Let's create profiles, look inside, and see what I see. What works, what’s clunky, what’s beautiful, and what just doesn’t cut it if you’re someone like me—an author building massive worlds who needs
I was a big obsidian fan till I moved to mac and discovered Ulysses. I use ulysses now for drafting, it's clean and simple and does just enough to get words down in a distraction free way that syncs well between machines.
I just this last week setup an old ipad with keyboard case to ONLY run Ulysses, it's locked down to that single app. Turn it on ulysses is there, can't even get to the home screen :) But wifi is on and it syncs to my desktop.
I convert drafts from there into scrivener which I much prefer for editing and revising with some of the powerful features it has for those tasks. It's much more analytical and clinical, just what I don't need when I'm trying to get a first draft done.
I'd heard about 2/3rd of them and tried eight of them. Had minimal success with most of them because if I didn't think about them, I'd just suddenly find myself writing stuff down in Google Docs again. But a couple of years ago, I finally discovered the one that works for me and my brain:
Novelcrafter.
I have done more actual, focused writing with Novelcrafter than at any other time in my life. A weird thing I love that surprisingly really clicks with me is that I color code certain characters using the Codex. When they show up anywhere in the story (or affiliated characters that I've also labeled with that main character's color), it just pops on the page. You can just SEE and feel how often you are mentioning your character's name or associated characters. It just makes subconsciously tracking them infinitely more intuitive.
My previous attempt at a go-to app was Scrivener, and I have TRIED to love it, because it just does so much stuff. But... like you said... the aesthetics of the interface just make me groan every time I load it up. I found Novelcrafter gives me the same feeling of possibility as Scrivener, but with a beautiful aesthetic. I have been using Novelcrafter since the beta, and I'm continually amazed and heartened by how responsive the design team (one person, mostly) is, and how many cool and useful features keep getting added. I'm confident that all the stuff I wish Novelcrafter had will eventually (and soon) be part of it.
My other current go-to tool is Obsidian, but I don't use it for any writing, per se. I use it as the Wiki for my world. Again, kind of covering a lot of the same "dump it all in" ground that Scrivener offers, but in a far more elegant interface and one that's infinitely customizable. TOO customizable, to be honest, but even the version that I have set up half-heartedly is pretty cool, and I love how hyperlinkable it is. I suppose I should store a version of each finished chapter so it can be as wonderfully hyperlinked, kind of like the Novelcrafter Codex.
I have a feeling that in the next year that Novelcrafter is going to do all the stuff that I like in Obsidian. When Novelcrafter allows for plug-ins, especially for Codex items, it'll be a game-changer. Give me an option to do maps, or family trees, or timelines. Give me a clock or calendar I can link to chapters or scenes.
Based on my love of Novelcrafter and Obsidian, are there any apps I should look at that I might not have sampled? Here's my list of those I've used- Obsidian, Scrivener, Novelcrafter, FirstDraftPro, Novlr, Sudowrite, Storywriter Pro, Evernote. Many of these I haven't used in years, so I don't know how well they've evolved in recent days.
What a great list. Thanks for doing this research. I have Scrivener but I don't use it, although I've tried. Not sure why it doesn't work for me - other than it feels clunky. I end up returning to Word and organizing my files in Documents folders. I prefer to write on my laptop, so that system works for me. I may explore StorywriterPro. I like its minimal and uncluttered look and like that it offers writing sprints and stats. I especially like that it's a one-time payment.
Why does this say tested 22 tools but by the time I read to the third one it wasn't tested at all? Just drop the count or change the title or something. I thought this was really weird.
I'm one of those who will swear by Scrivener, especially because it's one of the only options where you pay $50 and it's yours for life. Also, about half these options you listed are mimics of Scrivener with their own little twist on it. Scrivener is well worth the money and not too hard to learn.
Which of these have you never heard of before? What's your fave tool right now?
I'm writing in Autocrit. It's basic, but I like the progress monitoring and the built-in pomodoro timer with musical breaks.
I was a big obsidian fan till I moved to mac and discovered Ulysses. I use ulysses now for drafting, it's clean and simple and does just enough to get words down in a distraction free way that syncs well between machines.
I just this last week setup an old ipad with keyboard case to ONLY run Ulysses, it's locked down to that single app. Turn it on ulysses is there, can't even get to the home screen :) But wifi is on and it syncs to my desktop.
I convert drafts from there into scrivener which I much prefer for editing and revising with some of the powerful features it has for those tasks. It's much more analytical and clinical, just what I don't need when I'm trying to get a first draft done.
Interesting mix that seems to work for me.
For now. ;)
that's a very helpful approach :)
I'd heard about 2/3rd of them and tried eight of them. Had minimal success with most of them because if I didn't think about them, I'd just suddenly find myself writing stuff down in Google Docs again. But a couple of years ago, I finally discovered the one that works for me and my brain:
Novelcrafter.
I have done more actual, focused writing with Novelcrafter than at any other time in my life. A weird thing I love that surprisingly really clicks with me is that I color code certain characters using the Codex. When they show up anywhere in the story (or affiliated characters that I've also labeled with that main character's color), it just pops on the page. You can just SEE and feel how often you are mentioning your character's name or associated characters. It just makes subconsciously tracking them infinitely more intuitive.
My previous attempt at a go-to app was Scrivener, and I have TRIED to love it, because it just does so much stuff. But... like you said... the aesthetics of the interface just make me groan every time I load it up. I found Novelcrafter gives me the same feeling of possibility as Scrivener, but with a beautiful aesthetic. I have been using Novelcrafter since the beta, and I'm continually amazed and heartened by how responsive the design team (one person, mostly) is, and how many cool and useful features keep getting added. I'm confident that all the stuff I wish Novelcrafter had will eventually (and soon) be part of it.
My other current go-to tool is Obsidian, but I don't use it for any writing, per se. I use it as the Wiki for my world. Again, kind of covering a lot of the same "dump it all in" ground that Scrivener offers, but in a far more elegant interface and one that's infinitely customizable. TOO customizable, to be honest, but even the version that I have set up half-heartedly is pretty cool, and I love how hyperlinkable it is. I suppose I should store a version of each finished chapter so it can be as wonderfully hyperlinked, kind of like the Novelcrafter Codex.
I have a feeling that in the next year that Novelcrafter is going to do all the stuff that I like in Obsidian. When Novelcrafter allows for plug-ins, especially for Codex items, it'll be a game-changer. Give me an option to do maps, or family trees, or timelines. Give me a clock or calendar I can link to chapters or scenes.
Based on my love of Novelcrafter and Obsidian, are there any apps I should look at that I might not have sampled? Here's my list of those I've used- Obsidian, Scrivener, Novelcrafter, FirstDraftPro, Novlr, Sudowrite, Storywriter Pro, Evernote. Many of these I haven't used in years, so I don't know how well they've evolved in recent days.
what an awesome followup note. Thank you! And I hope Novelcrafter does. It was the tool that inspired this post.
I use one you haven't mentioned. Lore Forge. Offline and free. I did a write up on it if you're interested.
https://jdlear.substack.com/p/how-i-use-lore-forge-to-write-my
Very cool! I’ll check it out :)
What a great list. Thanks for doing this research. I have Scrivener but I don't use it, although I've tried. Not sure why it doesn't work for me - other than it feels clunky. I end up returning to Word and organizing my files in Documents folders. I prefer to write on my laptop, so that system works for me. I may explore StorywriterPro. I like its minimal and uncluttered look and like that it offers writing sprints and stats. I especially like that it's a one-time payment.
It's so cool how others value different tools for different reasons :) I hope you enjoy it!
Good comparative review. I am not using anything now, but I like to see what is out there.
me too :) my problem is I always forget what I think. So I pulled a Sean Connery and "wrote it down so I don't have to remember..."
Why does this say tested 22 tools but by the time I read to the third one it wasn't tested at all? Just drop the count or change the title or something. I thought this was really weird.
you're right. I was a little generous on the title. But I tested most of them at some point.
I'm one of those who will swear by Scrivener, especially because it's one of the only options where you pay $50 and it's yours for life. Also, about half these options you listed are mimics of Scrivener with their own little twist on it. Scrivener is well worth the money and not too hard to learn.