Inspired by a story about a writer who lost work while using Scrivener, I thought I would give a plug to the writing software I use, in case any of my readers are thinking about getting writing software. It’s called WriteWay Pro, and unfortunately for Mac users, is only available for Windows.
I got the trial version several years ago, and it only took me a few weeks to decide to purchase the pro version. It is easy to use, has lots of interesting pieces and parts that you don’t have to use (!) so you can keep it fairly simple & still get what you need from it. Having chapters and scenes has worked very well for me, instead of using my hard drive files to organize things. I use WriteWay for all my Liberty Hall flash stories, giving each one its own chapter, as if they were part of one book. I put the crits I get for each story on notecards at the bottom. And then I can easily add scenes when I want to revise a particular flash story.
For novels, their acts/chapters/scenes work well. You can move things around easily in storyboard, you can have files for characters and research – and of course, you can have multiple books.
Upgrades are free and the latest one gives you the ability to export a file that works with Kindle & Nook. (you could always export as rtf file, but now can do pdf, word, etc). It even has back pages & front pages to add a dedication or cover art, or a table of contents.
You can import your work as well – I’ve imported rtf files, but now I see other formats are supported so I’m guessing those can also be imported.
I’m very pleased. I had some trouble with earlier versions and the help desk was extremely helpful – in fact, they rewrote the program to fix a bug I found and had me test it out. I have all my writing on it, and backups are easy, upgrades work as promised (data never lost), and my confidence in the software has only increased with time.
I’ve heard Scrivener is great but has a steep learning curve. This software is almost intuitive. You are up and running right away – some of the more detailed special options take a little time to figure out, but the basics are super fast to learn.
It’s available at their website or on Amazon.
LEE HALLISON 
Too bad it’s not for Macs – I just contacted Scrivner about the status of my lapsed account, because right now I need to spread chapters out …
I wonder if I was the person who inspired you… This isn’t so funny, but here I am bumping into this months later, searching for alternatives to Scrivener, because I just lost work again, despite Scrivener claiming to have fixed the bug, and me stupidly sticking with the darn program, just because I like it so much (aside from the part where it’s eating my words.) Aaargh.
Anyway… I need a mac program, so this one won’t work for me, but I did want to say hello anyway!
Hi, Terra!
Yes, you were my inspiration – I was so horrified by your story, and am so sorry to hear you’ve lost work again. I wish WriteWay had a Mac version! Maybe you could pick up a used PC laptop & only use it for writing?
Great post for WWP. I switched to it back in December 2011 (from Word) and haven’t looked back. SO easy to use, and it does everything I need it to. A couple of times I’ve run into questions, and I got very quick responses from their end to help me out. Plan to keep using it!
Thanks! I am happy to spread the word for such a great program. Sounds like you are having a similar experience with it! #fansofwriteway
I started with WWP during NaNoWriMo, as they made available an extended trial period (so you could complete the contest and download your work) plus offered a special discount for NaNo participants. I loved the program immediately as everything works the way that I intuitively want it to work. Thanks for spreading the word to others.
I have been searching for a good alternative to Scrivener because I too lost almost an entire manuscript after one of their updates in April. Thank god for backups but that was a heart attack I so didn’t need. I’m going to give this a try!
I decided this week to try WriteWay Pro then wondered if Scrivener would be better. But since Scrivener doesn’t offer a demo period and since the reviews I’ve read prefer Writeway over Scriviner, I’ll stick to WriteWay. Thanks for your help!