Evernote Novel Writing

Evernote makes a great writer's companion. It's available on just about every platform, so you can collect and organize your notes wherever you are. You can take notes in your paper notebook. This Android application is all that you need for writing novels, poems, essay, screenplays, etc. Use this Free Writing Software application to focus more on your story and write without any distractions. The extended keyboards, phrase finding options, syntax highlighting and night mode are some of its features. Evernote – Most Popular Software. Organize your research into notebooks. Let’s say you’ve come across a list of places in the world.

If you have ever written a novel, you'll know it isn’t a straightforward task. It isn’t just about writing, rather you have to deal with a lot of related and even unrelated things. You need to organize your ideas and thoughts in the form of notes and outlines, you'll need a stable internet connection, and you need a comfortable and cozy working environment.

One important part of the novel writing process is novel writing software. A decent, reliable novel writing software will help you with a lot of things including smooth novel outline, note-taking, collaboration, distraction-free writing, novel section management, storage and backup, formatting, and more.

Gone are the days when the typewriter was the only tool that an author needed. Times have changed, and you need to change and upgrade yourself too.

Check out the following list of the best novel writing software in 2021 with reviews and pricing details and pick the one that’s right for you.

1. Squibler

Squibler is the world’s best writing platform that simplifies the writing process for novel writers. It is an easy-to-use writing app that comes with a simple yet effective text editor and word processor. It doesn’t just help you in writing, but it has ready-to-use templates and plot generator with over 500 story ideas for novel writers.

Squibler Features

Squibler offers some of the best features and tools for novel writers:

An easy-to-use and intuitive dashboard, text editor, and interface
A drag-and-drop user interface for arranging and organizing chapters, sections, and notes
First line generator tool for novel writers with more than 500 first line suggestions and ideas
Story prompt generator and plot generator for novel writers of all genres
A note-taking feature that helps you organize and manage your ideas
More than 30 plot outlines for writers
Distraction-free writing mode to write your novel with complete focus and attention
An on-screen sidebar gives you quick access to all the essential elements and different novel sections
Arrange different sections of your novel by dragging and dropping on the board
Built-in grammar checking and editing tool to improve your novel and its readability in real-time
Auto-save feature with version control that lets you access older versions of your novel
Import feature that lets you import your novel from other another app
Integrates and sync with Google Drive and Dropbox allowing you to save your work on the cloud
Get your novel in publish-ready format for Kindle
It works online and on Mac, Windows, iPad, and other devices. Your work is synced in real-time across all devices where you use Squibler.

Squibler Pricing

Squibler only costs $9.99 per month. You can try it for 14 days and check all the amazing features. Click here to start your free 14 days trial now.

Key Takeaways

Squibler is a cost-effective all-in-one novel writing software that comes loaded with all the features that you want to see in a top book writing software.

2. AutoCrit

AutoCrit is an editing tool for novel writers that help you improve readability without getting help from a professional editor or proofreader. It compares your manuscript with the best-seller novels and books in your genre and gives you recommendations on how to improve dialogue, word selection, repetition, etc.

AutoCrit Features

The main features include:

Easy-to-use word processor
Up to 30 editing reports to improve your novel
Built-in editing and grammar checking tool
Specific guidance related to your genre
Progress tracker and goal setting
Online storage space
Readability analysis

AutoCrit Pricing

AutoCrit has a free forever plan that gives you access to limited features. The premium plan is priced at $30 per month (or $297/year).

Key Takeaways

AutoCrit helps you write better and improve readability. It isn’t a feature-rich novel writing tool and it only covers one area (editing and readability).

3. Scrivener

Scrivener is a decent novel writing software that simplifies writing and organizing your novel, its chapters, and your ideas. It works on both mobile and desktop making it easier for you to access your manuscript from multiple devices.

Scrivener Features

Here is an overview of the core Scrivener features:

A word processor designed specifically for writers
Distraction-free writing mode
Corkboard for managing your ideas and novel elements
Outliner tool and templates to choose from
Set up writing goals and monitor progress
Autosave feature

Scrivener Pricing

Scrivener for desktop is priced at $49 (either Mac or Windows) and the iOS app is priced at $19.99. There isn’t any online version available.

Key Takeaways

Scrivener is a nice novel writing software, but it doesn’t work on Android devices and doesn’t have any online version. You'll have to keep your device with you all the time.

4. Ulysses

Ulysses is a writing app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone for novel writers. If you are a proud Apple user and need a novel writing app that works on all Apple devices, Ulysses is the writing software for you. It has a lot of handy features that help you write better novels.

Ulysses Features

Here is what this novel writing software offers you with:

Clean and simple user-interface
Distraction-free writing mode
Set and track writing goals
Autosave and backup feature
Supports multiple file formats
Sync your data in real-time
Create and manage your library with a single tap or click
Organize your novel with a group feature
Integrates with Dropbox and iCloud.

Ulysses Pricing

Ulysses is priced at $5.99 per month or $49.99 per year. It offers a free trial letting you explore it before you decide to pay.

Key Takeaways

Ulysses is a novel writing software for Apple devices with no online version. The features are good but lack some of the much-needed ones like corkboard and collaboration.

5. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is a grammar, style, and readability checking software that helps you edit the content of your novel and make it reader-friendly. It improves your writing to a great extent with its amazing and helpful features.

ProWritingAid Features

Here is what ProWritingAid offers you:

Simple user-interface with powerful features
Over 20 detailed writing reports for improvement
Auto-suggestion feature that highlights grammar and style issues as you write
Find and fix style issues automatically with a single click
Use the most appropriate words by selecting the best synonym from the list
It integrates with several leading tools and apps e.g. Microsoft Word, Medium, Gmail, and others
It has a browser extension, Microsoft Word add-on, desktop app, and an online version.

ProWritingAid Pricing

ProWritingAid has flexible pricing. You can pay monthly ($20 per month) or a one-time payment of $224.25. You get 25% off if you switch to yearly payment ($59.25 per year).

Key Takeaways

ProWritingAid is a handy cross-device novel writing tool that lets you write better and quickly hassle-free. You can improve your writing style, grammar, and readability with ProWritingAid. However, the interface is a bit slow and there is no library of documents either.

6. Grammarly

Grammarly works like ProWritingAid by improving your writing. It fixes grammatical, style, tone, pronunciation, and readability errors in your manuscript. Grammarly has a writing assistant that automatically finds errors as you type and suggests how to fix them.

Grammarly Features

The leading Grammarly features include:

AI-powered writing tool
It detects a lot of grammatical and non-grammatical writing errors
Write directly in Grammarly interface or copy text from the word processor
Simple and easy-to-use interface
It has a tone detector that helps you set the right tone for your novel
It checks your manuscript for clarity, engagement, correctness, and delivery
Built-in plagiarism detector
A library of your documents to help you manage your novel chapters and sections
Integrates with leading tools like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Facebook, Slack, Outlook, Gmail, and more
It has browser extensions, web version, desktop software, and mobile apps for both iOS and Android.

Grammarly Pricing

Grammarly has a free for life plan with basic features. As a novel writer, you'll have to switch to the premium plan that costs $11.66 per month and has all the necessary features you need.

Key Takeaways

Grammarly is a powerful novel editing and writing software that offers you a lot of features that help you improve your writing. Its tone detector is a very helpful feature.

7. yWriter

Novel Writing Outline Template

yWriter is a word processor designed and developed by Simon Haynes who is a full-time novelist. He developed this novel writing software to help the novelist break their novel into sections and chapters, and to make it easier for them to organize and manage their novel.

yWriter Features

Here is what yWriter has to offer you with:

A simple user-interface that doesn’t need any training
Organize your novel and work on multiple novels simultaneously
Add scenes, chapters, items, characters, etc. in your novel and organize them easily
Progress tracker with the word count for each file in your project
Storyboard view of your work
Drag-and-drop chapters, scenes, and characters for arrangement and re-ordering
Autosave and automatic backup
Autonumbering of the chapters
It has desktop software for Mac, Windows, and Linux and mobile app for iOS and Android
Automatic software updates.

yWriter Pricing

yWriter is free to use. However, registering your account donates $11.95 or $24.95 to the developer. It isn’t compulsory though.

Key Takeaways

yWriter offers you multiple features to organize and manage your novel, sections, scenes, and chapters. The features are, however, basic and don’t offer something out of the box.

8. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is editing software that anyone can use. It is a desktop software for both Windows and Mac and it also has a free online version. You can use it to improve the readability of your novel.

Hemingway Editor Features

Here is an overview of what Hemingway Editor offers you:

Extremely easy-to-use text editor
Highlights errors in different colors for easy identification
It identifies adverbs issues in the text and suggests how to fix them
Highlights passive voice
Highlights sentences that are hard to read and very hard to read
It also suggests simple synonyms to complex words to improve readability
Gives a readability score to your novel
You can format the text easily with its editor

Hemingway Editor Pricing

The online app is free to use. However, the desktop software is priced at $19.99. It is available for Windows and Mac and you have to buy separate licenses.

Key Takeaways

Hemingway Editor is a nice novel writing software that will fix most of the major readability-related issues. However, you won’t be able to write your novel in its editor. You'll have to copy-paste chunks of text in the editor, fix them, and then move them back to your original word processor (e.g. Google Docs or Microsoft Word).

9. Evernote

Evernote is an all-purpose note-taking app. It isn’t a tool specifically for novel writers but since it is such a useful tool, you can use it as your novel writing software. If you work in a team or working with multiple authors on one or more novels, Evernote will turn out to be the best app.

Evernote Features

The leading Evernote features are:

An easy-to-use tool for notetaking
Take notes and share them with anyone you like
Organize websites, URLs, articles, files, PDFs, etc. in your Evernote account
Support for voice search
Create a to-do list to keep track of daily writing tasks
Organize and manage your notes easily
Comes with ready-to-use templates
It has a web version, desktop app, mobile app, and browser extension
Integrates with leading tools and apps e.g. Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Google Drive, and more.

Evernote Pricing

It has a free plan that comes with the basic note-taking feature. You can switch to the premium plan ($7.99 per month) to unlock more features.

Key Takeaways

Evernote is a handy note-taking app that will help you keep your ideas organized. You can manage and organize different sections of your novel with Evernote too.

Choose the Best Novel Writing Software

Tools and software are essential for novel writing. They simplify the writing process, automate repetitive tasks, improve readability, help in editing, and boost your productivity. The software discussed above might have overlapping features, but they help you achieve different things.

Dealing with multiple software turns out to be a separate problem so you have to carefully handpick the one that’s the best and meets your requirements. I’d recommend Squibler as it is an all-in-one novel writing software that’s specifically developed for writers. It doesn’t just focus on one aspect of the writing process (notetaking, outlining, editing, etc.) rather it covers everything. It is an end-to-end novel writing solution. Give it a try and see how it works for you.

I’m a seasoned writer specializing in business reviews. I’ve had my articles published on leading blogs including TheNextWeb, Yahoo News, Jeff Bullas, Business2Community, and more.

For this week’s post, I’d planned to write about how I have automated a lot of work using Evernote. It was a somewhat technical post, but I tried to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible. But last night, as Hurricane Sandy bore down, I realized that a more timely post may be one describing how you can use Evernote with NaNoWriMo.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November and the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 day. There are NaNoWriMo meetup events and NaNoWriMo parties all throughout the month of November. And more than 300,000 people participate every year. The event is run by the Office of Letters and Lights. I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo three times. This November will be my fourth. There are no prizes in NaNoWriMo: the glory is all in completing the marathon writing event with at least 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Evernote Software

I figured that there is probably some overlap with users of Evernote and NaNoWriMo participants and with that in mind, here are 5 ways you can use Evernote when participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

1. Use Evernote to plan your novel.

In the three times I have participated in NaNoWriMo, I “won” twice, meaning that on two of the three occasions, I wrote at least 50,000 words in 30 days. What I found to be a key to my success was to plan ahead. The year that I didn’t win was a year that I tried to wing it without any planning.

I think there are three elements to successful planning:

Plan your novel.
Plan your writing schedule.
Plan for contingencies.

Evernote can help with each of these elements.

Evernote Novel Writing

First, I’d recommend creating a notebook in Evernote. Call it “NaNoWriMo 2012.” Into this notebook, you can put everything related to the event. Keep in mind that while you don’t have to do all the planning directly in Evernote, it serves as a convenient place to have all of your planning and documents centralized. And since Evernote’s notebooks are synchronized to their cloud service, you don’t have to worry about losing data.

For example, I will often outline my novel using OmniOutliner on my iPad. Once I have the outline the way I want it, I will send the outline to Evernote:

You can also use Evernote to plan out your writing schedule. Working from your outline, you can, for instance, create a note for each day of the challenge (“Day 1”, “Day 2”, etc.) and within the note, add some prompts about what you want to write about that day. Knowing ahead of time what I was going to write on a given day was key for me. I could wake up in the morning, look at my notes and see what I would be writing. There was no slow start. I could get moving right away.

You can also use Evernote to store some contingency plans. Typically, what I would do is pick one or two of the scenes that I was really looking forward to writing and set them aside. In Evernote, for instance, you could create a couple of notes for these scenes and tag them as contingencies. I save these for those days when I am feeling completely unmotivated to write. If I sit down for five minutes and nothing is happening, I’ll pull out one of my contingency notes–describing a scene I’m really excited about writing–and write that scene.

2. Use Evernote to write your novel.

Obviously, you can also use Evernote to write your novel. I don’t do this. I use Evernote extensively for many things, but when it comes to actually sitting down and writing fiction (or the occasional nonfiction pieces), I use Scrivener. That said, if you only want to go to one place to do everything, Evernote has everything you need to write your novel.

Evernote Novel Writing Templates

For the purposes of the challenge, I would recommend creating one note for each day and then use that note to write whatever your planned to write for that day. This allows you to easily see what you wrote on any given day. But it also lets you more easily track your daily progress. From within a note, you can get your word count for that day. On the Windows client, you can right-click on the note to get the word count. On the Macintosh client, you can click the Information button on the note:

And at the end of the event, you can use the Merge Notes function to take all 30 days of your writing and merge them into a single note so that you can easily get a final word count.

3. Use Evernote to capture progress on your novel.

I use Evernote extensively to capture my progress during NaNoWriMo. The NaNoWriMo website allows you to make updates to your standings each day. In other words, you can enter how many words you write each day and the website graphs your progress and provides all kinds of rich information. So, each day, after I’ve updated my stats, I use the Evernote Web Clipper to grab a copy of that day’s progress. I have one such “progress” note for each of the 30 days of the event. They typically look something like this:

Having this collection of progress reports helped to provide me with inspiration and targets for subsequent days.

4. Use Evernote to capture research for your novel.

I also use Evernote extensively to capture my initial research for what I write. Indeed, I started using Evernote originally at the same time I last did NaNoWriMo and I was so happy with how it worked, I converted to the Premium version shortly after I completed the event.

Back then, I was writing a story that was heavily dependent on relativity (remember, I am a science fiction writer). In order to accurately built a timeline for the events in my story, a lot of calculation was required. I would do a lot of these calculations in Mathematica, and then export my equations and results (sometimes with charts and graphs) to Evernote, where I would add notes about how the calculates affected the timeline or plot of the story.

I also captured several articles from New Scientist and Scientific American and then made a bunch of additional notes in the note that contained the PDF files, all of which was very useful to me when I was writing.

I realize that not everyone who reads these Going Paperless posts has aspirations to be a writer, let alone attempt a marathon writing event like NaNoWriMo, but I figured there might be enough overlap to make it worthwhile. And besides, since NaNoWriMo begins in just two days, the timing seemed perfect.

And if you are one of those people taking the challenge, you might check out my 5 tips for a successful NaNoWriMo. I wrote these after “winning” the event for my second time back in 2010. And be sure to add me as a buddy over at the NaNoWriMo website.

I’ll be back next week with that post on automation.

Evernote Templates For Novel Writing

As always this post and all of my Going Paperless posts are also available on Pinterest.

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