Wednesday 29 July 2009

yWriter - Do you like it?

In preparation for starting to edit my WIP 1 in a few days, I downloaded yWriter 5 today. I have never used this before. I did download similar thing before, but got put off by the look. However, after reading on several blogs, I got the impression that it might not be a bad thing to try for editing a novel. Have you used it? What do you feel? Any tips to make the whole experience more efficient?

4 comments:

  1. I have used it a little, but I gave up after I realised I was spending more time fiddling with it than writing. ;-)

    Give it a go, see what you reckon. :)

    Adam

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  2. I downloaded the program, out of curiosity, but thus far I agree with Adam -- it feels like so much unnecessary work.

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  3. I adore yWriter - but I don't mess with it too much either...I just *use* it. I do put my characters into the "character" tab (because I'm horrible at keeping track of last names and minor characters)...as I'm writing. But I don't use many of the "bells & whistles" - I just put chapters in, write each scene in a new "scene", and go from there. When I'm ready to edit, I export it to a rich text document (where it lays it out *beautifully* in chapters/scenes), and then print out to edit.

    One of my favorite things about it is editing - if I need to move a scene, it's drag and drop. If I want to take one out, I can "remove it" without deleting it.

    I also love that my word count is always at the bottom, along with a separate count for what I've written that day. The count is a little different than Word or Open Office, but that's the same with any program.

    I just use it as my main word processor for writing - and it's great for drafting, since each scene is it's own file, so I'm not constantly looking back. Easier to resist editing until it's all done.

    Try it - open it up, create a chapter, create a scene, and start typing. I use it for all my writing projects now. :-)

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  4. Adam/Weronika - that's what I was afraid of when I looked at all the tabs and stuff.

    Jamie, thanks for the details. I think I will try it at least. It might be good for editing because looking at the whole book in WORD does look bit daunting, so the scene by scene thing may be better.

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