The truth is no-one cares what tool of writing you use, only the words you produce with it.
—Coner Murphy
I enjoy technology.
By the time I decided it was (finally) time to stop daydreaming about writing a novel and write one, I was already aware that plenty of authors you’ve probably heard of rely on pen and paper, or a specific vintage of a general word processor (physical or software), a typewriter, or other various tools and materials that are NOT software dedicated to writing fiction. So I didn’t (and don’t) expect any particular software to provide a magical writing experience.
But, I felt I needed something writing-focused, to provide some guardrails and structure while I figured out my process for writing. I had a pretty interesting time experimenting with different tools, and put thousands or tens of thousands of words into at least a few of them. There are a lot of writing related tools out there at various price points.
That meandering process might be fodder for a post at some point, but here’s what I use currently. If that changes (unlikely in the near future) I’ll update this page. I’m throwing this out there in the hopes that one person says “Ah, I’ve been looking for something just like that!”
novelWriter
My main tool for writing is novelWriter. It’s featureful, and has a steepish learning curve, but is well documented, and very actively developed. It is the creation of Veronica Berglyd Olsen.
It’s free software (gratis, but more importantly libre), and runs natively on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It was far from the first tool I tried, but it is the one that felt the most “right” for me, so that’s where I stayed.
Reviews for it tend to be outdated quickly due to the rate of development, so I suggest you just try it if it looks like something you might like. You’ll want to spend a little time with the documentation most likely.
Plottr
novelWriter has outlining capability, but before using it I had already outlined my story with Plottr. I went roughly 50K words into my first draft before realizing that yes, I (personally) do need an outline.
Plottr provided the sort of visual guide I needed, and I found it to be slick and featureful without being overwhelming. In addition to outlining it tracks characters, locations, objects, and all manner of things that you need to keep track of when writing a novel.
I needed some help from Plottr support on a couple occasions, and they were quick to reply and handle my issues. Plottr is neither libre nor gratis, but it does run on just about everything, including Linux. For an additional premium, there is also a web interface.
I’m definitely a fan. Despite this, for future projects I may try my hand at outlining and maintaining all those other details in novelWriter, if only to reduce the number of different tools in my workflow.
Hemingway Editor Classic
I keep a Windows virtual machine on hand solely to run the offline, non-AI, Hemingway Editor Classic. The web version of it is here. I need to update this page with the name of the person who recommended it to me, but that will take a smidge of digging. This tool saved me quite a lot of time during revision. It highlights adverb usage, passive voice, and overly complex sentences. It also provides a general readability score. The more I used it the more comfortable I became ignoring some of the things it highlighted—but in most cases where it highlights something, I can find a way to make that something better. As much as I enjoy this tool, it will be replaced when I find a Linux-native tool that can perform the same tasks in such an easy to use way.
You have little reason to care what tools I use, but you may still be on the hunt to find the best tools for your use. Maybe one of these is a good fit for you.