- Story Book Writing Templates
- Software For Book Writing
- Story Book Writing Programs
- Free Book Writing Software
The software may be simple but it provides you with a place to write and store multiple stories, poems or song lyrics. It even includes an impressive bank full of alliterations, rhymes and other words so you can easily find just the right word. Free writing software designed by the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series. YWriter5 helps you write a book by organising chapters, scenes, characters and locations in an easy-to-use interface. YWriter is a powerful writing program which is free to download and use. Welcome to FreeWriter. Looking for free software to write a book? Do you have a report or something long to write? FreeWriter is a new and revolutionary piece of.
- Free writing software designed by the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series. YWriter5 helps you write a book by organising chapters, scenes, characters and locations in an easy-to-use interface. YWriter is a powerful writing program which is free to download and use.
- +Build worlds, create story beats, and write your book within one application. When writing a book, I need the best book writing software out there. Basically, I need book writing software that will easily help me to research, outline, reorganize, write, collaborate, and edit.
Dedicated Writing Apps
What constitutes the best app for writers depends on their process, genre, and conditions in which they are most productive. Additionally, it depends on what they intend to do with the finished work: publish it online, send it to an agent, or shoot a film. There is no single best app for all writers, but there are plenty of excellent writing apps that cater to different needs, work styles, and genres.
Priced for the Starving Artist (Mostly)
Apps for writers tend to be less expensive than other kinds of software. Many sell for a one-time fee, although a few require a subscription. The least expensive writing apps cost only around $10. Final Draft, one of the most expensive writing apps, costs $249.99, but even that is a one-time fee, meaning you pay once and own the software for life. Ulysses used to sell for a standalone fee but recently moved to a subscription model, now costing $39.99 per year. If you own an older copy of Ulysses, it's still yours to keep and use, but you won't receive any updates.
When an idea strikes, many writers want to be able to jot it down or immediately add it to an ongoing project. To do that, they likely need a companion mobile app to go along with their desktop software. Support for mobile apps isn't particularly strong in the writing category. A few companies that make software for writers offer iOS apps, but it's rare to find anything for Android. Additionally, mobile writing apps typically cost a good deal more than what people are used to paying for an app. Scrivener for iPhone and iPad, for example, runs $19.99. Storyist's iOS app is $14.99. To get over this price hurdle, I recommend thinking about the combined cost of the mobile and desktop software together and considering it a bundled purchase.
What's the Best Screenwriting Software?
As a genre, screenwriting has unique requirements. Scripts for movies, television, and the stage must make clear the difference between direction, setting descriptions, spoken dialogue, and so forth. This allows all the people involved in creating the final product—actors, film crew, editors, and directors—to do their jobs. As a result, the formatting for screenwriting is exceedingly precise. A few writing apps cater specifically to professional screenwriters. Final Draft is one, and it continues to be an industry standard. If you're actively employed in film or television, you might already own a copy. When you purchase Final Draft, you can use the app on two computers, and it's compatible with both Windows and macOS.
Another app that specifically handles scripts is Adobe Story. The app costs $9.99 per month, but it's also available to anyone who has an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Story is unusual because it's not just writing software. It also lets you make notes about the actual production of a script. For example, you can write a detailed description of shots you want to see or provide information about shooting locations. The app can generate a production schedule based on all the metadata associated with each scene. Adobe Story is also compatible with Adobe Premiere, so after the footage has been shot, you can pipe in the script to run alongside the video, helping the editors do their job, too.
Alternatives to Microsoft Word
Why would a writer use a dedicated writing app instead of Microsoft Word (or Google Docs, Apple Pages, or any other typical word processor)? There's no reason you can't use any of those apps, but they don't have many of the special features you get from apps that are specific to writers.
Fiction writers, book authors, and screenplay writers often change the order or scenes, sections, and chapters. That's easy to do when an app is designed specifically with professional long-form writers in mind. With the right drag-and-drop tools, you can quickly and easily reorganize your files. It also helps if footnotes and endnotes renumber accordingly, when you move parts around.
Another feature that office apps typically don't have is a writing target. It's common for professional writers to strive to meet a daily word or page count goal. So while Word, Google Docs, and Pages all have word count features, they don't have the same options for setting and tracking goals over time.
Some writers need to keep exhaustive notes regarding plot points and characters, and possibly even visual references, such as an image of a shoot location or faces that inspire characters. The best writers' apps include tools that make it easy to see reference material and notes whenever the writer needs, and then get back to writing quickly.
Finally, the word processors in suites are generally heavy-duty apps that can do everything from formatting and footnoting to headers, footers, and special pagination. That's handy for many kinds of business and academic writing, but for the average creative writer, all this may just be a major distraction.
What's the Best Distraction-Free Writing App?
Writers who find themselves in the less-is-more camp will want a writing app that strips away anything that could possibly be the least little bit distracting. Distraction-free writing apps are a dime a dozen; the trick is to find one that also offers the tools you need when you need them. The best distraction-free writing apps hide the tools you need until the appropriate time, rather than omitting them altogether.
With that criterion in mind, Ulysses is my favorite distraction-free writing app, and a PCMag Editors' Choice. A well-designed interface makes Ulysses easy to use and easy on the eyes. It has good tutorials and help menus for newcomers, including a cheat sheet for Markdown language. Markdown is a very lightweight set of codes that can be used instead of the rich formatting options that are common in word processors. If you've ever typed asterisks (*) around a word in a chat app to make it bold, that's similar to Markdown. It's very simple, and takes no time at all to learn, especially when you have a cheat sheet to guide you.
The idea behind Markdown is that you can apply basic formatting, like marking titles and subtitles, bold and italic text, without moving your fingers from the keyboard. It's also less distracting than having a panel with 50 alluring typefaces that you're dying to try. Ulysses is only available for Mac and iOS. Windows users might also try yWriter.
Note that we have reviewed Focused (for Mac), but it didn't score well enough to make this top-ten list. If you're curious why, please feel free to read the review.
What Are the Best Writing Apps for Novelists?
Book authors spend a lot of their time simply organizing their manuscript. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, the work doesn't always shape up as the author originally intended. Chapters sometimes move. Stories aren't always told in a linear fashion. And scenes sometimes become more effective when their order changes.
To facilitate the shaping of a story in this way, you need a library, or a pane within the writing app showing file folders and their organization. Not all writing apps have one, as you can see from the chart above.
Writing for Medium, WordPress Blogs, and More
Book authors and screenwriters aren't the only types of writers, of course. Many writers create shorter pieces that they publish online directly, without ever passing through the hands of an agent, publisher, or movie producer. If you're publishing on Medium or WordPress, it sure is handy to have a writing app that can export each piece directly to your platform of choice.
Ulysses and iA Writer both have integration options for those two platforms. Like Ulysses, iA Writer is a distraction-free writing app, but it's much more pared down. It has some neat functions, such as text transclusion, that can be fun to learn for people who think more like programmers than traditional writers. Text transclusion allows you to create a final document of many smaller pieces by, essentially, giving commands about which files to pull together and in what order. 'First display the introduction. Next add an image. Then include my argument. Finally, show my author bio.' The text of your document could be all of four sentences long, but it might whip together a piece that, when exported, is 25 pages.
Your Writing, Your Choice
Every writer has unique needs and desires. Do you need an app that works on both Windows and macOS? Is learning a new way to format text a deal-breaker? Does your final submission need to meet industry standards the way screenplays and teleplays do? The range of software dedicated to writers is impressive. If nothing tickles your fancy from the full reviews linked below, you should also read our short synopses of many other apps for writers, as well. Finally, if you decide that a dedicated writing tool just isn't for you, and you'd rather just use a plain old word processor, we've rounded up the top office suites, too.
Featured Writing App Reviews:
Final Draft Review
MSRP: $249.00Pros: Well tailored for screenwriters. Powerful tools for both writing scenes and crafting the larger story. Plenty of view options. Offers a variety of templates. Collaboration supported.Cons: Collaborative editing restricted to one person at a time. Inadequate default auto-save and revision history.Bottom Line: Final Draft is the software you need if you are in the screenwriting business or aspire to be. It has all the tools you need to get the script right, both from a story perspective and a technical one.Read ReviewScrivener Review
MSRP: $45.00Pros: Excellent tools for organizing writing. Ample collection of templates. Competitive price. Multiple installs allowed. Also available for Windows and iOS.Cons: No web app. No native collaboration features.Bottom Line: Built with writers in mind, Scrivener 3 has everything you need to research, compose, organize, edit, and finish a piece of writing, all for a ridiculously reasonable price.Read ReviewUlysses (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $39.99Pros: Beautiful and clean interface. Excellent selection of distraction-free modes. Flexible. Tracks writing goals. Filters help organize content. Can publish directly to WordPress.Cons: Now sold as subscription. Requires some learning, especially for those unfamiliar with Markdown. No audio file uploads.Bottom Line: Ulysses is the most elegant distraction-free writing app for Mac. It's ideal for writers who prefer a minimal interface and total flexibility, rather than a lot of structure and hand-holding.Read ReviewAdobe Story CC Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Screenwriting and preproduction in one app. Generates shooting schedules. Feature rich. Collaboration features.Cons: No mobile apps or desktop apps; online only. Monthly subscription makes it expensive over the long run.Bottom Line: Screenwriters who not only write but also direct and produce their own work won't find a better outlet for their creativity than Adobe Story.Read ReviewScript Studio (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $199.95Pros: Excellent feature set. Helpful sample scripts included. Attractive and organized interface. Also available for Windows.Cons: Expensive. No mobile apps. Some crashes in testing.Bottom Line: With a professional interface and wealth of tools, Script Studio is among the best writing apps you'll find. Its high price may dissuade some from trying it, though.Read ReviewStoryist (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $59.99Pros: Very good templates for scripts. Clean, clear interface. Includes tools for storyboarding, outlining, character sheets. Supports importing and exporting many formats.Cons: No collaboration features. Mediocre auto-save functionality.Bottom Line: Storyist packs the power of a full word processor into an app for writers. If you don't get distracted by having too many features, it's an excellent Mac app.Read ReviewiA Writer (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $19.99Pros: Inexpensive. Uses distraction-free style with Markdown language. Offers transclusion method for embedding images, tables, and so on. Can export directly to Medium and WordPress.Cons: Few tools for organizing and arranging files. No templates for genres. Not ideal for code-phobic writers.Bottom Line: Taking minimalism to the extreme, iA Writer might be the writing app with the fewest built-in distractions, and it's inexpensive, too. But this Mac app is also BYOE: bring your own everything.Read ReviewyWriter Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Good structure. Rich tools for story and character development. Plentiful stats. Free.Cons: No Mac app or mobile apps. Doesn't include screenwriting tools or templates. Support for third-party backup options could be more apparent.Bottom Line: The free writing app yWriter has a stats-heavy, technical feel to it, which is great for writers who crave organization and data about their work.Read ReviewByword (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $11.99Pros: Distraction-free writing app with support for Markdown language.Supports direct publishing to popular online sites. Good export options. Inexpensive.Cons: No library or tools for reference materials. Not ideal for long-form writers. Lacks templates. Solutions to common technical problems require macOS Terminal.Bottom Line: Byword, an inexpensive writing app for Mac and iOS, publishes your work directly to Medium, WordPress, and other platforms. It's not ideal for long-form writers, however.Read ReviewWriteRoom (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Distraction-free, lightweight Mac app for writing. Inexpensive. Some neat view options.Cons: Does not support Markdown formatting. No mobile apps. Lacks a library view/folder structure. No preview before PDF export. No collaboration features.Bottom Line: WriteRoom is an inexpensive Mac writing app with a less-is-more approach that helps you focus on your words. It's too bare-bones for book projects or screenplays, but, for shorter works, it can get the job done.Read Review
Writing is a very personal practice, and as a result you have a million writing-focused apps to choose from. From distraction-free apps that take up your whole screen to feature-packed mainstays like Microsoft Word, we've put together a guide to help you choose the writing software that's right for you.
There was a time not that long ago where your choices for writing apps boiled down to plain text or Microsoft Word. Things have changed a lot over the years. Nowadays, you have almost too many options. So, with that in mind, we've tested out a ton of writing software to pick our favorites depending on what your needs are. We're leaving out notes apps here, so favorites like Evernote and Simplenote won't make an appearance. Instead, we're concentrating on tools for long form writing.
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For the Most Options and Compatibility: Microsoft Word
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Let's face it: some people don't have an option other than Microsoft Word ($80). Whether you're writing a novel, putting together some short stories, or just drafting up a memo for the office, Microsoft Word is the most powerful tool around.
Since Microsoft Word is the industry standard, it's good to get your bearings with it. Word is the most popular because it has the most features. With Word, you can do just about anything you could imagine with your text. It features all types of formatting options, customizable toolbars, application-specific keyboard shortcuts, draft versions, collaboration, and more. It's the kitchen sink of word processors, and if that's what you need, Word's you best option. That said, LibreOffice's Writer is pretty good these days if you prefer free software.
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Story Book Writing Templates
If you're not a fan of the visual clutter in Microsoft Word but you're stuck with it, you can clean it up pretty easily. That'll at least make it a little less distracting to use.
For Novelists Who Hate Microsoft Word: Scrivener/Ulysses III
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Microsoft Word might be the default app for writing a novel, but it's not necessarily the best. If you're looking for something created with long form writing in mind, both Scrivener and Ulysses III are excellent choices.
Scrivener ($45) is a Windows and Mac app that gives you a single place to dump all your ideas and writing. It includes tools to keep notes, collect research, outline, and organize your writing. With all that, you can navigate to different sections of your text, jump around to different parts of research, and find whatever you're looking for with powerful search options. Basically, Scrivener is like Evernote for longform writing, and if you're looking for a way to organize and write in the same place, it's an excellent option. Scrivener also integrated with Simplenote if you want to take your writing on the go.
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Ulysses III ($44.99) for Mac takes a similar approach to Scrivener, but simplifies things a little bit. It uses plain text or Markdown for writing, but also includes statistics, notes, exporting, organization, and more. The Markdown support means you can use it for regular old blogging just as easily as for novel writing. Ulysses III fits somewhere between a minimalist writing tool and Scrivener. It's feature packed, but offers a ton of options for hiding those features away too. If you want to take your writing on the go, Ulysses III integrates with Daedalus Touch on iOS.
Both Ulysses and Scrivener have demo versions, so check them both out and see which works best for you.
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For Distraction-Free Writing: FocusWriter
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There's no shortage of distraction-free writing tools out there, and most of them are pretty similar. After all, the main goal of a distraction-free writing app is provide a blank canvas to write on in a nice, full-screen view—and nothing else. That said, we like FocusWriter because it's free, works across Windows, Mac, and Linux, and includes a few optional features if you're looking for something more than a blank page.
With FocusWriter you can write text on a page and save it as a TXT file. On top of that, FocusWriter also includes timers, alarms, goal setting, themes, typewriter sound effects, statistics, and spell checking. Still, its main goal is to keep things simple and FocusWriter accomplishes that goal. If you're looking for just a place to write, regardless of what operating system you're on, FocusWriter is an excellent choice
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For Screenplays: Final Draft/Fade In/Trelby
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Final Draft is the industry standard for writing screenplays on both Windows and Mac. At $250, it's a tough sell, but it has everything you'll need. It includes a massive notes section for keeping track of characters, an index card system for summaries, a special scene view so you can see a script at a glance, and more. Of course, it also has templates for different screenplay types, a formatting assistant that helps you get used to screenwriting formats, and a revisions system for when you're ready to go to production. $250 is a lot of money, but Final Draft has a trial version to check out to make sure it'll work for you.
That said, you don't have to use Final Draft if you don't want to. Fade In is cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) script writing software with features that rival Final Draft for just $50. Like Final Draft, it comes with organization tools, revision tools, a ton of autocomplete tools, and a variety of formatting options. Fade In doesn't have all the extra bells and whistles that Final Draft does, but if writing is all you care about, Fade In has what you need.
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All that said, if you just want to dip your toe into screenwriting, Trelby is a free alternative for Windows, Mac, and Linux, that has enough features to at least get you started. Just don't expect more than a text editor with screenwriting formating built into it.
For Editing: Hemingway/Marked 2/Phraseology
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Editing is often the hardest part of writing, but you won't find a ton of tools specifically made for dreaded task. That said, you have a few great options for apps that help put a spotlight on your mistakes, spot repeating words, and help you clean up your writing a bit.
Hemingway is a web app that highlights problems in your writing. Once you paste your text into it, Hemingway highlights hard to read sentences, adverbs, complex phrases, and passive voice. What you decide to do with that information is up to you, but it's a great tool for editing it you're the type to use too many adverbs or drop into passive voice.
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On the Mac, we like Marked 2. Technically, Marked 2 is just a Markdown previewer, but it includes a ton of tools for writers. You'll get word counts and a ton of advanced document statistics, but its best feature is 'Visualize Word Repetition.' This mode highlights words that you repeat throughout the document, which is helpful if you're the type to repeat phrases a lot.
For a similar experience to Hemingway on your iPad, we like Phraseology. It's a fantastic tool that includes syntax highlighting, statistics tools, readability scores, and root word breakdowns. Basically, it gives you every piece of data about your writing you could want so you can pinpoint how to fix it up.
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For Journaling: Day One/RedNotebook
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You can use any text editor you want as a journal, but having a special app just for this kind of writing makes it a little more fun.
If you'd prefer an open source (and Windows/Linux) option for journaling, RedNotebook is your best bet. It's a pretty simple app that lets you quickly get to writing a journal entry and moving on. Once you get going, you can easily search through old journals, find specific dates, and do just about everything else you'd expect to do in a journal.
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Without a doubt, Day One is the best journaling app for iOS and Mac. On top of providing a clean place to write your thoughts, it also includes syncing, photo imports, a passcode lock, a public publish option, reminders, Markdown support, and more. It also pulls in a lot of information automatically, so you can add weather, location information, and even your daily exercise. Day One is incredibly organized and easy to browse through, so if you're digging through old notes you can find what you're looking for.
Once you get going, you should see all kinds of handy benefits from journaling, regardless of which app you choose.
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![Story Book Writing Program Story Book Writing Program](https://images.downloadcloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/NewNovelist-Version-3.jpg)
For Writing on the iPad: Editorial
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We liked Editorial when it was first released, and it's still the most powerful writing program on the iPad. The reason is pretty simple: Editorial lets you make it as simple or as complicated as you want it.
As a straightforward writing program, editorial checks all the boxes you'd expect. It supports Markdown, plain text, offers outlines, word counts, Dropbox versioning, and all the other stuff you'd expect from a text editor. Where Editorial gets interesting is its workflows. Here, you can create Automator-esque custom actions that do everything from send a block of text to Evernote to sending an email. It's complicated, but once you find a few workflows that work for you, you'll be able to use Editorial for writing in all kinds of contexts. We can't begin to go into the depth needed to get into Editorial's systems, but MacStories has a fantastic starter guide that should answer any questions.
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![Story Book Writing Program Story Book Writing Program](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CEB0OT_qjM8/maxresdefault.jpg)
You have hundreds of writing apps on the iPad (and iPhone) to choose from and each has their own strengths. Which one works best for you likely depends on what you're looking for, but this chart should help you pick the right one.
For Writing on an Android Tablet: Write
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Writing on your Android tablet doesn't offer nearly the (over) abundance of app choices as on an iPad, but Write checks off most of the boxes for anyone looking for a simple writing app.
At its core, Write is a full screen writing app that gives you a place to dump your ideas and just write in plain text. If you want more, it also has Markdown support, a statistics menu, automatic saving, a file management system, and supports backup to pretty much every cloud service out there. It's simple, but it gets the job done and clears a space for you to just write.
Software For Book Writing
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Of course, if you're looking for more power, TextMaker, Google Docs, and QuickOffice are excellent choices that work more like a word processor than just a writing tool.
As we mentioned at the start of this post, thousands of options for writing software exist. Each of those has a specific set of features that's going to appeal to some people more than others. So, it's usually a good idea to treat your writing software like you would any productivity tool: settle on an app that works for you and stick with it.
Story Book Writing Programs
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Free Book Writing Software
Photo by Yaviki.