Writing a novel is not only multifaceted, complicated endeavor, it’s also a lot of fun! But one of the lessons I have come away with in my twenty year career is that no two books are the same. You don’t write them the same way, you don’t plot them the same way, hell, I don’t even use the same writing software for every book.
I know there are some people who are absolutely wedded to Scrivener, and I agree it’s a great tool. But it’s also complicated and overwhelming. Some people simply don’t want to have to take a whole course to learn how to use their writing software.
Because I love to play with new-to-me apps, I have tried more different types of writing software than is probably normal (and I’ve written reviews for a lot of them).
But which one is the right one for you?
Actually, that’s not the right question. The question you need to ask yourself every time you sit down to write a book is which app is right for this book. Every book is different. They need to be written differently. You will need different tools to write each book. Happily, there are a number of tools that are easily adaptable to the different needs of different books. I’m going to go over them below.
But before I do that, just as each book needs a particular app to write it in, each story needs a different type of structure. And just as some people prefer to use Scrivener for each and every book they write, they tend to use the same type of story structure for every book. But not every book will easily fit into the one type of story structure. Sometimes you need to try out a few to see what fits this story best.
Writing Apps
To find the right software, it depends on how and what you write. If you’re writing a book for which you have a lot of details you need to remember—historical, fantasy, paranormal, Scifi—you’ll need a program which keeps your notes close at hand. Scrivener, Plottr, and Fictionary are three that come to mind.
If you’ve got a lot of characters you need to keep straight once again Scrivener and Plottr are at the top of my list, but so is a” second brain” program like Notion, Obsidian, or my new favorite, Supernotes (I reviewed it last week here).
And if your book or series has a complicated timeline, Plottr is really the best software for that. Aeon is really good too.
Story Structure
As I mentioned above, some people tend to use one type of story structure and just stick with that. My go-to is the W structure. But when I get stuck I delve into other structures as well to see if one of them doesn’t trigger a thought, an idea, or show me where I went wrong.
Just as each book will work better with a particular app, so too does each work best with a particular story structure. I’d recommend trying one or two to see which one works best.
For a quick reminder of the different structures, you can consider the three act structure (pictured below), Michael Hauge’s Six-Part Structure, Save the Cat, or the Hero’s Journey. There are also specific structures for different genres (I know of one for romance, but I’m sure there are some for other genres). For more details on the W Structure and the Six-Part Structure you can check out my blog here.
Writing a novel involves so much more than putting words on paper or a computer screen, and when you’ve got to plot and write your future bestseller, you need to know exactly what you need for this book that you are writing now.