Tools for Writers

[AnthonyHJ]

My personal tool-kit would be Writer's Cafe and CeltX, doing the actual writing in Open Office.  The former is cheap (about £20 last time I looked), but has a pretty feature-rich free version, while the latter is free and open-source, with some paid services available.  Best of all, they are both multi-platform; you can install under Windows, MacOS or Linux and they work just as well.

The most important tool I use (ignoring OpenOffice) is probably Dropbox, a synchronisation service which is very useful for backing up data.  I once lost the first 10,000 words of a novel to a hardware issue, so I always make sure I have my important files backed up safely these days.  It also has the advantage of synchronising my half-finished stories on my Linux laptop with my Windows desktop PC, so I can write on either one without having to use a USB stick or try to send them over the network.

[Mickey Finn]

Not a tool, but a resource example:

MickeydotFinn Michael A Finn
Ron Moore's original BSG Series Bible made available to download free http://io9.com/5743142/ Interesting for film students and fans

[Mickey Finn]

Thought I'd toss these out...no idea how helpful they'd be, as I don't own them:
http://www.writersdigestshop.com/category/master-box-sets?et_mid=89829&rid=3113249

[Mickey Finn]

Trboturtle pointed these out, looks interesting:
http://www.michaelastackpole.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2&zenid=d30c86aba96d9e5fe2742371d8513e8d

[Snowleopard]

I have friends who do movie CGI work and they use Corbomite to remotely back up their files.  (Very, very large files)

[Mickey Finn]

Another resource:

DEAD ROBOT SOCIETY: Podcasts of Writers Talking about Writing:
http://deadrobotssociety.com/

[Snowleopard]

If you're into writing scripts try JM Strazynski's book on Script writing.  Very good.

[Mickey Finn]

For ANY scripts...TV to comics to Film.

[MClark]

Hi all,

There is also WriteWay:  http://www.writewaypro.com/  They have a 30 day demo version, standard version and professional version. I've started using this.  Nice character window, research window, and future book idea window. I copied most of JIm's blog post into the future book idea window so the info is readily available no matter which book I'm working on.

Scrivener for windows  is in beta :  www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/    (I had some problems with the link, the site might be down.)

By way of introduction, I'm another wannabe writer, living in New Mexico. I'd like to write hard sf, but the research takes a long time.

[Mickey Finn]

Ilona Andrews explains a bit about bestseller lists and where sales fall:
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/2011/04/20/when-to-buy/

[OZ]

Also some interesting information on eating Brussel sprouts. 

Thanks again to everyone that has posted here. I have found some amazingly helpful tools.

[Mickey Finn]

It's her blog

[OZ]

I was kidding about the Brussel sprouts. I love her (and her husband's) work and thought the blog was amusing. Thanks for pointing it out.

I just discovered this and thought it looked like an interesting resource although I haven't explored it very thoroughly yet: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/02/

[Starbeam]

Yes, Writing Excuses is a very good one.  Every so often I'll go back and listen to all of them from the beginning.

[Starbeam]

For genre writers--http://bookcountry.com/