Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, having the write software can make your job easier as well as protect your data. I’ve rounded up what I feel to be the best free writing software for both Windows and Mac, as well as some extra tips that can help you store and publish your data.
If you’re not looking to spend big bucks on many of the commercial writing software
- Free! Who doesn’t like free?
- Some of them are written for writers, by writers. This means many of the features are well thought out and beneficial to the writing process.
- You may just be starting out writing and not sure if you want to make the financial commitment to buying an expensive software package.
Windows
1st Place: yWriter
This is a popular option among writers. It was created by writer and computer programmer Simon Haynes, and is designed to help you organize your novel into chapters and scenes. This is the program I use when I decide to sit down and write.
2nd Place: Blurb BookSmart (Windows and Mac)
BookSmart is a great piece of software that Blurb provides for you to create books (and publish with them as well). It’s well laid out software that is also picture friendly (think kids books/comics/etc). The great thing about BookSmart is you can use it to layout your novel and see what the final product will look like.
3rd Place: Storybook
Like yWriter, Storybook is designed to help you organize your writing. You can organize your writing into chapters and scenes, and view it chronologically. One of the really cool features of Storybook are the charts. They allow you to take a look at your writing in many different ways.
Mac
1st Place: Jer’s Novel Writer
Jer’s is a popular program for Mac writers. It’s not super fancy, but it does have a clean interface and is very stable.
2nd Place: Blurb BookSmart (Windows and Mac)
BookSmart is a great piece of software that Blurb provides for you to create books (and publish with them as well). It’s well laid out software that is also picture friendly (think kids books/comics/etc). The great thing about BookSmart is you can use it to layout your novel and see what the final product will look like.
3nd Place: Bean
Bean is a word processor, but it has many features that can help you in your writing process. One of the great features is a full screen writing mode. It also allows you to do page layouts and it can autosave and create backups.
What Next?
My first suggestion, if you’re serious about writing, is to encrypt your data files. Most programs don’t offer this feature, but you can use a tool like Truecrypt to create an encrypted drive and store your data files on it. Then just mount your Truecrypt drive before launching you writing program and you’re all set.
Now that you have a well written book or novel, what do you next? Thankfully, this day in age you don’t need to be printed by a big publisher. There are several great options in the self publishing world thanks to the internet. Since I haven’t published a book through any of these websites, I won’t rank them. I’ll list them here for you and you can see which one best meets your needs.
- Blurb
- Lulu
- Xlibris
As you can see, there are a ton of options for you writers just starting out or looking to change the software you use. There are also some great web based writing tools, but I decided to leave them out of this article. Unfortunately with most web-based software, you may end up opening another tab and spending all day on Facebook.
What program do you use to write? Have a suggestion for a linux writing program? Let us know in the comments!
