Sometimes it takes more than a good idea to get started writing. I’ve long found that having the right tool makes a difference not only for getting started on a novel but for sticking with it through the last punctuation mark.
The how of writing has changed for me over the years. When I was kid, I wrote with an actual pen or pencil. Eventually, perhaps recognizing the inadequacy of my handwriting, I started typing up drafts on a typewriter or–when we finally got a computer–a Windows 95 PC.
I began writing my first real novel when I was in college. As I had done for homework assignments, I wrote We, The Watched in Microsoft Word. This software worked fine, but as I got further along in the story and the plot grew more complex, Word’s weaknesses for novel writing became apparent. Once you get over 100 pages, it gets difficult to check back what kind of clothes a character was wearing in Chapter 2, and whether they were torn during that fight in Chapter 10.
So partway through writing my second novel, Divided We Fall, I realized I needed to make a change. This novel was more complex than WTW because it followed the perspectives of two characters. That meant I had to keep track of two timelines in one book (plus flashbacks!) and make sure everything lined up properly. This simply was too difficult for me to manage in a Word document.
Luckily, I found a great new writing app called Scrivener, which in 2015 I wrote was a piece of writing software I couldn’t live without. With scenes and chapters that could be dragged and dropped around like notecards on a board, plus plenty of tags and other meta information to input, Scrivener helped me ensure continuity and general cogency throughout DWF. This became even more critical in my next book, The Wanderer and the New West, which has an even more complex plot that jumps among the perspectives of several characters.
While I still think Scrivener is a great tool, I recently decided to try yet another writing app for a very basic reason: I was starting to feel limited by being able to access my writing only on a PC.
Currently, I use a self-built Windows 11 gaming desktop at home and a sleek and streamlined Chromebook Plus on the go. Unfortunately, Scrivener is not web-based and while there’s a way to use it on Linux, which technically works on a Chromebook, this just felt a bit too intimidating to me to try to set up. While an iPad version is now available for mobile writing, I have never been an Apple guy and didn’t want to buy a whole new device just for this one thing.
Also, even when I was using a Windows laptop rather than a Chromebook, syncing between the apps via OneDrive or Dropbox could be a clunky and precarious thing. First of all, if I planned to work offline, I had to make sure the laptop was synced before I left the house. Second, if I forgot to this, I could risk a situation where there were conflicting versions on each device. While fortunately this never happened to me, a corrupted file is a fear a writer could do without!
Recently, I realized that what I really wanted was a way to quickly access the novel I was writing through a web-based app that I could flexibly access on any device, be it a desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. That’s when I remembered Reedsy!
It’s funny, because for many years, I had been a user of Reedsy’s core service for matching authors with editors, cover designers and other freelancers. It’s why my last two novels in particular look so good!
Long-time blog readers may also recall I interviewed Reedsy’s founders back in 2015. However, at the time, when Reedsy had only recently introduced its web-based writing software, I was already in the middle of a novel on Scrivener and didn’t think I could easily transition all the work I’d already done to a more streamlined platform.
Well, last year, after some fits and starts trying to get going on a new project, I realized that one of my biggest barriers was simply finding the time and space to work. Under my current writing system, I had to be in front of my desktop PC, which–by the way–I also use for my work-at-home job all day long. Suddenly, it occurred to me: I should try that web-based Reedsy writing app!
While it’s still early days, so far I’m enjoying Reedsy Studio. With an emphasis on distraction-free writing, it’s definitely more streamlined than my previous writing software. However, I’m actually finding this simplicity to be refreshing after years of toying with options and settings in Scrivener.
Reedsy’s app has also evolved over time, and now has more tools for outlining a plot and fleshing out people and locations in the story. I especially like–even more than I thought I would–the built-in templates that ask key questions about my characters. Not only is it forcing me to add much more dimension to even minor characters than I might have otherwise, but it’s giving me things to work on even at times when I don’t feel like writing the actual story.
Most importantly, I can now jump into my novel whenever inspiration strikes, no matter where I happen to be or what device I happen to have with me. At this time in my life, when it comes to writing, this may be the most valuable feature of all.
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