When I decided in the spring of this year to go through my books gathering digital mothballs, I knew I was going to have to find a way to visualize the plot better than I had in the past. I tried to think of ways to use my word processing software but could not think of anything that wouldn’t be more trouble than it was worth. I searched my iphone for an app already existing but found nothing. I searched for writing software and found a few, but they were spendy. I decided to look and see what writers were saying about such software. And that’s is when I learned about yWriter by Spacejock Software.
I don’t want this to sound like a paid ad, so let me just say, breaking my story into scenes and taking the time to enter the goals, conflict and outcome (for plot) helped me ensure there was purpose for each scene and know how each scene drove the story forward. There is much more to the software, and most of what it offers has greatly improved my redrafting for content as well as time invested. The writer can decide what she wants to use and to what extent she wants to use. And it’s free but well worth showing gratitude by voluntarily sending in a monetary pat on the back to the developer.