Word processing software offers some wonderful conveniences for writers of reports, and business documents, but novel writers need more.
Over
the past few years, a number of specialist software companies have
developed packages designed to meet the specific needs of novelists,
but few have succeeded as well as Ravenshead Services Ltd, creators of WriteItNow
Creative Writing Software. Now in Version 4.03, WriteItNow
is not only an inexpensive and delightfully feature rich, high
performance tool for the would-be-novelist, but also a fabulous tool
for writers of other types of books and long reports, particularly
those involving research and requiring convenient tools for rearranging
sections.
Priced
at just $59.95 USD, the software is affordable for even the poorest of
writers, and the support from the team at Ravenshead is
excellent. A free demonstration is available for trial before
you commit to purchase. Buying is easy from their Internet store. You
will be supplied with an Unlock Code to enter into your demonstration
to convert it to a fully usable product, and Ravenshead generously
allow you to use the same Unlock Code to use the software on up to six
computers, as long as you own all of them.
Ravenshead
supplies a rich array of tutorials assist you to make the
most of its features —though it is highly intuitive and has an
excellent Help facility built in.
The
software opens, by default, to reveal a split window, with five main
menu headings , a navigation window on the left, and a larger window
displaying ten tabs. Regardless of which tab you select, an
editing window occupies most of the screen. The
appearance of the editing window changes depending on the tab selected,
but all provide for typing text. The editing window features
a series of tools for text editing.
All
the expected word processing tools are included, like a Spell Checker
with a choice of editable dictionaries; find and replace tools; select,
cut, copy, and paste; and tools to move quickly to the start or end of
a section of text. Each editing window features a series of
buttons to apply bold, italic or underline to selected text and undo or
redo recent changes. You can also use the Tools button to
insert accented characters.
Two
excellent additional features in provided in the editing windows are
Links and Web buttons.
The
Links button lets you insert links anywhere in your text to connect
instantly to a chapter or scene, character description, location,
event, idea, note, or to another file, a web page, or a
reference. The link will appear in your text as a small
graphic icon, and clicking the icon will take you directly to the
linked location. It’s great for cross-referencing to, for example,
ensure consistency of descriptions of people and places.
The
Web button provides tools for instant look-up of relevant websites—to
search the web for a word or phrase; find quotations or
rhymes; locate suitable images to illustrate your work; or to
reference a dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopaedia on the
web. These tools are particularly useful to writers working
on non-fiction books that require extensive research, and for writers
of historical novels. Once you find the information you need,
insert a Reference Link and record where the information or quote was
extracted from, and acknowledging sources becomes a simple task,
whether you choose to do it via footnotes or a bibliography.
The
main tabs above the editing window enable users to move between the
story overview, chapters and scenes, characters descriptions, event
descriptions, location descriptions, random notes and idea,
relationship and timeline charts, lists of references, and a page for
recording submissions. Navigation is replicated in the
navigation window, using a tree structure to expose links.
The Main Menu
The
File Menu invites writers to start a new story, open an existing story
(either by finding a file with a .wnw extension, or selecting from a
list of recently opened stories), save a story, import an RTF file,
restore from a recent revision (to recover a story if you decide you
don't like recently made changes), or delete all revisions. I
especially love the way WriteItNow retains multiple revisions of each
story, so that changes can be easily undone.
The Export menu offers options to export your story directly to a web page (HTML) or compiled ebook, as well as to an RTF file (manuscript) or simple text file. A rich selection of Export Setup Options let you choose exactly what the exported manuscript will look like. You can:
Under
the Tools menu heading, you will find an excellent selection of writing
aides, including a word counter, Readability assessor , thesaurus, and
global find and replace tool. The newly added Story Board displays a
graphical representation of your chapters and scenes and lets you drag
and drop to rearrange, as well as editing, deleting, and adding scenes
and chapters quickly.
Writing
targets helps writers track their efforts, by setting daily targets in
hours and words. Once targets are set, WriteItNow will tally
the time elapsed and words written (counting only words written for
chapters and scenes, and excluding notes, events, ideas etc.)
Writers
struggling with characterization will love the character creation
tools. You can create a random character, or use the Add-on character
creator for more automation. The Creator lets you select
gender, then provides detailed help to select a name. You can
then use the Archetype, Enneagram, or Myers Briggs personality type
specifications to build personalities for your hero, mentor, and other
characters in your story. The system will automatically build
a description for your character, and you can select a period in the
Timeline section and enter a year of birth to find historical events in
which to involve your character, or to provide a background for your
story. Once your character is added, move to the Characters
window to specify a date of death, edit the character description and
personality, and create family, personal and other
relationships. You can also optionally add a
picture. Updating relationships automatically transfers
relationship information entered for one character to any other related
character. For example, if your description of Mary states
that Mary is Jack's daughter, updating will ensure that the description
of Jack shows Mary as his daughter.
WriteItNow
also offers a Prompts tool, offering the choice to add, edit or use
prompt sets. Prompt sets are sets of questions that guide
your writing. For example, when you create a character, a list of
questions about this person's appearance, personality, and
habits help you describe the character. Provided
prompt sets include scene prompts, location prompts, event prompts,
prompts the help build ideas, acts and stories, and even prompts to
help you contact publishers who might be interested in your book.
The
other options on the main menu are Settings, which allows you to set a
range of preferences including appearance of the screen, and which web
sites are used for web lookups; and Help.
Navigation
The
primary tools for navigating your story are the tabs at the top of the
editing window or the tree branches in the navigation window on the
left, depending on your personal preferences. Both allow you
to move quickly between story overview, chapters and scenes, character
descriptions, location descriptions, random notes and ideas, and
charts, submissions and references.
When
you begin a new story, WriteItNow presents the Overview window, in
which you enter a title and the author’s name, then type a brief
summary of your story idea. A neat little "Title Generator"
helps you with ideas for a title.
Next,
you may want to create some characters for your story. The
Character window initially opens to display only a series of navigation
buttons, the text "0 of 0" (indicating that no characters have been
created yet), and a + and - button for adding and deleting.
Once you have created characters, the arrow buttons let you move from
one to the next or from first to last; to Go To button displays a list
of all the characters, and the indicator text changes to show how many
characters you have created and which character number you are
currently viewing.
Click
+ to add a new character, and the window changes to display fields for
the character's title, first, middle and last name, usual name
(nickname), gender, and birth and death dates. An editing
window is topped by a series of tabs labelled "Description",
"Personality", "Family Relationships", Personal Relationships, Other
Relationships, and Picture. Here you can enter detailed
information about various aspects of your character.
Depending which tab you select, you may be presented with a window for
typing free text, or specialized tools. The Personality Tab,
for example, provides a list of traits to select, and for each you can
set a value between 1 and 100 to indicate the degree to which this
trait applies. For example, if you select 'affection' and set
the value to 55, a description window on the right will indicate that
the character is quite affectionate. By moving personality
indicators up and down in the list, you indicate which personality
traits are most dominant in this character.
In
the Relationships windows, you show how the characters are
inter-related at different points in the story, using start and end
dates. The “Personal Relationship" window lets you set values
for relationships. For example, you might create a
relationship between Jim and Mary to show that Jim admires Mary, and
set a value of Strong or Very Strong to indicate the degree of
admiration felt.
If
you upload a picture for your character, you can convert the picture to
an icon to replace the simple icons usually used for selecting
characters in the navigation window.
The
Events tab, Location, and Notes tabs all appear identically to the
Characters tab when first opened, and feature the same navigation
buttons. When you create a new Event, however, fields display
to enter an event title, and a split window offers a Details tab for
typing details of the event, and an Event Characters window for
selecting which characters are involved in this event. Below
the Details window, Start and End Date selectors display the time
period in which this event is set, and you can set and change these
dates using the calendar that pops up when you click on the date icon
to the left of the date.
The
Locations, Notes and Ideas windows all display simple editing windows
with a field for the title. The Charts window features tabs for
displaying charts of relationships between characters, and a timeline
chart of your story.
In
the Submissions window, enter the details of who the manuscript was
sent to, date sent, date of reply, date published, date paid, and the
amount received for your story.
And
finally, in the References window, enter the title of the referenced
text, and author name, pages, publication date, and other details, and
specify how the reference text will appear in your manuscript.
Ultimately,
of course, all these tools are useless if they don't lead to a story,
so the Chapter Window plays a critical role by providing a place to
assemble all the location, character and event information to write
scenes and assemble chapters that can be rearranged in the Storyboard
to build your completed story or book. However short or long
the work, the provided tools deliver welcome assistance to ensure
consistency of characterization and location and to help you record
thoughts and ideas in an orderly, easy to access way.
When
you are finally done writing,
WriteItNow automatically formats your manuscript ready for
printing, or web publishing, or distribution as an e-book.
From first idea to final manuscript — from short stories to full length novels and non-fiction tomes — WriteItNow is the ideal tool for both budding and accomplished authors. It automates the tedious tasks, to let you concentrate on being creative. Keeping you organized and focused, WriteItNow removes some of the frustrating road blocks that obstruct author productivity. And when your masterpiece is done, the team at Ravenshead will be delighted to add a link to your website and allow you to write a few words to promote your work — because they don't just make great tools for writers, they actually delight in supporting authors in their quest for success!