Tools of the Trade

Recently, I've been asked what platform(s) I use for writing, and although I still consider myself a baby author (newbie if you will), I figured I'd share some of the different programs and tools I use for writing and how they impact my process.

*This post is purely my opinion and personal experience with these programs and tools, you are welcome and encouraged to form your own opinions on them 😊*

There isn't much that you need to start out writing as any child who has made a homemade storybook will tell you. All you need is paper, a pencil, and your imagination, and voilà! You're a writer! But if you're anything like me, I'm a little too chaotic and disorganized to actually compile a complete short story, let alone a novel simply with pen and paper, plus paper feels a little too fragile to store all of my ideas of progress. So what should you use?

Notebook/Journals:

As stated before, maybe not the safest or most organized but it is one of the easiest places to start. And I still love using a good notebook in my planning and plotting phases.

Pros:

Price Flexibility - This can basically be as cheap or expensive as you want. Anywhere from a dollar store notebook to the fancy leather-bound ones most of us are terrified to mar with our scribbles.

Immaculate Vibes - Be honest, is there anything that makes you feel more like a writer than when you sit down with a good beverage, light a candle, and pick up an actual pen and put it to paper? For me, there isn't. Plus, this is a great time to pull out the fun colored, pens or markers or whatever makes you most excited!

Cons:

Organization - I'm not sure if organization is the right word because some people can be very organized with their journals. I am not one of them. Whether it's losing track of where I put the notebook or just trying to track down certain information it can be difficult to utilize long-term.

Google Docs:

This is one of the first programs I used and I still use sparingly today. You'll note my use of the word 'sparingly' here. While it has a lot of uses I have a few reasons I no longer write full-length novels in here.

Pros:

Free - It's hard to get much better than something that is free to use! As long as you have a Gmail account you have access to Google Docs (if you don't it's ok, you can make one just for this!).

Online - It's accessed online so you don't have to download anything to use it and as long as you have internet access you can log in and pull up the most up-to-date version of your documents. This is super helpful if you work on multiple devices.

Sharing - You have the option to share a document with others through email granting them access to read, comment, and even edit the document if you so choose. This can be useful if you are using critique partners, I've even seen authors do this with beta readers.

Cons:

Speed - This one may have been more user error than anything else, but I found that while I loved Google Docs for smaller documents, once my novel hit a certain size (more than 100 pages) it became a chore to get later parts of the document to load. It became choppy and overall just difficult to navigate, edit, and overall just work in.

With that being said, I feel it still has more pros than cons and I use this to store a lot of my story ideas, plotting attempts, and discarded chapters that I'm not fully ready to let go of yet.

Microsoft Word:

This is what I currently use for the bulk of my writing and while I do love it there are still a few cons when it comes to working with it.

Pros:

Ease - I personally find Word very easy to work in for the whole writing process from the very first draft all the way to editing and formatting. This is one of the biggest pros for me.

Online - Now, with Microsoft Office not only can I download my documents to specific devices but I can also access them online as long as I have internet access to log into my account, which is pretty nifty when traveling or don't have access to my own laptop.

Sharing - You also can easily share any documents with others, just like Google Docs!

Cons:

Price - Unlike Google Docs, Microsoft is not free so there's that to factor in. At this time I find other Microsoft programs helpful such as PowerPoint, Teams, etc.

Formatting - OK, I know I listed this as one of the pros, and it still is, but that doesn't mean that there still aren't some things left to be desired. While I do all of my formatting in Word and I do think it is much easier than Google Docs, it still took some time and lots of tutorials to figure out how to get things just right for a book.

Others:

These next ones are not programs I have used personally but have heard about through the writer grapevine and may be good options to consider if you need or want more resources meant specifically for writers. Now because of this, they both are a lot pricer than the other options so I would only consider these if you think the extra tools they offer you will outweigh the financial cost.

Vellum - This is for Mac users only, Vellum is a writing and formatting software made specifically for authors to format ebooks and/or print books. Because it's made for authors this makes it much easier to format a beautiful interior for your book.

Atticus - Very similar to Vellum except this one works for Mac and Windows ( and a couple of others according to their website). At the time of writing this post, Atticus is significantly cheaper than Vellum, but I have also heard mixed reviews from other writers online about this one so be sure to do your research!

In short, there are a lot of options out there to consider, but don't be afraid to stick with the cheap or simple ones if those are working for you, but know that there is more out there if you want to use it.