Have you ever looked into purchasing novel-writing software? It’s darned expensive! Some companies want you to pay upwards of $800 for their software, and they don’t even offer to write your novel for you. Plus, most novel-writing software out there is quite complicated and difficult to learn. That’s why I was surprised to discover Simon Haynes’ free novel-writing software: yWriter2.
Simon Haynes, the creater of yWriter2, is a science fiction novelist and a computer programmer. He developed yWriter2 as a free resource for writers who are having trouble putting their novels together. Editing chapters, scenes and characters from a single Microsoft Word document can really be a pain, and yWriter2 simplifies all that.
yWriter 2 Features
Create Individual Projects for Your Novels. Each project is its own novel, and you can further separate each project into chapters, scenes, characters and plot points. It has a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to slot scenes where you want them to go.
Create Files for Each Chapter. When you write a new chapter, it becomes its own file, which allows you to quickly find passages in your novel without having to scroll through 300 pages of text.
Create a Summary for Each File. Further simplifying the process, you can create summaries to describe each file (chapter) so that you can easily see how your plot is progressing.
View Chapter & Novel Word Counts. Unlike other novel-writing software programs, yWriter2 allows you to see individual word counts for each chapter, along with a total word count for the entire novel.
Track Your Progress. If you’re the kind of writer who likes to see your output every day, yWriter2 simplifies that task. Each day, a log is created that shows the number of words you wrote during that day, with totals for each chapter.
Automatically Back Up Your Work. Most work processors and novel-writing software programs have this feature, but it’s nice to see on a free software program. You specify the intervals at which the program should back up your work.
View Fields for Each Chapter. Writing a novel synopsis has never been easier – you can do it as you go along. yWriter2 allows you to enter descriptions for characters, scenes, conflicts and outcomes in each chapter. Essentially, it has a built-in synopsis generator.
Check Out Storyboard View. Although storyboards are more common for screen- and television writers, yWriter2 has the option of creating a storyboard for your novel. This gives you an opportunity to manage the pace and suspense of your novel without reading it again and again.
You can download a free copy of yWriter2 at www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html. It takes up only about 3MB of space, and it takes only seconds to download if you have a high-speed Internet connection. It’s also quite easy to remove if you decide that yWriter2 isn’t something you can use.
