There’s a common bit of writing advice that goes something like this:
The best writing app is the one you already have.
And to an extent, I agree. The last thing I would ever advise a writer—especially a new writer—is to postpone starting her book until she found the “right writing tool.”
Just write. Google Docs works. Microsoft Word is fine. A yellow legal pad and a cheap ballpoint pen do the trick.
That said, I also am a proponent of infusing as much joy into my life as possible, and I believe in extending that philosophy into the tools—both analog and digital—I use on a daily basis. Perhaps it’s all in my head, but I feel my writing is better when I enjoy my writing environment.
Below are my four favorite tools for writing a romance novel. I’ve dabbled in many, but I always come back to these ones.
Note: I’m on the Apple Ecosystem, and a couple of these are exclusive to Mac. And some of them are also paid/subscription apps, which I know isn’t feasible for everyone. I’m not writing this article to tell you what you should use, I’m sharing what works for me.
Planning / Brainstorming – Milanote
In general, I have a pretty hard and fast rule against any sort of digital tool that doesn’t have proper offline access, but I make an exception for Milanote because it’s just so darn good for visual planning. Unlike traditional notes apps, word processors, or even Notion, which forces you to work top to bottom or in columns, Milanote lets you add text or images anywhere on the canvas. This is ideal for the way my mind works when I’m brainstorming. It allows me to capture every scene idea, character trait, piece of banter without having to worry about organizing it. And I love that I’m able to drag and drop related scene/character ideas into “sections” as the story starts to come together.
Alternative: Milanote is cross-platform. Freeform is a free Mac alternative that I’ve been using more and more in hopes of being able to ditch the monthly expense of Milanote, but it hasn’t quite replaced it for me yet. I don’t know a free alternative for PC.
Drafting – Ulysses
When it comes time to start Chapter One, I almost always use Ulysses (sometimes I go straight to Pages, but that’s rare). I love that Ulysses is minimal, lightweight, has perfect offline access (I write with the internet turned off) but will also seamlessly across my devices when I turn the internet back on. It also has just the right amount of features for me without feeling cluttered and bloated like Scrivener. It has word count tracking, the ability to drag-drop scenes as necessary, and I love that I can write notes to myself in the document that are easily excluded from the final export.
Alternative: I think Scrivener is probably the best option if you’re on a PC?
Planning Revisions – Numbers
If my early brainstorming process is very freeform and unstructured, my revision process is the opposite. When I’m done with my first draft, I enter every scene into a spreadsheet. Then I’ll add columns for things like the date it takes place in the story, the character POV, and most essentially, a summary of what changes I need to make in that story, whether per my editor’s suggestions, or my own ideas. I’ll also add a status column to note which ones have been revised. If I need to add a new scene, I’ll also note that here.
Alternative: Excel works just as well for this, though I prefer the cleaner interface of Numbers.
Polishing – Apple Pages
One of my least favorite things about being a traditionally published author is that they make me use Microsoft Word. I hate it. I find it ugly, clunky, and though I know this sounds eccentric, it diminishes my love of the story when I have to move my manuscript into it per their requirements. Because of this, I delay the transition to Word until the absolute last second. Instead, I use Pages, which is free on my iPad and Mac. I find the app beautiful. In fact, every now and then I’ll write my first draft in Pages instead of Ulysses (though I often regret that if it turns out to be a story that needs a lot of rearranging later).
Alternative: Obviously, if you have a PC, you’re going to have Microsoft Word by default 🙂
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