The Fifth Dimension

This program’s long name is the Hiveword Online Fiction Organizer, and that’s a pretty accurate title. It has no word processor, it’s not meant to be your sole writing program. Hiveword allows you to organize scenes, characters, settings, items, and plotlines, and connect all five in a web-based program. This means there is nothing to download.

One interesting feature of this program, that I haven’t seen in others, is that it gives you an example project when you first log-in: Harry Porter and the Guitar of Fire. This is a nice feature for users who don’t know where to start, or just want to explore the program.

The character section is pretty standard, though being broken down into four sections (see below), it allows for more detailed information than many other programs. Psychological includes likes, dislikes, wants, etc. and the Misc. section includes birth and death info, and a section for unusual information. These specific areas to fill-in can help writers who are struggling to flesh-out their characters.

Hiveword also includes a basic name generator, and there’s a name generator for settings as well, though these appear to be real places in the world.

The scene section is also pretty standard. It has a sorter which lays-out the titles of the scenes in a very visual manner that’s similar to using index cards. It also  allows the writer to view his/her scenes organized by plotline, which could prove extremely useful. And like most writing programs, it allows you to add characters and settings to scenes.

The plotline section seems to be a particularly useful feature that allows the writer to list and organize his/her plotlines. This could be extremely useful to first time novelists, because keeping it all straight is not as easy as it looks. Hell, that could be useful to novelists of all levels. And it allows the writer to indicate which plotlines are main plotlines.

The other strong points are that the program designers seem to be open to suggestions and requests from users. And Hiveword gives users access to My WKB, Writer’s Novel Base, which is described as a search engine for writers. Basically it’s a database of articles on writing. That is a nifty thing to have.

Hiveword is not without it’s flaws though. It will probably be time consuming to initially set-up for a project, which is problematic for writers with little time. There are no word processor or chapter features, and the latter is especially limiting.  Also, the export options are limited to Word, but for a free program that’s pretty good.

The interface is pretty simple and basic enough that it doesn’t distract from it’s purpose. All in all, it’s very strong for a web-based program, and if you’re reluctant to download or you use multiple computers for writing, this may be a good option.

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Lit Lift is an extremely basic writing organization website that claims to allow users to write and share work, but actually does very little. It’s possible there is some construction going on, but the only feature that appears to be available right now is the organization part.

This is what it looks like.

This program allows you to create multiple novels with as many settings, characters and items as you like. The character page is neatly organized with a handful of sections that don’t overwhelm like many of these programs tend to do. The first time I tried this program, I couldn’t get to those sections. They were grayed-out. Now though, they seem to be working, see below.

The setting and item sections simply let you enter a name and description, which seems to be the standard. The program doesn’t allow you to keep characters, settings or items segregated by books though. This becomes a problem when you have multiple books. Say you’re on your third book, and you’ve got twenty characters a piece for the two previous books. By the time you start creating and adding characters to book three, you’re scrolling through 40 plus characters. That’s unwieldy and a waste of precious time.

One nice feature is a very basic name generator. Pick the number of names you want and the gender, hit the buttom, and bam, you’ve got a list of potential character names.

Unfortunately, there is no option to create or organize scenes, no timeline features, and no word processor. The website does claim to have a word processor and outlining features as part of the program. This brings me to the biggest issue with this program.

On Litlift.com, the links to the blog and FAQs page are broken. Neither take you to anything but an error page. I sent an email to the address provided for reporting bugs about the blog and FAQ page issues and issue with the character section, and I never heard back from them.

That was ten days ago.

Yesterday, I googled “Lit Lift FAQs” and was taken to a page for Lit Lift that doesn’t look anything like their website. See below.

This .info page is where they say you can outline and write your story in the program, as well as share it in the Library feature. I was unable to find any of those features. And the only way to use the program is by going to the .com site, to which the .info site links. The blog looks brand new and the FAQs page has only seven question and answers. This is what led me to wondering if it’s under construction.

That’s no excuse.

If they aren’t finished, then they shouldn’t have gone live, and if they really needed to go live for testing, they should have made sure they didn’t show up in search engines. I known from designing websites that that’s possible. Furthermore, they don’t send you a confirmation email when you sign up, nor give you any options to retrieve a forgotten password. Not to mention that they never answered my email.

That’s poor customer service.

Maybe this website will be great when it’s owners have themselves together, but right now there are much better, less confusing tools out there with better customer support.

I do not recommend this website to my fellow writers.

I have these in my last post, but I wanted to pull them out and highlight them on their own. These are designed specifically for writers, with tools for writers (word count, timers, etc), and offer a space that as I understand it, has fewer distracting buttons and cancels out most computer-related distractions (aka the internet).

Q10
FocusWriter
WriteMonkey
NanoWriTool
RoughDraft (No longer being updated as of 2009)

So, if Word is making you crazy, try one of these.

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After trying and reviewing Now Novel, I decided to explore more writing software. There’s a lot of free software for writers, and while I’ve never made a point to investigate it, I feel like it might be worth a shot. I’ve been using yWriter a bit, and I’ll be reviewing after I’ve reviewed all the others. I will be reviewing these as a writer and consumer, not as a software expert.

Free Novel Writing Software
yWriter5
Storybook
StoryBox
Writer’s Cafe (UK-based)
LitLift (web-based)
Hiveword (web-based)

Free Word Processors (Will not be reviewed)
OpenOffice/Libre Office
Q10
FocusWriter
WriteMonkey
NanoWriTool
RoughDraft (No longer being updated as of 2009)

I included the word processors, because they seemed to have been useful to many writers. Most offer a distraction-free space in which to write. Since I don’t have many distraction issues, and I’m most comfortable in Word, I’m not going to test those out. I just wanted the list out there for writers who may find it useful.

If you can think of any free novel writing programs that aren’t on the list, please let me know.

Note: I also found a program called Plume Creator, but I’m not comfortable downloading that one. It doesn’t have it’s own website (it’s on SourceForge), and when I googled a site came up that offered help uninstalling the program. That made me very nervous.

A writer for The Guardian examines the complex relationship of religion and sci-fi.

So, the writer seems to have found her voice and style with this one. She returns to a single POV for this book, but keeps it in 3^rd person limited. I found this book more engaging and the characters more likeable than her previous protagonists. The protagonist, Turquoise, was more interesting and sympathetic than previous characters. That said, the plot was basically the same plot as her last two books, and though I truly liked it for the first 100 pages, I was disappointed to find it dissolved to more of the same after that.

Her books are always a girl, who’s not a vampire, falls for a vampire. This vampire isn’t like the other vampires, he’s not sadistic, but he is kind and very taken with this human (or witch, or what have you). No one else approves of this pairing on either side. The girl eventually engages in a giant battle and has to decide if she wants to become a vampire. Unlike in the two novels previous, she doesn’t decide by the end of this book. That was too little too late, however, and wasn’t nearly original enough to make this book seem less like the previous ones.

Beyond that, she’s a bit repetitive. For example, she used the word “burgundy” to describes things about ten times in the first thirty pages. The naming is dull or distracting. Midnight is dull, it says nothing about the place. Turquoise is distracting. It’s not a name, and because of that, stands out every time it’s used. Jaguar is not a name, and creates similar issues. These aren’t the only names with issues, and “Lord” Daryl is a too-easy way to show the power he had/has over Turquoise.

While Turquoise has an interesting back-story, it doesn’t ring true. Neither does her overcoming this difficult past as a slave. It’s too easy, and the author isn’t effective at writing the emotion that goes along with such a past. She tries, and one of the best parts of the book is when Turquoise runs into a boy she dated before her enslavement, and the authors shows the clash between the two worlds. That’s effective, but there isn’t enough depth in her other interactions to make her trauma ring true.

This is definitely my favorite of this series since “In the Forests of the Night”, and the author has certainly improved. But I picked up, “Hawksong” the first in the other series, and it quickly became clear that the plot was going to be the same as in this novel and the two previous. That’s it for this author, there’s too much else that I’d like to read.

The Tiniest Outline Of Them All: The last 50-100 words you write at the end of your day should be a note to yourself detailing just what the fuck you should write tomorrow. (“HORACE MURDERS LORD THORNJIZZ AND THE LITHUANIAN DETECTIVE CIRCUS IS ASSIGNED TO THE CASE”). In other news, now I want to write a book about a “Lithuanian detective circus,” whatever that is. I call dibs. You can’t have it. I’ll get stabby.

Little Jail Cells: Use a spreadsheet to track your deadlines and daily word count. Individual cells can detail word target and word actual for the day. Color code those motherfuckers: a red cell means you missed the target, whereas a green cell means you met or exceeded the target. Subtract current story’s word tally from total word tally desired to see just how much more blood you have yet to squeeze from this particular stone.

More

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Among those he listed are:

1) YA is not a genre.

3) It spans over many genres.

10) First Person POV is very prevalent in this market.

16) You often see riskier stories in this genre.

19) Adults like it.

22) If you’re writing it, you should be reading it.

26) It’s got a huge market share.

28) A good story is a good story no matter the age range.

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The first Dresden novel introduces the reader to Harry Dresden, PI/Wizard for Hire, who has some dark secrets in his past. Dresden is called to the scene of a double murder, by Lt. Murphy, the only cop who doesn’t think he’s full of it. At the same time, Dresden picks up a missing person’s case, and things slowly start to spiral out of control as he attempts to unravel the mysteries.

Dresden was an interesting character, who was actually fun to read in first person. He’s self-deprecating, but levelheaded and intelligent; he’s a gifted wizard who was the son of a not-so-great magician, and understands that he’s as good as he is because he’s had the proper training. He doesn’t always make the best decisions, but that’s okay, because he’s only human. We all make bad decisions now and again.

Murphy was fierce and tough without her femininity being stripped away, and that’s very refreshing and wonderful to read. She’s hard on Harry, she realistically has a lot of pressure on her, and she has the guts to use him as a consultant even though people thinks she’s nuts. It’s also great that she’s a blond, because there are so few tough blondes out there.

The worldbuilding was not only thorough, but interesting as well. There are wizards, witches, vampires, demons, fairies, and all manner of supernatural creatures, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It feels like this is Dresden’s world, and it’s as simple as that. That’s a remarkable thing for a writer to achieve, to make it feel so natural. The reader is not, however, given all the information that should be given, for example, there’s no explanation as to what a blasting rod does. It’s possible to infer it’s purpose from the name, but he never actually uses it. This is simply a Checkov’s gun problem. It was described, but never used, so it feels like it was foreshadowing nothing.

The plot was interesting and complex, but with all of the events happening in the book, it felt almost convoluted. It felt like being bounced from one event (often action) to the next, without time to reflect on the mystery. And this novel did read in a lot of ways like a mystery. There wasn’t really any time to breathe in the novel after a point, and it began to feel jumbled because of that. On that same note, because there were so many huge action sequences, the end sequence – the big battle – didn’t feel as big has it should have felt.

The other issues were that the reader doesn’t really get a feel for Chicago, and the issues with the White Counsel were a bit too easily resolved to be completely believable. It was probably necessary to do this to tie the book up without dragging it on too much after the climax, but it felt too simple. Though, all in all, it was a solid novel, and a good start for a new series. 

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