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book writing software...........?

patriotn11 said:
I want to start writing kids books and I'm new to this, as wel as my new 17" PB, yes I'm a switcher.


I am lloking to get a great software to help me, I looked at dramatica pro

http://store.write-bros.com/products/dpro/index.aspx

Is there any better, thanks for advice

Michael
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Congratulations. I'm a writer who switched to a 17" PB last year and have just upgraded to a 1.5. You'll love it.

I'm a novelist and the best writing software is MS Word. Seriously - unless you want to write generic fiction that has the same dramatic cliches as big budget movies avoid 'structure' software. They'll make you sound like everyone else and you'll have all the same problems.

I use Ommni Outliner to structure, Word to write and some trusted books for advice on structure, grammar and editing. All the writers I know are the same (though some of them write longhand first drafts).

We're all published - which isn't a boast but does mean the advice comes from people who've been paid to write books.
 
Penman said:
Congratulations. I'm a writer who switched to a 17" PB last year and have just upgraded to a 1.5. You'll love it.

I'm a novelist and the best writing software is MS Word. Seriously - unless you want to write generic fiction that has the same dramatic cliches as big budget movies avoid 'structure' software. They'll make you sound like everyone else and you'll have all the same problems.

I use Ommni Outliner to structure, Word to write and some trusted books for advice on structure, grammar and editing. All the writers I know are the same (though some of them write longhand first drafts).

We're all published - which isn't a boast but does mean the advice comes from people who've been paid to write books.
Click to expand...

do you know of any good screenwriting structure/format books?
 
I have not tried it myself, but I read somewhere that Inspiration has been used by established writers for organizing their books (Arthur Golden (?) who wrote Memoirs of a Geisha comes to mind).
 
Suggestions

I have to write mostly technical things. But I have switched from using Word recently to another word processor called Mellel. It is not as bogged down as Word. The other program which I use to organize things is called Notebook. It is good program to serve as a scrapbook as a project is being developed.
 
The good news is Dramatica is in beta testing for OS X native right now.

As for Screenwriting Software I can suggest Final Draft or Movie Maker 2000.

Anyone know if Writer's Toolkit is OS X native yet? Most of these apps seem to be OS X capatible as long as their used through Classic....
 
Start with Writer's Dreamkit, rather than the full-up Dramatica Pro. It's the same program without a few extras and the inflated pricetag.

If you are operating under os9, many of the Write-Bros stuff has been ported from the PC; osX versions of StoryView, however, have yet to be written.

Whatever you buy BUY FROM the http://www.writersstore.com , as they have really deep discounts.
 
Coming from a commercial printer, when you are ready to publish be sure whatever you use can be made "press ready". Word is great if you are going black and white with no color graphics, but remember Word works only in RGB and that doesn't work in the printing industry. Check with your publisher and see what they recommend. ;)
 
As far as screenwriting goes, I'd suggest Final Draft.

MovieMagic is another popular one and I've tried it a time or two, but I never really liked it. Maybe it's just because I'm used to Final Draft.

As for formatting books, I'd suggest "The Screenwriter's Bible." I'm sure you can find it at most Barnes & Noble or Border's stores. There's another book that's supposed to be really popular for starting out with screenwriting, but I can't remember the name right now. If I do, I'll be sure to post the name.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on one of the IM services or email.

enoch
 
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