Customer Review

Reviewed by Melissa Alvarez for About.com

"From concept and characters, to completed manuscript . . . Do it all -- the WriteWayPro!"

Are you a writer looking for an organizational program for your manuscripts? Well, I think I've just found the product for you. I originally heard about this on the eHarlequin message boards and decided to test it out myself. I've gotta tell you that I love this program and plan to purchase the fully functional version in the near future.

The designer of this program is married to a romance author. Tired of seeing his wife with large files of research, notes and character sheets, he decided to create a program that would house all of her information. Working together they created a program that included everything that a fiction writer would need during the creation of a novel. Thus WriteWayPro and WriteWayPro were born.

Let me give you a general overview of this program. Within WriteWayPro you are able to view your work in many different ways. You can have the notes section open or the manuscript section open or have them both open at the same time. The manuscript will be above your notes. Within the program you start with the book, then underneath you break it into acts, chapters or scenes. Then within each chapter or scene you can further break it down into the following components.

  • Plot - Explain what needs to happen in each particular scene or chapter.
  • Scene Sketch - Use this section to indicate the POV character, their motivations, conflicts, goals, the turning point of the scene, the large action and many other things.
  • Character - Use this section to indicate the hero and heroines attitude, attire, development, scene goal and whether he/she "gets" it or not.
  • Conflict - Indicate internal and external conflicts here. Setting - Timeframe, location and climate are parts of this section.
  • Dialogue - In this section you would indicate what needs to be said in this scene. What's going on below the surface between the characters?
  • Romance - What is the intimacy level and sexual tension of this scene?
  • Subplot - Indicate any subplots and how they develop in this section.
  • Revision - Make notes of your ideas for revising this scene prior to doing the actual revision.

There is another option In WriteWayPro that I really liked. From the toolbar you can access a folder for research and another folder for character profiles. As a writer I found these two features to be invaluable. And I have to tell you - while I was going through the Trial Version of WriteWayPro all I could say was "WOW! WOW! WOW!" which of course brought my three kids and husband running to the computer to see what I was doing.

The developers are adding a section to WriteWayPro that will give you the "ability to monitor and manage your daily productivity for each book you're working on. This useful feature allows you to enter manuscript deadlines and projected word or page counts, then keeps a daily recording of your progress toward those goals. You can make changes on the fly and view or print the reports by graphical chart or grid-formatted log. Imagine -- no more calculators, spreadsheets, or guesstimates when it comes to planning your manuscript completions!" This option should be available soon.

While printing is disabled in the 30-day Trial, you can view all documents and reports in Preview mode to see how they would look on paper.

And the best part? The prices have just dropped to make WriteWayPro more affordable to everyone. WriteWayPro Standard Edition is $39.00 (USD) and WriteWayPro Professional Edition is $79.00 (USD) They accept secure payments via PayPal which I also liked.

I know I have only given you an overview of WriteWayPro. It is a detailed and complex program yet very user friendly. If you are serious about your writing I highly recommend that you test drive the trial version of this program. If you feel it is an invaluable to you as I do, then I hope you enjoy your purchase.