NovelPlanner

NovelPlanner is the simplest of the novel writing software products reviewed here. It is, at heart, a virtual index-card system.

When you open up NovelPlanner you're greeted by a screen which offers you three options of cards: Characters, Scenes, and Other. You can create as many cards in each category as you like, and save them so they're always accessible for you.

This is a great way to just brainstorm without worrying about order or structure. Just take advantage of your freeform ideas without worrying about whether they'll fit or not.

Once you've done that, you can start to apply the structure in the bottom of the screen. Just click-and-drag the different scenes to where you think they'll go in the story. You can play around with this as much as you like until you find a structure that suits you. In this way NovelPlanner is just like real index cards without the chaos and mess. Indeed, I always struggled with real index cards - it was so stressful to get them in the right order, and the one I wanted was never to hand. This system of virtual index cards is much, much easier, and just as flexible as the old way, not to mention more environmentally friendly.

Once you have the structure in the order which you think works best, use the top menu to switch to Reference Mode and the screen goes into a small image which floats above your word processor so that you can refer to it as you write.

One criticism is that sometimes NovelPlanner, simple though it is, isn't entirely intuitive to use. For example, I was in Reference Mode and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to revert to Standard Mode. I discovered it eventually though (see the image below - excuse my less than beautiful arrow; using graphics software would not exactly be one of my strengths!). And the program is so simple there isn't actually that much to learn.

NovelPlanner is very simple and unpretentious. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than a virtual index-card system, and it isn't. But what it does, it does very well. It is also priced accordingly at $19.99, so it is the most cost-effective of all the novel planning software products - except for the free ones of course!

Having said that, other products such as WriteItNow4 and yWriter5 offer this virtual index-card facility, as well as lots of other useful tools, and I think they are both better products. Having said that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with NovelPlanner - it does what it purports to do, and very well. And more complex products have a longer learning curve, and maybe you'd just rather be writing. If so, this could be exactly the novel writing sofware product for you.

You can download NovelPlanner with limited use to check it out by clicking here.

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