Wavemaker Version 3 is Live

Version 3 is now live, you can find it  at  https://wavemaker.cards

Installing

Wavemaker is a Progressive Web App now which will install virtually anywhere and run offline, It’s also been built to work on tablets and phones!

Managing Your Work

Your Projects need to be safe, Wavemaker has changed and now uses a local database to keep your projects in, this can be easily backed up and moved, as can individual projects – you can also back it up to google drive and restore it to a different device with a click.

New Features

It took a while, and we have a LOT of new features – multi level organisation, formatting options and distraction free ….

New note taking Database

This is based loosely on google keep, keep notes and photos tagged in an easily searchable database – top tip – use it from your phone to record pictures of locations!

Snowflake Tool

An old favourite back again – build your idea up from a simple paragraph

Planning Board

Manage all your scene and character notes!

Grid Planner

Based on  the planning grid used by  JK Rowling. 

Timeline Planner

Another old favourite – build up your story by event planning

Challenge Mode

New Export Options

114 Replies to “Wavemaker Version 3 is Live”

  1. The note taking database is really intriguing. I’ve been using Scrivener for most of my daily writing, but I’ve been wanting to get into using Wavemaker since it’s so slick. I’m also currently looking for an intuitive Wiki that would allow me to access a library of information anywhere and anytime, which I could then use to keep and store my notes for my fantasy series. The note taking database looks really promising as it reminds me a bit of how TiddlyWiki works online or offline using a single HTML file: https://youtu.be/ezNScBd7_h4

    VoodooPad also does seem similar stuff that looks pretty gnarly, but I’m trying to decide between paying $24.99 to use them (since I’m a Mac guy and their software seems ready to use), or attempting to use Wavemaker in place of their service. I’d prefer the latter since I’m a fan of Wavemaker and I’d like to support your product more (both by using it and by being a patron on Patreon), but I’m not quite sure whether Wavemaker will be robust enough to handle the Wiki side of things. Perhaps it will in time (it certainly has evolved in the document drafting side of things, not to mention the ability to organize notes for a story), but I’m not sure how Wiki-like Wavemaker really is.

    Anyhow, you’d mentioned in your tutorial video that people should make suggestions about how they might use the note taking tool, and if you were going to expand the note taking section of Wavemaker, I’d start there.

    I know several established writers use wikis to store the info for their worlds and keep track of the small details that have become canon in the course of publishing their books. For example, Jennifer Lyons uses Dokuwiki (mentioned here: https://www.tor.com/2019/01/07/how-to-create-a-wiki-to-support-your-fantasy-worldbuilding/) and Brandon Sanderson uses WikidPad (mentioned here: https://faq.brandonsanderson.com/knowledge-base/how-do-you-remember-all-the-details-to-keep-all-the-little-bits-and-pieces-consistent/). I’d like to do something similar, but I’m not very tech savvy when it comes to running a wiki (hence my thoughts about using TiddlyWiki or VoodooPad). It seems to me, though, that Wavemaker is 3/4 of the way there (perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t think so).

    Food for thought in case you decide to go that route! Cheers.

    1. Thanks, I’m constantly working on improvements, I have had some suggestions for the wiki tool that should be quite cool 🙂

    2. Just now exploring Wavemaker and have used Tiddlywiki for a number of projects current and future. Had literally the exact same thoughts as Justin Travis Call watching the tutorial video for that piece of Wavemaker

    1. Are you still getting it?
      It may be that you have a ‘clash’ between versions try hitting CTRL and F5 a couple of times to clear the cache and it should kick start again

    1. Hi
      Ahh I see.
      Hmmmm. Deleting is currently done via the right click menu (Which android does not show :/) Ok I’ll have a look at how I can either trigger that menu or provide a different way of doing it!
      Iain

    2. Still can’t delete things in writer mode, but for now, it is not needed and I have a new issue: I’ve been using the new mind map feature and I can’t move nodes. This, obviously, is a huge problem and renders it virtually useless to me. I also have great difficulty linking them together (this might be because I can’t move them). I am super excited about using it though! I like using mind maps to organize flexible family trees, and if this works I’ll be able to have it right there with the rest of my work. ?

      1. Same here. Can’t move the nodes. However, at my first attempt it worked properly. It’s the same everywhere, Android, PC, Linux, in the app as well as in Chrome.

  2. I found your tool by way of hinting for a cross platform novel organizer/writing tool. First of all, FANTASTIC JOB! Being a bit of a programmer myself, I see the time that has been put into this and it looks very polished and professional.

    If I could make some suggestions for future releases, I think that some of these might help round out a couple of things, although none of them are small changes:

    1. Have the ability to have multiple books in a project, like storing a series. I know that you probably could do it within the writing section, but exporting does not allow for you to export from a specific section as it assumes it is all one book. Having a “series” capability would be a fantastic addition as my note cards and snow flakes contain details for the series that I am working on.

    2. Auto-backup. I am sure that this one may be a bigger, but having an auto-sync ability helps to ensure little loss of data. It doesnt need to be as quick as Google docs where it is almost every time you hit the spacebar, but maybe having an option to choose 1 to 10 minute auto backups would be helpful as I am paranoid of losing work. If this isnt possible, could you add a sync button to the top right corner menu of each tool for easy access?

    3. In videos of previous versions, I saw that you offered different color themes. I am not sure if they were not considered for v3, didn’t make the cut for features for the release or if it was too difficult to do.

    4. I mirror other request for having a wiki built in for each project. It would be very helpful.

    5. It may be helpful for some folks to be able to export items (snowflakes, notes, timelines) between projects. Not me, but might help round out feature sets.

    Keep up the fantastic work! I look forward to seeing future updates. I started using your software at v2.6 so it was a huge and welcomed change to v3. Cheers!

  3. Just one request for the database. Can we get the ability to add those notes to our planning board? Perhaps have a database section on the planning board where these notes all live, and we can drag them over to chapters and sections as we wish. However, the note would remain available in the database section and could be placed in multiple chapters with the database version acting as global template. Should an edit be made to the note in one chapter, it would carry across to all others. However, deleting a note from a chapter would only affect that chapter and it would remain available in all the others as well as in the database portion of the app. Specifically deleting the note while in the database section would remove it from the entire app.

    This would enable us to keep certain location and character notes that we’ll be reusing, placing them down in our stories where we’ll be calling on those details, and discarding them when they’re no longer needed. However, as they’d be database cards instead of regular cards, they’d still be available to be called on again as deleting them would only send them back to the database section of the planning board.

    At the moment I have a “chapter” each for locations and characters, and I drag the notes from those to each chapter I’m using them in then drag them back to these storage chapters afterwards. This would be an automated way of doing that which leaves little room for human error.

    1. I do have further plans for the database tool that will probably help with this 🙂 It’s just getting the time to do all the things I want to to the software, it’s sort of an evolutionary process.

  4. Iain,

    You know how much I’ve been loving and advocating for more people to use Wavemaker (I actually just converted another user over to it LOL).

    I think a series wiki or book wiki would be awesome. Especially if you could copy certain items and put them in other books in the series (assuming it’s book and not series). I don’t know if you’ve seen (the old or even the new version of) StoryShop but something like that. (I actually thought their old version was easier to use.)

    I haven’t delved into much besides the planning board, but the database cards being copied into chapters could be really useful (I could even see the database and the wiki being the same thing).

    But I noticed when I downloaded the app, in the planning board the cards aren’t colored like they are in the web app. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s a file from the 2.6v and not a native 3 file or what. Not a big deal, but when offline and working in the app, it’s just easier to look for certain colors when trying to get through the cards and make sure things are going smoothly. 🙂

    1. Hi

      The colour coding can be added in version 3 (v2.6 didn’t do it :)) if you open a card you should see the colour choices in there. I have pre-color-coded (I am sooo not sure about those hyphens) the betternovelproject template in the latest version.

      The cards database may start to fit the ‘wiki’ approach – a lot of the tools I have ideas to expand functionality – its an evolving process of development 🙂

      Iain

  5. Could you add a Chapter Card? I’m writing a book series so I brokeit down into blocks, and put chapters into those blocks, but there isn’t a Chapter card to put in it, only scenes, and characters, etc.

    1. Hi, hmm the general idea was that each column was a chapter / section – I can probably add that though (although I may make it fully editable)

    1. Hi – yes it runs offline on android (there are some drag/drop issues which I’m working on but the writing tool works well) just visit the web address with your phone using google chrome and it will ask if you want to install (its a progressive Web App)

  6. I love what you’ve made here, keep it up! There’s one tool that really helps writers and it’s World Building. If you could implement categories like the ones in StoryShop for example it would make it very handy to keep track of complex worlds.

    1. It’s leaning that way- there is a probability that version 4 may be 2 separate tools that work from the same data – a planning/world building/database tool and a writing tool that hooks up to it for reference. I’ll have a look at storyshop and see what they do 🙂

    1. Hi
      Yes the snowflake tool at present actually physically replaces the original card.
      It ceases to exist in the software as it’s been ‘replaced’ with the three new cards.
      Iain

  7. Thank you very much. I like it much more than Scrivener. But how can i change fonts. Because standart font doesn’t support Turkish efficient.

    1. Hi I added the ability for you to choose any font you want in the manuscript settings. Hopefully that will help. I’m trying to make the next version much more multi-language

  8. Dear Iain, I discovered your tool after intense ressarch to replace ywriter (a great old school tool, but it doesn’t work on linux).
    I ust want to tahnk you very much. I installed the app today, I’m trying to discover the features.
    Some ideas for further use : export the sections in separate rtf files (I like to run libreoffice with grammalecte it’s a great editing tool).
    A git versioning of text files ? It would allow a better safety when writing with several device, which I plan to do thank to your marvelous app.

    I’m just discovering it, but I will surely patreon this if i manage to run it for my next novel that I4m currently starting.

    Do you have a bio page ? I’d loke to know more about your programmnig skill and why not, read novels you wrote.

    1. Hi
      I do have a very dated personal site (http://woodit.co.uk) which I don’t do much with since it pretty much acted as a CV for my current position.
      I’ve had a look at GIT versioning (would be very cool, but would either require me running a GIT server or getting you guys to set up Git accounts somewhere)
      I’ll see what I can do about the exporting sections thing – is definitely possible, just need to figure out how

      Thanks
      Iain

    2. I rather than GIT I went with google drive (which kinda/sorta) versions in a fairly no brainer way. Naturally I use GIT myself so it was an option, I’ve had a look, it would need a web connection and I can’t (currently) create a local GIT repo for security reasons 🙂

  9. I am nearly gobsmacked at how much I like this software. I don’t know what the exact difference is from the previous version, but I have already moved over a big project to Version 3.0 and I love being able to work on it / jot notes / etc. so effortlessly between devices. Scrivener may finally be dead (they never developed an Android app and all the ‘solutions’ I found online as a workaround were too convoluted or compromising). I am happy to support your work through Patreon and see how this develops further.

    Quick question/observation: I don’t think the ‘Google Drive Sync Up’ button is working on my Android phone. I have to exit out to the projects screen, hit ‘Manage Your Projects’, and then sync up. Only then do the changes get uploaded. This is a bummer since it’s nice to have the comfort of syncing up right from inside the app.

    1. Hi
      Wow, thanks for bringing that to my attention, just checked on my phone and you’re right – it’s not triggering for some reason!
      I’ll take a look.

      Iain

    2. Okay. Just modified the code a little, seems to be triggering on my android now. May take a short while for it to propagate to your phone.
      When syncing up the icon will turn into the spinning refresh icon, you can continue working as it will do it in the background.

      Think it was just a stuff happening slightly out of order on mobile thing :/

      Iain

      1. Thanks Iain.

        Another question: Is there some reason that when I hit on any ‘page’ or ‘sibling’, I get faced with a blank screen because the default view seems to be scrolled all the way to the bottom, past any text? I have to scroll up to see the last rows of text on any page, even though there are no paragraph or ‘carriage’ returns past those rows. It’s just odd that there is no text there when I click. (Hope that makes sense.)

        1. One more thing: the ‘Google Drive Sync Up’ notification pop-up when I sync from within the app never disappears. It works now, but the bubble seems to linger no matter what I do. It’s only an annoyance/nuissance and doesn’t seem to affect functionality, but it’s there nonetheless.

        2. Hi
          I think that’s he autoscroll I put in to try to keep the text in he centre of the screen. I’ll have a look and see if I can fix

          Iain

          1. Thanks, Iain. Perhaps it might be possible to toggle autoscroll on or off in settings?

            Another request is the ability to move cards from one page to another. As I move text around from one chapter to another I’d like to be able to move relevant cards too, but there seems no way to do so currently (either through dropdown or drag and drop, for example). This would be really helpful. For now, I have to move things manually.

          2. Found out how to move the cards, Iain (planning board). So never mind that part! 🙂

  10. Outstanding!!!

    Q. For the wiki though, have you considered JAMstack with RMarkdown and blogDown?

    Connecting to GitHub with version control, linking Netlify.

    I believe your application can become a necessary tool stack addition in content outlining and drafting.

    Have you viewed GitKraken and its Glo Boards?

    Please communicate back, as I would like to share the experiences of adding WaveMaker in this tool stack.

    1. Will take a look – have considered GIT, but it’s not as commonly used as Google Drive, also it only recently allowed Private repos (provacy appears to be a huge concern)

    1. Afraid not at the moment – you could have a look the manuscriptshredderis also available as a spreadsheet on her website

  11. Hello Iain

    I am making my first bold attempts to write something and have selected your software as my tool of choice.

    Unfortunately I seem to have the same problem with getting my Google Docs to sync but I am using the Windows version of your software. I sync on Android all OK

    I press the sync button and absolutely nothing happens

    Let me know if I am doing something wrong – Win 10 – Google Chrome

    Cheers
    Paul

    1. Hi

      Can you check on the main screen that it’s connected there, it may be you have some settings in your chrome that are interfering

  12. I like it, it seems to be pretty feature complete.

    However I work on multiple computers, and the work doesn’t seem to sync between them.
    Am I doing something wrong?

  13. Hi Iain,
    I am a huge fan of Ray Bradbury & Jim Denney and I have adopted their method of writing fast.
    Would you be able to make the challenge area something more in the line of ‘Write or Die’ I am a huge fan of the software and I use it often to churn out 1000 or more words in an hour.
    Loving the app btw way and I have now switched from Scrivener to using this
    Keep up the great work

  14. This looks very interesting and I look forward to using it. While testing, I added siblings and child. I have not been able to figure how to delete. Thank you, Scott

  15. Iain,

    This app is incredible! Thank you so much for being so dedicated to it. I noticed in your videos that a spellchecker is underlining your mispelled words. I don’t seem to have that feature when I use Wavemaker. Any ideas why that might be?

    Best Regards,

    Brian

  16. Hi,
    I am trying to connect to Google Drive so I can transfer my work between my laptop and my tablet.
    All my work is currently on my laptop. I hit the widget button on the left side of the panel named “Google Docs Sync Up”. A pop up then tells me a Google Drive account is not li led and asks me if I wish to link it. I hit the “Yes please” button but nothing seems to happen.
    I may be missing something I’m not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciate!

  17. Hi!

    First of all, I want to say I love Wavemaker! 😀
    I’m glad I chose it over scrivener.

    My favourite thing is how user-friendly it is. Also, the pre-built “sections/templates” are very useful and the overall design is very sleek.
    I think that one feature that could improve it is adding a spell-checker. However, I don’t know anything about programming, so I don’t kow if it is too much to ask.

    Thank you for your effort and your work!

    Best wishes,
    Erin

  18. I really like this. I recommend it, but your “manage your projects” button is totally broken. You cannot click on it. If you start a project then start another project, you cannot get back to the first project. In fact, it’s a little bit of a hassle syncing the new project if you switch to the desktop. The unfortunate truth is that I’m stuck on project 2, and I want to work on project 1. Let’s fix that button.

  19. I am having an interested issue with my wavemaker. Love the app by the way. But sometimes after I sync up it does weird things to my text. It will not let me paste a screenshot, but it takes a paragraph and pulls out the word wrap, listing it as a single line with a side to side scroll bar and a different font.

    I love the app. It’s beautiful. A couple of suggestions, it would be great if I could get a complete manuscript word count.

  20. Hi! I stumbled on Wavemaker two days ago and I’m 90% sold after trying nearly every paid and free program out there. However, I have one issue that is keeping me from totally switching over: Uploading current WIPs. I could not figure out how to upload a whole file, so I resorted to cutting and pasting individual chapters from MS Word. While most of it transferred okay, all my paragraphing is gone and I’ve resorted to manually restoring it. Is there a better/easier way to import without having to reformat?

    1. Maggie,
      I had a similar issue when I first started importing my work into WaveMaker. First things first, there is no way to directly upload a WIP into WaveMaker (to my knowledge). So, you will have to manually copy and paste the work from other software. As for the formatting, here’s what I found. First, you need to setup paragraph indents and spacing in the manuscript settings. You can set these however you like but make sure they are set and saved. Then, paste your work into WaveMaker. It shows up without formatting *until* you exit that section and go back in. All you have to do is go to a different chapter in your novel and then go back to the new one. When you open the new chapter the second time, it will be formatted to match your manuscript settings. I hope this helps!

  21. hi!

    i hope this doesn’t sound weird but the word count doesn’t work if you use not latin alphabet. this is probably not super improtant but i write in russian and the word count would be helpful – especially in a challange mod. thank you :’)

  22. Hello. I just love Wavemaker, it really make me write better! Now, Im trying the Grid Planner, and I built a grid with 16 rows and 12 columns. However, anything I write down past row 12 isn’t saving. I rewrote them several times, synched it and in the next day, they’re gone.

  23. Hi Ian
    I’ve just found Wavemaker and loving it so far. I have a question though, the only options for Paragraph spacing are standard, double spaced etc. However, I don’t want ANY paragraph spacing at all, and currently it’s leaving space between my paragraphs. Is there any way another option can be sorted to not have any paragraph spacing at all? Also, using the Timeline planner, when I try move a card, it doesn’t drop in place and I end up chasing the darned thing all over the screen before deleting it and creating a new one. How exactly are these cards to be fixed to the timeline? I try licking the mouse, hit enter but I still have the same problem. Otherwise this software looks great thank you and I may well become a Patreon 🙂

    1. I have the same question about the line spacing. I’m trying to write in a poetry format, and I do not want any space between the lines. Is there a fix for this?

  24. This is an incredible project!
    As a user with android phone, ipad pro and windows laptop – I frequently switch between devices.
    I use this for my morning pages (trophy mode) and plotting ideas for the past month.
    I love Scrivener and Day One but they don’t support cross platform and saving in a central location as smoothly.
    I find the trophy mode most useful
    Kudos!

  25. I’d like to see more instructions on the Snowflake …timeline…board cards etc..,
    Also…what are the “blocks” for?
    And Save the Cat Template…… Where?

  26. Hi! I loved your software. It is very useful in many ways! For example, I could use the Snowflake Tool to write arguments or the Grid Planner for making episodes of a TV Series.

    As a suggestion, you can consider developing an editing tool comparing original text vs. editing text, as Draft Software (https://draftin.com/?utm_source=zapier.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zapier). A tool like that is very useful to improve the original manuscripts and see the changes in writing.

    It’s a great software focus in the writing process, just that I need right now. Thanks!

  27. You are an absolute saint for making this, and making it free no less! This program is much closer than anything else I’ve found to being exactly what I’m looking for, and I can only imagine how much time and effort it took. So from me to you, thank you. I’ve already made sure to tell all my writing friends about it. There are only three features (2 very related) I would request to make it 100% perfect in my eyes, if you don’t mind constructive criticism. 1- make Snowflake tool not delete base cards, but rather make it scrollable so that it’s still displaying a base and sub cards, but you have the option to go back to the set where the current base is a sub card and it’s base is there. 2- make it possible to toggle how many sub cards come out of a base card in Snowflake. I can delete to make one or two instead of three, but don’t see any way to make it four or five or more. 3- make the database tool more wiki-like, where I can hyperlink myself inside a database card to another referenced database card. The tagging system works well enough as a placeholder for this, but that would step it up just that much more. Again, thank you for this! Sounds from other comments like these changes are already on your mind but I just wanted to add my encouragement!

  28. Good day and thank you for Wavemaker. It makes waves. 🙂
    I’ve been playing around with it a bit and I like what I see, despite some bugs I ran into.

    Something I noticed is that the word count has a mind of its own. I copied an existing manuscript (only 3 chapters) into the Writer and saw it contains 6046 words. The original software reports 8465 words, which is quite a steep difference (e.g for word count challenges like Nanowrimo). I copied the text to a regular word processor (Libre office) which reported 8453 words, which makes a lot more sense.

    An almost 2500 word difference in 3 chapters is a lot. Would you have an idea what would cause that?

    The big picture of Wavemaker is excellent though, don’t get me wrong. I can see it becoming very valuable.

  29. Oops. This was a terrible mistake on my end, with the word-count. Something had gone wrong copying 1 of the chapters.
    Sorry!

  30. I’m enjoying using this and have recommended it to a few people as well. I have found a couple of bugs so far.

    1. Planning Board – When I create note cards, then try to move them to different sections. If I go to another area (e.g. Snowflake) then return, the cards are placed back in their original position.
    2. Writer – When I mark something as a Heading 1, and go to another section (e.g. Snowflake), then return, the characters are reset back to “normal.”

    These are very minor issues, and I’m able to work around them. Just thought you might want to know. (I’m not discounting the possibility it may be a user issue.)

    Thanks so much for offering this awesome writing tool!

    1. Hi known byg I’m afraid – the system “saves” on a keypress – so moving with the mouse then not using a key does not save – try just pressing space and delete in the box after a change and it should stick – fixing this in version 4

  31. Hi Iain,

    This really very good software. I’m looking for writing software. I checked out many of them. Both offline and online. Your software is one of the I liked. It’s very clean and focused on writing.

    It a good for researchers but needs some additional features for the novel writers, I think.

    You can find here some suggestions for Wavemaker, and my approach while I use it.

    1. A research section can be useful as same as the Writer section.
    2. The research section can contain characters, locations, additional documents, images, bookmarks ext.
    3. Template documents can be used and edit in a project and stored in the shared place between the different projects. I mean, a template document can be a character template, research paper template whatever you want. Users can select and add from a pool these templates. This pool can be shared only for users themself or may be shared with the community.
    4. Adding separate documents (such as pdf, epub, jpeg ext.)
    5. Adding inline and separate web bookmarks can be useful also.
    6. Adding an inline image can increase the document capabilities.
    7. Database Cards, Snowflake Tool, Planning Board, and Grid Planner are similar tools. Maybe you can combine all these tool’s powerful sides and create a single tool. I think this new tool can work synchronized with the Writer Section. For example, each card in the new tool has a title, a short text and, the main text. The main text can show in the Writer Section but the others on card view. etc.

    I hope you can use some of these ideas.

    Best lucks,

  32. Hello! You mentioned in one of your videos wanting to hear how people use your tools, so!

    I love this program (writing suite?), and I’m getting a lot of use out of its various features, but there is one thing I’m having trouble with. Worldbuilding. I’ve been using the database cards, but they seem to be more for snippets. You may already be working on a more in-depth way of keeping track of info like character biographies, locations, etc., and if so, please ignore this. But I would really like a way to keep all my info in one place, so I don’t have to hop between programs, or separate projects (like one for the world and one for the manuscript).

    Perhaps a slight tweak to the database cards where they can hold more information without being huge? Maybe a way to work in a “read more” or a way to click/expand them? Or, maybe, something like Notebook.ai? I’m not sure. Again, you may already be tackling something (the wiki idea from one of the previous comments could be a really useful fix for this), but I thought I would throw my two cents in. 😀

  33. This PWA seems amazing and I just played around a little so far! I usually use google docs so I’m used to working cross-platform a lot.

    So I love the gdrive sync since it also means there’s no storage needs on your / the hosters side! I’m a little annoyed that I have to go back to the main menu to sync down from gdrive though, since I’d love to just download the changes in the story I’m in, could we have another button for that in the sidebar?

  34. Hello Iain,

    I’m wondering if I can use WPS Office, to store projects. in WPS ‘cloud’ as an alternative to Google drive.
    I use – new Microsoft edge on windows 10, and whilst I do use One Note for all my notes, ideas; be very keen to use wavemaker in the planned Book, I’m ready to begin . Any in-depth help towards proceeding with your suite, would be greatly appreciated…. Thanks in advance

  35. Hi,
    Maybe it’s there but I can’t see it – I’d really prefer NOT to have all the menus and so on in ‘dark’ mode. I know it’s much liked and I’m out of kilter but I find it really hard to navigate/see stuff easily and would really like to be able to switch to a lighter interface. I know it’s a pain for users to keep coming up with stuff but I like everything about wavemaker and really want to use it.

  36. Hi Ian,thanks for this program – it’s very innovative. Would there be a collaboration tool possibility for this? I have a project in which I have a co-author, so this would be great if we could work simultaneously and sync up.

    1. Probably not , mainly because that would mean a whole load of extra stuff – and I don’t make money from this yet

  37. I’m trying this out at the moment.

    If you have say 4 projects. How do you upload or download just one project to Google Drive?

    Also, how do you identify which project you have in google drive at any one time, so that you can decide if you wish to download it to a separate device?

    Thanks.

    1. It stores ALL your projects in one file, you can export individual ones using the export option, otherwise the google drive is all your current files

  38. Hello,

    I think this is a very neat idea. It’s also very sleek, and has a wide variety of incredibly useful tools.

    I was wondering about something, however. Would it be possible to include a “suggestion mode” like what GoogleDocs has? The reason why is because I will switch between the “suggestion mode” and the “editing mode” multiple times so that I can look at my work with a different perspective.

    For example I will use the perspective of an outsider to simply suggest edits, but not actually edit anything and the perspective of the writer who looks at those suggestions and decides what they want to keep for the edits.

    Another question is this: would there be any way, in the future, to send a link to an editor so that they can look at the document in the “suggestion mode” and simply propose edits?

    GoogleDocs makes seeing suggestions very easy and it would be awesome if it could be implemented into Wavemaker.

    Thank you for your hard work and I wish you luck!

  39. Hi
    I sent an email on this but will try here too.

    The message that pops up all the time when using grid asks if I want to increase storage on my iMac.

    I thought data is all stored in google drive?
    Can I switch off this message by setting my own limit or by disabling the storage limit?

    As far as I can see this is the only frustrating issue I have found. This is such a great idea.

    Makk

  40. Just found this, absolutely love it. Everything you need all in one place and all connected. Probably not designed for essay writing but I will definitely be using this to organise, plan and write my essays.

  41. Hello Iainwood,
    I am simply overawed by this software!
    Just one minor issue, which another user had pointed out earlier: instead of showing text as is, and wrapping it, the s’ware inserts a horiz scrollbar to show the text.
    This is rather cumbersome, and I would like to find a way out.
    I am on version 3.
    Even if you don’t solve this issue right away, Wavemaker.cards will still be my fav writing and planning software!

  42. Before, I used word and on word I used scene cards but they’re in the format of a table/chart. Is there any way to create a table on any of the cards, or make a template with the table that I can add onto my plan board

  43. Somehow my project was gone and I lost all my work… I always used the sync up button, but I found out it did not sync up to my Google Drive account…

  44. Hello!
    I recently started using wavemaker and I really like it.
    I especially like the grid planner.
    However, there is one thing I do not understand.
    How can I delete the card?
    It could not be deleted by pressing the delete key.
    I would be happy if you could tell me.

  45. Hi there. This product has a lot of the features I am looking for in a novel-writing app, but I can’t see any easy way to move chapters and scenes around on Android. Your video shows drag and drop, which requires a mouse.

    The standard Android equivalent for drap and drop is to long-press and then drag, but that doesn’t seem to do anything here.

    Have I missed something? This is the most important feature of them all in a novel-writing app.

  46. Just wanted to leave a comment that even though I have the paid version of Scrivener, wavemaker is my preferred tool. Great job and thanks for all the handwork you’ve put into it!

  47. What do you mean local database?

    Is this local to your system or to my computer?

    In other words you should be very clear if you are backing up peoples works and writing to your own system.

    Thanks,

    I do like it but want to trust it first.

    1. Dude — its your local browser database where it is RUN from
      I could explain the intricacies of web development and localstorage use, but you probably wouldn’t understand unless you work with software.
      You can back up the local database to google drive (your google drive not mine) and I never get a copy of your work ever …

      ever…

      so if YOU lose it…. it’s gone

  48. Hey, been using this for a while and really loving it, especially the grid planner. Small problem though- the writer itself is not loading anymore, just showing a blank screen with the word loading on it. Any ideas as to the cause for this?

    1. Hi

      Try hitting CTRL and F5 When I do an update sometimes not all the files get ‘updated’ at once which causes an error. Forcing a refresh from the server will get that latest files and it should start working again.

  49. I’ve just started using this tool but am so impressed so far at the ease of use and simplicity of it. Thanks so much for the work you have done on this if I keep using it I will definitely be paying for it – I only discovered it yesterday but I’ve already mentioned it to several other professional authors!

  50. Pardon my lack of knowledge in the mechanics of this software. The project I am beginning is a book of poems. It may seem like an easy task, but it is not. Some of my poems date back several decades. This was before computers were useful. So what poems on scraps of paper, in handwritten notebook, and journals stored in crates and trucks. As time has evolved and my use of computers grew I began putting my writing in a blog and later Google docs. This is all well and good for storage purposes, but it has no symbolical of order . It seems to me if I can some how put a poem per card, onto a board in front of me, it will make the task a bit easier.. Do you have any advice sir? nick

  51. I really love the app, but I wish it had a Global Notes section.

    As it is now you can only see the notes to one section at a time. Unless I’m missing something.

    Mainly because, I’d like to be able to see all of my notes on the right without having to flip back and forth to different sections trying to find some info on whatever.

    Or even when using the Snowflake option, if you had a choice to send it to Global Notes or a particular section as well as Writer that would be cool.

    At the moment I’m doing a lot of cutting and pasting to make one or many note cards. I have to then cut and paste them into each section. If you have 80 scenes that’s a lot of duplication and overhead.

    So, Please! Please! Please! make it so.

  52. Hi,

    I just discovered this software and I like its simplicity and options. But I’m a woman, so the look and feel of the environment is important to me – so I would welcome the possibility of a light background too instead of the depressing gray and black. So much darkness repels me and I don’t like to create in such a depressing environment.

    I’ve tried Mind Maps and they don’t work as mindmaps at all. Labels do not connect by lines. But still a lot of great work. 🙂

  53. Hi,
    Great app,
    I was wondering though if it is possible in the timeline to add dates, so it sorts them automatically. I am writing a historical novel with multiple generations and would love to be able to have something that sorts it automatically.
    And maybe the possibility to have multiple timelines.

  54. I really love this novel writing software called wavemaker. I have some ideas for future updates. I would like to see a grammar fixer/checker loosely based on Grammarly… Where if I make mistakes in writing my novel it would be fixed. I would love to see away to have a location database where you can search up locations that are settings in your novel. Possibly calming music that can play in the background to relax you to help you write… I would also like to be able to sketch pictures for illustrations for children’s novels, that would be really cool to see… I have a final suggestion for future updates for either v4, v5 or v6 which will be. A character creator that you can animate and save for future books in a series using the same characters plus add new characters for future books in a series…

  55. Great software. More uses than just writing novels. Is it possible to delete a photo in the database cards to replace it with a better one

  56. How do you change from the default dark mode? I want a lighter mode but can’t find where you do that on the version 3…

  57. I just want to say how much I love and appreciate this app. It’s helpful for planning so much, not just novel/narrative writing, but even larger essays and non-fiction work.

    One thing that I would love to see, is a way to cross-post from the different planning tools, or at least link to them. Like using the grid planner and writing about a scene will happen at X place, I’d love to be able to link that grid card to the snowflake or database card that I’ve written about X, and that they would update together. Or at least have an easy way to link them so you just click a button on the grid card and it would take you to the linked mindmap.

    But even if that never happens I’m so happy with this app, it’s far more functional and intuitive than any of the paid ones I tried.

  58. I’ve been using Wavemaker to write my novel and it’s a great piece of kit. Thank you so much for sharing it for free!
    However, the last week or so there’s been a significant lag when I’m typing on my Samsung tablet — on two different bluetooth keyboards, and on the tablet’s own internal keyboard. Any idea how I can fix that?

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