What your novel writing program should do for you

Whether you’re just getting started as a writer or have been writing for the last 40+ years, it’s important to find the right novel writing program to work with. The good news is that a novel-writing program doesn’t have to be very fancy in order to serve you well. And technically, you can write your story down on paper and type it up later for publication purposes. However, writing a novel on a computer is usually faster and much easier to edit. Therefore, you should choose the most appropriate writing tool for your purposes.

It should be easy to use

The best novel writing program is easy to use. While you can certainly purchase a fancy, complicated application with all of the bells and whistles, that doesn’t mean it will help you be more productive as a novel writer. You can tell that a program is complicated when there are training programs available teaching you how to use it. Also, if the writing program you’re looking at comes with a giant instruction manual, it might not be easy to use.

Of course, if you don’t mind learning the ins and outs of a new program, that doesn’t have to stop you from choosing a more complicated piece of software. However, for the rest of us, the easier it is to use, the better.

Keep track of your word count

In theory, it shouldn’t matter what the total word count of your novel is. Lots of people advise you to write until your story is completed. But in reality, numbers do matter. In fact, if you want to write a novel and end up with a novella or short story instead, you might feel disappointed. But it’s not just the overall word count that matters. Writers also want to know how many words they’ve written during the past week or day. A good novel-writing program will give you all the stats you need to stack on track with your writing.

Help you focus on writing

Your writing program should help you focus on writing your novel. If it encourages you to surf the Internet to look up the history of Pygmies in South America, then that’s probably not going to help you write your novel. We know that writers have to do research. But most of the time, doing research and playing around with the functions of your novel writing program don’t qualify as productive use of your time. You should be writing instead.

Make your notes easily accessible

While you’re writing your book, you’ll want to have access to important notes you made. Whether you need to refer to a character you’ve recently introduced, look up a date to make sure you remember it correctly, or look at your brainstorming ideas for the next chapter, it’s important to have access to your notes. If you’re using something like Word, then you either have to deal with sticky notes all around your monitor or you have to keep several files open at one time. That’s not the best way to keep your notes organized and handy.

Encourage you to reach your goals

It’s not enough for your writing program to tell you how many words you’ve written so far or even this week. This is especially useless if you never log on to your program to see the actual word count. The best novel writing programs encourage you to reach your goals. This could be in the form of an email reminder telling you to get busy because you’re falling behind. Sometimes all you need is a little gentle encouragement. And how much better would it be if your email reminder praised you for making so much progress?

Give you easy access to your novel

Nowadays, everyone is starved for time. This is especially true for someone who wants to write a novel but also has a daytime job and numerous other obligations. Writing a novel can sometimes take a backseat to other goals. Fortunately, you can use a good writing program to work on your novel during slow times and waiting periods, whether you’re at the doctor’s office, waiting on a dinner date, riding the subway, or watching a commercial. To make this possible, your novel writing program has to work on any device, including your cell phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop.

Can your current novel writing program keep up?

If your current writing program can’t keep up, then maybe it’s time to try something different. After all, “Insanity [is] doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (Albert Einstein). Novelize is determined to keep you writing.