Word Processor for Novels

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The best word processor is the one that connects your brain directly to the page. Alas, that’s not something speculative fiction writers can purchase, yet.

If you are writing a novel, use a tool appropriate to the job. Any word processor works well for the first scene, but what about:

  • backing up automatically
  • editing, spell checking and grammar checking
  • shuffling scenes
  • moving chapters
  • making a table of contents
  • using sections to separate front matter
  • inserting images
  • using more than one computer
  • numbering chapters automatically
  • setting styles for font, pitch, indents and margins
  • saving in e-book format

Writers don’t want software to stand between them and the creative process, so avoid complex software with features you will never use. Cost is important; however, you often get what you pay for. Software that “chokes” (becomes slow) on documents over 50,000 words is not acceptable (typical of business-oriented word processors). Anything you use must be able to save files in doc or docx format.

The bottom line:

In 2019, Scrivener (Mac and PC, $45) is probably the best for a serious writer who is willing to spend several weeks learning how to use the system. The downside, from my perspective, is the lack of a “what you see, is what you get” visual presentation. I love the “card” system to summarize scenes and to shuffle them as needed.

Excellent alternatives to Scrivener include:

Good hunting. Most of the above have a free trial version — see how quickly you can learn to type and save a paragraph. Search help on a particular topic in the software – it’s ideal if the text is understandable!