Are you laces over Crocs? Pedals over e-bike? Spiral pad over iPad? And are you looking for a tried-and-true way to translate your stories from mind to digital matter?
This new/old writing program could be for you.
Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free | Ars Technica
WordStar’s most recent claim to fame might be that it’s the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire.
But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing.
Last updated in 1992, Wordstar still has devoted users. Rob Sawyer, all-around nice guy and winner of (checks notes) pretty much every sci-fi award ever, is one of them. He’s also done waiting.
Deciding that the app is now “abandonware,” Sawyer recently put together as complete a version of WordStar 7 as might exist. He bundled together over 1,000 pages of scanned manuals that came with WordStar, related utilities, his own README guidance, ready-to-run versions of DOSBox-X and VDosPlus, and WordStar 7 Rev. D and posted them on his website as the “Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive.”
I’ll be honest, this program probably isn’t for me. But I do love the fact that Rob figured out what works for him, found a way to keep it working for him (no mean feat in our current environment of disposable tech), and wants to share it with the rest of us.
If you are in the market for a head-down, “focus first” approach to writing and don’t mind installing a DOS emulator to use it, check out this beloved program.
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J.R. Johnson 
How fun! I can’t imagine using old software, but if Word stopped getting updates, I’d probably be using that 20 years from now. If I can still type. Still, 1992? Dang.
I know, right? You have to respect that sort of commitment. In 1992 I was using… a pen. Also probably some very early version of Word, but mostly pen and paper:)
I spent $1800 for a Mac that year then bought Word so I could write stories… I may have written a few. In fact, I was just given a floppy disk from that computer and I plugged it in – could not read from the specified device. I’m dyin’ to know what’s on there!
Access to those old files would be fascinating, TJ. Although there’s a certain sweetness to knowing that you have the absolutely perfect story, if only you could get it off that disk!
(I did a little research on file access, and it looks like it’s possible but not easy. I stopped at the phrase “Catweasel floppy controller” because that seemed appropriate;) >