I was doing a self-pub mini-fest (https://self-pub-fest.co.uk/) with fellow authors, A. A. Abbott and Morgen Bailey, and the topic of what software we use to write cropped up.  It would be interesting to know what others use and recommend.

So, to kick this off, here’s my list:-

I don’t really use anything other than Word to generate a bullet list of notes.  Most of it is done in my head.  Others use Plottr; I’ve not, so I can’t really recommend it.

WriteClick is a front-end to Word.  This is a program I wrote myself (using Lazarus (https://www.lazarus-ide.org/), a Delphi clone that uses Pascal) to launch Word, keep track of time taken and words written.  It also has a pop-up for quick notes.  I can hit Shift-F14 (more about why later) and it looks up a word, so I can have descriptions of characters quickly to hand.  Great, if I remember to make the note in the first place.  It also checks a few things that Word doesn’t like, say, non-smart apostrophes – we don’t want those swines creeping in.  It also helps with uploading files to KDP, but that functionality ought to go in its own program.

Microsoft Word is my word-processor.  I turned off its updates, so that Microsoft won’t fiddle with it or, worse, break the version I’ve paid for and insist that I subscribe.  If I could, I’d move over to Linux and LibreOffice Writer (https://www.libreoffice.org/), but its search function isn’t as useful and I’d have to rewrite WriteClick.

WordWeb (https://wordweb.info/) is a thesaurus program that I use when I discovered that Microsoft was limiting access to certain words in Word’s thesaurus.  I recommend this.  Just pop the cursor over the word, hit F14 (more on this later) and up pops a definition and alternatives.  I like that it’s free, providing you take no more than two plane flights a year.

Oryx is… well, this is where it’s going to start sounding far too complicated.  I use an Ergodox EZ keyboard (https://ergodox-ez.com/) and Oryx is their program to customise your keyboard.  For example, I’ve made an anonymous blue key that I can reach with my left index finger into F14, so I can access WordWeb and WriteClick easily.  I’ve keys for an endash and many other changes – question mark here, apostrophe there and brackets everywhere.

AutoHotKey Version 2 (https://www.autohotkey.com/) then takes these key presses and turns them into other things.  For example, F14 is turned into Ctrl-Alt-W for WordWeb.  Shift-dash is the en-dash and so on.  In searching for advice on writing AutoHotKey scripts, it is vital to put ‘V2’ in any Google search for how to use this program as the syntax version 2 uses is completely different from version 1.  AutoHotKey does not exist for Linux, which is another reason I’m trapped in the Windows world.

And then to finish the keyboard complications, I’ve Word autocorrects and macros set up. 

This is much the same as doing the first draft for the most part.  I do use Microsoft Excel sometimes to track chapter and section lengths and to do structural checks.

Word checks spelling and grammar, WriteClick checks stuff and I also use Grammarly (https://app.grammarly.com/) for spelling and grammar, and Hemingway (https://hemingwayapp.com/) for style.  The latter hates long sentences – it’ll have kittens over this one – and the overuse of adverbs like quickly; it highlights anything that ends in ‘ly’, so ‘only’ is an adverb, apparently.  I have used ProWriting Aid (https://prowritingaid.com/) and I think I will again: it spots things the others don’t and there’s no harm in another pair of software eyes on the prose.

I DO NOT use the generative AI functions of any of these.  All my words are my words.  It’s one thing to have software say, ‘Do you really want his adverb here?’, but quite another for it to tighten a paragraph or write a rambling sub-plot plagiarised from another writer.  (Or even plagiarised from myself.)

KDP is Amazon’s website for self-publishing paperbacks, hardbacks and ebooks.  Word produces PDF files for upload.

Photoshop is another program that I’ve paid for and don’t update to avoid the subscription model, but my version is perfectly adequate to create covers.  Sometimes KDP objects to them and I need to flatten the image as a workaround.

To make the ebook, I use another program I’ve written, Firewood.  (Firewood for a Kindle, geddit?)  It makes an HTML file from a Word document and helps to edit this.  It also checks formatting in a different way and often spots something that needs updating in the Word document for the paperback.

Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/) is a program people use to organise their ebook libraries and it converts html files into epub files for uploading to KDP.  I use Calibre 7.26 as I hit snags with an update.  I can’t remember what the problem was now.

This is a really complicated way to do this; even my co-written book Punk Publishing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Punk-Publishing-Self-Publishing-Indie-Authors/dp/B0BGN97Y1X) doesn’t recommend this route.  I, however, like the fine control of the ebook’s appearance all the above gives me.

I suppose for completeness I should add Spotify.  I create playlists to generate the right mood for whatever I’m writing.  Books have their own theme music and background ambience.  This blog was written to Daily Mix 1.