What is the best software for writing a novel?

Question

I want to write a novel, but Microsoft Office and Open Office seem a bit boring. Thanks.

Answer 1

The software doesn't matter.  If the writing is good, the software will have all the excitement that you need.

Here are 3 good books to get.  They are all related to screenwriting, but honestly, screenwriting requires you to focus in on the story and characters FAST, so you'll learn great writing techniques.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Screenp...

By far one of the best books I've ever used.  Extremely well written, easy to read and use.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Story/R...

One of the "industry standards", writers of both screenplays and fiction pay a LOT to take his classes.  Similar to the first book, but a lot more detailed.  He provides plenty of good examples and great writer's problem solving advice.

And this one was a great surprise for everyone when I was part of a local Writer's Guild in HS:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/How-to-...

If any book was a Reader's Digest version of how to write good stories, this is it.  The section on "How to Write", detailing what HAS to happen at certain points in every story, really works, and it applies to almost every successful book, short story, or movie.  There's no excuse for writer's block.  This one gets you going.

Don't get bogged down on worrying about the software you're using.  That's an excuse for not being very interested in what you're writing about.  If that's the case, it's time to shelf that story and start something else.  If it's a story that really excites and interests you, you could be using Windows NOTEPAD.

(Don't laugh, I once had a story idea hit me at a job where I pretty much sat around bored 90% of the time, and the only writing software they had on the PC was NotePad or Wordpad.  So I used Notepad, so that I could cut & paste it into an email to myself later.  I wrote about 40 pages in Notepad with no formatting other than paragraph breaks, all in just one sitting for one night!!!  I was just way too excited about the story and had to get it all down.)

Answer 2

Occasionally , i use Microsoft Word , Word pad or Open Office Writer.

It depends on what you like the best.

I don't understand why you find them boring.

You sit , think what you're going to write and type.

xx Greetings

Answer 3

You're writing a novel.

It's the story that's meant to be interesting, not the program.

There are specific novel writing programs out there, but they're all scams if you ask me.

All you need to write a story is a decent word processor.

If you have microsoft word, i suppose you could mess around with the font/page colour, or the font types and stuff. It just sounds to me like you're procrastinating from actually writing the story.

Answer 4

Most writers use MS Word (which is part of MS Office) or Word Perfect. But the program doesn't really matter; you could write a novel in Wordpad, or even Notepad if you had to.

I don't get what you mean when you say MS Office is "boring." Or, rather, I fail to see why you think you need an "interesting" program in order to write novels. Novel-writing is nothing more than typing words into a computer. What more do you need?  

Answer 5

I use Microsoft Word for my writing but it's not very...official

Answer 6

Just use Microsoft Word.

You're writing a book...the software doesn't have to be interesting. You just need to get the words onto the page.

Answer 7

It's not in the software...it's in your heart and in your brain.

Answer 8

You might want to visit this blog. It has a store which might sell the kind of software you are looking for. Good luck!