, or), but it's more functional, at the heart, than Scrivener. Yes, it is, before I hear all the screaming from the diehards. For a simple example--remember that "location" tab, above? And the date/time tab? As you write your scenes, you fill in that info--this scene takes place at the bar, this scene takes place on the freeway, etc.--and YWriter constructs a timeline, for each character, where they are and when. It's absolutely invaluable if you have multiple plotlines or throughlines, and you need to track whether or not you have Character A where she is supposed to be, or whether you've written him in two different places at the same time. I can guarantee you that Scrivener (nor any other program I've found) doesn't do that. Oh, sure, YOU can laboriously and painstakingly construct a timeline...but why, when YW will do it for you?

I think that YW's only "sin" is, as I said--it's just NOT pretty.

I said this someplace before--I think it was here--but LSB XE had a lot of people adopt it, for a while, and they all raved, yadda, and the only thing it really DID was look pretty. It allowed you to change your "desktop" into all these pretty backgrounds, it had a place for you to load music, to "help you write," and images to help you conceptualize, and one or two handy things, but at the end of the day, I think its primary feature was, it made people FEEL like they were "real writers." I don't think it really did a damn thing, over than take up a ginormous amount of space. And, like most, it output RTFs. It did have a few cool-ish functions; but again, every one of those functions is in YWriter.

Now, I'm the first to admit, I have EVERY writing program, pretty much. I dunno, I have tried pretty much everything from Storyblocks to PowerStructure (which I rather like, BTW) to Scrivener, but I always find myself, when the writing really starts, falling back to YWriter.

BTW, BookCat--if you liked Randy's Goldilocks book and the Dummies book, you'd actually like YWriter, which uses the same Action/reaction, Goal, Conflict, Outcome scene (or Reaction, Dilemma, Choice, for Reaction scenes) structure--or, rather, makes provision to allow you to use it. You can mark a scene plot or subplot. You can add characters to a scene with a click.

I think it's a widely misunderstood and MADLY underappreciated piece of software, and everybody I know who says that they didn't like it or wahtever is almost ALWAYS a Scrivener user. I know that Simon will never "prettify" it, because that would likely screw with how incredibly useful and full-featured it is, but I genuinely don't know another program that does everything that YWriter lets you do--and makes it EASY for you to do.

Offered solely FWIW.

Hitch