I was eight years old and in Punjab for the summer holidays the first time I was proud of something I had written. My paternal uncle (chacha) bought me a small 8 x 24 inch-ish wooden plank called a phatta, which village children used to write on with a homemade wooden pen that they filled with ink. I spent hours writing all 35 characters of the Punjabi alphabet on it, and at the end of it, my mum said “good,” then without warning proceeded to wipe the phatta clean with a mildew coloured paste. She had neglected to mention my work would be destroyed. This phatta experience was the first instance of a psychological condition that my wife, Sona Charaipotra, also a writer, my father, Pashaura Singh Dhillon, a Punjabi poet and singer, and I suspect many readers of this blog also suffer from: word hoarding.

Merriam-Webster defines a hoarder as “a person who accumulates things and hides them away for future use.” For as long as I can remember, I have done this with words. This phatta experience was not fun when I realized the permanent loss of data that was to follow. If I had my way, we would have returned to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with suitcases filled with nothing but stacks of wooden planks, all black with the profound thoughts of an eight year old. Since this phatta thing didn’t work out, I became paper mad (I still am, but to a much lesser degree). I still keep journals. I still write on napkins. And I feel odd leaving the house without paper and a pen or pencil. In graduate school at California State University in Fresno, I rarely used a computer for my writing. Almost all of my work was initially handwritten in notebooks, and then reluctantly written in Microsoft Word to be printed and pimped out for workshop critiques.

But my first novel that I’m in the midst of writing now didn’t even move with this approach. As the research for my novel set around 1984 started piling on, I got lost in entire notebooks and a sea of random papers filled with notes on books, articles I’ve read, on potential characters, real life incidents, ideas for fictional scenes, facts, etc. It all became quite overwhelming. So, I attempted to organize things on my own. I named the main folder on my MacBook Pro, “Writing” and within it, subcategories with names like “Research on Blue Star,” “Bhindranwale,” “Militancy in Punjab,” “Operation Black Thunder,” “Things I May Use,” “Actual Writing,” “Drafts,” “Timelines,” “Characters,” and “Possible Storylines.” Needless to say, that didn’t go very well at all.

During one of my googling binges, I found out about the niche market of Mac applications/software catering to fiction writers that went beyond Final Draft, which is specifically for screenwriters. I’ve tried almost all of them, starting with the free ones, and moving on to the paid ones. All of the paid ones offer generous trial periods, which is what I used to make my decision of which writing software to use (you should too!).

Almost all of the free applications have the full-screen feature, which, in theory, is the only thing you really need. And if you already have Microsoft Word, it has a very nice full-screen option that blacks out the screen and lets you focus just on your writing. There are plenty of free alternatives to Microsoft Word and many, many free writing applications if that’s all you’re looking for though.

No, not Mr. Bean. Just "Bean"

The only free product worth commenting on and one I recommend if you’re just looking for full-screen capability is The Bean. It is essentially a word processor specifically for fiction writers. There are four appealing things that are useful about it: 1) a completely customizable full screen option that doesn’t look hideous, 2) live word-count, 3) exporting to a variety of formats, including .doc and .pdf, and 4) the best part is that it is COMPLETELY FREE. No trial or gimmicks. Download it here.

It is crucial to figure out what kind of writer you are before deciding on a writing software. Every writer works very differently, and just like it is impossible to make the declaration “outlining is the best writing process,” it is equally impossible to claim one writing software is “better” than the other. Each of them is good, and although you will notice an overlap, they each serve the needs of different writers. You will be surprised at how huge of a role personal preference will play in your decision.

If you’ve done even cursory research, you should know that the only three writing applications you should be considering spending your money on are  StoryMill 4.0.1 ($49.95),  Storyist 2.3.1 ($59), and Scrivener 2.0 ($45).

1) StoryMill 4.0.1 ($49.95)
The main draw of this application was that in addition to fitting most of my criteria, it also allowed for the creation of time-lines. So, I was excited to try it. Everything worked fine, but I didn’t like the time-lines as much as I’d hoped.  The issue I had with it was that I couldn’t just create one time-line. I had to create several and they would always have to be searched separately. The full-screen feature was also one I was underwhelmed by. The background is black, which I like, but I didn’t like that the text went clear across the page. This worked fine for my laptop, but on my 27 inch desktop, this looked really odd, and some of my paragraphs looked like they only had one or two lines!  It didn’t exactly put me in the mood to write.

StoryMill Full Screen Feature on a 15 inch laptop

The one thing that I really liked about StoryMill that I never saw emulated anywhere else was its word count feature (see image below). It is unobtrusively viewable right on the toolbar, and you can set it to make sounds (or just leave it silent) when you hit your goal for that session.

Screenshot of StoryMill Progress Meter

Final Thoughts: One writer I spoke to who bought version 4.0 (not 4.01) told me that the reason she didn’t like this product was it wasn’t saving properly and she constantly needed to restart in order to see the changes (and sometimes, it wouldn’t show up at all). So she just abandoned ship and shifted to StoryMill. I never experienced any of that during my 30 day trial. Aside from the full-screen feature, the mechanics of the software worked fine. So, make sure you try the 4.01 version (or whatever the latest version is. Maybe they’ll even fix the full-screen feature in the next update)

2) Storyist 2.3.1 ($59)
This is a very easy to use application and it has a lot of great features, but there are two issues I couldn’t get past. I’ll start with the good: The layout is very easy to navigate. You have access to everything you really need on the toolbar, except for full-screen, which you can easily use a keyboard short-cut for anyway. On the left side is the “project” folder, which contains your manuscript, folders, and sections broken down into things like plot, characters, settings, and notebook (that looks like lined paper).  The center is where your manuscript lies. This looks like a normal wordprocessor and it can be changed to look like a corkboard or lined paper, although I’m not sure why you would want to do that (where do you write?). The entire left side can be hidden.

Screenshot of Storyist Main Layout

In order to use the word count feature, you do have to click the Inspector button, which I didn’t have much of a problem with because the word count is written at the bottom of the page, as is the number of pages. The storyboard (which looks like a corkboard) is by far the coolest thing ever. It allows you to “cast” actors by adding images of what you imagine your character to look like. You can even insert images for places. And it is very easy to do: just drop it in from anywhere, including the web. These images are automatically updated in the character sketches, which involve details of your characters that are fully editable. You can also amend them or create brand new ones and save them as templates.

Screenshot of Storyist Storyboard Feature

You can insert links within the text, which is dangerous for me because it leads me to the internet and then I get into either entertainment, or research mode. Theoretically, this is a good though. Lastly, it allows you to export to a variety of formats, including .epub used for reading ebooks.

The bad: I absolutely hate the full-screen mode (see below). The colors are fine, but it basically presents everything in the layout (corkboard and all) in full-screen.  It doesn’t give you the option of decreasing or increasing font while in full-screen, and you need to input all of that information in the preferences.

Screenshot of Storyist Full-Screen Feature

3) Scrivener 2.0 ($45)
After trying all of the applications out, this is the one that I felt suited my needs flawlessly. It does every single thing that Storyist does well, and also has a fantastic full-screen option that allows you to customize font size even while in full-screen mode. There are three views: outliner, corkboard, and document. On the left side of the screen, is the binder option where you can organize your folder with subfolders (I usually have this hidden). Below is a screenshot of the main layout. Notice everything you would need, including full screen, is on the toolbar (there are also keyboard shortcuts).

Screenshot of Scrivener Main Layout

I also like that you can assign keywords to each section, and can search the entire manuscript for those keywords. You can insert links into the text if you really want to, which I am steering clear of for the time being because I know only bad things will happen if I have the option to click a word within Scrivener and it takes me to the internet. In theory, it can help if I use the word “ghallughara,” or the line “When Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards,”by linking to an article about it. But in practice, I have a feeling I am going to get into entertainment and/or research-mode.

It is a tiny bit confusing at first, but the layout is very simple and the software is incredibly user friendly. In order to create a pdf file or an epub of your manuscript, you would think you go to “export,” but you actually have to go to “compile manuscript” where you can select various options for the file format.

The full screen mode has a couple of options, but I only use one. I put the font at 100% and the background at black so I don’t see any icons or my desktop at all, and I can edit freely. I like that I can adjust the font while in full-screen, but as soon as I move my mouse, the toolbar disappears, leaving me with just my manuscript (see below).

Screenshot of Scrivener Full Screen Layout

The other flexibility I love about the full-screen mode in Scrivener is that when I return to half-mode, I still have my original layout, which usually consists of having an index card outlining the main scene taking place in a chapter. There are a variety of templates that you can edit or create from scratch. Some people view the casting for the characters in Scrivener as slightly inferior to Storyist’s, but I find it to work out better for me. It is inferior in the sense that you can’t just grab a photo from the internet and drop it. The image has to be on your hard drive. It also doesn’t automatically update it in the character sketch. The reason this works out better for me is that I waste a lot of time looking up actors and actresses, which inevitably gets into entertainment mode. This is something I am glad is not being encouraged. The default for the character section is actually an index card, not an image. So you have the option of not dilly dallying and just writing down the character traits, or whatever characteristics, conflicts, etc. of your character, rather than going out of your way to find images of people. Below is an example of how I waste my time with this feature as it is:

Screenshot of Scrivener Character Layout

The word count feature isn’t as cool as the one in StoryMill. There are keyboard shortcuts you can use, and it is visible on the bottom of the page like in any standard wordprocessor, but you can’t set sounds to it.  It can, however,  notify you via Growl. Other than that, I think this application is absolutely brilliant. Try all of these applications out and see for yourself which one is your cup of tea.

Tip: If you can hold off, wait until November 1-30 for NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to buy your software. There are some excellent discounts for participants (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/offers). Scrivener is 20% off and Storyist is 25% off. Also check if there are educational discounts (Scrivener offers a $7 discount for students and educators).

To reiterate, these are my experiences with the software. Yours may very well be different. Either way, I would love to hear from you.

Happy Writing!