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Wavemaker Novel Planning and Writing Software - One of the most impressive creative writing apps I've tried, and it's free! (wavemaker.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net to c/foss@beehaw.org

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I recently stumbled across this superb little word processor, and I'm just blown away by how good it for being made by one dude for free. It's like a slimmed down version of Scrivener or Papyrus, with a wonderfully simple and easy to use interface.

It's open-source, and works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, including phones and tablets). This lady here does an excellent overview of its features.

If you're looking for a nice little app for writing, outlining, or planning something, I'd recommend giving it a look.

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[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A program that's similar in many ways is Manuskript

I'd say it does exactly the same thing, except you just download it and go. There are linux, windows, and mac os versions.

Then for the closed source world, there's Scrivener. I'll not link it because it doesn't support linux. But same concept.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Manuskript is unfortunately a very buggy piece of software, with regular freezes and crashes. And the UI is, in my opinion, extremely clunky and unintuitive. I love open source software, but I can't in good conscience recommend anyone use it.

Scrivener did have a linux version that they stopped developing, and they ended up giving away the last version. Someone packed it in an appimage for easy use, should be able to find it if you search appimage scrivener. It's a pretty feature complete release, and still works well to this day.

[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've never actually had problems with Manuskript, but then I don't write anywhere near as much as I tell myself I should.

I also once paid for Scrivener, back when I still used windows regularly.

I seem to have a history of looking for an interesting piece of writing software, and then using it to write a chapter or two, then nothing more.

Another fun writing program (that goes to the other UI extreme) is FocusWriter. I actually managed four or five chapters of a story using it.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

Ooh, FocusWriter is a good one. Nowadays I tend to avoid the ultra minimalist ones, but when I used Focus writer it always worked well.

[–] prd@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I'm glad to see FocusWriter is still being updated, I used that a ton while I was in college. Great developer.