Software for Writers
Please note that I run a Macintosh. Many of the programs below are for Mac only. If you write me complaining about how it isn't fair that some massively cool program isn't available for Windows, you will be mocked.
Miss Lonelynotes
By: Mindola Software
System: Mac 10.3, Windows XP, Windows 2000
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Demo: Popup reminder
Price: $29
For some time writers have been using the simple index card as an aid to plotting and outlining. Now there's a computer program to do the same thing, only with more functionality and less small blizzards of paper when the rubber band breaks. Miss Lonelynotes is a simple but very useful little organization program specifically geared to fiction writers, and, for all that it's an early version, it delivers far better results than some of its more complicated competitors.
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StarGen
By: Brons
System: Mac Classic, Mac OSX (with Developer Tools installed), Linux, Unix, Windows
Demo: No demo
Price: Free!
StarGen is a lovely little program that will automatically generate scientifically accurate star starsystems for you and output them as HTML files. You can have it output random Earthlike systems or build systems for various nearby and potentially habitable stars - or you can diddle with the settings and produce systems for stars of various masses and types. Whatever you want.
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Ulysses
By: The Blue Technologies Group
System: Mac OSX
Version Reviewed: 1.0.3
Demo: Fully functional version, save disabled after 30 days
Price: 100€
At 100 Euros (roughly $120 US) Ulysses is the most expensive program reviewed here, and I admit to hoping that the program wouldn't be worth it when I first downloaded it. Unfortunately, it was. Ulysses is without a doubt the most versatile word processing program I've ever worked with and the best suited to my needs as a writer, and when the time came, I paid up with barely a qualm.
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Inspiration
By: Inspiration Software
System: Mac Classic/OSX, Windows
Version Reviewed: 7.5
Demo: Fully functional for thirty days, program stops opening after that
Price: $69
Yet again, my top pick is an expensive one - but you just can't beat Inspiration. This is a brilliant little plotting program based on the concept of "idea webbing" and the novel idea that not all people think in outlines. If you need a nice visual before you can start seeing where a story is going, this program is for you.
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Pyramid
By: MindCad Software
System: Mac OSX
Version Reviewed: 1.0.2
Demo: Limits you to 15 items per worksheets and two worksheets per project
Price: $29 US
Pyramid is, like Inspiration, a plotting and organization program, useful for sorting out your thoughts on stories or articles if you're not much on outlines. Unfortunately, it's inferior to Inspiration in just about every respect; not as versatile or as intuitive or as accommodating to the "let's just write stuff down and figure out how it works later" method of plotting as the more commercial product. On the other hand, it doesn't cost seventy bucks.
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Z-Write
By: Stone Table Software
System: Mac Classic/OSX
Version Reviewed: 1.3.1
Demo: Fully functional version, certain restrictions placed on sections after 30 days
Price: $29 US
Z-Write was the first word processing program made for creative writing that I found and liked, and as long as I was running Classic it worked like a dream. Unfortunately, the OS X version was rife with bugs and irritations, and, though there are rumors of an update on the horizon, there have been no sure signs yet. If I were running Classic this would be my first-choice word processor; as it is, I've moved to the far less affordable but more workable Ulysses.
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