>>14853
go to kickass site and download scrivener. it can save to any format, including word docx, pdfs, epubs, etc and formats to manuscript (or whatever you want) for writing and submission standards.
has a corkboard mode for viewing and organizing your project (most writers set up scenes and sequels on corkboards with cue cards with story ideas and scenes and mix and match and move around as they develop the story - this lets you do it on teh computer much easier).
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview is the website with a 30 day trial for free (30 days of use, so if you dont use it today, you still have 30 days, if you use it once and open again 3 months later, you still have 29 days remaining).
You can split screen in half to jump between documents or have details from a character profile or scene descriptions or whatever you want on one half and the actual chapter you are writing on bottom. These all save into separate word docx by default, but are all controlled and accessible in the pane to the left of the screen. No opening dozens of word docs and searching through directories or alt tabbing back and forth.
I use it for all my writing now. Makes it easy to prepare for a manuscript or compile for amazon publishing. Ive submitted to several agents with different guidelines and it allows you to compile it all together to those guidelines instead of one big word doc or editing dozens of files. The formatting only affects your compiled version, so you can keep the rest as is without the need to keep making new files for each publisher and so on.
I used word and notepad for longest time. Giant documents and sometimes breaking up by chapter - none really worked well for me and was a hassle to cut and paste and rearrange even simplest things. You can label things 1st draft, complete, 2nd draft, etc for easy access to whats done and needs work. Jumping to corkboard mode gives you top down look at chapters and layout and lets you fill in brief descriptions to flesh out later.
Sounds like sale pitch, but scrivener is the best thing to happen to me for writing. All your research, profiles, outlines, etc are readily accessible and can be put in folders and subfolders in the pane to the left. The amount of time its saved me in the past year Ive been using it has been ridiculous. Go get the trial, see if you like it. If you dont, no biggie. If you like it, get the torrent or pay for it. I'll probably buy it in november when the big update comes out for parity between apple and windows versions and new features added. Ive been pirating for past year.
