Novel Writing Software for Linux - FOUND!

[dragonfly41]

I've just come across this thread ..

Have you tried Scrivener which is designed for novel writers?

I'm not a novelist .. but I'm trying the beta which runs on Ubuntu (there is a version for Windows and Mac users)

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/fo...forum.php?f=33

[Redcard]

Scrivener is good, but the beta you're using is going to lock in a few weeks, and that is not good. Also, it sounds like they are not going to be supporting the linux edition any further, so you'd need to run it in Wine or a VM.

[markMDW]

Scrivener sounds great; I've heard that it was arguable the best available, but for Mac.

I had no idea there was a linux version. It might be worth the purchase after the Beta addition is developed and stabilized, but I guess that's not in it's future.

I'm still doing occasional draft writing in Tomboy Notes. Thanks for the updates!

[Terreville]

Scrivener is available for Windows in beta version. It's a timed trial. When the devs will have finished the port, we will have to pay.

Like you, I love writing stories and I love Linux. Since 2007, I tested several programs to help me write on Linux :

- Kabikaboo : nice but too simple for me. It's not comfortable to write 3 hours on a white screen.

- LibreOffice : Good. In fullscreen mode and "web display", switching from the blinding white background to a soft grey, I wrote an entire novel with it.

- yWriter : Unusable. Even using the latest Wine or Mono, it crashed. Tested on Windows : too complex for me, it's distracting.

- NoteCase : hierarchical note manager (or "Outliner"). Not reliable since it's no longer supported (but there is a supported pro version... at a price...). I lost datas due to crashes on recent linux systems.

- Lyx : the idea is simple : don't lose your time formatting, tickering texts, simply write. Very heavy on the disk. You write a thesis ? Use it. Warning : It's difficult to use it.

- FocusWriter : http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/ good fullscreen editor. I used it for months, copying/pasting in LibreOffice the texts.

- StoryBook : I can't write body texts with it, but it's a nice outliner to start a novel.

- Plume Creator : http://sourceforge.net/projects/plume-creator/ I'm biased since I'm its developer. It's FocusWriter and NoteCase all in one.
It answers to my specific needs :
- run on Linux (+Windows and Mac)
- manage multiple projects
- manage characters, items and places
- have an outliner
- write fullscreen
- manage notes

I have stopped using Libreoffice three months ago.

[markMDW]

That's a great list of programs. Plume Creator sounds like a top bet.

I found yWriter to be unstable and to complicated as well. If I spent all the time to fill in every little slot it would be wasted effort, because the data is stored away never to be seen again, unless that is the user happens to click the one particular button that contains that crucial one particular detail that's archived away, most likely forever.

I've been using SnowflakePro for my outline and character development (It costs $50 and is written by the author of Writing Fiction for Dummies). It's completely stable and directs the new novelist every step of the way.

LibreOffice: if it had a table of contents where I could click to a subdivisions of Book, Part, Chapter and Scene, then I could use it. Wow, for the life of me I can't imagine having to scroll up and down through potentially hundreds of pages to find a particular scene you want to edit. Clearly its designed to format documents well, but not anything that needs to be organized into subdivisions.

I'm running into a problem with Tomboy notes not synchronizing with ubuntuOne. Otherwise, Tomboy Notes would allow hyperlinks between notes. For example, I had tried setting a note: Long Synopsis, then another Short Synopsis, then other's for Scenes. Another for Characters. Another container of notes held research materials. All is linkable between the two. There is spell checking, Fonts, hyperlinks. Simple, Quick, Easy..but unfortunately the synchronization I had used between computers is hit or miss.

[phibxr]

Also, it sounds like they are not going to be supporting the linux edition any further, so you'd need to run it in Wine or a VM.

This is incorrect. Please see the quote below from the Scrivener developers:

"Linux is a high priority for me, it's not going anywhere, it's my
preferred platform for development. We have spent considerable time on the
upcoming 1.1 beta release fixing many outstanding issues on the Linux
platform.

Performance and stability have been our focus for 1.1 for Linux and
Windows. Scrivener will now start-up at least twice as fast as before and
feel much snappier in general.

We have fully automated the build and packaging for Linux. We have found a
solution for implementing a pdf reader (a key missing feature for Linux);
although this will not make the 1.1 release - but it will come. We have
added Markdown and MultimMrkdown compile support allowing plain text
exports to: xhtml, opml, odf and Latex tex format. We have also
implemented MathML support, as the Windows MathType is not supported on
Linux. There's a stack of bug fixes and a few new features.

Linux 1.1 will be released a week before the end of March, so folks will
have a full week before expiry. The new beta will run until end of June
2012 i.e. another 3 months.

There is no way, we are dropping the Linux platform for Scrivener - it
will only get better and there stills so much more to come on the desktop
and mobile arenas."

[Copper Bezel]

I'm running into a problem with Tomboy notes not synchronizing with ubuntuOne. Otherwise, Tomboy Notes would allow hyperlinks between notes. For example, I had tried setting a note: Long Synopsis, then another Short Synopsis, then other's for Scenes. Another for Characters. Another container of notes held research materials. All is linkable between the two. There is spell checking, Fonts, hyperlinks. Simple, Quick, Easy..but unfortunately the synchronization I had used between computers is hit or miss.

You could use Dropbox and trick it - move Tomboy's folder in .local into your Dropbox, then replace it on each machine with a symlink to that new location. I'm really loving Tomboy - I hadn't made much use of it until recently, but I can't imagine managing any large-scale project without it now.

[markMDW]

thanks Copper Bezel; Tomboy notes is great. I'm going to setup a dropbox account like you suggest and use that as a backup method to keep my project in the cloud-space. My synchronization is working now, apparently no fault of Tomboy Notes. Now I've amassed such a large collection of notes that I wish that it would allow an additional hierarchical level for organization of the various notebooks. We can create individual 'notes' and place them into their containers, 'notebooks'. I've got 'notebooks' for one project, and then notebooks for other projects, and so now I'd like a 'project' or 'drawer' or 'box' or 'cabinet' or whatever to organize those into further.


Terreville's 'Plume Creator' looks like a full featured package and very well designed. I haven't installed it yet to test-drive. Scrivener is another piece I'd like to test-drive, as well as a couple of others.

In the mean time I think my development going to take place in SnowflakePro and Tomboy Notes. Then, after its ALL FIXED UP, I'll try to throw it into LibreOffice to format and export. Thanks for the awesome comments and suggestions to this thread from everyone.

[moodle]

An alternative to TomBoy is nvPY, note taking software that syncs with SimpleNote (so you can read and edit notes on your smartphone).

Another brilliant choice, not yet mentioned, is Tree Sheets. It's like a cross between a wordprocessor, a spreadsheet and a mindmap. Take a look. I think the person asking about Snowflake Pro will love it.

You can download nvPY here: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/nvpy

Tree Sheets is free in the Ubuntu Software Center.

[moodle]

- Plume Creator : http://sourceforge.net/projects/plume-creator/ I'm biased since I'm its developer. It's FocusWriter and NoteCase all in one.
It answers to my specific needs :
- run on Linux (+Windows and Mac)
- manage multiple projects
- manage characters, items and places
- have an outliner
- write fullscreen
- manage notes

I have stopped using Libreoffice three months ago.

Wow Plume Creator is awesome! Thank you so much. It's very like Scrivener. Are you continuing to develop it? Would you like any help with the English translations?