How Dabble Can Help Make Writing Easy

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. There are lots of options when it comes to writing software, but it’s important to find the one that works best for you. Today, author Sally Britton is here to tell you about Dabble, a NaNoWriMo 2018 sponsor:

In October 2017, I scrolled through the NaNoWriMo sponsor list, looking to see if any of the offers might appeal to me. There are always lovely sponsors, and I bought my first ever writing program with a NaNoWriMo winning discount code. Only one, with a whimsical quill pen logo, truly attracted my attention. A brand new subscription service. A way to write online, offline, track my word count, and promising to make writing “easy.” I scoffed. Out loud. I scrolled away, then came back. The logo was kinda cute. I clicked.

Here we are, a year later, and I’m writing a sponsor review. I’ve also self-published six titles, with modest success, and I freely attribute a portion of that success to Dabble.

NaNoWriMo friends, to say Dabble changed the way I write would be an understatement. I fought the lure of the program, even as I began to use it, because I had succumbed to writing software before that left me dizzy with settings, confounded by options, and frustrated by crashes. But Dabble was free for NaNoWriMo participants, so I used it, with every intention of finding fault. I wound up becoming a huge fan instead.

Let’s talk a little about the features of this writing program. You can create an unlimited number of manuscripts, all displayed with title and author name when you login. When you open your current project, the writing and plotting interface is clean, streamlined, and absolutely intuitive.

Dabble is a program of elegant simplicity with complete functionality. I can’t be the only one who spent more time getting the settings correct in other software programs than I actually spent writing in them. But with Dabble, I can open a new project and begin without making a dozen tweaks to settings hidden within menus.

If you’re a plotter, you can begin by clicking the “Plot” menu. Then you can create your first plot line, and then several more if you are weaving together a story with any intricacy.

As a historical romance writer, this is an incredibly useful feature. I can view his plot line, hers, theirs as a couple, my antagonist’s, and my subplots all in the “Plot Grid” screen. This helps me keep everything organized and hitting the right points at the same time, and it’s easy to drag, drop, and insert new little index cards wherever necessary.

But what if you like to fly by the seat of your pants? Dabble makes that easy too. On the left side of your screen, there’s a beautiful menu where you can see the contents of your book. You can add individual scenes, chapters, or view the whole thing like in an old-school Word doc. You can drag scenes around, too, and keep notes on what needs to happen or what your goals are—it’s really beautiful, how Dabble caters to both the super organized and those of us with less of a plan.

If I had enough words and a dozen screenshots, I’d give you a whole tour. But let’s hit the high points for NaNoWriMo users this November:

Any free trial started on Dabble from October 1st will automatically extend to December 1st. That’s ample time for you to try this thing out.You can set word count goals directly in Dabble, as well as select “Days Off” from writing so your numbers will accurately reflect how much you have to write without you having to do a ton of math. (I’m a writer. Not a mathematician.)Word counts in Dabble will sync up to your NaNoWriMo profile! I loved that feature last year.There are discounts on the subscription just for us!

Dabble is a subscription-based program. Don’t let that scare you. It is, in fact, brilliant. A constant stream of revenue for any service means constant updates. Besides, there are some pretty great discounts for those of us in NaNoWriMo land.

Want to know my favorite part about Dabble? It’s the creator, Jacob Wright. When I first started using Dabble it was only two months old. Brand new. I encountered a glitch (that I’ve since never had trouble with again) and lost thousands of words. It was at 11:15 PM MDT. I tried not to panic. I sent a help request and went to bed. Fifteen minutes later, I had an email from the developer letting me know my words were all back. I checked, and he was right. Wow.

I’ve had other minor questions and insignificant issues a time or two after that (nothing for months and months now), and every time the response from the developer was rapid, polite, and helpful. His blog posts, especially the Road Map of future developments for the program, are engaging and personable. I believe in supporting people, and Jacob Wright is someone I believe in. He’s building something incredible, and he’s doing it for us. For writers.

I won NaNoWriMo 2017 because of Dabble. I’ve no doubt of that. I’ve written five novels using Dabble, and I’ve never looked back. Dabble is going to help me win this year, and publish three more titles before Spring 2019. It’s my secret to success and the happily ever after to my writing story. Why not see if it’s the perfect match for you, too?

Sally Britton is a full time author who lives in the middle of a desert with her husband, four kids, and a dog named Cherry. She started writing on her mom’s electric typewriter when she was fourteen and hasn’t stopped since. Sally writes historical romance and two of her six published novels were NaNoWriMo wins.

Top photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash, with added text.