I have taken a good long look at novel writing software yet again as I start work on developing my characters. Ideally I would something that is flexible, easy to use but also gives me some prompts to fill in.
After taking a look at about a dozen or so programmes I have come to the conclusion that the best approach is simply using Word. I have a character dossier that I have taken from Nancy Kress’s Dynamic Characters, see my previous post. This is still by far the best list and it’s easy to fill.
Does writing software really help? A lot of it seems to be designed as a way of prompting people who don’t really know how to get started, or as a way of really turning the whole planning process into a work of art. At the end of the day maybe Windows and MS Office or their equivalents are plenty good enough.
