Novel Writing vs Linking Lists
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Novel Writing
This writing companion offers a rich text editor and organizational tools for fiction writers. It provides tiered AI assistance, from manual outlining to full novelette generation, allowing users to choose their preferred level of creative support.
- Manual outline and Story Bible
- Rich text editor
- PDF export
- Chapter organization
- AI-powered narrative autocomplete
- Full novelette generation
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Write works of fiction with the help of Ember Glow. This app aims to respect writers who just want to write, no AI bells and whistle, but also creatives who want to explore and tinker with AI for themselves. With an aim of respecting the various styles of writing, this app incorporates three methods of using AI: Level 1: None. You still get (free): * An outline you can fill out manually to brainstorm and keep track of your thoughts, the Story Bible. It has sections for characters, themes, world building, plot outlines, and more. * A fully-featured rich text editor. * The ability to transform your book into a PDF. * Organization of your work into chapters or sections that you can rearrange. * You can remove the sidebars for a focused, full-screen writing experience. Level 2: Some AI: * Each section of the Story Bible lets you provide a prompt where to generate that portion of the core. And it's all editable afterwards, of course. * You also get a section of the app that provides narrative autocomplete, meaning the app understands the whole context of all you have written, including the Story Bible and summaries of your writing thus far, to help unblock you or give you ideas of what to write (or if you please, ideas of what not to write; doing the opposite of generative suggestions is very much an option). Level 3: Full * Create an entire novelette for you to either enjoy on your own, or to flesh out into a richer story. * Generate in one shot, or create the draft based on your Story Bible. For in-app purchases and subscriptions, see https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-serivces/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Linking Lists
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Linking Lists is a personal, fully customizable, relational database, used to help manage your world. Features include images, charts, email and text templates and most importantly, relational lists for easy navigation.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Linking Lists at none against Novel Writing's 2. Linking Lists also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). Novel Writing's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Novel Writing sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Linking Lists asks for nothing beyond the download.
Novel Writing ships an update every 3 weeks, Linking Lists every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Novel Writing | Linking Lists |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 63 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cephalopod Studio | James Welch |
In-app purchases
Novel Writing
- Premium monthly3 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Premium Annual3 Days trial$39.991 Year
Linking Lists
No in-app purchases









