writing

iPad: Screenwriter's best friend?

Are iPads and slates trying to forge a new territory between reading and writing?

I've written a screenplay or two in my life, and have as such become a fan of Final Draft screenwriting software. That's why my last trip to the company's Web site caught my attention: a Final Draft app is in the works for Apple's iPad.

I became somewhat excited and interested by this news, because it suggested a possible functionality I can't currently easily get with my laptop: a screenplay reader with the ability to casually edit.

Final Draft sent me … Read more

The Real Deal 198: Beginner's guide to blogging (podcast)

We talk about what you need to know to get a blog set up, how to make good content, and whether you can make money from it.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video)… Read more

Neat, see!

Organizer from Miha Rataj is just the sort of handy freeware we like to see. It's a simple but efficient and effective desktop organization application that combines a suite of tools and displays in one easy-to-use interface. It has a scrolling, configurable calendar, a prominent analog clock face, a daily task organizer, sticky notes, and an alarm clock that you can sync to tasks and that will alert to an impending event with an alarm tone, the time, or something you add yourself.

The main interface is cleanly laid out, with everything neatly spaced around the task organizer window … Read more

Ready, set, write!

Scrivener is an excellent, idiosyncratic app for creating and managing complex writing projects, whether you're trying to write a novel, play, TV show, or magazine feature. No simple word processor, Scrivener is a full authoring tool, using a metaphorical "three-ring binder" interface that helps you organize draft text and research documents into a simple system for writing, revising, and rearranging text.

While the basics of Scrivener's interface are intuitive--the system of folders, documents, and index cards on a virtual corkboard--you'll need to invest some time and effort to fully understand all of its features, including … Read more

Word processing alternative

Atlantis Nova offers an alternative word processor to users who are fed up with Word or Notes. While it does a good imitation of some better-known software, ultimately its only appeal will be to those unhappy with other word processing software.

Atlantis Nova should look and feel familiar to anyone who has used Microsoft Word, as its interface mimics that program's, though in a rather cluttered form. Users will also feel comfortable composing with Atlantis Nova, as it operates just like any word processor, too. You can create and edit documents using a long list of tools and options, … Read more

Space game

Space Exploration: Serpens Sector is a role-playing game that offers the opportunity to be a space commander. It has excellent graphics and impressive challenges, and is a fun game for players of any skill level.

The program's interface instantly wowed us with its professional graphic design, which was of the quality of a premium, packaged game. Another standout was the helpful tutorial, which interactively walked us through all the commands we needed to know to play the game. We constantly encountered adventures as we piloted our spaceship into the unexplored regions of space. These adventures were usually text-based and … Read more

Are writers selling out to marketers? Alain de Botton's "Heathrow Diary"

For one week, Swiss author Alain de Botton was living the life I've always wanted to live. As the first-ever writer-in-residence of London's Heathrow Airport, he was working on his new book on site, observing, documenting, and philosophically charging the emotions and motions of the two arguably most interesting things in life--people and planes--in transit, in situ.

My own fascination with airports started at an early age thanks to the location of my parents' house. I grew up with planes taking off and landing at the nearby airport, and as a student I spent one summer vacation working … Read more

Novel writing helper

yWriter4 provides novelists with a tool to not only create their new story, but keep it tightly organized. This no-frills layout and inventive categorization may help bring that story from daydreams to the page.

The program's cluttered interface, full of buttons with no onscreen direction, practically begged us to visit the Help file. Luckily, while there, we discovered a wizard that walked us through the process and made everything much less confusing. The program required us to do a lot of prep work before we even wrote a word. However, we quickly learned that setting up databases of characters, … Read more

Word processing tool

Write Source provides users with a word processor for .txt documents that successfully imitates Word. In addition, the program offers an added feature that will help users search for words.

We felt instantly comfortable with this program's interface since it smoothly mimics Microsoft Word all the way down to its layout. The Help file's instructions were necessary to master some of the more complicated features, but basic writing was a snap. Our previous experience with word processors that save as .txt files had been disappointing since they always seemed to fall short of Word with their clumsy layouts … Read more