Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I'm wondering if this post is likely to reveal me as being unduly thick ... but here goes:
<snip>
I think some of the specialised software already mentioned here is a better choice for normal novel writing, but for anyone considering their options such software as I describe above could be worth a look.
|
No, GMW, you do not seem obtuse at all! Quite the opposite, in fact.
I took a quick look at "your" software, and it certainly looks to be quite powerful and perhaps in some ways overkill for writing a novel, and yet not so good in other ways.(WW for example has some fairly useful character creation stuff, and tools like timeline creation for story flow is in other software.)
Certainly, if I had H&M, I'd be inclined to try using it. There is probably no single piece of novel-centric software around that suits most people - I'd love a combination of WW and MyNovel plus things like curly quotes in the WP side of things and a few other bits and pieces. The guarantee is that others will have their own preferences in software.
Initially, I was taught to at least write the novel first and then massage it into shape afterwards. That lesson has to some extent stuck, but the way my mind works ensures that I need to set things up for later events as I go, and the specialized software aids with this. I'm around 1/8th of the way in now (first turning point) and think it's progressing reasonably well. I could easily have declined to purchase MN and stuck with my faithful wordprocessor, but structuring and working on the flow would have been less straightforward.
One great example is in the character bios: I feel obliged to use the facility in the software which has room for birth, death (often not needed), physical characteristics, favourite things, etc. I've added to this by using some of the aspects of character creation from WW. I feel I know the characters far better now than previously. Not sure H&M would do this for me, but it's hard to tell from screenshots.
Cheers,