I’ve always wanted to write a book, if I ever have a good idea and time, I will probably use yWriter. I found this unique piece of software on gHacks, and I immediately loved it because it doesn’t just provide you with a rich text editor, but tools which are truly tuned to novel writing.

You will first have to get used to the interface, although if you’ve ever tried to write a book you will feel at home from day 1. You don’t get a continuous sheet of paper like in Word or Open Office Writer, instead, the book is divided into chapters on the left, which can each contain one or more scenes. Apart from seeing the actual content you write for these chapters and scenes, the interface shows you some helpful metadata, which you can input at any time.

You can add information about characters, locations, story notes, etc., all of which will help organization and storyboarding later on. The story board can help you visualize what is happening, and help you block some potential gaps in your story.

As Martin says at gHacks, the writing process might initially take you more time, but this will be more than compensated for when you are refining the story, trying to find a specific part with a specific character and so on. You are also less likely to leave in any plotholes and other such mistakes. Despite all this good stuff, the writing mechanics are a bit different from normal text editors, even though I could use it without a problem it does feel weird.