Microsoft Word. I quit you. Not only are you a corrupter of files for no good reason, but you also suck at the organization for non-linear writers. Sure I can create folders, and make documents for each scene. Then I hope I remember what I named you later. No more. I have divorced you. Sure I’ll use you when I absolutely have to. But HAVE TO are the big words here. I’ve moved in with Scrivener and I’m infatuated. No, I’m in love.
SCRIVENER lets me move scenes where ever I want. I can even have my research there in this program. Character bios. Character locations. Notes. All there. Together. No more am I forced to have multiple documents open at the same time. And there’s so much more Scrivener can do that I haven’t even scratched the surface.
Then add in ZOTERO. Man, where was this program when I did my undergraduate thesis? You can take notes. Attach pdf documents. Heck, it even creates bibliographies, if you’re into that kind of thing. Tags for sources and notes help you find things with a quick search. You can even create sub folders to store your sources that pertain to whatever you’re working on as well as a master list (in case you need the source for something else later). It’s like Evernote’s flashier, better cousin. So sorry, Evernote. You’re gone too.
L.M. Elm, Historical Novelist 