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Originally published at Jerry W Stewart. Please leave any comments there.

Some writers are comfortable with a simple text editor like notepad, while others prefer a word processor like Word or Openoffice. A few, like me, prefer applications that are designed specifically for writing fiction. I’ve looked at many of the applications designed with fiction authors in mind, but I haven’t found anything I like until recently. Introducing Liquid Story Binder XE brought to you by Black Obelisk Software. This software is great for writing long works of fiction such as novels, series, or collections of short stories. There are so many options I’m going to cover some of my favorites, and for more detailed information you can check out their site here.

One of my favorite features is the ability to tie media to a project. You be thinking, What’s the point in that. The answer: INSPIRATION. You can find imagines on the web that inspire you or remind you of your characters, creatures, or locations and use those to build a dossier complete with images. If you like to do a lot of pre-planning this should prove invaluable to your writing process. You can also add music to your projects and create playlists for different scenes – love songs for that scene were your two lovers first admit to each other they’re in love or fight songs for that really violent scene where the heroine takes out a predator of the night. The possibilities are there, and the best part is they’re optional. If none of that appeals to you, you don’t have to utilize it.

Another feature I like is the writing area. You can write comments in the flow of your story as long as you start them with two periods. These comments are great for searching through your document for places you skipped to write later or to clarify points in your plots as you write. When you print the comments will not be printed, so you don’t have to worry about taking them out. At the bottom of the window there is a useful status bar that tells you how long you’ve been writing this session, word count, and goal progression.

List of Features Mentioned on the Website:

• Dossiers – Create Dossiers for major characters and settings.
• Timelines – Plot your novel by organizing cards along colored timelines.
• Storyboards – Combine images and text to create a visual reference board.
• Journals – Create a writing journal, or even fictional journals for each one of your characters.
• Outlines – Create a collapsible tree of plot ideas.
• Image Galleries – Organize your reference images into galleries.
• Builders – Organize complex scenes using titles, descriptions, and color indexing.
• Position Memory – Liquid Story Binder XE remembers just where you left off.
• Manuscript Building – Combine multiple chapters into a single manuscript automatically.
• Printing – Preserve your font and paragraph editing with Format Printing.
• Workspaces – Preserve your favorite window layouts for quick access.
• Project Goals – Words per day, words left to write, days remaining, multi-document word counts.
• Color Schemes – Create the perfect writing environment with your favorite window colors.
• Recordings – Record yourself reading your own novel. Test for pacing and time.
• File Listings – Organize all your files into easy-access file trees.
  • Backups – Every Chapter has its own backup repository. Never lose a single word with automatic version and session backups. Compress your whole archive into a single ZIP file.
• Shortcuts – Quickly access your favorite external software and documents.
• Statistics – Times, Word Counts, Goals, Sessions, Versions, Days.
• Reader – Read over your work in a easy to view columned window, free of editing distractions.
• Music Playlists – Add your MP3s and sort them into playlists. Set the mood for writing.
• External Editing – Open your work outside of Liquid Story Binder.

If your interested in this product you can try it free for 30 days by following this link. If you’re already sold and want the full version you can buy it here.

Artist: Lady Sovereign
Album: Single
Song: Chi Ching (Cheque 1 2)

–Jerry