Comments on: NaNoWriMo Grab Bag: Robot Assistants and More

By: Fiction Writers Review » Blog Archive » Robot Assistants: 2010 Edition

Fiction Writers Review » Blog Archive » Robot Assistants: 2010 Edition — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:32:07 +0000

[...] help, Literature and Latte will soon release a version of Scrivener for Windows. Last year we noted that Scrivener offered a free trial in honor of NaNoWriMo but was for Macs only; the Windows [...]

By: Celeste

Celeste — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:29:07 +0000

Oh, and of course, there’s Leechblock, for those who need a self-control booster. It’s a free Firefox add-on that allows you to block certain internet sites–whichever ones you choose–for specified periods of time, so you can stop checking Facebook, etc. and get back to writing.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:58:34 +0000

To add a few more tools for PC users, since we don't want them to feel left out: Instead of Scrivener, PC users can try Page Four, a similar program recommended by the makers of Scrivener. Writespace is a free add-on to Word 2007 that works like WriteRoom: it changes the screen to green text on black, removes toolbars, and provides only basic features like spellcheck and Find. And Dark Room is eseentially a clone of WriteRoom, made for PCs. Again, I have NOT tried any of these programs, and thus am NOT endorsing them, but I wanted to put them out there for PC users who might find them useful.

By: gwen

gwen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:42:54 +0000

I’m pretty psyched to take advantage of the CreateSpace deal… there is a certain motivation there!

And sorry to continue with the Mac elitism, Celeste, but a site called MacHeist — http://www.macheist.com/ — is currently offering some of the most popular Mac downloads for free. One of them is a program called WriteRoom, which essentially blacks out your screen and makes everything invisible so you can write with more distractions. It’s not really much more than a glorified Notepad, but not being distracted with hitting Microsoft Word’s word count button has helped me out a lot in the last few days.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:43:41 +0000

Marissa, I was so intrigued by Scrivener when I sat down to work on Draft #2 of my novel. I was completely restructuring the book, condensing three timelines into two, and it seemed like a good way to help me keep track of which pieces of Draft #1 were going where. Alas, it is for Macs only, so I was unable to try it.

By: marissa

marissa — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:41:32 +0000

I couldn’t formally commit to nanowrimo this year, but I’m in love with the idea and their message boards provide a lot of great encouragement and ideas to help you KEEP WRITING (my personal fave: turn off your monitor!).

I’ve also been a big fan of Scrivener for quite some time.