Today we’re going to start looking at what’s out there for writing our story. There are literally hundreds of programs that are out there for us to use… everything from the most basic of editors (Notepad or Wordpad) all the way up to the program sanctioned by,and available at a discount for winning NaNoWriMo, Scrivener.

For some folks, the pleasure of writing is in the act itself. They love the idea that they can put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard… and trudge off into the distance to create their masterpiece and see where fate takes them. Using something like Notepad would be very similar to that. You get your own two legs… and that’s it. Notes? fuhgeddaboudit! Chapters? Only if you’ve put them in there. Moving things around? Hope you like Cut and Paste.

One thing that I’ve found, is that a LOT of people from my writing group (travel companions) use Microsoft Word. Probably because it’s what we ALL use… day in and day out. Who hasn’t used Word at some point in time? (They even have an online version of Word) Because it’s familiar, it’s comfortable… until you start using it for things it wasn’t intended. When it comes to writing a book, compare Word to Notepad. You’ve got a lot more functionality when it comes to formatting… you can spell/grammar check your document… and… that’s about it. Yeah, you might be able to drag and drop instead of cut and paste, but it’s about the same. With Word, you’re walking the path by foot, but this time… you have a stick. Either to help you walk, or to try and beat off any of those nasty predators

Then we come to Scrivener. The first thing you notice, is that it’s going to cost you. You’re definitely not talking about taking off on a walkabout. There’s a learning curve that even the best of us is going to take a bit of time to get over. But, the thing’s got bells and whistles and little dangly bits and mirrors and cupholders. At times, it sounds like it’s loaded with too much, but then again, it may be just what you’re looking for.

In the quest for that perfect writing software, I’ve come across a few popular options. Starting tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the basics of a few of them, and maybe even compare some features that they share. But first, lemme ask you this: Are you a pantser or a plotter?