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Scrivener is a word processing app designed for writers with a unqiue interface and tool set focused on ‘generating content’ rather than simply allowing for content to be written.

Anything like that for ubuntu?

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  • try celtx (not sure if it's still updated, haven't check in a while
    – RolandiXor
    Mar 14, 2011 at 5:26
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    As I note below, Scrivener for Linux is approaching release status.
    – belacqua
    Oct 29, 2011 at 7:17

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Celtx

Celtx is the world's first all-in-one media pre-production system. It replaces 'paper & binder' pre-production with a digital approach that's more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.

Celtx

Kabikaboo (Click To Install)

Kabikaboo is meant to help you plan a novel, but could be used for anything that would benefit from tree-based text organization. Kabikaboo is not meant to create a formatted document - you should use AbiWord/OpenOffice/LaTeX or some other editor for that purpose.

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Storybook

Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.

enter image description here

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Scrivener for Linux is actually an option. The Linux version is now approaching release status.

The Beta program can be downloaded from the official forums.

The Linux version started as an unofficial offshoot of the windows port. However, it is being developed by the same developer that is working on the Windows version (which works well in WINE, incidentally), and there has been continuous work on bug-fixing and feature upgrades since it was first released. Discussion and bug reports can be found and made at the forums at Literature and Latte (the publisher).

WikidPad is another option. (Also see WikiPad's Sourceforge home.)

Some of the published writers who do the Writing Excuses podcast use Wikid Pad (for the episode where this is mentioned, see #5-34, "Story Bibles").

This part of the description caught my eye:

IDE for your thoughts

Software developers have grown accustomed to certain features from their integrated development environment that make their jobs easier. Features like auto-completion, outline views, incremental search, easy source code navigation. IDE's that provide these features can greatly increase developer productivity. wikidPad attempts to utilize some of these features to address the problem of personal information management.

For WikidPad, there is a PPA available through GetDebs. Otherwise, you can always compile it from source.

I've seen a couple people who've said they use Zim Wiki, a simpler wiki-like editor. It is available in the repos. I used it for a while, and liked it, though now I use Tomboy for quick note taking (with Ubuntu One synchronization).

Writer's Café is another possibility.

Writer's Café is a set of power tools for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer's Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay

Writer's Cafe screenshot

Writer's Café is commercial software, but has a limited demo version available.

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  • Why was this downvoted?. I feel that this new answer is very important for the question. Now Scrivener is available for Linux, when the OP asked it wasn't.
    – Javier Rivera
    Mar 14, 2011 at 12:19
  • 8 hours ago?really?
    – Lincity
    Mar 14, 2011 at 13:06
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    Whether or not the beta was available when this question was posted, the OP is looking for a program similar to Scrivener for Ubuntu. Apparently the OP (and probably a lot of other people) didn't realize that Scrivener already has a beta available for Ubuntu, so this answer is a valuable piece of information. No need to look for an alternative if you can have the program you want. :)
    – Michael Martin-Smucker
    Mar 14, 2011 at 13:57
  • My fault. I don't know why, but I feel that this question was older :(. Lesson: Don't trust your memory ;).
    – Javier Rivera
    Mar 14, 2011 at 14:59
  • @Alaukik Well, that is subjective, of course. Personally I think (and suspect that for people who like Scrivener, this is generally the case) that the UI lends itself toward encouraging better creative flow. But again, some people might hate it, or prefer gedit, or one of the other options, etc..
    – belacqua
    Mar 26, 2011 at 18:35
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You could also try Kabikaboo which is in the Ubuntu repositories. It doesn't have all of the features that Scrivener does but it is open source and may be able to help your organize what you write.

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Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.

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Xmind - designed for brainstorming. I use for that plus outlining. Easy to move blocks of ideas or chapters or events around.

A recent entry into this space that I'm looking into is "Plume Creator".

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While you're at it, you could also look at Zim which seems to be very alike Kabikaboo, but I think there are different features implemented (no "subset view", but includes tags, markup, images, etc.).

I used it for quite some writing of games.

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Plume Creator also an option -

http://sourceforge.net/projects/plume-creator/

Using it at the moment and seems petty good

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