There seems to be an unending supply of writing apps. Two weeks ago, I review three that had recently come onto the scene. Today I’ve got three more! I don’t know when these were released, although one I know is brand new because it’s still in beta. In any case, let’s dive in!
Prosematter: $10/20/50 per month
Prosematter is an online only app which prides itself on providing “editors” to read and give feedback on your writing.
The app provides a place to write your novel and easily allows for the creation of novel bible (they call it the “Codex”) entries, ie character, place, group, object, event, concept, and reference pages. These entries are linked in your manuscript — once a codex entry is created a link for it shows in your manuscript when that thing/character is mentioned. This can be very nice in that you can easily search for when characters or event are mentioned. When you open the codex, it appears to the right of your manuscript and lists every entry—characters and settings. For characters, there is a timeline of when they’re mentioned in that particular document which you can click on to go to that place in the document. You can also chat with the character themselves with the answers being AI produced based on the information about them in the book.
The main thing the app promotes is the analysis of your work. There is a page of “AI editors” with images of people with their names and specialties (fiction, non-fiction, beta reader, developmental editor, etc). When I first looked at this app, it was not obvious that they were AI constructs, but the developers have since changed it to make that obvious, which I really appreciate.
The developer, upon learning that I was writing a review of the app, was very kind and gifted me with AI credits and access to the part of the app that sits behind a paywall. That includes a timeline and a blank canvas. I, personally, didn’t find either of them to be particularly useful, but you may find otherwise. Regarding the “AI editor”, I had it analyze my novel and it gave me some good feedback. I don’t know if I would get the same or better feedback if I simply uploaded my book to Claude or ChatGPT, but this does save me from having to upload it to a larger, more general AI where I don’t know how my unpublished novel might be used. While I can’t see myself using it to plot, write, or even to correct my grammar, as a way to get AI assistance with a manuscript I definitely see a use for the software. It all depends on how comfortable you are with AI assistance.
So, if you are looking for AI assistance with your book, and a way to save and create your story bible as you write, Prosematter may be the right tool for you.
Writality: Free
This is the pricing structure as per their website:
Writality is a nice writing app which seems to be aimed more at fantasy writers than writers of any other genre. It provides a timeline which easily allows for many different types of calendars (see image below) and for that calendar to start in any year (before and after year 1 AD). There is also a tab for your world map (this could be really useful to writers of small-town fiction as well as fantasy). The Outline section is simply a canvas where you can add blocks for each scene and or chapter.
This looks like it could get very unwieldy as you add more and more chapters.
As for keeping track of characters, places, etc, the app has “Concepts”. You add a “concept” and label it with a “type”. You can create any sort of “type” you want: character, place, whatever. You then add attributes (again, completely open to whatever you put in). You can add dates, connections, and its presence on the timeline. It’s an interesting way of creating an open system to allow for absolutely anything the author would like to keep track of.
On the whole, this seems like a really malleable app and you certainly can’t beat the price!
OpusWriter: $129 one-time fee. Includes a 30-day free trial and 14-day refund period.
Of the three apps, this is the one I actually decided purchase. It was easy to import the Word doc of my novel as it now stands (first draft written, but needs a lot of work). A menu at the bottom of the screen provides me with options to “Plan”, “Write”, “Edit, “Publish”, or “Manage” my book.
Plan includes options to plot your book with 9 templates of story structure to choose from, including one of your own making. There is also an option to “browse the Plugin Store” where there are many, many more. You can keep track of your characters, setting, canon (story lore), research, outline (with four different options on how to outline your book) and visualization for creating a timeline or open story board.
The “Write” section is where you book actually resides, and there is a right-hand column for notes, information it pulls in from your outline, a “promise” tracker, change log, and your wiki.
The Edit section provides analysis of your manuscript including everything from highlighting adverbs, style (repetition and more), and grammar. There is also a section on dialogue which tells you how much of your text is dialogue, how many action tags, dialogue tags, or no tags at all. And there a section where you can add in words the spell-checker should ignore—great for fantasy or scifi names, objects, or jargon of any sort.
And finally, there is a Publish section where you can format your book as an ARC, ebook, paperback, hardback, audio script, for the web or critique. There are templates to choose from each of which can be adjusted to change font or font size.
On top of all this, you can select a theme (from 12 options) on how you’d like the app to look or you can determine each aspect of the screen differently as you like (the font, background, etc).
On the whole, I’m really impressed with this software. It’s easy and straight-forward to use and incredibly adaptable to the way you write and organize your work. This one I highly recommend.
The never-ending list of writing apps goes on! If you know of any I haven’t reviewed, please let me know!