Why I Don’t Like FANCY Writing Software

23 thoughts on “Why I Don’t Like FANCY Writing Software”

1. I’m with you. Fancy writing software just isn’t for me. I tired em and didn’t like em. Which is why I write in Pages, a free word processor from Apple, comes with every Mac.

   1. I really like Pages.

2. I also tried Scrivener. Even used it to flesh out the first book and details of my 6 book series. I moved to Google Docs for the second book. It’s just easier and considering that I had to send my book in Google Docs to my editor, I just didn’t see the point of using Scrivener. All I needed was a separate folder, and everything separated inside and I was good to go. And I keep my outline open on the left in my manuscript in Google Docs, which pretty much gives me the same thing as Scrivener by separating it by Chapter Headers.

3. I am very glad that you don’t use those fancy programs with their AI tools. Even though they can speed things up in the writing and editing, and the spell and grammer check has to be a lot better than Google Docs and Microsoft Word, AI destroys creativity.

4. Scrivener is awesome, but regardless of the software you actually need to write. Whatever helps you do that…that’s the software for you. Scrivener has a learning curve, but for me it was absolutely worth it.

5. I’ve tried fancy software and yeah it’s nice to move chapters around and to write out of order, but I’ve learned I’m more of a write from beginning to end.

6. Paper and pen works well for me in outlining books and videos. I used Scrivener and fell in love with the organization. I’m on Atticus now and I’m never going back, though. Analog doesn’t work for me in writing. Glad it does for you, though, Mandi Lynn!

7. I’m a Word girl all the way! Why have anything complicated?

8. I have never tried any other software besides Word. I think because as a panster, I don’t write outlines or character profiles, so I feel other writing software just wouldn’t work for me. I love Word and it’s something I will always use

9. In my opinion, Scrivener isn’t fancy software, it’s simply software tailored for long-form creative writing, which Word isn’t. It offers so much more than the character and location templates you mentioned. Just to name a few, we’ve got multiple draft views, focus and split-screen mode, the convenience of having all writing/notes/research organized in one project file and of course the flexibility to rearrange chapters and scenes at a whim. None of that is fancy – it’s genuinely useful. 🙏 If you’re distracted with building the ‘perfect’ structure and collection of templates, you can start in a blank document in Scrivener just the same. Even if you didn’t use any of Scrivener’s features that make writing your draft easier, Scrivener still saves you a lot of time and hassle once it’s time to edit and compile your work. 💪

   Also, neither Campfire nor Scrivener uses AI, so not sure why you mentioned it in this context. And digital doesn’t equal complexity. Scrivener character profiles can be as simple or fleshed out as you want them to be. 😊 I think whether one works on paper or digitally, we’re all susceptible to finding ways to procrastinate writing the darn thing. 😅 That could be through endless world-building, character development or digging into the next new shiny software. I think the distraction you mention is for many writers more often a reflection of that than the software itself. 😉

   I’m glad you found what works for you. I just wanted to add that information for writers on the fence.

   1. Thanks so much for adding! I appreciate it! I mentioned AI not because either of the softwares I mentioned use it, but because I feel like people are looking for shortcuts that AI can offer and what people think softwares can give them. So I feel like now, more than ever, it’s important to dig into our creative brains for solutions. But like mentioned in the video, I do think these softwares have their places and are great tools! But writers, like myself, have definitely been guilty as using them as procrastination tools rather than just writing the book.

   2. It’s definitely fancy. It has a lot of features and costs money to use it.

10. I write in Word and create a 20K story bible also in Word and have them both open when I’m writing 😂

11. First draft: pen and my paper. Usually.

    Once I go digital, I like SUPER simple, but organized. And for that the various markdown-based notebook organizers work best IMHO. For me that means Joplin.

    I use Joplin for all revisions and work, and I do it scene by scene. Other programs similar to Joplin are Evernote, Logseq, and Obsidian. But Joplin is … just better. Notion and some others fall into this category, but they fail similarly to Scrivener in that they take something simple and over-complicate it.

    Joplin is super powerful but out of the gate, it’s insanely simple: you create a folder (your story) and then write a series of “notes” (each scene). They are all in the universal markdown format.

    When I’m finished, to begin the submission/publication process, I make sure everything is ordered correctly, then I create a combined document, select all, and paste into Microsoft Word (365) or LibreOffice.

12. Yeah, I write my books using Microsoft Word too. I’ve tried Scrivener for outlining and some writing, but now I just use Notion for my story outlining for story bibles (character profiles, etc.). But I always do my actual writing in Word.

13. I got ADHD real bad and I find that spiral notebooks and libreoffice writer/Microsoft word (or FocusWriter) and nothing else works way better. I will sit there messing with settings and not working otherwise.

    The restriction of plain paper and pen and ability to draw arrows is just easier, only thing is my hand writing is terrible so I type everything else.

14. I really really despise word. After working with it professionally for decades you’d think it would be the thing I am comfortable with, but that has actually only made me hate it more and more. I consider it a fairly broken thing. These days I just write in gmail drafts, addressed to no one. The way it auto-saves and the way you can access it anywhere at any time by simply signing in to your email from any device, or even looking at your phone on the bus or whatever, it is just for me clearly the most convenient thing. I use it to get my drafts better and better and better and then moving it into a program to be formatted is done right at the end. I basically want to be finished by that stage and actually making a book.

15. Distractions are the bane of my existence. I’m being distracted by your video right now when I should be working. In my defense, I was on a late lunch break but I’m pushing it. It’s been over an hour.
    As for writing software, it gets overwhelming for me to do the initial setup. Like I’ve seen people’s neat and mapped out work on Campfire but the problem is getting there. I’m really good with my Word documents and pic folders. Everything is neatly labelled. It’s working for me. So I feel you on getting over that learning curve. I dread it.
    ALSO I am uncomfortable with setting all of that up and then losing the software for whatever reason. Is it all gone if I unsubscribe or have to reinstall? Because if so…that’s like losing your progress on a game you’ve been playing for years. Just the thought of it makes me… ugh!

16. Google doc. I can access it from any of my devices at any time. I then copy and format in MW.

17. I use Dabble for writers. It has a ton of plotting and character things, but I don’t use those. I love that the story section is simple without a ton of distractions. It allows for word sprints, timers, and, my favorite, the daily word count. I also love that I can use it in dark mode. Dark mode helps with my chronic migraines.

18. Yup. I love simple softwares too. Google docs now has “tabs” so you can very easily create chapter divisions without needing the bulky scrivener.

19. I also didn’t like Scrivener as a non-fiction writer and journalist. But maybe you can also make a video on how you use Microsoft Word. Are there tips and trics? For example, do you make a file for every chapter? And what about research? Microsoft Onenote?? I wish you all the best. Love your video’s here from The Netherlands.

20. Word is still my favourite go to for the actual writing, but I’ll admit I struggle with how unfriendly it is when it comes to doing something as simple as saving or sending a copy of document. It baffles me that when I save a document it only saves a link to the file and not the actual document. Having said that, there’s something so intuitive and focussing about writing in Word.

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