Alternatives to FastPencil
Compare FastPencil alternatives for your business or organization using the curated list below. SourceForge ranks the best alternatives to FastPencil in 2025. Compare features, ratings, user reviews, pricing, and more from FastPencil competitors and alternatives in order to make an informed decision for your business.
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1
Plottr
Plottr
Plottr lets you easily arrange (and rearrange) your scenes, plots, and character arcs so you can quickly find your way to the end of your tale — no corkboard required. Plottr automatically generates a clean outline of your story for you to review, edit, and export as the basis of your manuscript. You don’t have to start from scratch. Plottr comes with over a dozen templates (and counting) based on proven storytelling structures to help move your story from idea to execution. The fun is just beginning. Once you've finished outlining your story, Plottr makes it easy to start writing — just export your files and let your creative muscles get to work!Starting Price: $15 -
2
Canva
Canva
Design anything. Publish anywhere. Use Canva’s drag-and-drop feature and professional layouts to design consistently stunning graphics. Design presentations, social media graphics with thousands of beautiful forms, over 100 million stock photos, video & audio, and all the tools you need. Design with millions of stock photos, vectors, and illustrations or upload your own. Edit your photos using preset filters or get advanced with photo editing tools; you’ll never be stuck for choice. Use icons, shapes, and elements with ease. Choose from thousands of parts for your designs, or upload your own. Access everything you need to make a great design for your creative needs. Use Canva Teams to support your company and foster collaboration on projects without having to switch apps. Canva integrates into all major CRM, social media, and management platforms. Magic Write in Canva Docs is your very own AI text generator for social media captions, blog ideas, product descriptions, lyrics, & more.Starting Price: $10 per month -
3
Chapterly
Chapterly
Everything you'll ever need to write and publish your story. Chapterly is purpose-built by best-selling authors to be the best authoring app to get published. Write like a pro with intuitive, easy-to-use book authoring tools. Including spelling and grammar checker, distraction-free mode, goals, and more. Instantly share your story with editors, beta readers, and co-authors. Control their access level, track changes, create notes, and write together. Design eye-catching, professional covers for ebooks, paperbacks, and hardbacks with intuitive design tools and an extensive royalty-free image library. Plot your book to the Nth degree with visual outlining boards. Organize notes, plan chapters, free your inspiration and see your story take shape. Publish beautifully typeset files for ebook and print publication. All the file types, sizes, and customization you need, with unlimited exports. Time-tested and proven story templates and outlines to help you write quickly.Starting Price: $9.99 per month -
4
Reedsy Studio
Reedsy
Reedsy Studio is a professional writing app designed to plan, draft, edit, and typeset your book. Plan Boards are unique, flexible spaces for outlining, keeping track of characters, and getting organized. Writers can also browse a library of templates that teach classic story structures. Studio combines all the tools you need to craft your first draft. Set and meet writing goals Writers can set custom writing goals and map their writing routines. The app will tell them how much they need to write daily and automatically adjust as they progress on their manuscripts. Collaborate Writers can invite co-authors, beta readers, and professional editors to work on their books. Live collaboration tools are fully integrated with the Reedsy Marketplace, where writers can hire top editors. Format Studio formats EPUB files for ebooks and print-ready PDF files with a click. Both are compatible with all major print-on-demand distributors.Starting Price: $4.99 -
5
Craft
Craft Docs
Craft is a rich text editor that is easy and frictionless to use. It also supports markdown, code blocks, images, videos, and attaching PDF files or rich link previews. Adding content is very simple - just tap on an empty area and start typing. You can also drag and drop the input field on both Mac (from the sidebar) and iOS (from the bottom bar) in order to drop content at a specific location. If you are using a keyboard, you can also just press space when a block is focused to insert a new block below. You can also add Code, Math Formula (TeX), and plaintext snippets. To do so, you can use the same methods as you would do when adding images. Craft allows you to style your content in a beautiful and simple way. We've created a set of styles that won’t overwhelm, but by combining these, you can still perfectly express yourself - and all of these work great both in dark or in light mode. -
6
Vellum
Vellum
Classic touches like custom drop caps and ornamental flourishes are included in both print and ebook editions. So whether your readers prefer a paperback or a Paperwhite, they will see a beautiful, professionally-formatted book. Use Vellum to get the most out of ebooks. Assemble box sets of a series. Produce advance copies for early feedback. Connect with links to Facebook and Twitter. Add store links and help readers buy your next book. Generate ebooks for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and more. And with Vellum’s instant turnaround, you can do it all on your schedule. Page numbers. Margins. Headers. Font. Line spacing. All of the setup that can take hours elsewhere happens automatically with every book you create. And Vellum goes beyond the basics to prevent widows, balance page spreads, and avoid short pages — all automatically. You’ll have a book that looks like it took days to create …in minutes.Starting Price: $199.99 -
7
LivingWriter
LivingWriter
Start your book, plot your book, write your book, organize your book, and export it for publishing all in one place. Simple drag and drop organization for all your chapters, subchapter, and elements. LivingWriter stores your story elements and suggests them as you type. Organize your story with time-tested outlines used by best-selling authors. Spend less time organizing and planning. Spend more time growing your ideas into books. Order and reorder your chapters and story elements without the hassle of copying and pasting. Jot down your chapter notes quickly on the sidebar. Everything on one screen means never leaving your story. We don't believe in reinventing the wheel, but we're fans of greasing it a bit. You can now use the same outlines used in world-famous stories and movies right in LivingWriter. We'll lead you through each step with detailed guidance. No other writing app out there will do that for you.Starting Price: $8.99 per month -
8
Novelist
Novelist
If you're still looking for the perfect app to write your novel, Novelist might just be the perfect tool for the job! Output your book in many different formats according to your needs, suitable for ebook readers or word processors. Novelist provides a rich text editor to edit your texts, with advanced formatting, comments, autosave, counters, and revision history. Set your desired word count or due date and Novelist will track your chapter-by-chapter progress up to completion. Preview your book's final output without leaving Novelist, and enjoy the result without distractions. Save your work with our backup/restore system on any available storage provider, internal, external, or cloud. Use one of the provided templates or create your custom one, including categories, statuses, items, and metadata. It's very easy to find and install Novelist on your smartphone. Novelist is completely free, no buying costs, in-app purchases, or hidden charges.Starting Price: Free -
9
AutoCrit
AutoCrit
Built to match the genuine demands of publishing professionals and discerning readers, AutoCrit adds a technological edge to your creativity. The actual content of real-world books, fused with the eagle eye of a veteran book editor, takes you leaps and bounds beyond anything you’ve seen before. AutoCrit gives you step-by-step recommendations for improving your manuscript based on what real readers want to see. Produce cleaner dialogue, eliminate needless filler, keep readers interested by perfecting your pacing, and even fine-tune the emotional tone of your writing with the click of a button. Feel unshakeable confidence in your book and leave worries in the dust. Whether you’re writing a rip-roaring fantasy adventure, a nail-biting suspense novel, or a game-changing guide to boosting profits in business, AutoCrit has you covered for the editing advice you need.Starting Price: $30 per month -
10
Bookdown
Bookdown
Write HTML, PDF, ePub, and Kindle books with R Markdown. The bookdown package is an open-source R package that facilitates writing books and long-form articles/reports with R Markdown. Generate printer-ready books and ebooks from R Markdown documents. A markup language easier to learn than LaTeX, and to write elements such as section headers, lists, quotes, figures, tables, and citations. Multiple choices of output formats: PDF, LaTeX, HTML, EPUB, and Word. Possibility of including dynamic graphics and interactive applications (HTML widgets and Shiny apps). Support a wide range of languages: R, C/C++, Python, Fortran, Julia, Shell scripts, and SQL, etc. LaTeX equations, theorems, and proofs work for all output formats. Can be published to GitHub, bookdown.org, and any web servers. Integrated with the RStudio IDE. One-click publishing to https://bookdown.org. -
11
Dabble
Dabble
Dabble is an easy-to-use online writing tool, packed with helpful features that allows beginning novelists and published authors to create amazing stories. Dabble organizes your manuscript, story notes, and plot. Dabble simplifies story, leaving more room in your brain to create, which is what being a writer is really about. If you’re sick of using sticky notes, plotting on a piece of paper, and using elementary word processors, then you’re going to love Dabble. Dabble was created for two reasons - Simplicity and organization. Other tools are either way too complicated and require a course to teach you how to use them...or too elementary lacking basic tools and organization. That's where Dabble shines! Shape your story with Dabble’s unique plotting tool. Plot like J.K. Rowling. Dabble provides a plot grid, plot lines (subplots), and plot points (the events in your subplots) to supercharge your plotting.Starting Price: $5 per month -
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1Writer
1Writer
1Writer combines all the basic text editing features you would expect with all the advanced features you will ever need. Use 1Writer to write, research, revise, and share your ideas with maximum efficiency. 1Writer provides a distraction free writing environment. You can create and edit plain text or Markdown files. It does have many features including inline Markdown preview, word count, dark theme, TextExpander support, insert photo, an extra keyboard row, and many more. See the formatted results with inline Markdown preview while you write and a full, rich-text preview when you're done. Pick and choose existing Dropbox or WebDAV folders you want to sync or sync them all. Work offline and your changes will be synced next time you connect to the Internet. It also supports iCloud Drive - start a new document on your Mac and continue editing it in 1Writer, and vice versa. You can send text to 1Writer from Safari and other apps via the Share extension or 1Writer URL scheme.Starting Price: $4.99 per download -
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Story Planner
Story Planner
Plot your stories and organize your writing. Story Planner helps you outline any of your fiction stories and keep your writing projects together. Whether you want to plan a story or only need to write down the first notes of an idea, Story Planner gives you the tools you need to build your novels and screenplays step by step. An intuitive and focused writing experience to enjoy on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This app is a versatile and intuitive tool that speeds up your writing process, and it works great for different kinds of storytellers. Whether you are a fiction author, screenwriter, aspiring writer, hobbyist writer, creative writing student, or RPG master, this app offers you quick and intuitive story organization. Script and book planning has never been this easy. Get Story Planner today and start writing your best stories!Starting Price: $7.99 once-off -
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JotterPad
JotterPad
From reed and papyrus to pen to keyboard, to now our smartphones, our way of writing has evolved. With JotterPad, you can make your writing process streamlined, fluid, flexible, and highly personalized to writers of all kinds, Regardless of whether you’re an aspiring novelist, screenplay writer, journalist, or blogger. Equipped with a versatile editor, JotterPad supports both Markdown and Fountain syntax and has a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) element. For beginners, you are able to change from plain text to rich text format with a simple click or highlight. For experienced users, you will find it more convenient to write by using syntax. Additionally, with the WYSIWYG element, you will get a better representation of the final outcome and look of your work. JotterPad is the only writing assistant you’ll ever need. Search up word definitions, synonyms, and antonyms with our built-in dictionary and Thesaurus. -
15
StackEdit
StackEdit
Whether you write, you review, you comment, StackEdit's layout provides you with the flexibility you need, without sacrifice. StackEdit’s Scroll Sync feature accurately binds the scrollbars of the editor panel and the preview panel to ensure that you always keep an eye on the output while writing. StackEdit can sync your files with Google Drive, Dropbox and GitHub. It can also publish them as blog posts to Blogger, WordPress and Zendesk. You can choose whether to upload in Markdown format, HTML, or to format the output using the Handlebars template engine. Even when you travel, StackEdit is still accessible and lets you write offline just like any desktop application. You have no excuse! StackEdit supports different Markdown flavors such as Markdown Extra, GFM and CommonMark. Each Markdown feature can be enabled or disabled at your convenience. -
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Typora
Typora
Typora gives you a seamless experience as both a reader and a writer. It removes the preview window, mode switcher, syntax symbols of markdown source code, and all other unnecessary distractions. Instead, it provides a real live preview feature to help you concentrate on the content itself. Typora allows you to manage your files easily, providing both file tree panel and articles (file list) side panel, allows you to manage your files easily. Organize your files your way, including putting in sync services, like Dropbox or iCloud. Automatically see the Outline structure of your documents in outline panel, which allows you to quickly go through the document and jump to any section with one click. Export to PDF with bookmarks. Go further and export or import. More formats, including docx, OpenOffice, LaTeX, MediaWiki, Epub, etc, can be exported or imported. See how large your document is in words, characters, lines, or reading minutes. -
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Pure Writer
Drakeet
This is a fast plain text and Markdown editor designed with what we believe "a good writing experience" should be. Pure Writer is minimalistic and it allows you to write at your heart's content anytime, anywhere without fearing that you'll lose your content ever again. With Pure Writer's line and paragraph spacing feature, your text will be clearer and more comfortable to read. Not only that, but it also has smooth scrolling, a swipe-to-collapse-keyboard, and many more exciting features. Simplicity is hidden complexity. You are able to encrypt your work with your fingerprint, start or stop writing whenever you wish, and share your content quickly to other apps, we've got you covered. Most importantly, unless you manually delete it, you will never ever lose your work while using this text editor. Be it an accidental deletion or an unexpected shutdown, you will still be able to recover it from the history.Starting Price: Free -
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Byword
Byword
Draft a blog post, write that story or complete a school report wherever you are. Use Markdown to format text with easy keyboard shortcuts, subtle syntax highlighting, word counters with live update, and much more. All your documents, on all your devices. With iCloud and Dropbox, you can create documents in Byword on your Mac and access them on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And vice versa. You can edit them from anywhere, on any device you use. Byword includes complete Markdown support. Preview your documents in app, export to HTML, PDF, rich text, or publish directly to Medium, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Evernote. The lack of support for rich text is due to technical limitations and limited development resources. We are evaluating the cost/benefit of investing in rich text support of iOS. Meanwhile, we strongly recommend opting for plain text and markdown format for your documents. Macworld has a great article explaining why opting for plain text today is a good idea. -
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Write! App
Write! App
Write! is an elegant workspace to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects and texts of any kind. It has all features of a good word processor packed into a clutter-free interface. Writing tools like configurable autocomplete, intelligent spellchecker, unlimited Ctrl+Z and productivity counters will improve your productivity. Your work will flow smoothly with the help of minimalist writing interface. Your documents will never ever be lost again. You can use Write! on any computer and continue writing from the point you left. You can store unlimited number of documents at no additional cost. Easily manage any writing project structuring it in tabs, Sessions and folders. Switching between writing sessions changes the group of tabs you are working on, allowing you to quickly change the context. Publish documents to the web with a unique URL and share a link to it via email or to social media. When you make changes to a shared document, they are immediately updated online.Starting Price: $24.95 -
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Storyist
Storyist
A powerful writing environment for novelists and screenwriters. Do you have a story to tell? Unlike conventional word processors, Storyist helps you track your plot, characters, and settings, and keeps all of your writing organized and accessible— so you can focus on telling your story. Storyist provides a rich text editor with support for comments, images, headers, footers, and style sheets so you can create properly formatted manuscripts and screenplays. And Storyist comes with manuscript and screenplay templates so you can focus on the writing, not the formatting. Storyist lets you sketch out a story using index cards and then refine it with customizable plot, character, and setting sheets. When you're ready to put words on the page, Storyist can even display your index cards next to your manuscript as you write. Storyist organizes your novel manuscripts, screenplays, research, and other project-related writing and can store them in the cloud so you can access them quickly.Starting Price: $19 -
21
Novel Factory
Novel Factory
Writing a novel is a daunting task, but with the right tools, you can simplify the process of finishing your manuscript and get your story into the hands of your readers. When you finally get the time to write, the last thing you want to do is waste it by hunting down your novel’s notes. Did you write down that great idea from yesterday in a notebook? Maybe in a notes app. But which one? How are you supposed to stay focused if you can’t stay organized? And let’s face the facts; the writers that can focus are the writers that finish their novels. That’s where The Novel Factory writing software comes in. With Novel Factory, you won’t ever have to hunt down that stray scrap paper you jotted notes on again. Take your novel from idea to manuscript all in one organized and easy to use place. But you aren’t just getting a digital file cabinet.Starting Price: $6.25 per month -
22
Plot Factory
Plot Factory
Plan your stories or just start writing the first chapter, organize complex projects, write high-quality stories with our advanced manuscript editor, and write from anywhere, at any time. Plot Factory is optimized for mobile phones so that you won't have to be stuck on your computer to write. Track your daily, weekly, and monthly word stats. Set a goal and see a visual account of your progress. Hear your story out loud, and listen for grammatical errors, run-on sentences, and story flow. Quickly and easily build characters off built-in character sheets or build your own sheet. Choose from several outline designs to help you craft your plot while maintaining tension and a compelling story arc throughout your novel. Share one chapter or your entire novel with friends, beta readers, or editors with a URL link.Starting Price: $9 per month -
23
Scrivener
Literature & Latte
Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop. Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. Scrivener won't tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing. Tailor-made for long writing projects, Scrivener banishes page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order, in sections as large or small as you like. Got a great idea but don't know where it fits? Write when inspiration strikes and find its place later. Grow your manuscript organically, idea by idea. Whether you plan or plunge, Scrivener works your way: hammer out every last detail before typing a word, or carve out a draft and restructure later. Or mix your methods and do a bit of both.Starting Price: $49 one-time fee -
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Zoho Writer
Zoho
Zoho Writer is an online word processor that allows you to write, edit, and collaborate on documents, as well as publish them on multiple platforms. With powerful editing tools, an AI-powered, multilingual writing assistant, and a multi-stage approval workflow, Writer is just the right tool for all your content-writing needs. Writer is a powerful, cloud-based word processor that allows you to easily and efficiently create online documents. With Writer you can: Collaborate with your team in real-time and leverage their collective knowledge to build informative and engaging documents Receive writing and style suggestions from the smart writing assistant Instantly check for plagiarized and duplicated content in your document Automate document creation and simplify business processes with mail merge, fillable forms, and e-signature collection Confidently finalize all documents with multi-stage document approval workflows Publish and distribute documents in multiple channelsStarting Price: Free -
25
yWriter
Spacejock Software
yWriter is a word processor which breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you keep track of your work while leaving your mind free to create. It will not write your novel for you, suggest plot ideas or perform creative tasks of any kind. yWriter was designed by an author, not a salesman! yWriter7 is free to download and use, but you're encouraged to register your copy if you find it useful. If you're just embarking on your first novel a program like yWriter may seem like overkill. I mean, all you have to do is type everything into a word processor! Sure, but wait until you hit 20,000 words, with missing scenes and chapters, notes all over your desk, characters and locations and plot points you've just added and which need to be referenced earlier ... it becomes a real struggle. Now imagine that same novel at 40,000 or 80,000 words! No wonder most first-time writers give up. -
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SSuite WordGraph Editor
SSuite Office Software
SSuite WordGraph is a free and very useful alternative to Microsoft's Word, OpenOffice's Writer, or anything else out there claiming to be the latest and greatest. You don't even have a need for .NET or even JAVA to be installed. This will save you a lot of hard drive space and precious computer resources. Use WordGraph for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with embedded illustrations, tables of contents, indexes, and bibliographies. WordGraph is a complete and powerful software solution for creating, editing and viewing various types of documents. You can create simple or highly structured documents include graphics, tables, charts, and insert spreadsheets you created. A number of available features give you a fine degree of control over the formatting of text, pages, sections of documents, and also entire documents. Desktop, Portable, and Online Editions Available. Read the "Read Me" document first! Requires: 1024x768 Display SizeStarting Price: Free -
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iA Writer
iA
Get focused. The simple, award-winning design of iA Writer delivers the essential writing experience. Used by half a million people worldwide, its minimal interface is crafted to cut out noise. It’s just you, your thoughts, and the words on the page. No rulers, no formatting bars. iA Writer provides the crisp, uncluttered environment you need to write well, supported by discrete, powerful features, from content blocks, to syntax highlighting. Focus is the key to good writing, and the guiding principle behind iA Writer. With shortcuts and simplified settings, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and your mind in the text. We think every craftsperson should own their own tools, so when you download iA Writer, you own it. No forced subscriptions, microtransactions, or compatibility concerns. Your work, your files, your app.Starting Price: $29.99 per license -
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Verb
Verb
Verb is a tool for all authors. AI-enhanced, story-centered, and obsessively writer-led. Like the best editors, Verb helps you plan, write and critique your work. Use it to get your ideas into words, with more pleasure, and less pain. Join us as we shape Verb and empower storytellers across the world. We are just getting started. At Verb we are here for writers. For all authors who struggle with the hardest creative task, we have invented for ourselves. The long-form narrative is the foundation of most of our art, books yes, but also video games, TV shows, podcasts, and films. Our most important cultural products are initially founded on just the detailed, complex stories that are the most difficult to produce. Our app is built to assist that 81% in their writing, to shoulder some of the load. Photographers, designers, film professionals, and podcasters all have software collaborators that contribute meaningfully to their craft. -
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ghostwriter
ghostwriter
Enjoy a distraction-free writing experience, including a full screen mode and a clean interface. With Markdown, you can write now, and format later. The built-in light and dark themes provide an aesthetic writing experience out of the box. If the these are not enough, you can create your very own! Preview your Markdown document in HTML. With the live preview, you can copy the HTML to paste into your blog, or export to another format. The live preview is optimized for large documents, so you can work carefree without worrying about the application freezing as you type. In addition to displaying a live word count at the bottom of the window, ghostwriter displays even more live statistics in its Document Statistics and Session Statistics sidebar tabs. Easily create image URLs within your Markdown document by dragging and dropping an image from your file system into ghostwriter's editor. -
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OmmWriter
herraizsoto&co.
OmmWriter is a tool which makes it easier for you to concentrate. Based on a natural setting, it effectively insulates your mind from distractions and sets up a direct line between your thoughts and your words. As if you were alone, you'll hear your inner voice clearer than ever and you'll be able to delve deeper into your creative process. OmmWriter opens up in full-screen mode, so nothing disrupts your creative process. An ideal setting for focusing solely on your words, thanks to its minimalist design and its having only the basic functions required for your writing. It feels as though each word flows from you naturally. Enjoying the plenitude of the structure when inspiration and creativity have come knocking at your door. Each and every element in OmmWriter is designed to stimulate your creativity. Create the ideal setting for you by selecting from among the different environments, music and typefaces. To maintain your concentration and inspire your state of mind.Starting Price: $6.11 -
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Calmly Writer
Calmly Writer
Traditional word processors include dozens of options for formatting text, distracting you from what really matters, writing. Calmly Writer is an editor designed to focus on what you want to tell, with a simple, unobtrusive, and easy-to-use user interface. Calmly Writer has been designed to help you focus on writing. As you start typing, all the distracting options disappear from the user interface. The "focus mode" option highlights only the paragraph you are editing at the time. Format your text simply by selecting and clicking on the desired style. If you prefer, you can also do it with keyboard shortcuts or markdown. As long as you do not close a document tab, that document will be opened every time you start the application. If the document was not saved, its backup will be loaded. Calmly Writer displays the number of words and characters written, and allows you to set a target. You can choose between light, dark, dark blue, dune and old-school mode.Starting Price: $11.45 one-time payment -
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Inklewriter
Inklewriter
At inkle, we believe it takes great writers to tell great stories. That’s why we’ve created Inklewriter, to help writers tell interactive tales with the minimum of fuss. Inklewriter keeps your branching story organized, so you can concentrate on what’s important, the writing. Inklewriter is a free tool designed to allow anyone to write and publish interactive stories. It’s perfect for writers who want to try out interactivity, but also for teachers and students looking to mix computer skills and creative writing. The Inklewriter lets you write as you play, branching the story with choices, and then linking those branches back together again. It keeps track of which paths you’ve finished, and which still need to be written. Every writer needs a readership, and with Inklewriter you can share your story with the world because every story is given its own unique web-page that you can share however you want. -
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Bear
Shiny Frog
Bear is a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose. Bear works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so you can write wherever inspiration strikes. Use todos to stay on task across every device. Link notes to each other to build a body of work. Add hashtags to organize the way you think. Use Face/Touch ID to protect sensitive notes. Bear is perfect for everything from quick notes to in-depth essays. A focus mode helps you concentrate, and advanced markup options are an online writer's best friend. Full in-line image support brings your writing to life.Starting Price: $1.49 per month -
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Ulysses
Ulysses
The Ultimate Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone. A pleasant, focused writing experience combined with effective document management, fast syncing and flexible export options make Ulysses the first choice for writers of all kinds. Many writers praise the way Ulysses encourages immersion with the text, and testify how using it has considerably increased their productivity. Although it’s a fully-fledged writing tool, Ulysses manages to stay completely out of your way – and can therefore rival any distraction-free writing app. Ulysses’ unified library holds everything you’ll ever write, and is equipped for managing writing projects of all sizes and ambitions. Be it love letters, simple notes, daily blog posts or the Great American Novel – with Ulysses, your writing is in the best of hands. Thus, you can focus on getting the words down. On the sofa, at a coffee shop, or while waiting for the bus: Work wherever you are, and whenever inspiration hits. -
35
Etherpad
Etherpad
Etherpad allows you to edit documents collaboratively in real-time, much like a live multi-player editor that runs in your browser. Write articles, press releases, to-do lists, etc. together with your friends, fellow students or colleagues, all working on the same document at the same time. All instances provide access to all data through a well-documented API and support import/export to many major data exchange formats. And if the built-in feature set isn't enough for you, there's tons of plugins that allow you to customize your instance to suit your needs. You don't need to set up a server and install Etherpad in order to use it. Just pick one of the publicly available instances that friendly people from everywhere around the world have set up. Etherpad is an open source project. -
36
Campfire Blaze
Campfire Technology
The software that thousands of writers use to plan and write their stories. Build your world, plan your narrative, and write your story with Campfire Blaze. Create your characters, develop your plot, build your world, and write your story with our all-in-one web application. Campfire Blaze offers a free tier, a subscription option, and a lifetime purchase option for those who hate subscriptions. We release two updates a month adding new features, and we’re building desktop and mobile applications that will release in 2021. In this update, we’ve made a huge number of quality of life improvements across the board. We hope you’ll find Blaze much more intuitive and more consistent than ever as we continue to make it the best writing software in the world. We love to retell stories. Something about taking something we’ve seen and bending it to our own creative whim, delights us to no end, but sometimes retellings can get a bad wrap. They’re always compared against the source material.Starting Price: $49.99 one time payment -
37
Zettlr
Zettlr
Writing is an essential part of our everyday life. Why make it complicated? Zettlr redefines what writing means. It is slim, fast, and versatile. Focus on what matters to you. Publish, not perish. In modern times, getting a hold of the flood of information is almost as hard as inserting a USB drive the right way on the first attempt. Zettlr allows you to connect pieces of information using state of the art Zettelkasten methodology. And the best is: Unlike many competitors, Zettlr never locks you in. Zettlr supports almost every conceivable way to create links and identify your files. In other words: No matter where you come from — all Zettelkästen are beautiful and supported by Zettlr. Out of the box. Due to its designing flexibility, Zettlr supports dark mode out of the box, as well as many different themes, suited to your needs. Switching is as easy as pressing a button. -
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WordPad
Microsoft
WordPad is a basic text-editing app you can use to create and edit files, include text with different fonts and colors, insert pictures, and add links to other files. You can use WordPad to open and save text files (.txt), rich text files (.rtf), Word documents (.docx), and OpenDocument text files (.odt). Files in other formats will open as plain text files and might not appear as expected. Some features, like headers, footers, and annotations, aren’t supported in WordPad. If you open a file with these features and then save the file in WordPad, you’ll lose the content in these features. If you want to change such a file, but don’t want to lose the original content, tap or click Save as and save the file with a different name. That way you can make changes to a copy of the file while keeping the content in the original file intact. For more info about what each button does, press and hold the button for a description (or if you’re using a mouse, point to the button). -
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SmartEdit Pro
SmartEdit
SmartEdit Pro is an expanded version of the SmartEdit for Word Add-In. It contains a number of extra features of use to professional editors. We define a professional editor as someone who edits the work of various different writers, often working on multiple books from assorted writers. SmartEdit Pro contains report-generating capabilities that allow you to generate Word and PDF reports based on the results generated by SmartEdit, as well as full report printing functionality. It also allows you to create Projects (one for each writer, book, or genré of the book), and to apply different rules to these projects when running SmartEdit checks. The SmartEdit pro menu toolbar contains all the buttons and options you might be familiar with from SmartEdit for Word, along with the “create report” and “projects” sections. A trial version of SmartEdit Pro is not available, but sample reports are shown and linked for you to download and examine.Starting Price: $139.95 one-time payment -
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NovelPad
NovelPad
NovelPad's online and offline novel writing software helps you organize, write, and edit your novel anywhere, on any device, from start to finish. Clean, distraction-free editor with an easy learning curve. Drag & drop scene cards to organize or plan your story better. Best-in-class grammar, spelling, and style checking provided by ProWritingAid. Automatically saves to the cloud every minute. Seamlessly rewind to any save, ever, for extra peace of mind. Synchronize across all your devices, desktop, laptop, phone, and tablet. Adaptive goals that work with your schedule. Track word count and time for every scene. Follow your progress with a visual timeline. Discover more about your novel by cross-referencing scene attributes on the insights board. Read your novel from any character's perspective using our automatic character tracking. Reorganize your manuscript and plot your story with easy, drag & drop scene cards and scene columns.Starting Price: $15 per month -
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WriteRush
WriteRush
WriteRush is a writing app designed to make the act of writing fun, engaging, and habit-forming. Unlike traditional word processors focused on formatting, WriteRush emphasizes creativity and flow. It uses celebratory writing effects, progress tracking, and streak building to turn writing into a game-like experience. The minimalist interface reduces distractions while keeping chapters and notes easily accessible. Writers can immediately start creating without sign-ups, making it frictionless to begin. With over 1,000 authors already using it, WriteRush is quickly becoming a go-to tool for motivated writers.Starting Price: $5.99/month -
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Novel Goggles
Exceptional Invention
Novel Goggles is a web application that writers can use to plan or analyse their writing projects (fictional short stories, novels or book series), including the structure of their novel, description of characters and character development, world building, pace and tension, story arcs and the story timeline. In comparison to the competition, Novel Goggles provides a more comprehensive perspective of the user's creative writing projects. This is done by allowing the user a view of their creative world building and character development, integrated with a view of the overall technical structure of their novel. The narrative timeline is then integrated into this perspective, allowing the user a full view of the creative and technical aspects of their work and how this evolves over the timeline of their story. In summary, the user is provided a view that merges the creative and analytical view of their novel and shows how these elements evolve over the timeline of the story being told.Starting Price: $4/month -
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Lex
Lex
Lex is a modern AI-powered collaborative writing platform designed for authors, professionals, and teams who want to write faster and better. It combines a clean, distraction-free interface with powerful AI tools for editing, feedback, and brainstorming. Writers can co-author in real time, generate title ideas, explore alternate phrasing, and manage document versions with ease. Lex’s built-in AI acts like a writing coach, helping users overcome writer’s block and refine their style naturally. With seamless sharing, live collaboration, and upcoming features like Track Changes, Lex is quickly becoming the go-to workspace for creative and professional writing. Loved by over 300,000 authors, Lex delivers a premium writing experience that feels effortless yet deeply empowering.Starting Price: $24.99/month -
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Scene One
Scene One
Scene One is online book writing software for authors at all stages of their writing journey. At it's core, Scene One provides an easy text editor in which you write your scenes, and collects all these scenes together into a project. A 'project' is usually one book, but it lets you work the way you naturally want to. It also has many powerful tools to help you write your books. It has an AI writing assistant that can help suggest new text, can rephrase sentences, and even expand stub scenes. It also has a wiki for all your story elements, and can then track every occurrence of these elements. This means you can easily jump around in your story to see the first time you mention a character or track down a detail you can't quite remember. Scene One also tracks your daily words written, has advanced exporters, lets you collaborate with other authors, and much more! Finally, we have an ever-growing blog for writing advice and tip and tricks.Starting Price: $9 per month -
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Author
The Augmented Text Company
Powerful writing tool for outstanding college papers, with integrated Concept Map, Quick Citations, & Export to Augmented Academic PDF. Integrated Concept Map allows you to map and write in the same workflow. Powerful Views for powerful insights through advanced folding, finding, focus & more. Quick Citations from any book, academic paper or website. Export Augmented University Papers to make reading your work more interactive.Starting Price: $19.99 -
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Plooma
Plooma
Plooma is your all in one writing companion, designed to support authors at every twist and turn of the book creation journey. Whether you're sketching out your story's blueprint, breathing life into characters, or crafting chapters, Plooma provides a seamless space to organize all your ideas and materials without the overwhelm. Its intuitive interface makes building rich narratives and immersive worlds feel effortless. Packed with powerful story and character organization tools, Plooma lets you track character development and manage world building details with ease. When it’s time to write, the distraction-free mode offers a clean, minimal environment to help you dive deep and write consistently. Plus, built-in editing tools catch grammar slips and style quirks in real-time, polishing your story so you don’t have to juggle multiple apps.Starting Price: $10 per user/month -
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SmartEdit Writer
SmartEdit
SmartEdit Writer, free software for novel and short story writers. A free software to plan your novel, prepare and maintain research material, write your novel scene by scene, and edit chapter by chapter in a modern Windows application that has a similar look and feel to Microsoft Word. Store images & links to websites, all in a handy research section that sits right next to you as you write. Create character profiles, outlines & notes as you work. No more 100,000 word Microsoft documents. Write your novel one scene or chapter at a time. Drag and drop scenes inside your document until it’s just the way you want it. Identify word and phrase over-use, monitor adverbs, crutch words & clichés, and improve sentence structure & punctuation, all using SmartEdit’s editor toolbar. SmartEdit Writer allows you to group your work-in-progress and any research you’ve built up about it into a single project. Add folders, scenes, and notes to your document tree.Starting Price: $77 one-time payment -
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MasterWriter
MasterWriter
The Leading Songwriting, Lyric Writing and Creative Writing Software. Whether you’re writing a song, poem, script, novel or blog, MasterWriter will unlock all that the English language has to offer, and will help you to express yourself in a unique and meaningful way. Why struggle to find the right word when you can have all the possibilities in an instant? Free your mind to create and let MasterWriter help you to be your best. Word Families is a unique and revolutionary reference dictionary that will open up a new world of possibilities for descriptive words, far beyond what you will find in a thesaurus. The extended entries in Word Families are related words that can replace the search word in a more creative and imaginative way. They can also be used as intensifiers. A Phrases dictionary with over 33,000 phrases, sayings and word combinations. Your own personal idea factory that allows you to search by any word contained in the phrase.Starting Price: $9.95 per month -
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Bye Blank Page
Bye Blank Page
Effortlessly generate the next lines or paragraphs with a single click, overcoming writer's block instantly. Highlight any portion of your text to revamp it with intelligent suggestions for shortening, expanding, rephrasing, or full-scale rewriting. Receive tailored assistance by entering specific requests and watch Bye Blank Page incorporate the generated text seamlessly. Reach a broader audience by picking the ideal writing style and tone, as AI seamlessly adjusts your content. Bye Blank Page used advanced AI to generate text for you. You can use Bye Blank Page to generate text for your blog, website, social media, or any other project you are working on.Starting Price: $6 per month -
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Pages
Apple
Pages is a powerful word processor that lets you create stunning documents, and comes included with most Apple devices. And with real-time collaboration, your team can work together from anywhere, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, iPhone, or using a PC. From the start, Pages places you in the perfect creative environment. It puts all the right tools in all the right places, so it’s easy to choose a look, customize fonts, personalize text styles, and add beautiful graphics. And everyone collaborating on a document has access to the same powerful features. Choose from over 70 beautiful Apple‑designed templates, and customize your reports, letters, and other documents any way you like. And, if you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book or fairy tale, it’s easy to create interactive stories right inside Pages. Track changes, add highlights, and have threaded conversations with your team. Your edits are saved automatically.