Reviewed by Robyn Haynes

yWriter4: What is it?

yWriter4 is novel writing software designed by Simon Haynes, software designer and author of the Hal Spacejock series. Simon describes yWriter4 as word processing software that organises chapters and scenes. But it is much more than that.

What I like about it

The ease of use is this software's best feature, but flexibility comes a close second. A manuscript draft can be a formidable thing; it is such a large slab of writing. I shuddered to think of the organising I had to do as a result of writing my original manuscript in a single Word document file. But yWriter came to my rescue allowing me to import my manuscript draft with minimal fuss. Just as you might eat an elephant (one spoonful at a time), yWriter4 organises the chapters and scenes into manageable bites. But there is more!

I can choose from the various tabs offered in each scene window to nominate things like viewpoint characters, locations, goals, conflicts and outcomes. There are facilities to compile lists of characters and their profiles, lists of localities and their descriptions. One of the most useful features is the ability to move the scenes around and view them on a timeline or storyboard located in a handy drop down box. But equally useful is a variety of reports compiled from scene headings and scene descriptions which then build into a handy and comprehensive synopsis.

In summary, yWriter4 allows you to:

• Organise your novel using a 'project'.
• Add chapters to the project.
• Add scenes, characters, items and locations.
• Display the word count for every file in the project, along with a total.
• Save a log file every day, showing words per file and the total. (Tracks your progress).
• Save automatic backups at user-specified intervals.
• Allow multiple scenes within chapters.
• Have a viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome fields for each scene.
• Have multiple characters per scene.
• Storyboard view, a visual layout of your work.
• Re-order scenes within chapters.
• Drag and drop of chapters, scenes, characters, items and locations.
• Have the advantage of an automatic chapter renumbering.
• Import from an existing document file

What could be improved?

I have only just begun to use yWriter4 but I am hooked. However, despite this software being easy to use I think a more comprehensive user manual would be helpful. Some tools that MS Word has, like highlighter, would also be useful but let's not be picky here. The software is free for anyone to download! I, for one, do not mind spending a little extra time familiarising myself for that reason. Nor could I begrudge a small donation toward more great software development from Simon. If you like to be organised, yWriter4 is worth its weight in frustration-free writing.

Where can it be found?

Reviewed by Robyn Haynes (no relation!)

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