WriteWay Pro (updated for ver. 1.6)

Review of WriteWay Pro Software for Writers

(All features and glitches are as of version 1.6)

Have you ever bought something you loved so much that you couldn't wait to share your opinion of it with others? Or been so enthused with the benefits of your purchase that you wanted to scream to the world to follow your lead and buy this product?

That's a good assessment of how I feel about WriteWay Pro. :-) I've been using WriteWay Pro since October 2003, and the program has been the single best writing tool I've ever tried. I'm sure many of the reasons for this are related to the fact that the program meshes almost perfectly with the way I write--a little here, a little there, and always, always, all in one document. If you have already developed a habit of using separate files to contain your chapters or scenes and you're happy with that system, then this program might not help you nearly as much as it has helped me.

Why WriteWay Pro is good for me

I write in scenes, usually one complete scene at a time, but occasionally, I jump around. I used to use Word's document map feature to help me move around in my file, but sometimes I would forget to format my chapter header, and it wouldn't show up in the map. Honestly, it was a pain most of the time, and I ended up scrolling through the entire book to find the section I wanted to return to.

Because I write in layers, I revisit previously completed scenes frequently. Over the course of a week (while I'm moving forward with new material), I will revisit a "finished" scene. It might start with only three hundred words, and by time I've added my layers and built up the conflict portion of the scene, it will grow to between one thousand and one thousand five hundred words. The outline of scenes and chapters make it easy for me to go back and forth, and without a doubt, the program has improved my efficiency.

Also, the Notecards are a great help. I've been in the habit of using tablets and a binder to jot notes, but sometimes it was difficult to find the notes (if I remembered making them) and sometimes I didn't find a note until after it was too late and I'd missed my chance to make that particular idea work with my story. Now, I keep those notes exactly where I need them, with the scene that spawned them or attached to the scene where I need to put them.

Printed out, the Notecards are the perfect companion when it comes time to revise (see my comments later about how I use the Notecards).

And finally, the book, notes, and outline can be exported in whole or in parts to an rtf document, appropriate for Word, WordPerfect, or any number of other word processing programs. This is a powerful feature, and I love it. If I want to send a single scene to my critique partner, I export only that one scene. If I need to prepare an electronic version of my document to send to an editor or agent, I export the whole book, open it in Word, make any necessary formatting adjustments per the guidelines I've been given, then save it as a Word file.

Now, for details

My Setup

I run WriteWayPro on two computers, a desktop VIAO from Sony and a Laptop from Dell. Specifications follow.

Sony VIAO Desktop => Windows XP, Service Pack 2 => Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz => 256 MB RAM

Dell Inspiron Laptop => Windows XP, Service Pack 2 => Celeron, 2.0 GHz => 128 MB RAM

Glitches

From time to time, the program won't allow me to use my arrow keys to move around in the composition screen. (This didn't change from version 1.5 to version 1.6.) The simplest work around I've found for the problem is to move to another scene, click inside the text area, then move back to the scene I was on. It also works to close the program and then reopen it.

The size of the composition screen took some getting used to, but I can't see the advantage of putting the program into its full screen composition mode. I use the Notecards, a lot. It was one of the selling points of the program for me, so I've just had to adjust to the small composition window.

When I cut and paste text directly from Word, the program will sometimes have trouble formatting it correctly. For instance, I cut and pasted five paragraphs of text directly into the composition screen and WriteWay Pro turned the half-inch paragraph indents into one-inch tabs. (I would love to see an indent feature in WriteWay Pro, but for all the benefits of the program, I'm willing to let it slide and use tabs instead. :-) There was no easy work around that I found for this one. I had to create a new scene, copy the text, paste it into the new scene, and then delete the old.

Serious Problems

The search and replace function needs serious work. The only way to access the replace function is to first use find. Until I've "found" the first occurrence of the word I'm looking for, the replace button is grayed out. Also, the search and replace is slow. I've used many different word processing programs and text editors, including MS Word, WordPerfect, and NoteTab Light (a wonderful text editor that I can never say enough good things about). WriteWay Pro has the slowest search and replace of any that I've used.

Of greater concern is the book-wide search and replace function. On more than one occasion, I've had the entire program lock up on me when doing a book-wide search and replace. When replacing a word with itself using the replace all function, the program will go into an endless loop and must be shut down from the task bar. Personally, the problems with the search and replace feature is the one thing that would have discouraged me from purchasing WriteWay Pro if I'd known about its limits before I bought the program.

However, I still believe the benefits of the program outweigh these issues.

Now, on to the good stuff.

The Notecards

The Notecards are an amazing tool. The types are customizable, the templates are customizable, and you can create multiple templates for use with each Notecard type. You can also customize the character templates. It took me a while to come up with the mix that worked for me, but I now have a batch of Notecards, specific to my needs.

Plot - A one or two paragraph summary of the scene. (On the Plot Notecard at Book level, I write my high concept, and a one-paragraph summary of the entire book, something that will be appropriate for use in a query letter. Although the Snowflake process [http://rsingermanson.com] of writing is too structured for me, I do use it to produce this one paragraph summary of my book.)
Subplot - Where I keep notes on any subplots I have started, or that I might need to return to later in the story.
Backstory - Elements from the characters' pasts, or events that created or impacted the situation in the current scene. (I use the Backstory Notecard at Book level to summarize the entire backstory of the book, mentioning everything important that happened before the book opened.)
Hidden Story - For keeping tabs on characters and situations that are occurring simultaneously to the on-page story and the stuff that has to happen in the background and off the page. (Jack Bickham, in Scene & Structure, tells why this is more important than you realize.)
Scene Sketch - A detailed scene sketch of the current scene. (And since I plot as I write, many of these are never filled out, but they are there when I need them. I picked up the particular template I use from Robert J. Ray's The Weekend Novelist [at Amazon.com].)
Conflict - Rarely used, but I like to have this one, just in case.
Research Notes - To jot notes of things I need to look up, check on, or call someone about.
Revision - The place for any and all tidbits I think of as I write that I might need to revisit. Sometimes it's as simple as "Does a BMW come in silver-blue?" to as complex as "Combine Wayne and Lenny into one character and check all references to each."

I print the notes out in one long document (except for revision and research, which I print out separately, but together) and keep a copy of it in my project binder. My binder also has a printout of the outline (printed out in three sections: Act I, Act II, and Act III).

Other Features

The word count report and word count tracking are useful tools, but I still prefer to use Kresley Cole's The Word/Page Count Tracker [http://www.kresleycole.com].

I use WriteWay Pro's Character Profiles, print them out and put them in my binder. I have personalized templates for each of the different types of characters: heroes, heroines, villains, & supporting characters.

Overall, WriteWay Pro is a robust program full of useful features. It took me about 45 days to become comfortable with the program and to decide to buy the professional version. I haven't regretted my decision. And the more I use the program, the more certain I am that it has been one of the best investments I've ever made in a software program.

You can get a trial version of the program to try it for yourself at the WriteWay Pro website: http://www.writewaypro.com.