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More Questions About Novel Writing Software...

JadedSidhe

Minstrel
I've been looking into and trying out some of the different novel writing software that people have talked about.

One thing I have noticed is that the tutorials, blogs, and promotional information all seems linear, as in single plot line and (except for Ywriter) single character pov. (I've been toying with Scrivener and Ywriter, I like aspects of both, but I'm still undecided. MyNovel seemed interesting, but the cartoonish aspects and not being able to save while in demo mode were big turn offs.)

For those of you who have used Scrivener, Dramatica Pro, The Marshall Plan Novel Writing Software, WriteItNow4, etc and so on, do they handle multiple story lines and if so, how is it done and and how well do the programs manage them?

Is there a way to rate the story lines (Primary, secondary, etc)? What if the story lines the various characters are involved in are different? (Personal growth for one, obtaining something, letting go for another, etc). How is that handled? Do they cause conflicts with the primary story line?

What about novels with multiple POVs? I know Ywriter makes it easy to manage different POV characters, but what about the other programs out there?
 

littlebird

New Member
Have you tried Liquid Story Binder? You have to pay $46, but believe me, it is worth it. There are heaps of features that help you with organising multiple storylines, such as the "Outline", "Timeline", "Contrast", "Sequence" and "Builder" features. The program is catered for writers, and even now, I am still finding more uses for it. Take a look at the website...there are so many features it's difficult to describe, especially because the names are a bit confusing at first.
As for writing with multiple POVs, it works well.
Try a free trial and see if it's worth the money. It's a bit fiddly at first, but it pays off.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I like Liquid Story, but the learning curve is steeper than Scrivener, which pretty much does the same things. Also, the LSB developer, Jesse, has stopped developing it for the last year or more, as I understand.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I've pretty much used every one of the things you've listed. And I've chosen Scrivener because it's simple and intuitive. I used yWriter before I got Scrivener. Both are of equal value in my eyes, but Scrivener is more refined. It lets me add inline annotations that don't show up when I export into word/pdf/etc and in the Mac version it let you add comment bubbles (the windows version, this feature is in beta. Soon to be released.) and was an overall more refined product.

As for managing multiple story lines/plot lines Scrivener doesn't do that directly, but there are tools within it that allow you to use your own system of organization with color coded index cards that represent chapters/scenes. You can make notes on the index cards and Scrivener will used that to generate a summary of your story.

If you want a program that helps you manage plot lines and their chronology as well as characters and their chronology specifically, try storybook. Storybook - No. 1 Open Source Novel Writing Software It's free but there's a pro version with a few more features which I don't think are needed.

For me, I tried using storybook and even though it did exactly what I wanted, I found that it was really unnecessary. It actually add a level of complication to the way I write that wasn't needed. It turned out to be easier for me to just use an excel spread sheet. This may be different for you, but it's my experience.
 
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Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I'll throw my hat in for Scrivener too and agree with Penpilot that there are ways to manage multiple story-lines manually. The way I would do it, if I have multiple POVs, is to have a folder for each POV character and then place the individual chapters in the folder. You can also make note cards that may detail certain story-lines so you can keep up with them easier. I'll admit, I haven't done that too much, but for me Scrivener is my word processor of choice now, simply because you can view your chapters easily and have plenty of room for adding research material, character profiles, etc. without have to look at reams and reams of hand-written notes. Which for me, is awesome.
 
I tried Scrivener and found it very useful, but my tried and true method is to make a folder on my desktop and fill it with poorly labeled Microsoft Word documents.
 
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