Or what you do when your preferred writing application goes subscription-only.
I love playing around with software, so looking for a new writing program is kind of exciting in a geeky sort of way. At the same time it can be a convenient excuse for not actually writing, so I am determined to make a choice as soon as I can.
Now that I have eschewed Ulysses (see here for more) I need to pick another piece of writing software to use for all my writing needs and desires. The first thing I need to establish are the must-have features this software will have:
- Must let you type words into a computer and save them to disk or “the cloud”
- Must work on both a MacBook Pro and Windows 10 PC or more broadly speaking, it must work in both macOS and Windows environments *or* support a file format that is natively supported in both OSes without requiring magic or witchery to work properly.
- Must please me in somewhat arbitrary and ill-defined ways
- Must not require a subscription. Paid or donate to unlock all features is okay.
Now, let’s review the criteria:
1. Must let you type words into a computer and save them to disk or “the cloud”
This one is easy as literally any program except whimsical comp-sci projects will pretty much let you do this. This does not narrow the criteria down in any way whatsoever, so my inclusion of it here was simply to start the process with a little levity. A tiny smidgen, if you will. Moving on…
2. Must work on both a MacBook Pro and Windows 10 PC or more broadly speaking, it must work in both macOS and Windows environments *or* support a file format that is natively supported in both OSes without requiring magic or witchery to work properly.
This is where it gets trickier. There are some programs that work across both platforms and these are my preference. However, if I opt for a common file format such as text (.txt) then I can write in different programs and the actual work will be the same in each. The biggest downside to this approach is probably the mental shift required when switching off between programs that could potentially work very differently even as they ultimately accomplish the same thing.
3. Must please me in somewhat arbitrary and ill-defined ways
This category covers “nice to have features” that aren’t strictly required but in a way actually are. For example, the ability to set a writing goal is pretty essential for National Novel Writing Month and some of the major programs like Microsoft Word do not feature this, because they focus more on making the writing look pretty, rather than the actual process of putting the words down.
Other nice-to-have features would include:
- focus mode (highlight a line/sentence/paragraph)
- distraction-free options (full screen support, etc.)
- easy to access word counts
- ability to easily move around scenes or chapters
- built-in support for cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive or others
- and other things
4. Must not require a subscription. Paid or donate to unlock all features is okay.
This is pretty straightforward, unless the chosen program does what effectively amounts to a bait-and-switch by changing their pay model after you purchase the software (as happened with Ulysses, which went from a traditional paid program to subscription). There is an increasing move toward subscriptions (boo) but enough options exist outside the model to allow me to steer clear of it for now.
With the criteria set, let’s look at the pros and cons of some candidates.
Microsoft Word
Pros:
- supports Windows, macOS, iOS
- integrates nicely with OneDrive
- offers web version in a pinch
- familiar
- supports indents
- .docx format is widely supported
- has a full screen mode
Cons:
- no options for setting goals
- no focus mode
- no easy way to move scenes or chapters (it can be done, just not easily)
- the WYSIWYG approach can lead to fighting the formatting
- no built-in support for markdown, though it will auto-convert some markdown to formatting, such as using asterisks for italics.
- about the complete opposite of a Zen writing program
WriteMonkey
Pros:
- supports Windows and macOS (Mac version is currently beta-only and not feature-complete)
- supports cloud services for saving
- supports indents (Windows version 2.7 only)
- can auto-generate backup files to a specific location
- supports distraction-free/full screen modes
- has focus mode
- allows you to set both overall and immediate goals, with visual aids
- word count is always visible
- many options to customize the look and feel, along with theme support
- supports markdown and in version 3 offers good visualization of markdown in the editor
- saves in simple .txt format, making it easy to load its files in other programs (this changes a bit in version 3 but is still possible there)
Cons:
- Mac version is in beta and lacks some essential features, such as indents, meaning cross-platform support is not really there yet. The workaround for now is to use version 2.7 on a Mac running wither in Bootcamp or through a VM solution like Parallels.
- UI is a bit fiddly and can be difficult to work around (I’ve gotten past this particular hump, though, having used the program for several years now)
FocusWriter
Pros:
- supports Windows, macOS and Linux
- clean interface without billions of distracting options
- can save to .txt format for maximum flexibility
- supports setting goals
- supports indents
- shows word count
- customizable themes, including different wallpapers and sound effects for distraction-free mode
- can save to cloud services without issue
- will start up with the last opened document to allow you to jump right in
Cons:
- no real markdown support, though it offers one tag as a divider to separate scenes or chapters
- maybe a bit too Spartan
Typora
Pros:
- supports Windows and macOS
- supports indents (awkwardly, as it has to be implemented by editing a theme file)
Cons:
- doesn’t offer anything that isn’t also available in FocusWriter or WriteMonkey
- focus is clearly on technical writing, not fiction
Scrivener
Pros:
- supports Windows, macOS, iOS
- supports indents
- supports goals
- offers focus mode
- offers distraction-free/full screen mode
- shows word count
- highly customizable
- allows for easy shuffling of scenes or chapters
- excellent community support
- can easily handle large projects
Cons:
- UI feels dated and can overwhelm with options
- offers poor cloud support due to the way it saves projects as collections of files. This can lead to corrupt projects.
- Windows version perpetually lags behind Mac version in development (though files always remain compatible between the two)
- weirdly forces you to name your project before you can start writing
No indent support
As mentioned above, supporting indents is crucial for fiction writing because a dialog exchange between characters woulds requiring hitting the Enter or Return key all the time and looks weird, as illustrated below:
“Hi John.”
“Hello Sally.”
“How are you?”
“I am swell, how are you?”
“I broke the Enter key on my computer.”
“Oh, that sucks. How did it happen?”
“My preferred writing program doesn’t support indents.”
Both John and Sally cried and bonded over this horrible tragedy.
It turns out that a lot of markdown editors lack support for indents, which was one of the things that made Ulysses so nice.
Here are programs that might have been considered but are ruled out because they lack support for indents or are platform-specific or both:
- iA Writer
- Bear
- Editorial
- Pages
- MacDown
- plus about a billion more
The Big Decision
In the end there are only a few reasonable choices.
Choice 1: WriteMonkey
My preference is to use WriteMonkey because I am familiar with it and it has worked well for me in the past, despite some rough edges on the UI. The main issue here is the beta version works well but lacks any way to use indents, so if I’m writing on my MacBook Pro I need to use a different program that saves to .txt format or I have to use Parallels/Bootcamp.
As it turns out, I’ve actually set up Parallels and while the Windows 2.7 version of WriteMonkey works well enough in it, something about the arrangement makes me nervous. Still, this remains a viable option.
One workaround is to use FocusWriter when on the Mac, as it has a native version of the program. I’ve tested and haven’t noticed any weirdness when switching between files created in WriteMonkey and then edited in FocusWriter and sent back to WM again. FocusWriter doesn’t support markdown but it also doesn’t do anything with markdown in the body of the document, either, so it’s still there in WriteMonkey.
Once WriteMonkey 3 is out of beta this should be a much stronger choice but it’s being developed by a single person, so work is not surprisingly proceeding at a slower pace (the first public beta came out in September after a private beta that ran most of the year).
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 indents
Choice 2: FocusWriter
FocusWriter’s strength lies in its simplicity and its native support for both Mac and Windows platforms. It doesn’t support markdown but perhaps because of this, it offers more fiction writer-friendly features.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 indents
Choice 3: Scrivener
I spent enough time using Scrivener, including writing NaNo novels with it, to learn most of its quirks and workflow. Then I stopped using it for long enough that I’ve forgotten most of that.
If you are simply typing words into the editor it’s pretty easy to use. It gets complicated as soon as you do anything else. The UI is bad.
The good news is its getting a major revamp to version 3. The less good news is that it’s not out yet, though the Mac version is expected by the end of 2017, with the Windows version coming in early 2018.
My biggest issue with Scrivener, though, is the way it saves files. By default it saves after two seconds of inactivity, which is nuts. This can be changed, but still, it seems like a recipe for introducing file corruption by invoking near-perpetual writes.
Along with this, the cloud support is very bad. It can work decently with Dropbox but people are actively told to steer away from OneDrive, iCloud and Google Drive. OneDrive is my preferred place to save things in the ephemeral cloud, so being told it’s not a good idea is a bit of a put-off.
I also lost a large chunk of a NaNo novel a few years ago when I botched the local/cloud saves while using Dropbox. This is mainly on me, but I felt it likely wouldn’t have happened in a different program due to the way Scrivener bundles projects into a multitude of files.
Rating: 3 out of 5 indents
Choice 4: Microsoft Word
The ubiquity of Word is probably the best reason to pick it. Its supported everywhere. You can probably run Word on your toaster now. But it offers few features for a fiction writer that are very nice to have. It lets you write the words and make them look pretty. It doesn’t do much beyond that.
Rating: 3 out of 5 indents
Darkhorse possibilities
There are some web-based editors that can usually work in offline mode if you lose connection (your work is automatically synced when the connection is restored) but I’m very leery of going web-only for my writing.
I could also just use a typewriter. No one ever lost a save file on a typewriter. The trick would be to find one. Plus I hate using typewriters because I’m not Harlan Ellison.
Finally, there’s always a notepad and pen. The very thought is causing my hand to spontaneously cramp, so no.
In the end it looks like the best candidates are:
- WriteMonkey
- FocusWriter
- Scrivener
My plan, then, is to do some testing as follows:
- Write a small project in WriteMonkey 2.7 (Windows version) and edit it on the MacBook Pro using both the same version in Parallels and through FocusWriter and see if anything screws up and also if the workflow actually works. I’ll use OneDrive for saving in a specially made folder for testing.
- Create a Scrivener project in Windows and make changes back and forth in Windows and Mac. I’ll save in a specially made Dropbox folder (in theory OneDrive should work if the folder/files are set to be available in offline mode but I can’t be bothered jumping through this many hoops. I’m not a good hoop-jumper).
After the week of testing I’ll commit to my decision and go on to great writing glory. Hooray!
