Storymill
| Storymill (Mac) is an incredibly powerful piece of software that is well worth the low price tag. It will hold your chapters, scenes, notes, character notes, location notes, and even images.*
The organization of Storymill 4 is superb. You can view your whole novel, a chapter, or a scene and also go full screen to kill distractions. (even without Lion) As was the case for older versions a writer can craft scenes far into the future and reorganize them at will just by dragging and dropping. The changes to the chapter are automatic and seamless. |
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New to version 4 you can create snapshots of work so you can edit it side by side with an old version - just incase you don’t like your new changes. A very valuable tool whether you are tweaking a chapter recently written or slogging through a whole manuscript.
Other tools include a timeline, a system for tracking all your information, and a way to record the status of a piece from an unfinished scene to third draft. Plus you can add unique descriptions if you find (like I do) you need to record more information.
Finally the system of tracking information includes assigning locations, characters and time to a scene and tags across the board that make searching for anything. You can even create links within your work to refer to a specific note.
The only drawback I see is that Storymill 4, like all other novel writing software can seem busy at times. I guess that’s why full screen is so popular. There are ways to clear up some of the clutter and the latest version is very easy to navigate and modify.
I seriously doubt I would have the 1100+ pages of my novel without Storymill. Since I think out of order and thus need to constantly move scenes around and write far into the future, I would be beyond frustrated if I were limited to a regular word processor. I can’t recommend it enough.
The folks at Mariner have all kinds of neat software for creative souls. Do check them out.
*caveat: I am currently using Storymill three because I am used to it. However I have tried version four and more than comfortable recommending it. The only reason I haven’t swapped is habit.
Image used is in the public domain
