FREE Novel Writing Software?? (For Authors Who Want to Stay Organized)

[@Jorym]

I'll always have a softspot for yWriter, too. I've moved onto Scrivener from it, but there are still things I use yWriter for, like writing blog posts or flashfic and such. Also, I definitely drafted in yWriter. I know it seems basic, but it has all the functions I need while drafting.

[@morthismejere1879]

Thank you so much for this! I have been using Scrivener but I HATE their customer service and etiquette. So I was looking for another program to support (even though I already own scrivener) that unlike scrivener has a mobile version on Android. I was using Campfire and they are amazing, but I am disabled and ran into a financial issue so I then went looking for something free and resolved to have a world building program and use scrivener for writing. I discovered Obsidian and have been watching research videos and am in love with the freedom it provides! I'm not sure if I am going to exclusively use scrivener for compiling for publication, or use it for writing and use obsidian for WB, but I love what I'm learning about it right now.

[@Writer_in_Residence]

Obsidian is a life-changing piece of software

[@historykeys3347]

The free version of Papyrus Author isn't as good as the + version, and you still have to "check in" now and then (they won't say exactly how often) or it stops working.

[@lauralai9694]

Thank you! Always useful to know about free software.

[@roughwriter]

You're welcome!

[@oldguyinstanton]

Thank you so much for this video. I am using Word, and am fairly fappy with it, but it is always nice to have other options. In Word, I've developed a couple of workarounds for Navigation. My book has both a Table of Contents and a Dramatis Persona, So I make liberal use of bookmarks and hyperlinks to move around the book.

[@johnparnham5945]

You can write in Atticus and they are developing iit for that purpose. They like the Reedsy Editor are more aimed at formatting and publication but they are developing. I am writing in Atticus now.

[@roughwriter]

Thanks, I’ll check that out!

[@christianemden7637]

Being strictly a hobbyist, I found Manuskript is fulfilling all my needs.

[@AphroditeLee]

TOTALLY changing my last name to Van Texel!

[@roughwriter]

Yes!! I think it's beyond classy!

[@DanteMishima]

Don't care about your face honestly

[@roughwriter]

Wish I could say the same, I’d save a lot of money on skin products 😂

[@maivezonk]

You don't have to scroll the whole way though Word if you use the heading styles and turn on the navigation bar.

[@BKPrice]

Aphrodite Van Texel sounds like someone who should be fronting an '80s hair band.

[@roughwriter]

You’re so right lol

[@aurahmin]

Thank you so much for this video ! It was exactly what i wanted to know and I really like the first program you showed! Have a wonderful day

[@roughwriter]

Thank you!! I’m glad you found it helpful 😀

[@layabitman2616]

So how about if I want to start with free software and then import it into another that would be better to use for publishing. What would you suggest?

[@roughwriter]

I’m actually not sure! 😂 I would think you can export from the free program and save it as a text file, which you could probably import into a different program. It would probably affect the formatting but again I’m not totally sure. If you find out, let me know!

[@CarisiCreates]

I used to love yWriter, but I could not cross platform as easily as the creator said was possible.

[@roughwriter]

I really liked it too, but after trying some of these other ones, I think I'll probably be switching in the future!

[@DSAnderson-f6w]

Thank you. I cannot say that enough. It is immediately clear when an experienced writer is discussing the qualities & characteristics of a writing tool vs someone who is just reviewing the software. You make sense and that shows your experience. It seems like you & I write very similarly (in terms of process) so you have helped me very much here. Again, thank you.

[@talksip9019]

I love your analysis,it shortened the time i would have used to surf through tons of videos to get the information I need on this topic. Thanks

[@eriko9011]

Thanks! Good video! But am I missing something? Have you been collaborating in reedsy? I just tried that with a friend the other day, couldnt get it to work and then asked the reedsy staff. They said they havent implemented the collaboration feature yet!

[@eriko9011]

I mean a co-author. Not a hired editor or anything like that

[@roughwriter]

Weird because when I was playing around with it, it seemed like you could do that! Maybe it’s not specifically designed for collaborating yet, but with the ability to add comments/track revisions, I feel like it could be done. You’d end up using the same login I guess?

[@corrdress1815]

Is the first one useful to also formatting your novel to see how many real pages you have in an actual real book? And is it available for MacOs?

[@JPaterson8942]

I dunno about the program, but for pages I normally divide my word count by 300 for a good estimate.

[@roughwriter]

Yes, it looks like it's available for MacOS! Unfortunately, I don't think it can estimate the page count in print. If this helps, I divide the word count by 500 and it's usually pretty accurate.

[@StarlasAiko]

In Papyrus Author, how extensive is the Timeline? The app I am using currently has a hard limit on how many thousand years it can cover.

[@roughwriter]

I played around with it just now and it let me make a timeline that spanned over 5,000 years, so it looks like there probably aren't any limits (and if there are, they're pretty high).