I’m a big fan of organising my writing using Word, Excel and folders on my computer. Recently, however, I’ve been looking for a solution to write where Word doesn’t cooperate with me well: my mobile phone. And in an unhinged moment, I bought a lifetime subscription to a beta software that sold me on its nuts collection of features for novel writing.

It might be just me, but I have real trouble getting files to open, editing them, and syncing them back to OneDrive from my phone. Usually, what I end up doing is drafting in a blank document, and then dumping it into my main manuscript file when I get back to my computer. However, this doesn’t work when I’m editing. Editing requires reading the actual stuff, changing it, and so I usually end up doing the classic email-it-to-myself, make changes and email it back dance.

And naturally, this doesn’t work unless I’m prepared in advance for when I might have a moment to work on my novel on the go. I know there are alternatives, but juggling files as “files” on a mobile just isn’t how mobile phone are designed to work. It’s annoying and a time-suck.

WriteO: multi-platform writing organisation tool for authors

So, when I came across WriteO, I was pretty excited. It’s an online workspace for authors, boasting tools to take you from draft to finished and published.

Huge for me is that it works seamlessly across all devices: desktop, web, mobile, tablet—I can open up a novel and be working on my fold-out-keyboard in moments, without finding files, checking the right version, scrolling endlessly, having OneDrive shut down on me, throwing my phone in the bin, flipping the table, storming out—

Right, ahem. Back to WriteO.

I’m just going to do this as a big mega list of what this software does because the stuff in here is epic. This is not sponsored and no one told me to write this, it’s just great software that I’m excited to share.

Without further ado let’s get into The Mega List of WriteO Features!

The Mega List of WriteO Features

• Novel manager – dashboard for each novel with genre, word count and key stats including last edit date. I’ve input my current WIP novels into WriteO so far and had a play around with importing files.

• Chapter management including auto numbering, status tracking: draft, in progress, complete, etc.
• Volumes and subchapters and scenes for further organisation.
• Distraction-free in-browser writing editor with custom themes and fonts.
• Auto-save and version history. You can import from Word and have your headings map in as chapters automatically… and export out to Word as well. I requested support for H2 headings as scenes (currently it exports with a scene break) and this has been added to the roadmap for a future update to the beta. The community is rallying and input is genuinely considered and taken on board.
• Analytics and progress tracking, with sprints, goals, streaks, heatmaps and more.
• Every character highlighted as you type and auto-linked to the character profile notes (cue my happy sobbing).
• Speaking of which, huge Character management tools—profiles, evolution timelines, every chapter they appear in, relationship maps…

• Novel notes: think world-building taken to a new level. You get notes linked to chapters or characters for context, categories, search, pin for important notes and more.
• Moodboard! This freeform visual canvas is fun to create a visual of your novel to inspire and drive direction.

Book designer in WriteO

And that’s just to write your novel. They also have a whole Book Design module, as well, with all of these features:

• Cover designer for front, back and full-wrap covers with an automatic spine calculator.
• Typography and layout – drop caps, scene breaks, trim sizes, and themes.
• Print-ready export, reflowable EPUB export, and DOCX export (as I mentioned before). 

WriteO review first look: free to start, lifetime available

A few weeks back they ran a lifetime special, and although I’d been using it for only a week or so, I grabbed that LTD with both hands. The price has gone back up now, but with how much they have jam-packed into this so far as a beta release, it’s pretty nuts. I think it’s definitely one to check out, especially at the free tier, if you are an author who writes across multiple devices and wants everything well organised, at your fingertips in a flash.

Again—this isn’t a paid post or sponsored. I’m just loving using it so far, and the character linking tools are so helpful for my insane big worlds. Because I am editing at the moment, seeing an unfamiliar character name is no longer a oh, ffs moment.

If you’re interested in checking it out, it’s at writeo.app and you can try their free plan with a smaller subset of features and limited number of novels.

Do you use something like this already? I’d love to hear your thoughts!