The options for available writing software may be growing, but so are the price tags for these highly sought after programs. Some of them are priced high enough to ruin a starving writer’s entire week. The sad truth is that none of these programs will help us write better, but they can help us become more organized, efficient, and structured writers. Although I own two commercial writing programs, I’m still constantly on the lookout for free software that can closely match the feature lists of their commercial brethren. Actually, I’d be just as happy with something fairly easy to learn that can help me manage my writing notes and structure in an effective manner.

Here’s a list of twenty writing programs I stumbled upon and bookmarked at some point. I have to admit I have not personally used or reviewed any these programs, but as far as I can tell, they will cost you exactly $0.00 to give them a try yourself.

1. ywriter
2. RoughDraft
3. WritersFocus
4. Storybook
5. Writing Management
6. Celtx
7. Evernote
8. The Literary Machine
9. Manuscript Tracking Software
10. Text Block Writer
11. Character Keeper
12. Cinergy Script Editor
13. Papel
14. DarkRoom
15. Scripped
16. Zhura
17. ScriptBuddy
18. PlotBot
19. Slang
20. Lyx

When I decided I wanted to write a novel, I figured I would need a rough outline of my story as well as the characters that would populate it. I was naive enough to think this would be enough to carry me through to the gripping ending I had in mind.

The first ten pages were written in record time, but the next ten proved to be arduous. I thought I had all the answers, but suddenly I was stuck on page twenty with nothing but open space in front of me. The next big conflict in my story should be happening much later in the story, so I grossly miscalculated the time line of my tale.

I put my novel away for a few days and gave myself the time I thought I needed to be creative. I wanted to come up with a way to stretch the story without diluting it. When I could only muster up the words for another half dozen pages, I realized (thought) I needed help.

Writing software sounded like the perfect solution. All I needed was a writing program to help me work through the stumbling blocks and whip this story into shape. I made the decision to purchase a novel writing program called New Novelist, and although I enjoyed the structure it provided, it did not write my story for me. This was a wake up call that made me realize I was the only one that can write this book.

I did find the software very practical for the organization of thoughts, characters, notes, and chronology, but its benefits in helping me write the story were naturally negligible. I think purchasing writing software can be a nice distraction during our moments of writers block. It’s really not necessary, but its enough to temporarily divert our attention from our plot holes while still keeping us inspired to get back on track.

Do I think novel writing software is worth it? It probably is if you want a fancy way to keep track of your story notes, but I also believe you can get the same results using free word processing programs too. I own it so I use it and I enjoy it. Would I buy it again knowing what I know now? I probably would. I could be just as organized using Notepad, but there’s something so motivating about opening up a writing related program to write. Maybe it’s silly, but it puts me in the right frame of mind and makes me feel more like a writer.

Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.

Storybook assists you in structuring your book
Store all information about your characters and locations in one place. Then, use the included Storybook features for managing chapters, scenes, characters and locations. A simple interface is provided to enable you to assign your defined characters and locations to each scene and to keep an overview of your work with user-friendly chart tools.