Review Group discussion
Services
>
Is Scrivener as good as it's cracked up to be?
date
newest »
newest »
Horses for courses, Douglas. Impulsive writing can result in gripping tales, capturing the reader in the same rollercoaster ride the author was on. I've read the start of your novel and can attest to thrill of that particular ride. But then the work of editing needs doing, either by the author or a paid editor.I'll happily do the writing, the editing, the proof reading, the formatting, the publishing. One thing I cannot stomach is marketing.
This video is old, but he makes some good points about writing apps, and is very funny as well.http://youtu.be/zFVzb4cnU0A
The downside of Scrivener for me - it's not intuitive. However, the tutorials are excellent and the pay-off makes the investment of time worth it. It's also inexpensive, especially when you consider the wealth of features.
True, I definitely had to read up on it a bit to get started, and I still mess things up from time to time (how did I manage to get a scene in that chapter when I didn't want one???) My favorite part is the corkboard feature.
I was very late to get Scrivner. I kept hearing about it, and was like, "Yeah, ok, so what?" When you win NaNoWriMo, you get (among other things) a coupon for 50% off Scrivner. So I finally got it.
I peronsally find it amazingly useful. I don't write in it, I still cling to my Word Perfect (my Precious), but i do use it for notes, research, refernece (what color was that character's eyes? Who was his brother?). It's fantastic for that.
I agree, it's not intuitive, but it's really not that hard to learn, IMHO.
Just my two cents.
I am finally on board with the notion of trying Scrivener, and new to this forum, so I apologize if my questions are redundant, but 1) Will I be able to save my file as a word document and edit or change it in word if I create it in Scrivener and 2) Can I copy and paste a work in progress into Scrivener? I am set up for a Webinar tutorial end of March, but thinking of buying the program today. Thanks so much!
Mona wrote: "K.A. wrote: "Yep, I was a real Word Perfect fan, too. In fact, I remember using WordStar...what I really want is an electronic typewriter. I hate it when the program re-formats my paragraphs or ind..."I can relate. I started to write on a prewar Imperial typewriter with a 18"-wide carriage for architect's drawings. I've just published a book that was written, 23 years ago, on a portable electric typewriter.
I'm too much of a dyslexic typist to manage a novel on a typewriter, Mike!Gabrielle - you could always 'suck it and see' with the free trial, but the answer to both questions is yes. You can import and export from/to a variety of formats. Most users I know do the work in Scrivener and then export to Word for final formatting. I don't know about them but in my case that's probably because I haven't taken the time to learn the full features of Scrivener. One handy export is to mobi format - if I get a Word doc I import to Scrivener and immediately export to mobi so my original Kindle handles the file well.
It looks pretty cool, and I might get it someday, but with the experiences I've had using multiple word processors on one document (which you'd most likely end up doing), it causes all sorts of hiccuping for final formatting--something to do with hidden formatting the word processors put in place. I'd like to know if anyone's had any problems with this on Schrivener.
Scrivener is designed to allow you to export clean files to multiple formats. I usually export to WORD for a final edit and upon revealing codes, have not found any hidden codes inserted. This makes it easy to do a final clean & format of your file. I know some folks (Jay?) export directly to .mobi and other file formats from Scrivener. Scrivener's word processing is very, very basic. It's mainly an organizational tool, although it'll do running spell-check. I think that keeps it free of odd coding.
Thanks for telling me that, K.A.! I just had numerous trials with Open Office/ Word 97/Word 2003 hybrids. I have a trial version of Schrivener. I'll have to check it out more.
K.A. wrote: "Scrivener is designed to allow you to export clean files to multiple formats. I usually export to WORD for a final edit and upon revealing codes, have not found any hidden codes inserted. This make..."I do export to mobi for a quick way to read stuff I'm due to review, but I'd never do that for work I was preparing for publishing. I export to Word for final formatting, convert to epub and thoroughly check that out, then epub to mobi. The Word doc goes directly onto Smashwords, differently formatted to CreateSpace, and I upload the mobi to KDP. That way I'm positive everything behaves itself, including the TOC.
Melinda - have a look at the tutorials; they're very helpful when starting out with Scrivener.
That's what I do, too. I copy a separate WORD file for each format I'm going to create and go from there. But the WORD files do come out clean from Scrivener, in my experience. Although I then proceed to do the 'nuclear option' anyway.
I have to thank you all for your comments. I'd never heard of Scrivener before opening this thread (I've always used Word or Pages from start to finish-weird, I know!). Having bought and used Scrivener for a few days now, I can see many new doors opening up. I've always managed to keep track of things in my head and in a separate notebook as I couldn't be bothered learning a new way. This thread convinced me to have a look and I have been really impressed with what I've seen.
So, thanks!
Paying it forward - that's kind of how I felt when I started using Scrivener! I love the corkboard. Now I'm like, "So, how did I organize stuff before this?"
I really want to give it another go.When I did the final formatting on my first novel, I tried sigil and calibre, but found both of them quite unwieldy. Then I found Scrivener and it worked like a dream. However, I selected the 30 trial and after I closed the program and reopened it the next day, a message popped up to inform me that the trial had ended and I need to buy the full version.
That really annoyed me. It seemed like a bait and switch, I felt duped. Since then I've calmed down and considered how helpful it was. I think I'll just buy it when I need to format my next book.
I use Word for my drafts and am now using InDesign for the final book, but I am tempted by Scrivener. I've heard good things about it from PhD students, whose needs aren't that far from ours. They also need to organize different but related sources and blocks of text and ensure that they interlock in the right places.
Scrivener is well worth the price. I recommend it with one caveat, I have only used the OSX version. That said, if you have a Mac do not hesitate to buy it.Organization
It gives you a variety of ways to organize, work with and reorder everything from rough ideas to drafts.
Character profiles, setting profiles, research files all have folders accessible from the main editor.
Unlike a word processor, you can jump back and forth to any part of the manuscript, folders, etc with one click.
Chapters and or scenes can be moved around with drag and drop.
Publishing
I was able to compile my manuscript for print and ebooks within Scrivener. then it was just a matter of loading the finished files to iTunes Producer, Kindle Previewer, etc.
Scrivener is what a writing application should be, on a Mac anyway.
Jamie wrote: "BTW, the 30 day trial is for 30 days of use; i.e. if it takes you six months to use it for 30 days, that's fine. A 30 day trial is a 30 day trial. After 30 days of use, if it stops working, how can you consider that bait and switch?"As I stated in my earlier message. I downloaded Scrivener and selected to run the 30 day trial version. However, the very next day, I opened Scrivener and it said my trial has expired. It prompted me to purchase the full product. In other words, my 30 day trial lasted a day. I didn't get 6 months, I didn't even get 30 days, mine expired after a day.
I felt ripped off, as I haven't even tested the program all that well. I don't know what went wrong, but it didn't really leave me with a lot of confidence in the product.
That sounds like a glitch. I've never heard of that happening to anyone with Scrivner before.
Wayland wrote: "That sounds like a glitch. I've never heard of that happening to anyone with Scrivner before."I'm pretty sure that was the case. Honestly, I was a bit annoyed at first, but since then I've cooled down and I've come to my senses. It is a good program, and I think I'll buy it when I format my next novel.
Has anyone who has worked with Scrivener also tried Evernote? I like the organizing capabilities of Evernote but it has none of the formatting abilities.It is free and if you install on more than one device, it will synch them.
I have heard very good things about Evernote, I've never used it personally.
I tried Scrivener in July 2015 when I started a new book. I couldn't make any sense of it. I carried on trying until it made me cry, then I gave up.I bought it after NaNo in November and tried it again. I was in the process of moving from Word to another program, and it seems to have a reasonable word processor, so that at least would come in useful. I've given this thing weeks of my time.
I'm a start to finish writer, but I could really do with some way of organising my thoughts and the plot at the start of a book, so I thought Scrivener would be useful for that.
Nope.
I can't work out this thing. I've taken tutorials, looked at the manual, tried to work from templates, without templates and it doesn't work for me. I've looked on youtube, followed classes, and still it just doesn't work for me.
I can see the principles, it should work, but every time I think I've cracked it, it throws me another curveball. Every time I try to write my synopsis on those cards, I get nothing. They don't show up, whatever view I'm in. The terminology is so different from anything else I've used that I don't understand what is meant half the time.
Then I look for autocorrect and it's not there. It also seems to have only one version, instead of different versions for different languages. I have to press two buttons to get to it. In Word and LibreOffice, I have it on my toolbar.
Can I do macros on it? At least then I could use it for editing.
It's not for everybody. It appears it's not for you.Not sure why you're having difficulty with the cards.
Personally I use it for notes and for writing chapter-by-chapter, and I use the corkboard with the cards to remind myself about which chapter it is I want to work in at the moment. But somewhere after I've done a draft, I export it all, save it to WORD, and remove all formatting. Then I do a final edit in WORD. I don't use it for final 'spit and polish' copies.
You just may not find the way it's organized useful. I wouldn't waste too much time on it if it's not your thing. Just go back to using WORD, OpenOffice, or whatever makes you comfortable so you can get down to the business of writing instead of stressing!
I have found Scrivner to be really useful for tracking character descriptions particularly. I set up a note card for each character with name, family connections, description. It's a lot easier than, "Did he have blue eyes or brown?" *search, search, swear*The writers' seminar I'm going to in Feb is having a presentation/tutorial on Scrivner. I'm looking forward to it.
I use a Excel as a pretty simple tool for tracking details that I can't afford to lose track of. I have one tab for people, one for things (I write sci-fi, so I need to keep track of gadgets, astronomical objects, spaceships, etc.) and one for places. Each tab has a unique set of columns to track what's important for that category. For example, my people tab has columns for first name, last name, age, occupation, physical characteristics, relationships, and misc. notes. In some cases, I need more detail. In my first novel, a specific crater on Mars is used as an astronaut camp, so I drew a Visio diagram of the crater with all of the buildings and infrastructure laid out to scale, so there were no inconsistencies in the story regarding where everything was located.
I think you just need to find the tools and mechanisms that work for you. Scrivner may be one tool that works for some, but you might find other things that work better in your toolbox.
I'd like to say something on behalf of Evernote. This is a free app (they do try to get you to "upgrade") and you can create note books within which you can create notes.I find this useful for things I like to jot down or copy from some web source (best to copy firt to NOte Pad then to Evernote -the "nuclear option" Smashwords talks about).
The amazing thing I found is that you can have your notes on a PC, laptop, tablet, etc. and the notes will synch up! I discovered this by accident when I prepared for a longish journey and made notes of things to do and stuck it into a note - the light bulb went on and I downloaded the app to my tablet and viola.
I was also able to make notes on writing while on the journey!
Hmmm, sounds interesting. Could definitely be useful for traveling...
When I write I reassess each paragraph as I write. The act of moving words around to create the effect I want helps define the next paragraph I need to write. The downside is my writing is very slow. The upside is very easy editing once the story is 'finished'.