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Q&A What is useful about writing software?

This is the definition of "your mileage may vary." Some people work better on paper; you are clearly one of them. I was blocked for years until I found Scrivener, which for whatever reason helpe...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:39Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24878
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:39:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24878
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:39:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
This is the definition of "your mileage may vary."

Some people work better on paper; you are clearly one of them.

I was blocked for _years_ until I found Scrivener, which for whatever reason helped get all my creative juices flowing again. Scrivener clicked with me.

Some people work better with absolutely bare environments. Some want all the bells and whistles. Some want LaTeX markup. Some people find mind-map software really useful and others find it overwhelming.

Writing software is only useful if you find it so. Different writers have different needs, so they will use different tools. Asking other people doing the same thing as you what they find useful is perfectly reasonable.

* * *

**ETA** To address @what's comment: Writing software can come with a lot of features which writers may find more useful and flexible than writing on paper. To wit:

- Let's just start with _typing._ I can type a helluva lot faster and more neatly than I can hand-write anything.
- Extensive search/replace capabilities
- Tagging
- Easy rearranging of large chunks of text
- Easy copy-paste of large chunks of text
- The ability to copy and save infinite variations of a page, scene, chapter etc. if you need to noodle on something
- The ability to gather various media (web links, video, sound, images) in one project file rather than have them scattered in several programs
- The ability to keep extensive research materials in one project file rather than have them scattered across files and programs
- Mind-map features let you link and combine different elements in different ways to see how characters and plot bits interconnect
- The ability to plot in a large flexible grid and move items and threads around easily instead of physically erasing and rewriting
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-10-08T20:37:22Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 11