Software and writing don’t easily go hand in hand in popular belief. In fact, it would probably be news for most people to find out that there are a lot of programs that can relieve writers of all kinds of problems if they find them and learn how to use them. Here is a short enumeration of different programs that may turn out useful for a writer, fiction or nonfiction one. Let’s take a look.
Whitesmoke is an English Grammar checker with great functionality: it works wherever you write, be it Microsoft Word, a mail agent or a box in the Internet, it checks your mail before you post it, and does a lot of other things. If you are not very good with grammar, you will certainly make good use of it.
Attaché software is created for non-fiction writers – it is a great help in organizing information, arranging all your preliminary notes, ideas, drafts and so on in an orderly manner.
Storybase, on the contrary, positions itself as “the ultimate software for fiction writers”. It allows you to enter a few prompts concerning their characters and their actions and receive lots and lots of suggestions: how they would behave, what their relationships with each other will be and so on. The only possible drawback is that Storybase almost entirely deals with emotions of the characters – if it is what your novel is about, go ahead and use it.
Another program for writers is Newnovelist – it helps you organize your thoughts and ideas, allowing you to write down fragments of your novel as they come to your head so that it is easy to rearrange them later.
Another similar program is Writer’s Blocks – it will certainly be good news for any prospective writer who has problems with putting his thoughts and ideas in order. It allows you to create “blocks” of information – for example, when you come up with a great idea but cannot attach it to the text you have already written. You can, of course, simply jot it down – but you are likely to lose it that way. Writer’s Blocks allows you to keep track of what your write.
Muse Names. How often have you seen a person in a work of fiction clearly belonging to a certain ethnicity but having a name that either has nothing to do with it or doesn’t exist at all? If you want to avoid similar embarrassments in your own work, use Muse Names – it easily allows you to find culturally correct names.
Finally, indexing software, like Macrex, Cindex or Sky Index is a great help for those who need to compile an index. They do not automatically turn you into an expert in this field, but they can certainly help in understanding the principles.
