LivingWriter: Write Anywhere

I’ve been using this program for a while, it’s got more pros than cons, and is constantly being improved. There are of course things which can be improved upon but the program is quick to learn, full of useful features and well worth a try.

So I just got this and I’m finding it difficult to use. The YouTube videos made it look so easy. Problems I’ve already run into: I tried to copy a paragraph so I could move it to another section and it just doesn’t copy and paste like any other typed application does. I truly don’t know why something that simple can’t be done. Secondly, I was playing around with fonts because the type was a bit small for me to read. I accidentally made one paragraph bold and I can’t figure out how to turn it back to the same as the others. I followed the YouTube video tutorial! Third, I used AI option to start a manuscript. It showed 1/5 AI usages used, but where did it go?? It’s literally nowhere to be found. It’s also hard to move back from tutorials to work in progress. It’s not intuitive. I’ll keep this for a few days for free trial, but I can’t see paying for this at all. The YouTube videos were so misleading!!

I love this app a lot of the time, but the amount of bugs make it too frustrating to use for sustained writing— I now import my docs from Google docs & format them for livingwriter as part of my drafting process when I’m further along. Very frustrating that simple bugs still aren’t fixed & I have def submitted numerous bug reports about this stuff for more than a year. For example, the type of quotation marks it uses on desktop versus the phone app are different, so if you’re editing in one and switch to the other, the “s are different. When editing in the middle of a doc on mobile, the font will randomly change so you have to undo what you’ve written and re-write it— but still sometimes it will change. Yesterday I was trying to edit one sentence and I had to re-do my edit 5 times before it stopped changing the font. It’s also very difficult to highlight the text and change the font, you have to press the button for formatting multiple times and sometimes rehighlight the text too. It can take 10-20 attempts. The AI chapter-to-screenplay function was great at first but now it just puts your dialogue in the center of the page with your exposition still there. The most frustrating bug— and increasingly frequent, which is what drove me to leave this review, is that the mobile app is now inconsistently syncing with the desktop app. I write on my phone when I’m not at home, and I write on my laptop when I am. Lately, the phone app almost NEVER updates with what I’ve written on desktop. Even if I restart the app, even if I look through my latest versions— my desktop draft seems to exist only on my desktop. SOMETIMES it will update, it’s not like permanently not syncing, but it’s been enough lately that I can no longer justify using the mobile app. I love LivingWriter as a concept, I find it has a lot of cool features other apps don’t have & I like the aesthetic and future plans for the app. I use the cover art function a lot & find it gives me better results than most AI (I don’t actually use these images in marketing or publishing, but I like them for my own inspiration purposes). The issues with LivingWriter are more the continued small frustrations that impact user experience yet are not addressed as they implement other ambitious updates. Please get the foundation of you app more solid! I want this app to work as intended, that’s why I became a lifetime user!

I use the app on my MacBook and iPad and used to love it. The interface can get a bit clunky if you are the type to create many drop-downs like me, but it’s a simple fix by just organizing your ideas a bit better. I’m very excited for the implementation of tabs which I think will help this specific quirk of mine. However, my biggest disappointment is the AI update, and it’s gotten so bad that I am considering unsubscribing completely. I wish they would make an option to eliminate it completely from your current subscription level rather than forcing it onto everyone en masse. I was told that there was going to be a patch to disable seeing the AI options, but so far all I’ve seen is the “hide AI chat” option on the MacBook app that only hides that blue button at the bottom right of the screen. I still have to look at it on my iPad and I’m still waiting for the patch that will eliminate every AI option completely for those of us that don’t use it. I used to love this app and I recommended it to many writer friends, but now I regret doing so. Please make a separate subscription tier for people who want and will actually use AI and keep the rest of us who don’t want it as we were before the big update. Or make an “opt out” function to remove all AI options, not just the AI chat. I emailed for help on how to downgrade to a previous version without AI but unfortunately that doesn’t seem possible. I hated writing this negative review because this was my favorite (and best) writing app, but if you don’t want AI anywhere near your writing then look elsewhere.

I didn’t like this software. It isn’t intuitive and the tutorials for it cover trivial functions that I didn’t care about. Unfortunately for me I let my subscription expire AFTER I had outlined my novel in it. When I resubscribed to retrieve my work, half the outline was gone. I bought Scrivener instead (one time payment) and there are tutorials on every aspect of the program.

I have several other tools I use regularly to write with. All have their advantages and I use all in various aspects of my writing process. I’ve taken a chance on lifetime plans with a couple including LivingWriter. LivingWriter felt like a gamble and maybe it still is. BUT, I really love the new AI additions and other user enhancements like scaling the view make it an easier tool to use when fully mobile. Not overly excited about AI in the other tools I use. The new LW AI integration has suddenly become my inspirational co-pilot for world building, quick character back-story creation, and even an story within a story piece that I was struggling with in a current script/novel. It’s a well rounded tool for fiction, non fiction, and scripting. It keeps track of versions. It has visual planning. So far, the latest additions are well thought out and work well within this existing package of features. The roadmap seems to slide dates continuously. Compared to my other tools, it’s also a lot of growth in the six months I’ve invested. Can’t wait to see what they do next in the roadmap.

The app definitely has bugs. The “total written today” and daily goals feature often cuts out on a different time zone than I am in, I’ve tried toggling the time zone and it still cuts out at the wrong time.

I’m new to LivingWriter. Frankly I’ve been very impressed with the program - only when I use it through a web browser. This app is horrible. it fails to sync properly with the web, response is laggy most of the time, and the UI is a mystery at times. Editing formats works some of the time. Just not ready for prime time. If you plan on using an iPad app as your main source of entry - use something other than LivingWriter.

Their social media presence is too minimal to make me totally comfortable. And they do seem to lag on their projected timeline for upgrades. But they just (quietly) keep plugging away and improving the tool. Version 2 is shaping up to be a pretty good product. Scriptwriting. Templates. Footnotes. There are some cool tools in addition to the standard set. They just need to step up their visibility with their customer base.

LW keep releasing new versions but many features still simply don’t work - try adding a cover image on a manuscript for example Bugs, a completely botched upgrade process, service outages and a lot of questionable UX choices - for a subscription based service - they need to do a LOT better if they want my renewal dollars