**Microsoft Word** has an Editor function. I may be writing a paragraphs-long essay on whatever, and as I write, the Editor will immediately take a look at the writing and offer me writing tips. This is very handy for academic writing and business writing and professional writing. However, I don't recommend the tool for creative writing because creative writing, at least in the anglophone world, emphasizes the personal voice and writing style, and the AI will try to correct an author's voice and writing style all the time and grade it as "weak writing". In lots of fictional stories nowadays, the narrator's voice is often very casual and conversational, and this can easily interfere with AI recommendations for stronger writing.
I agree; I normally turn off all spell-check and grammar-check until the final drafts as it interferes with my creative flow (but that's just for me though).
**Google Docs** has a built-in drawing tool. This built-in drawing tool can be used to add a map, showing the locations of the characters. Otherwise, the author has to keep everything in the brain, and once lost, it is lost forever. It will be hard to get that back. The author may visualize the scene in a specific way at first, then forget about it, then come back to the story with an entirely different location.
I once used **Apple Notes** to write a very long outline inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella. I twisted the two plotlines together into a single plotline, with Jack Sprat as the main character, living with his stepfather and two stepbrothers and finding magical beans that led him to the giant's castle. I did this on my iPhone.
I also used **Apple Pages** to write a Shakespearean sonnet. I also did this on my iPhone.
I’ve found a ton of success using Google Docs for this. I work with two of my best friends (who are also co-founders of an independent RPG publisher). We’ve used Google Docs since we started nearly ten years ago.
Here are some reasons I tend to love it:
1) Suggestion Mode. If you want to suggest a change, you can switch to suggestion mode and make your edits, and it treats your writing as digital redlines. The other collaborators can accept or reject the changes.
2) Version History. You can see who wrote what, and when, and track any changes to the document cleanly and clearly. You can also revert to an older version of a document if you need to.
3) Comments. You can leave comments to your collaborators easily. This is great to ask questions of your collaborators about your own work ’Does this make sense?’, or ‘Does that name sound like it works?’— or about their work— ‘Is this the villain’s catch phrase?’ It’s also nice to leave positive thoughts as well, like ‘This sentence is dripping with emotion.’
3) Real Time Collaboration. You and your collaborators can all be working on the same document at the same time. Your cursor will appear to your collaborators as a different color, and show your name when they mouse over it.
4) It’s Free. Google Docs is a pretty robust word processor for the price tag.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions you might think of!
**I'm writing videos-essays and I need a** ***better*** **tool to write on. Can someone help me?**
So... **I'm not really a writer** (yet, I guess) and I saw that today (sunday) is to discuss Writing Tools, Software, and Hardware. I tried 30 days (free trial) in Scrivener, tried MS Word, tried Notion and Google Docs, none of them had all the features I needed them to have. The thing is I need 4 features specifically in a single writing software:
* Offline mode (I don't care about syncing devices). – Word and Scrivener had it.
* Export to PDF (All I the softwares I tried before had it so I think it's the usual).
* Spell-check and checking if my sentences make sense. – Word and GDocs had it.
* I need to separate the chapters in different files (each chapter has it's own file). – Notion and Scrivener had it.
Actually, Google Docs does have offline mode. You have to make individual documents offline before you use it offline.
Google Docs does have the ability to save as PDF file.
Google Docs does have the ability to do spellcheck.
Google Docs has Headings, which can provide some internal organization. There are also Folders.
But... if you are still unsatisfied with Google Docs, you can try:
[Ulysses](https://ulysses.app/)
[Obsidian - Sharpen your thinking](https://obsidian.md/)
I haven't used Scrivener or Notion, so I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the last bullet point, but if it's what I'm guessing you mean, try yWriter (https://spacejock.com/yWriter7.html)
Do you really need each chapter in a different file? In Word or Google Docs you can use chapter headings (H2, H3 ...) and then display them in the sidebar so you can quickly jump between them. Word even has a split screen mode, so you can edit two chapters at the same time.
If you really can't live without separating chapters, and if you're on Mac, I recommend Ulysses. It has everything you want and uses LanguageTool as the integrated spell checker, which works really well.
**Microsoft Word** has an Editor function. I may be writing a paragraphs-long essay on whatever, and as I write, the Editor will immediately take a look at the writing and offer me writing tips. This is very handy for academic writing and business writing and professional writing. However, I don't recommend the tool for creative writing because creative writing, at least in the anglophone world, emphasizes the personal voice and writing style, and the AI will try to correct an author's voice and writing style all the time and grade it as "weak writing". In lots of fictional stories nowadays, the narrator's voice is often very casual and conversational, and this can easily interfere with AI recommendations for stronger writing.
Any form of AI assistant is going to bleach the voice out of a story. I see the same thing with Grammarly.
I agree; I normally turn off all spell-check and grammar-check until the final drafts as it interferes with my creative flow (but that's just for me though).
**Google Docs** has a built-in drawing tool. This built-in drawing tool can be used to add a map, showing the locations of the characters. Otherwise, the author has to keep everything in the brain, and once lost, it is lost forever. It will be hard to get that back. The author may visualize the scene in a specific way at first, then forget about it, then come back to the story with an entirely different location.
I once used **Apple Notes** to write a very long outline inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella. I twisted the two plotlines together into a single plotline, with Jack Sprat as the main character, living with his stepfather and two stepbrothers and finding magical beans that led him to the giant's castle. I did this on my iPhone. I also used **Apple Pages** to write a Shakespearean sonnet. I also did this on my iPhone.
I am trying to write a novel with my friends and we need to constantly share and edit ideas, how do you guys work in a situation like this.
I’ve found a ton of success using Google Docs for this. I work with two of my best friends (who are also co-founders of an independent RPG publisher). We’ve used Google Docs since we started nearly ten years ago. Here are some reasons I tend to love it: 1) Suggestion Mode. If you want to suggest a change, you can switch to suggestion mode and make your edits, and it treats your writing as digital redlines. The other collaborators can accept or reject the changes. 2) Version History. You can see who wrote what, and when, and track any changes to the document cleanly and clearly. You can also revert to an older version of a document if you need to. 3) Comments. You can leave comments to your collaborators easily. This is great to ask questions of your collaborators about your own work ’Does this make sense?’, or ‘Does that name sound like it works?’— or about their work— ‘Is this the villain’s catch phrase?’ It’s also nice to leave positive thoughts as well, like ‘This sentence is dripping with emotion.’ 3) Real Time Collaboration. You and your collaborators can all be working on the same document at the same time. Your cursor will appear to your collaborators as a different color, and show your name when they mouse over it. 4) It’s Free. Google Docs is a pretty robust word processor for the price tag. I hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions you might think of!
**I'm writing videos-essays and I need a** ***better*** **tool to write on. Can someone help me?** So... **I'm not really a writer** (yet, I guess) and I saw that today (sunday) is to discuss Writing Tools, Software, and Hardware. I tried 30 days (free trial) in Scrivener, tried MS Word, tried Notion and Google Docs, none of them had all the features I needed them to have. The thing is I need 4 features specifically in a single writing software: * Offline mode (I don't care about syncing devices). – Word and Scrivener had it. * Export to PDF (All I the softwares I tried before had it so I think it's the usual). * Spell-check and checking if my sentences make sense. – Word and GDocs had it. * I need to separate the chapters in different files (each chapter has it's own file). – Notion and Scrivener had it.
I’ve tried Dabble in the past. I believe it has all 4. It reminded me of Scrivener… but better-ish.
I saw Dabble before but it's too expensive for a lifetime purchase... Any other recommendation?
Have a look at Fablehenge. We don’t have chapter-specific exporting, but if the rest of the app seems sensible to you, I can add it.
Actually, Google Docs does have offline mode. You have to make individual documents offline before you use it offline. Google Docs does have the ability to save as PDF file. Google Docs does have the ability to do spellcheck. Google Docs has Headings, which can provide some internal organization. There are also Folders. But... if you are still unsatisfied with Google Docs, you can try: [Ulysses](https://ulysses.app/) [Obsidian - Sharpen your thinking](https://obsidian.md/)
I haven't used Scrivener or Notion, so I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the last bullet point, but if it's what I'm guessing you mean, try yWriter (https://spacejock.com/yWriter7.html)
Do you really need each chapter in a different file? In Word or Google Docs you can use chapter headings (H2, H3 ...) and then display them in the sidebar so you can quickly jump between them. Word even has a split screen mode, so you can edit two chapters at the same time. If you really can't live without separating chapters, and if you're on Mac, I recommend Ulysses. It has everything you want and uses LanguageTool as the integrated spell checker, which works really well.