I caved in and bought Storyist, a Mac-only story development tool much like Scrivener, but more expensive. *lol* Okay, actually it was my better half who bought it since he wanted to use it, too, and it can be installed on a desktop computer and a laptop – “provided that you are the primary user of both machines” – that’s what they say on their homepage. Whatever…
Anyway, I’ve tested Storyist and Scrivener before – yay for free-trial versions – and they are both great, but in the end I liked Storyist a bit better – although it took some time to master it. When you first open Storyist you most likely will be like “Whoa, wait a sec. How… What… Why… MOMMY!”, but soon the Mac-feeling will start over and you’ll be like “Oy, shiny! And new! And stylish! And… let’s try this thing out.”
Admittedly, trying out doesn’t really work here – unless you got some special super-powers and easily understand the most complex things. Homo sapines normallis, however, should read the manual first. Seriously, read the frigging manual! I hate manuals and normally just try until I figure out how things work, but in this case the manual was a time-saver – as well as the saviour of my nerves. *sighs*
But as soon as you figured out the logic behind Storyist – and trust me: the author of Storyist put a lot of logic into his program – you’ll be amazed, and the Mac-feeling (“Oy, shiny!”) will take over again. Granted, there are a lot of things you could buy for almost $60 and keep on using a free word-editor like OpenOffice, or AbiWord – or keep on using MS Word (*shudder*), but a tool like Storyist (or Scrivener for that matter) is truly amazing – especially when it comes writing novels, or really long fanfictions – which are novels, too.
This tools allows you to create an outline of your story – which is like the most important thing ever, and if you’re a little chaot like me who writes down everything on small paper notes, or Post-Its, or in a Moleskine notebook, and then lose them… Won’t happen with Storyist (Scrivener) anymore. It basically works like a browser and you can easily switch between your actual story and your outline. You can add comments and notes and have them neatly attached to a virtual corkboard. Also, Storyist lets you create various sheets – for plot, characters, settings. You can add pictures to visualize – which I find quite helpful when it comes to writing.
Of course, I could do that all with OpenOffice, AbiWord, or MS Word – hell, even with TextEditor (or whatever Windows user call it on their OS), but the overview is so much better – and Storyist lets you easily create links between your sheets. It automatically transforms your text in a “novel” – no more manual editing, you can simply focus on writing. Also, you can quickly search for something; like a certain character or whatever and it’ll show you all mentions, pretty much like Google, or Bing, or any other web search engine. And, Storyist lets you import and export files – your beta-reader might be grateful. *g*
Of course, you probably won’t need such a powerful writing tool if you’re just writing for fun, for fandom, or to kill time, but still… it’s like Photoshop. You don’t need that either if you aren’t a professional, but most of us have it anyway while there are open source alternatives available – GIMP, for example.
However, I realized that my little, chaotic brain is more than grateful for a tool like Storyist. Of course, I still use my notebook, random pieces of paper I’ll find in my handbag, the infamous Post-Its and whatelse whenever the plot bunny bites me – after all, plot bunnies tend to be quite active when you aren’t near a computer, or when your laptop is safe and sound in your bag, and the good old pen and paper are faster at hand. But then, I can write those notes down in Storyist when I start a new project, and have them in place whenever I need them without having to go through all my handbags – I’m a late twenty-something straight girl; I have a lot of handbags – to find that one certain note I was looking for.
Also, did I mention that you can create Character sheets and Setting sheets? I find that the most useful thing ever! Well, it certainly isn’t that important when you merely write fanfiction – after all, then you already have defined characters and settings, though then again, when I look at the one or other show/movie/book… not really.
The only big minus on both Storyist and Scrivener is: they are Mac only! Scrivener plans to release a Windows version in 2011, though, but I’ve heard that PageFour and Liquid Story Binder are good(-ish) alternatives for those who can’t – or don’t want to – switch to Mac. I just don’t know whether they also provide the “Oy, shiny!” Mac-feeling. *g*
So, speaking of writing: I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. 50,000 words in 30 days… Let’s see how that will go… Oh, and as far as I know, both Scrivener and Storyist give out free NaNoWriMo versions this year – basically it’s the 30-days-trail version, but hey… the child needs a name, right?
Anyway, if any of you tries any of those programs, let me know what you think of them. Even the Windows ones. Who knows, mabye one day I’ll have to switch back to Windows (Please, good Lord Steve Jobs, make that not happen!) and then it’d be nice to have an alternative.
Or, do you already use another writing tool similar to Storyist, or Scrivener? Oh, and dear spam bots: I don’t speak no Spanish!
That’s all for today. Plot bunnies are knocking at my door, and I want to have a rough story outline before November 1st. And eventually, I’ll add some more art to the website… Soonish. Operating word would be “-ish”. *lol*
