7 Best Novel Writing Software 2024 (50 Story Planners Ranked)

Today there are 321 different novel writing software to help with your creative writing. We spent 95 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to write your novels.

What is the Best Novel Writing Software?

1. The Novel Factory — best of the best
2. Publisher Rocket — best for Amazon publishers
3. Plottr — best for plot planning
4. Scrivener — best bang for buck
5. Google Docs — best free option
6. ProWritingAid — best for novel editing
7. Atticus — best for self-publishers

1.  The Novel Factory

Best For

The Novel Factory is best for all kinds of fiction writers who want to get their novel idea out of their head, once and for all.

Top Features

• It enables you to develop an airtight plot. The Novel Factory allows you to visually structure the plot, characters, locations, and more, so you’re always on top of your story.
• It’s beginner friendly. Newbies will love the roadmap feature, which is a step-by-step guide to writing a novel, from the story premise, the final manuscript,  all the way through to the publishing.
• DFY plot outlines. You get eight proven plot structures to build your story’s skeleton, in order to make the writing process way more efficient in writing your horror, romance, or detective noir story, for example.
• In-depth character development. Create a character and get prompts which allow you to develop your characters’ motivations, archetype, physical descriptions, and much more.
• Your seven year old could use it. The Novel Factory is so intuitive, you’ll probably learn your way around it the first time you open it — and their tutorials are a delight.

Pricing

The Novel Factory offers three pricing plans:

• Basic: $7.50/month for new writers, or experienced writers wanting to give it a shot.
• Standard: $20/month for experienced writers to develop as many novels as they wish.
• Premium: $60/month for writers who produce a massive amount of content.

Annual subscriptions provide a 17% discount.

Try The Novel Factory today with a free 30-day trial.

2. Publisher Rocket

Best For

Publisher Rocket is best for self-published novel writers who want to take advantage of Amazon’s colossal list of buyers.

Top Features

• It reads your reader’s minds. When you look at the hard data, like phrases Amazon shoppers are searching for, and how much they spend on which topics or genres, you get a much better shot at winning the “positioning” game. Use this information to craft your book title, tags, and descriptions, and Amazon will reward you with more shoppers.
• Saves time and money. If you were to hire an agency to figure out all your “Amazon SEO”, you’d likely spend way more money than what you have to pay for Publisher Rocket… And there’s a chance said agency gets their intel from the same tool, anyway. A good 20 minutes of deep-dive research gives you a month’s worth of strategic information.
• Publish your novel in the highest revenue potential category. Choosing the right book categories for your novel is like choosing which street to open a shop at. Positioning your book in the right categories and subcategories will put your story in front of more people… Then, you’ll use the power of Publisher Rocket to help you rank #1 (and you can even figure out which categories are more or less competitive).
• Helps you spot book sale trends for your next novel. With a few clicks, you can figure out estimated book sales in all Amazon categories, and get a better understanding of what’s hot and what’s not. By understanding what genres people are buying, you can get your creative juices flowing in the right direction.
• Incredible support. There are quite a few online reviews where users comment on how Publisher Rocket’s customer service is a superstar. They have a deep understanding of Amazon with their Amazon Best Seller Rank (ABSR), keywords, categories, and whatnot. They offer personalized advice and a ton of tutorials that will help anyone shoot their Amazon rankings up.

Pricing

Publisher Rocket has a single pricing option:

• Publisher Rocket: $97 one time, for a lifetime license.

Try Publisher Rocket today with a 30-day money back guarantee.

3. Plottr

Best For

Plottr is best for novel writers who want to have a clear overview of their plots, chapters, characters, and so on, before they ever start writing… It’s especially important for very intricate stories.

Top Features

• Visual timelines. Plottr makes it super simple to create visual timelines, allowing you to create interesting plots which can be reorganized with simple drag-and-drop actions. It’s almost like having a digital corkboard filled with your scenes, storylines, and chapters for you to play with.
• It’s beginner friendly. If you’ve never outlined a plot before, Plottr’s got your back. Their templates are super helpful, so you’ll get the hang of strategizing your story that much faster. You get proven storytelling structures that will help you make your idea come to life.
• Kickass tutorials. Plottr has an incredible collection of video tutorials that teach every little aspect of the software. The best part is, while they teach you how to use their software, they indirectly give you a “masterclass” on plotting and planning stories. Top notch. 
• One-click export function. You can export your story and chapter outlines from Plottr to Word or Scrivener. Not only can you easily have all your development easily shared, but you can also use that for an extra layer of backup.
• Character profiles. Hop into the characters tab and you can create in-depth character descriptions like a pro. You can add a name and a thumbnail, but the most useful part is that you can add trackable attributes, like flaws, backstories, personality traits, and so on. This will allow you to have an extra layer of consistency in your character development.

Pricing

Plottr has six different pricing tiers:

• Annual 1 Device: $25/year, for the basic version on one device. Use it forever + 1 year of updates.
• Annual 3 Devices: $45/year, for the basic version on three devices. Use it forever + 1 year of updates.
• Annual Pro: $79/year, with all the basic features plus cloud features and real time collaboration features on unlimited devices. Use it forever + 1 year of updates.
• Lifetime 1 Device: $99 one time, for the basic version on one device. Use it forever with lifetime updates.
• Lifetime 3 Devices: $149 one time, for the basic version on three devices. Use it forever with lifetime updates.
• Lifetime Pro: $249 one time, with all basic features plus cloud features and real time collaboration features on unlimited devices. Use it forever with lifetime updates.

All paid plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Try Plottr today with a free 14-day trial.

4. Scrivener

Best For

Scrivener is best for creative writers who write in a non-linear fashion and would benefit from visualizing their novel structure.

Top Features

• Drag, drop, and organize. Scrivener allows you to break up your novel into chapters and sections. Once you hop into the “binder” view, you can move scenes and even entire chapters around with a simple drag-and-drop move. The “corkboard view” creates index cards as you add scenes and chapters to your novel, so when you move those index cards around, you also rearrange your entire story.
• Visual feedback. When you’re writing an intricate story, it’s a great idea to be able to visually manage your narrative, in order to avoid plot holes. You could use color-coded note cards in order to make sure all your open loops are being closed, or that you recall a sub-plot at the right time, for example.
• Work with templates. Scrivener offers a few different writing project templates, for different creative writing styles like fiction, non-fiction, and scriptwriting, to name a few. Then, you can create your own collection of presets to reuse on future books. Imagine you were working on a trilogy — Scrivener makes it easy to keep everything consistent, like fonts, printing standards, front and back matter, and so on.
• Helps you to keep the pace. The “dialogue focus” is a key feature that lets you isolate one of the most important pieces of the novel writing process: Dialogues. This feature makes it a lot easier to keep your scenes dynamic and relevant, within the realm of your story. 
• Quick and easy formatting. With the compile function, you can publish your drafts in the standard industry standards, or any format a publisher asks, without messing with your original work in the main project. You could change fonts, exclude the foreword, or even change the title of your book.

Pricing

Scrivener offers six pricing plans:

• macOS: $49 one time, for mac users.
• macOS educational: $41.65 one time, for mac users who are students or academics.
• Windows: $49 one time, for Windows users.
• Windows educational: $41.65 one time, for Windows users who are students or academics.
• iOS: $19.99 one time, for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch users.
• Bundle: $80 one time, for both a macOS and a Windows license.

All paid plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Try Scrivener today with a free 30-day trial.

Our Top Three Picks

Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:

1. The Novel Factory — best of the best
2. Publisher Rocket — best for Amazon publishers
3. Plottr — best for plot planning

Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:

Here are the top 50 novel writing tools we considered in this review:

1. The Novel Factory
2. Publisher Rocket
3. Plottr
4. Scrivener
5. Google Docs
6. ProWritingAid
7. Atticus
8. Living Writer
9. Vellum
10. Hemingway App
11. Novlr 
12. Grammarly
13. Storyline Creator
14. NovelPad
15. Reedsy Book Editor
16. Frase
17. Squibler
18. Flodesk
19. FastPencil
20. Bibisco
21. Dramatica
22. Storyist
23. Fictionary
24. OmniaWrite
25. Writer’s Blocks
26. Novelize
27. Jasper
28. IA Writer
29. Novlr 
30. WriteItNow
31. Wavemaker
32. Ginger Grammar
33. Evernote
34. Freedom.to
35. Quillbot
36. FocusWriter
37. Microsoft Word
38. Libre Office
39. Apple Pages
40. Grammar Lookup
41. The Most Dangerous Writing App
42. Plottr
43. PauseFor
44. Scribus
45. Zotero
46. NaturalReader
47. AutoCrit
48. Novellus
49. Kindle Create
50. Zoho Writer

The Bottom Line

Here are our top picks for the best novel writing software to try this year:

1. The Novel Factory — best of the best
2. Publisher Rocket — best for Amazon publishers
3. Plottr — best for plot planning
4. Scrivener — best bang for buck
5. Google Docs — best free option
6. ProWritingAid — best for novel editing
7. Atticus — best for self-publishers