Note: For Papyrus Author I figured out how to set the background to the distraction free writing mode into the colors I want. So that is possible. But still no upload for your own background images and no Dark Mode. Also, in Papyrus you only get 4 characters that you can add to the character section in the free plan :( Just adding this here because that wasn't clear enough in the video. But check out the full Papyrus Author Review if you're interested in this software and want to get more clarity on what the free version can and can not do. 😀
I'm still in my notebook and sticky notes phase of organization but I have accumulated a lot of scenes of writing in OpenOffice. However, it's coming to the point that I have so many important side characters and things going I need something a bit more efficient. The Wavemaker and Papyrus both look extremely useful and I plan to give both of them a look based on your overviews here. I look forward to the more in depth reviews coming up. Thanks for your insight and look at these software options.
Joplin is the true king when it comes to writing I mean you can throw everything at it and this also plugins that you could add to it to add a lot of the features that has been mentioned here and more. Just Joplin is also free and open source unbelievable a great piece of software once you understand how they really use it.
Papyrus is like Scrivener, produced in Disneyland. Scatterbrained app. I just wrote three novels and published them in Vellum. Vellum is brilliant. I’ve been a Scrivener user and beta tester since the very first release of the application and I regret that the producer of the application does not seem to listen to writers. Scrivener is like a wood duck - it bobs up and down in the one spot year after year without any significant writerly useful upgrades.
Great video! Thanks for mentioning Wavemaker it was also my second choice for a new writing software I really liked the card system that it had àsince I'm used to using a similar system. I also didn't like QuolWriter for the similar issues you had with it. My pick was Libre Office Writer it's a Word alternative but it also has a navigator feature which works similar to the different folder/chapter layout that Scrivener has but each chapter won't be in a separate folder. It will have the similar page layout to word but you can use the navigator to jump between chapters I'm stillà getting use to it but I like it so far. Another one that also is recommended is Ywriter. I haven't used it but it's also a free alternative.
Good video. I personally use Evernote to do most of my writing, organizing, and world building in. There is no dedicated word processor which sucks but I just export it out into google docs to go over again. I have been looking at sudowrite which looks interesting. Looking forward to your next video.
Thank you, I've heard of Sudowrite but thought it is an Ai tool to create the story content, not an organization tool for the manuscript itself? But either way, I agree it looks pretty interesting and worth checking out 👍😀
Same! I reallllllly like Wavemaker. Especially since I can pull it up on my phone or tablet and edit whenever. The cards and the database are great! Just slap a Google image or 7 in with a database entry for reference. The only annoyance I’ve had is logging in to Google and syncing between devices but if you have one device it doesn’t really matter. But yeah, ywriter was pretty much where I started since Scrivener didn’t do it for me. I tried Scrivener years ago but never really liked the software that much personally.
Regarding the shadiness of the open source apps: actually the fact that they are open source is what makes them transparent as opposite of shady. The code is open for anyone to see any "shady" things that might be hidden by propietary code. In that sense, you can actually feel safer when using FOSS than when using propietary software.
I want to mention a couple of other free options: the main one is SmartEdit Writer, which looks similar to Scrivener, and the other is Bibisco, which has a free version with limitations. For me, the most important thing is that the software lets me have multiple panes open at once, so I can have my writing in one pane, and notes on plot, character, location, etc., open beside it. As far as I can tell, only Scrivener does this. However, I have not yet got to grips with Scrivener due to its overly complicated and obscurely labeled interface... Regarding Wavemaker, I found their website poorly designed and unhelpful. All the information is in blog entries, rather than organised by subject.
Thank you for the recommendations, I will look into them 😀👍 Manuskript has a tab split option where you can have several tabs in one view next to each other so you can for example see character info and writing etc. next to each other. From what I see there is no limit how many tabs you have open at once too. The layout is also pretty simplistic. But it's not my favorite option as a writing software overall, so there is that.
I wish smartedit writer worked for me. I downloaded it and got hit with several dozen errors at start. I had to force it to shut down. Writeway Pro has been good enough for now.
I skipped around in the video to try and find a software that would allow me to add pictures and scale them. Sadly, I didn't see any mention of that here at all. Of these free softwares, or others that you may know, which one would be the best for making an illustrated novel? I have multiple images per chapter in my novel, & I need a tool to let me add those images & scale them properly.
I have Quoll writer but i agree, it is a little clunky, and im still not sure how to properly create sections, such as notes etc i honestly use it for things that im discovedy writing because it doesnt have the "serious" look of Word.
I prefer to buy a reasonably priced software package to using free software. At least some company has an interest in protecting the integrity of its product.
Do you use Notion? Notion is *not* a word processor but more of a "second brain" that'll change your life by orginizing it. However, people *are* using it as writing software. I combine it with my Scrivener and--BOOM--oh my God! It is making me into a writing machine. And, yes, it's free. (Notion; not Scrivener 😛)
Thank you for this 😀. I know it but haven't used it for writing yet. I am in need of some task management system for my writing though, not for the story information itself but for managing things like "Write Chapter XX" etc. I assume you're using it for that too, separating between task management in notion and writing itself in Scrivner? Definitely would be interested to hear your best practices, if you have any, for how you set up your notion for writing. I'll probably do another series trying out different task management systems too, will be interested to see how Notion compares to others 👍
A lot of people keep commenting this, which I get because I was not clear in the video about it. I'm not suspicious about open source software. I was unsure whether the website where to download this software is legit because of the way it looked. 😁
I have just downloaded the free papyrus author version. It is on the website as papyrus author, with the paid version described as papyrus Author + (currrently at $14.99 per month) alongside the free version .
Why would anyone go through all these efforts to NOT USE the best writing system; Scrivener. For any professional writer, or anyone aspiring to be one, I strongly advocate for Scrivener!
My reason for not using Scrivner is a financial one since I'm not at a point in my writing where it would make sense to invest since free versions cover my needs for now. But I am interested in taking a closer look at it somewhen in the future.
Scrivener is very feature rich, but I tend not to use a lot of those features, so it would be kind've wasted on me. Also, it does not support my operating system, Linux, where as these alternatives do. Wavemaker has everything I need and nothing more, and has a nice dark mode. It'd be a bit needless to buy it, for me, anyway.
I have Scrivener, but I also use Windows and Android, so no edit on the go option for me. I was using Evernote, but they just made it so I can only have one notebook and 50 notes in the free version, and I can't afford the pay version. If one of these makes it so I can write and edit on my phone and computer, without having to keep copying/emailing the latest version of the file I want to work on back and forth between my devices, then I will switch to one of them until Scrivener finally gets around to getting their Android version out.
Note: For Papyrus Author I figured out how to set the background to the distraction free writing mode into the colors I want. So that is possible. But still no upload for your own background images and no Dark Mode. Also, in Papyrus you only get 4 characters that you can add to the character section in the free plan :( Just adding this here because that wasn't clear enough in the video. But check out the full Papyrus Author Review if you're interested in this software and want to get more clarity on what the free version can and can not do. 😀
No Dark Mode? Wow. That is so lame.
Papyrus is no free software, there is only a free demo version!
Great video. A clear overview of each software.
Thank you for the review, very thorough yet not one wasted word- super helpful!
A lot of very useful information and comparisons. Thanks
I would put yWriter somewhere on a top ten list. Scrivener is still King of the Hill.
Does ywriter needs to be downloaded?
@@AJ_12-09 Yes.
I'm still in my notebook and sticky notes phase of organization but I have accumulated a lot of scenes of writing in OpenOffice. However, it's coming to the point that I have so many important side characters and things going I need something a bit more efficient. The Wavemaker and Papyrus both look extremely useful and I plan to give both of them a look based on your overviews here. I look forward to the more in depth reviews coming up. Thanks for your insight and look at these software options.
Joplin is the true king when it comes to writing I mean you can throw everything at it and this also plugins that you could add to it to add a lot of the features that has been mentioned here and more. Just Joplin is also free and open source unbelievable a great piece of software once you understand how they really use it.
Papyrus is like Scrivener, produced in Disneyland. Scatterbrained app. I just wrote three novels and published them in Vellum. Vellum is brilliant. I’ve been a Scrivener user and beta tester since the very first release of the application and I regret that the producer of the application does not seem to listen to writers. Scrivener is like a wood duck - it bobs up and down in the one spot year after year without any significant writerly useful upgrades.
Thank you for the info, I'll check out Vellum too 👍
Vellum only on Mac. Automatic lose for me
thanks alot. now i can dive deep into the world of writing.
Great video! Thanks for mentioning Wavemaker it was also my second choice for a new writing software I really liked the card system that it had àsince I'm used to using a similar system. I also didn't like QuolWriter for the similar issues you had with it. My pick was Libre Office Writer it's a Word alternative but it also has a navigator feature which works similar to the different folder/chapter layout that Scrivener has but each chapter won't be in a separate folder. It will have the similar page layout to word but you can use the navigator to jump between chapters I'm stillà getting use to it but I like it so far. Another one that also is recommended is Ywriter. I haven't used it but it's also a free alternative.
Thank you for those two recommendations, I'll check them out too. 😀👍
@@eniawrites no problem 🙂 there's also 2 other ones I've used is Plot factory & Hermit Writing App.
Great video. Thanks! So disappointed to learn that Papyrus is not supported on iPAD.
Good video. I personally use Evernote to do most of my writing, organizing, and world building in. There is no dedicated word processor which sucks but I just export it out into google docs to go over again. I have been looking at sudowrite which looks interesting. Looking forward to your next video.
Thank you, I've heard of Sudowrite but thought it is an Ai tool to create the story content, not an organization tool for the manuscript itself? But either way, I agree it looks pretty interesting and worth checking out 👍😀
excellent. your organizational skills are very good.
I'm liking wavemaker, but also fortelling right now, but I do often default back to the simplicity of ywriter.
Same! I reallllllly like Wavemaker. Especially since I can pull it up on my phone or tablet and edit whenever. The cards and the database are great! Just slap a Google image or 7 in with a database entry for reference. The only annoyance I’ve had is logging in to Google and syncing between devices but if you have one device it doesn’t really matter. But yeah, ywriter was pretty much where I started since Scrivener didn’t do it for me. I tried Scrivener years ago but never really liked the software that much personally.
I just can't figure out how to make dark mode happen in offline mode.
Regarding the shadiness of the open source apps: actually the fact that they are open source is what makes them transparent as opposite of shady. The code is open for anyone to see any "shady" things that might be hidden by propietary code. In that sense, you can actually feel safer when using FOSS than when using propietary software.
Seeing the code only is useful when you know how to read it... And find the bad stuff. 😂
@@KoishiteAkuma90The fact that you can't read or understand code doesn't mean others can't 😂
I want to mention a couple of other free options: the main one is SmartEdit Writer, which looks similar to Scrivener, and the other is Bibisco, which has a free version with limitations.
For me, the most important thing is that the software lets me have multiple panes open at once, so I can have my writing in one pane, and notes on plot, character, location, etc., open beside it. As far as I can tell, only Scrivener does this. However, I have not yet got to grips with Scrivener due to its overly complicated and obscurely labeled interface...
Regarding Wavemaker, I found their website poorly designed and unhelpful. All the information is in blog entries, rather than organised by subject.
Thank you for the recommendations, I will look into them 😀👍 Manuskript has a tab split option where you can have several tabs in one view next to each other so you can for example see character info and writing etc. next to each other. From what I see there is no limit how many tabs you have open at once too. The layout is also pretty simplistic. But it's not my favorite option as a writing software overall, so there is that.
I wish smartedit writer worked for me. I downloaded it and got hit with several dozen errors at start. I had to force it to shut down. Writeway Pro has been good enough for now.
Thankyou so much the video was very helpful
For a different approach check Causality
Thank you, i'll take a look.
I skipped around in the video to try and find a software that would allow me to add pictures and scale them.
Sadly, I didn't see any mention of that here at all. Of these free softwares, or others that you may know, which one would be the best for making an illustrated novel?
I have multiple images per chapter in my novel, & I need a tool to let me add those images & scale them properly.
I have Quoll writer but i agree, it is a little clunky, and im still not sure how to properly create sections, such as notes etc i honestly use it for things that im discovedy writing because it doesnt have the "serious" look of Word.
I prefer to buy a reasonably priced software package to using free software. At least some company has an interest in protecting the integrity of its product.
Do you use Notion? Notion is *not* a word processor but more of a "second brain" that'll change your life by orginizing it. However, people *are* using it as writing software. I combine it with my Scrivener and--BOOM--oh my God! It is making me into a writing machine. And, yes, it's free. (Notion; not Scrivener 😛)
Thank you for this 😀. I know it but haven't used it for writing yet. I am in need of some task management system for my writing though, not for the story information itself but for managing things like "Write Chapter XX" etc. I assume you're using it for that too, separating between task management in notion and writing itself in Scrivner? Definitely would be interested to hear your best practices, if you have any, for how you set up your notion for writing. I'll probably do another series trying out different task management systems too, will be interested to see how Notion compares to others 👍
Wait why would you be suspicious about open source being legit? If anything, it should be the other way around :)
A lot of people keep commenting this, which I get because I was not clear in the video about it. I'm not suspicious about open source software. I was unsure whether the website where to download this software is legit because of the way it looked. 😁
Yeah... i think you like shingeki no kyojin a little bit
Papyrus is definetely not free ...
I have just downloaded the free papyrus author version. It is on the website as papyrus author, with the paid version described as papyrus Author + (currrently at $14.99 per month) alongside the free version .
Why would anyone go through all these efforts to NOT USE the best writing system; Scrivener. For any professional writer, or anyone aspiring to be one, I strongly advocate for Scrivener!
My reason for not using Scrivner is a financial one since I'm not at a point in my writing where it would make sense to invest since free versions cover my needs for now. But I am interested in taking a closer look at it somewhen in the future.
@@eniawrites - Well-reasoned and wise.
Scrivener is very feature rich, but I tend not to use a lot of those features, so it would be kind've wasted on me. Also, it does not support my operating system, Linux, where as these alternatives do. Wavemaker has everything I need and nothing more, and has a nice dark mode. It'd be a bit needless to buy it, for me, anyway.
I have Scrivener, but I also use Windows and Android, so no edit on the go option for me. I was using Evernote, but they just made it so I can only have one notebook and 50 notes in the free version, and I can't afford the pay version. If one of these makes it so I can write and edit on my phone and computer, without having to keep copying/emailing the latest version of the file I want to work on back and forth between my devices, then I will switch to one of them until Scrivener finally gets around to getting their Android version out.
i have scrivener premium, untill i move to android