Storyist 2.0 has been out for a bit now.  I must say I really like it.  In a comparison of writing software, I’d have to say Storyist is for Plotters or Formatters.

The application is great for writing.  It has a clean interface, and helps you work on whatever your writing and focus.

The strong points of Storyist are the main editor and the different “plotting” sheets.

The main editor is nice and big.  It shows you how your text will look when formatted and keeps the text formatted.  All text you enter will have a style applied.  You can tab through the different styles if needed.  This is great in some cases, but some people might feel that it is limiting or distracting.  I think it is a strong point if you have a good idea on what you want to create.

The “plotting” sheets are another piece of awesomeness.  There are note sheets for characters, sections, and the plot.  If you’re a “plotter,” this’ll allow you to come up with some order for your novel.  It’ll also allow you to remember the small details.  Since you can also view these as index cards in a split-view, it’s quite helpful.

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So for those of you who will read this, I was wondering how do you start off your novels, books, or stories? I was trying to think of ways to do it, but so far I just throw the reader into a situation and hope they can accept it.
If it was in the first person, I might consider saying “Well, one time…” and flashback and start the story, but I don’t really like those types of book openings. I sometimes do, but it depends how well the writer pulls it off. If it’s a journal or something, then that’s okay, or if you start off with someone at a bar or in a stormy night and they decide to tell a story, then that too is okay.
If it’s a fictional mythological fairy tale like story, then I guess it’s okay to start off with “Once upon a time” or “There once was a …” and etc. Sometimes it can be used for a slightly humorous or interesting start for a story even if it isn’t a fairy tale, but I’m not sure how well it can be pulled off.
In some Sci-Fi stories, the book starts off with a back-ground story or information, like “In a galaxy far far away…” or “Somewhere off in an alternate dimension…” I think it’s good if you’re making your own world, but not for stories based in this world.
So dear reader, for those of you who are writing, how do you plan to start off you book or how have you started books before?

So, a lot of people have been looking at WriteRoom and wondering if it is truly worth spending $25 for. A lot of people out there say, “No, spend your money elsewhere and get a free alternative like JDarkRoom” or something else.
I say if you’re on Windows or Linux, there are better free alternatives (Like RubyRoom or textRoom). On Mac though, we’re pretty much stuck with the choice of WriteRoom or JDarkRoom for our full-screen just a simple text-editor purposes. You could install MacPorts or Fink to get the dependencies of RubyRoom, PyRoom, and etc installed on your Mac, then play around with it until it works, but it still doesn’t provide the features that WriteRoom provides.
The closest thing on Mac that’ll provide what WriteRoom does is MacVim, but that requires some tweaking and a lot of getting used to. JDarkRoom (in my opnion) is a good start, but it’s no where close to WriteRoom yet.
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For those of you who haven’t heard already. My macBook decided to die on me… Okay, the hard drive was faulty and finally gave out. I have some kick-butt friends who were willing to let me borrow desktops. I wound up borrowing a sortof cruddy desktop (2.0 GHz Processor single core, 192 MB ram), but I was allowed to basically do whatever I wanted to it. It had Windows XP installed, but it was flooded with spyware. My Windows install CD was scratched and unreadable, so I resorted to installing Linux.

So I figured it’d be time to share some of the writing toys I’ve been playing with until I get my macBook back into my loving arms.

First off, I’m sorry to say it, but a lot of Novel Writing software is for Windows and Mac only. Sure some of them can be run under WINE, but as I said earlier, I’m stuck on something with 192 MB ram and 2.0 GHz processing. So the ram is the major limitation for me to run WINE (I tried it, and it was lagging).

So, what are we looking at today? Full screen editors! There were a few rules I was looking at for the ones I was going to post about. Rule 1, it must install and run on my machine. Rule 2, there are no other rules beside rules 1 and 2.

Now then, I’ve heard some great things about several full screen editors, but only 3 installed and ran successfully. I really wanted to try out PyRoom, but it would not run.

So, the three I will be looking at today are RubyRoom, TextRoom, and a4e. RubyRoom and TextRoom are specifically clones of WriteRoom, okay, maybe not WriteRoom, but if you trace back to the origin, the start of the whole WhateverRoom was WriteRoom. a4e is simply a text-editor fullscreen to ease the pain and suffering of others (the creator said it was made to go on with the fad or something).

This post is being writing on TextRoom, so I guess will look at that first.

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I find it easier to write an essay or document using software that was made to write it like MS Word, NeoOffice Writer, or OpenOffice Writer. These are geared more for documents like essays, letters, and etc. It would be hard to manage and keep track of a book in these standard word processors. Once you get to a 10,000+ words, it’s hard to find a specific place where you left off. It’s nice to have an application that works all-around, but sometimes it’s nicer to have a specialized application.

Bean - A lightweight word processor.

I was going to look at Bean, but in my opinion, it’s still a word processor and not geared so much at large books. I’d suggest it for short stories, or people who want a truly freeware application for writing, but it doesn’t provide all the features writers may be looking for.

Bean is great for full screen writing. It is lightweight and has some features that other full screen writing software don’t offer. I’d suggest it to those lacking finances in a wallet, but I, personally, wouldn’t want to type up a 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo in it.

Some others actually recommend using wordPress.  There’s a wordPress plugin that allows you to export to an rtf (I believe, can someone e-mail me a link if they find it?, so far BlogBooker, WPTEX, and Some other stuff).  As for some plugins until I find the export one, there’s WP-Print which provides readers with a way to print a nice copy of your post(s).  Wordpress.com has a FAQ that explains how to make a wordPress blog into an e-book type setting.  I think it’d be cool to write a book using wordPress, but I personally prefer sharing excerpts as I go along and a finished work if I think it’s good.  I don’t like showing as I progress, personally.

Back to actual software…  Sorry, I’m easily distracted.

Jer's Novel Writer - A well-priced book writing app.

The first piece of software I’d like to show you is called Jer’s Novel Writer.  Jer’s Novel Writer is a generously priced (at $30) Book Writing Application.  My favorite features are the drawer and the margin notes.  It’s probably one of the easiest pieces of software to use.  When you first start a project, you’re presented with a settings panel.  This allows you to configure how you want your book setup and how it will appear on the screen.  After setting it up, you are presented with a blank white canvas ready to be filled.

Jer’s Novel Writer has many features every writer will enjoy.  I already mentioned margin notes.  Margin notes allow you to comment on a specific part of your book.  You can color code the notes, some suggestions might be revision notes, places that need revision, comments, and etc.  It’s also useful for asking someone to comment on the work.  There’s also an “Outline.”  This is useful for jumping between different parts of your book.  You can also drag and drop various parts for rearrangement.
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