This is the latest version (Version 3) of the Wavemaker Novel Planning and Writing Software.
If you are a writer planning on doing nanowrimo you may also find this tool useful.
I have added some great new features in, and rebuilt from the ground up so that it’s mobile friendly as well.
It works as a Progressive Web App, so it can install locally to virtually any device (ChromeOS, Desktop, Windows, Linux, Android, iOs Mac- currently requires a setting to be enabled in chrome)
This extension simply works as a link to open the app quickly from your browser after you have installed it.
Works from local database with the ability to backup your database and import it to another device (or synch up to your google drive)
*New features*
No Login Required! (You will have to authorise your google drive account if you want it to sync)
Multi-level breaking down of chapters into scenes (and beyond)
Research database, keep notes, upload images and link entries with hashtags!
Exports to HTML, Markdown (RTF and eBook formats coming as well);
Planning Grid Tool added. (Based on the JKRowling example)
Finally a cross platform alternative to Scrivener!
Write your story, novel or book using the writing tools in wavemaker. Book Writing whether factual or fiction writing is possible using the easy to manage project manager tool for writing your book. Works with built in browser / systems spell checkers and tools like Grammarly
You can export to markdown or html for those of you writing a serialised novel for the web or a blog.
We also have an Android app, however the ideal way to install this app is through visiting https://wavemaker.cards and choosing the install option
I would love to be able to give this 5 stars but it seems like every time it begins to look like something awesome, it ends up missing the ability to do basic things. It was designed in such a way that it reminds me of a kid drawing an airplane and then half way through goes “Heck with it… It’s a bird” just because more work was involved.
There is no way to format quotes in the documents. I can not upload any images. And when you try to upload an image to the mindmaps section, it doesn’t allow to resize them. the mind map also has no ability to connect lines to other lines (only boxes and images to boxes and images) which limits that to a very basic state as well.
There are no clear instructions for how to use some of these features which results in you spending much of your time figuring it out for yourself. It keeps popping up a message saying that my google drive account is not logged in and when I go to the main menu, it IS logged in.
This thing started out to be the answer I was looking for until it became the nightmare I was trying to avoid….and I have no expectations that any of this will be fixed anytime soon (and this was only naming a few problems because I don’t wish to go through the whole list if nothing is going to get fixed anyway).
Wow. I am blown away that this is free. Which is why I contributed to its development. Don’t pay for expensive software. Instead, use this. Try it out. If you like it, consider supporting them. Beautiful design and layout. Fantastic options available. Data security? They actually care about your data in the sense of making sure you totally control it. Highly recommend this.
Ok, so I really liked this and all the features. But for some reason, whenever I would close the program, it would delete the 4,000 words I had written! I don’t know the problem, but don’t use this if you don’t like having to rewrite your first chapter ten times over.
Love it and really usefull, specially cards are just perfect to profile characters. Also love the simplicity.
Only bug i found so far: from times to times i loose the work (just need to download again from google). maybe some plugin/extension or even netbeans deletes it.. don´t know, from a developer to another really nice job, looking forward for version 4.
This app has helped me greatly with my writing, thank you for creating this! And best of all, you’ve made it free, that’s simply brilliant.
While I think it could be useful to have hints or tooltips as to what some of the tools are (like the snowflake one) I would still recommend this to people! And I can’t wait to see what comes next.
It is sad to see this hasn’t been updated in a while, but my hope still remains.
I was really excited about this, but then I was unable to access the projects that I created.
I am writing the text. I exit the application, or click on another page. When I return to the main page, the words change endings, or are replaced with others. A set of words comes out. And not always mine …)) May not perceive the Cyrillic alphabet.
A lot of interesting things, but it’s a pity that it doesn’t work ((
Sorry for the negative review…
I have loved this app since the first day I ever got it. I’ve been able to map out my novel easy but I have been having some features stop after a while until I connect to the internet to reload them. Is it supposed to do that?
As much as I enjoyed this program and spent weeks working on all the planning, it deleted all of my data. Why? I don’t know. I have never had to do anything and all of it is just gone. I work out of a Chromebook and that’s probably where it went.
Thanks, your product is trash. And yes, it is 100% synced up with Google Drive, that’s the first thing I did. Before you blame me for “my own stupidity” as you did another reviewer.
For several years this has been excellent! I still love it dearly, but I have had a few issues recently. Firstly when the app updated itself without my agreeing I lost my entire database. This was due to being unable to sync to google drive no matter what I did, but hey ho, I should’ve downloaded backups or something I know so I started again and kept going. But now a few times with the new Wavemaker cards I’ve found that the app opens to the start page but no matter what I do (restore, backup, sync up or down, log out or in to google) I can’t get back to my project. The only option is to create a new project, which is of course not what I want to do? I don’t know if this is a temporary issue or glitch, but it’s only come up with Wavemaker.cards and not previous versions.
I hope it’s fixable, because I will absolutely keep using the software if it is!! I haven’t found anything like it and the organisation is wonderful. But with these big function issues I can’t use it at the moment.
This app is honestly amazing. In terms of features, it is a bit behind other writing apps like Scrivener and the type, but in terms of UI and workflow, it is miles ahead! I have found that I was much more productive while using it, but there are a few tiny things that have been nagging me while I was typing up my book.
Firstly, when I sync to Google Drive, Wavemaker uploads it in the form of raw data, without any formatting of any kind. If I knew how to convert that into, say, a PDF file or something, all would be well, but I have no idea how to do that. Plus, I feel like it would be more convenient if it uploaded a folder with all your documents in a PDF form.
Secondly, when I’m typing and I go back to add something or remove something, I find that instead of the mouse selecting the spaces in between the letters, it selects an actual character, whether it be a letter or a space, and replaces that character with the character I type. This creates huge problems, since if I type a sentence with, say, 50 characters, the 50 characters ahead of the place where I start typing are replaced and gone. This makes it virtually impossible to edit my text within Wavemaker, and I am forced to use something like Google Docs to make edits, which is honestly not very efficient. Furthermore, edits are integral to writing, which makes this issue even more glaring.
With all that said, I feel that with time and improvements, Wavemaker could far surpass other writing tools and be the best tool that all kinds of writers could use.
It is actually amazing. I’ve been racking through google for a novel writing and planning app like this. And Wavemaker is the best that I’ve found. Along with its beautiful UI, the app also allows us to develop our ideas and organise them very promptly. Thank you for developing such an amazing PWA!!
Maravillosa
Looking for an “All-In-One”-Solution? It’s right here with Wavemaker.
(Small things *not* worth reducing the rating by one star: Some Markup-like features, e.g. lists, or literature source linking/managing would be top notch. But nonetheless still a marvelous piece of software.)
I love Wavemaker. Im a new writer and was looking for an alternative to Scrivener and this app is perfect for me. I have been having one issue though that has been driving me crazy. While transferring all of my work to the latest version, my work does this thing where whole paragraphs have been reformatted or something. (I cant think of the correct word to use.)The entire paragraph is on a single line and you have to scroll over to read the words. It changes the font as well. It seems to only happen when you paste to the writing section and close the window and reopen it. I haven’t found a way to fix it either. If that gets fixed this would be the ultimate writing app. Im using a Chromebook as well, maybe that makes a difference somehow.
Wow, just WOW! I still cannot thank the universe enough for the day I found Wavemaker, it was like finding water in a desert. For an obsessive planner like me, writing becomes a hassle because of bazillion notes, images and whatnot. With this app, I can organize everything neatly. The best part is, I actually enjoy worldbuilding now–more than ever. It is so sleek and smooth and it’s FREE. No more heart-eyes for Scrivener because Wavemaker is the king. Planning, creating characters and plotting has never been easier. Thank you so, so much! Love from India x
After talking to a friend who finished writing his book with ibook author. I looked for an alternative and found Wavemaker. Being a copywriter and ghostwriter (just finished a cook book), always working in Word or Google Docs. I´m very happy with Wavemaker as it has all the components I need to store research results. And it´s so easy to rearrange all the chapters in a book. Especcially with a cookbook it´s great to easily put the recipes in alphabetical order. Also love the fact that it works offline as well.
Can certainly recommend this app to anyone who is ready to write a book.
By the way it´s also great to use the app for copywriting.
Maybe in a next version you can add option to add images.
Beware!
Lost all my data. I refuse to use this again. You don’t need all it’s useless tools to write anyways.
It’s the exact application I have been looking for. All the journal, note, document applications are ok for writing stories but are not perfect. THIS IS PERFECT!!
Just realized that I’ve been using this for months now and haven’t written a review. After completely losing my mind post-loss of a 50,000+ word project, (an app crash) I scoured the Play Store to find a writing app that wouldn’t break my heart. I found it here! The fact that saves happen so often eases my mind like you wouldn’t believe. Iain, thank you for the work you put in to create this in the first place and the care you put into its upkeep! By and large, my favorite writing program!
This app is really helpful for the people like me, who has lot of thoughts and want some awesome digital space at which they can write it down. it’s include challenge of writing option which has helped me a lot to improve my typing speed as well as writing without correction. good platform provided here as it has all settings that a story writer or book writer wants as a printed style for his/her book. happy writing.
It was awesome in the beginning, but I opened up the app one day and all of my papers were gone. The program was super simple and I figured everything out. Though I opened up the app and all of my work was gone, I had several different papers that are extremely important to me and now are gone and I didn’t have a chance to save them. So I’m taking a few stars off for sudden loss of all my work and inability to recover any of it.
I would love if we could have multiple snowflake grids at once instead of only being able to have one. I’m writing a fantasy series, and I’m using the snowflake tool to plan out the character arcs, so being able to make more than one would be really helpful.
good helpful
Love this app on version 4 please consider adding these features
Export to pdf/ pdf viewer/editor
A way to sketch on the writer using a keyboard or stylus if chromebooks are convertatable and a touchscreen.
A way to add friends to wavemaker/chat with them, & video calling so we can collaborate with my followers.
A way to have typewriter mode with green glow in the dark feature,
A way to change colors of the fonts.
A title page
A fm radio with the ability to tone to a different channel like 105.3 the bat/plus a search button to search public radios in other states. It will be called Wavemaker Radio since wave is related to radio station wave towers. How regularly do you update wavemaker. The only complaint i’ve got is the save project button is broken it doesn’t do anything please fix it, other than that great novel writing app keep up the great work. Is there a way to create a kindle fire 10 app on the amazon app store.