Organizing, and especially revising, your writing is a challenge.  I’ve written two novels, both of about 100,000 words.  (Alexis, don’t cringe at the word count reference.)  Both novels were written in MS Word.  That worked…mostly, but, there were some issues.

What were the Problems? 

• Revisions were kinda painful, especially if moving chapters. 
• Pagination didn’t always work with moved text.
• Chapter numbering was absolutely, positively screwed up. 
• No useful outline tool.
• No handy place to store character sketches.
• No where to record new ideas that may, or may not, come to life.
• No where to stash photos to reference for descriptive clues. 
• No where to keep web links I needed to reference. 
• Bookmarking was painful, and if text was moved, often lost.
• Embedded notes were problematic in a number of ways.
• And on and on. 

Through magic and osmosis, I became aware of writing software.  At first, since I’m a snob, and since I’m a, just-sit-down-and-start-writing-guy,  I dismissed it as fluff.  Clearly, writing software was for people who couldn’t write.  That’s not me!  Did Dickens have such a crutch, or Twain?? 

But, after a bit, I realized that’s fallacious logic.  Those guys never had word processing, refrigerators, or automobiles, but I’m not going to eschew any of those.  So, I began to rethink these writing tools. 

Turns out there’s several out there in the Googlesphere.  I looked, at first, mostly out of curiosity.  I was still a purist, you know.  But one tool kept bubbling to the surface as kinda unique:  PowerWriter. 

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna try to explain what’s at the link.  If you’re intrigued, please follow it.  The company does a pretty good job of laying out the software’s capabilities briefly in an easy to follow manner.  But, I’ll make a few short observations.

The Key things I like about PowerWriter 

• It functions exactly like Word with no writing software add ons, or, 
• You can layer-on its many tools and capabilities in the form, fashion and number that suit your taste and style.  In other words, (no pun intended.) its many features are customizable and unobtrusive.  If you just wanna write in good old word processing, you can do that.  If you’re at a place where you need some structure, or tools to help move your novel along, you can do that…then, revert to simply writing again without hassle.
• There’s virtually no learning curve and no special jargon to master.  PowerWriter doesn’t claim to reinvent novel writing.  No mind maps, no plot suggestions, no auto-character names, none of that.  It’s an organization tool, lean and clean. You open the program, and if you know MS Word, you’re immediately at work.  The tools are intuitive and logical, and their learning curve so shallow that it’s almost flat.  Hey, I figured it out…’nuf said there.
• Revisions are a snap—to coin a catchy phrase.  Move text and chapters around, or delete them entirely.  Nothing gets misplaced or lost.  Very cool feature.  Further, you can move the chapters and scenes around in the program’s Side Bar…if you choose to use that function.  No massive highlighting and hoping you’ve captured everything, click on the scene name or chapter title in the Side Bar, drag and drop it where you want. Done. All associated text is moved, pages renumbered, chapters renumbered.  Quick, clean, and easy.
• This last point is relative, but, for what you get, and compared with MS Word, or lots of other software, it’s dirt cheap…$100 bucks.  Good for life.

You can download PowerWriter for a test run.  Two limitations:  you can’t open it more than 20 times, and you can’t print what you save.  Of course, if you buy it, you get a “key” and it’s fully functional.  It’s actually pretty cool.

Disclosure: I’ve no affiliation with, or get no remuneration, recompense, or recognition from, these guys.  In fact, they don’t know me from Adam…or Eve.  I just wanna share a neat writing tool with you.

Tomorrow, I’ve got another, very different but essential tool for you.  Tune in!