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Scrivener - using it and is it worth it?
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LOL! I appreciate the computer, thank you. It will make a great paperweight.
Ellison wrote: "Just a heads up for anyone considering buying ... Scrivener is on sale for $25USD this weekend (Black Friday Sale)."Thanks for sharing this. I just bought it for $25.00 at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scr...
I've been toying with the idea of getting Scrivener for some time now, but I use Y-Writer which has been referred to a scrivener without the bells and whistles. Is there anyone here that has used both and can offer an opinion on whether it's worth switching to Scrivener?
Ellison wrote: "Just a heads up for anyone considering buying ... Scrivener is on sale for $25USD this weekend (Black Friday Sale)."thanks for this info Ellison! I'm going to take the plunge at this reduced price!
Allan wrote: "I've been toying with the idea of getting Scrivener for some time now, but I use Y-Writer which has been referred to a scrivener without the bells and whistles. Is there anyone here that has used b..."I did play around with Y-Writer a few years ago (on a Linux-based netbook) but I much prefer Scrivener.
Erin wrote: "I just recently purchased Scrivener, and I've heard it's wonderful, and looks wonderful but...I am old school. One Word document, no chapter headings (I do that afterward)...I can't seem to get my ..."same here. I have Scrivener but I'm so used to working in Word and Dropbox (word online) that it's tough to see Scrivener as more than an outline/note-taking tool. Maybe for my next book I'll change that.
Thanks Ken, I might just have to bite the bullet and buy Scrivener.
I love Scrivener. I don't know how I would have written my first book without it. I'm sure I only use 2% of its features, but it works perfectly for me.
I love that it keeps you typing in the center of the document, typewriter feature. I wish Word had that. I also like the Character features in the Fiction option. I like being able to look at their photos easily and I can think on them. It does export pretty well to Word which is my native program. But for $25 I think it's worth it. It does have alot of bells and whistles that I won't use and I think are pointless (for me). I may switch back to Word and I may not just depends on the day I guess. I know one thing, I'll write my book in it but then export to Word for editing and preparing for Kindle and such and that's because I just got Word figured out for all that.
For the purposes of writing, I love Scrivener. I will never go back to another word processor. However, for editing and formatting, I don't like it. I will always compile what I am working on and use word for that. I have some other editing programs that I use in conjunction with Word that do not work for editing.
Just started using it. Bought it for Christmas. So far, it's helped me really clean up my box set. The most difficult part for me is figuring out the compile process, but it's looking pretty good so far.
Brandon wrote: "For the purposes of writing, I love Scrivener. I will never go back to another word processor. However, for editing and formatting, I don't like it. I will always compile what I am working on and u..."That's what I've found too. What a relief. Thought I was just incompetent. lol I ended up correcting formatting in word.
Jolie wrote: "Just started using it. Bought it for Christmas. So far, it's helped me really clean up my box set. The most difficult part for me is figuring out the compile process, but it's looking pretty good s..."It took me some time to understand what I actually use it for. I really like it, but I am sure it is much more powerful than I know. I get into my comfort zone with programs and the portions I want to use, then years down the road I'll figure something out and say "Whoa! This can do that??? I never knew."
I can get a pretty nice output compile from Scrivener, but if I want some of those little extras like drop caps, starting chapters recto, and more control over widows/orphans, I need Word. So, like the rest of you, final 'finishing' steps are in word.
I'm glad too to see I'm the not only one who prefers editing in Word. I'm curious how many folks use Scenes inside of Chapters. I'm still toying with having oodles of scenes or just one per chapter. I don't usually write with notecards all over so for me this seems like too much.
For my first novel within Scrivener, I just used chapters and didn't have a separate container for each scene. But I now much prefer scenes in their own documents, within the chapter folder. It makes formatting, moving scenes around, and locating scenes much easier.
I use chapter folders with scenes documents within so that the chapter folder headings can be formatted in compile.I also use Word for final formatting of the print versions of my books. Straight from scrivener comes any other format I need. It's almost as though my brain has blocked out the way I used to do things before Scrivener.
I've been using Scrivener since September, and I can't imagine going without it for organizing and making notes and research all together. I do my writing still in Word, but I'm thinking about writing my next piece in Scrivener and exporting it out to Word for editing and formatting.One feature that I love are the pre-made templates that you can use. I found that some of them didn't fit my needs, but then learned that I can create my own templates to suits each project exactly. It's very easy to create them and have them available every time I need them.
I have Scrivener on both Mac and PC but I'm so used to working on Word, I haven't switched completely yet. So far Scrivner's main benefit to me has been as a notecard tool, helping me to keep track of characters and descriptions. I think it's because I was already 60% done with my current novel. Perhaps on the next one I'll start from scratch on Scrivener.
I've been using Scrivener on a MacBook for several years now. Except for the cover art, Scrivener was the only tool I used to produce my first novel, released this past October. It's a much more pleasant writing experience than Word or any other editor I've used (and I've used a lot). I can't imagine why you'd want to take the output and post-process it in Word. I produced my ePub version and the internal text layout of my POD book directly from Scrivener. Some components, like front matter, have two versions, one for print and one for ebook. When I compile the drafts, I choose from my predefined format specs and include/exclude components as needed. For me, not having to ever use Word is worth a lot more than I paid for Scrivener. Of course, everyone likes what they're used to, and there is some learning involved with any new tool. But when you're just starting out, you can ignore all the stuff you're not ready to learn and just write. There's even a mode where it grays out everything else on your display and all you're looking at is your text. It's easy to break scenes apart into separate components or merge them together later, so do what's easy at first and use the more sophisticated features when you're ready.Here are the factors that I most appreciate about Scrivener (and bear in mind that the Mac version is slightly more capable than the Windows version).
1. You can write down an idea for a scene or dialogue at any time without worrying about where it goes or how it connects into the rest of the book. You don't have to come up with a filename for it, and you can easily move it around later. If you unselect the "Include in Compile" flag, then it won't appear in your drafts until you're ready to include it, but it's still right there in the project. There are several ways to mark that it's unfinished (draft status, colored flag icons, inline comments that are ignored when the drafts are produced ... whatever works best for you.) I even keep a separate project called "Scraps" where I jot down ideas for books or stories I haven't started yet (and might never). It's easy to drag them into a book project later when I decide where to use them.
2. All your notes, research, links to web pages (or even excerpts from web pages), can be kept in the project (or kept in their own project if, for example, you have a series of related books and you want to keep the research and notes for all of them in one place.) I keep some projects for household and business notes that aren't even associated with any writing drafts.
3. It has a very good "undo" stack, automatic save and backup features that you can configure how you want, and a snapshot feature that lets you keep named/dated versions of individual components (scenes, chapters, etc.), so you never have to worry about losing work. If you're making a big change across a lot of components, select them all, click the snapshot button, enter a description, and no matter how badly your rewrite goes, you can always get back to the version you had before. It will also show you a comparison between two snapshots, or between any snapshot and the current version.
4. It comes with a tutorial project that guides you through the major features, and templates for various types of books/articles/stories. My advice is go through the whole tutorial, look at the templates they provide, but start your own work as a blank project. That way, you're not stuck in someone else's idea of how to organize your work. You can always go back and look at their templates to see how they managed things once you understand more about what the tradeoffs are, and reorganize then.
Give Scrivener a try (no, I don't work for the company, I just really appreciate good tools.)
I can't imagine why you'd want to take the output and post-process it in Word. I produced my ePub version and the internal text layout of my POD book directly from Scrivener. Some components, like front matter, have two versions, one for print and one for ebook. I use Word for some of the finer formatting that I like to use that Scrivener doesn't do, such as drop caps, starting chapters recto, centering pages vertically, finer widow/orphan control, etc.
I also use it to finish a doc file for Smashwords that is compliant for the meatgrinder.
I do create kindle and epub files directly from Scrivener.
James wrote: "I've been using Scrivener on a MacBook for several years now. Except for the cover art, Scrivener was the only tool I used to produce my first novel, released this past October. It's a much more pl..."I like what you are saying hear about Scrivener and will download tonight.
I swear by it. Before I had Scrivener I couldn't finish a book. I'd get maybe twenty to forty pages into a Word document, but it was so hard to keep track of. Eventually I would peter out, and give up. The number of half-started books in my Word file is pathetic. Literally the first time I tried Scrivener, I wrote a book. What is genius about it is the organization. Even if you're someone who doesn't write an outline, just being able to move chapter by chapter in a coherent fashion helps to give general guidelines. I don't use half the functionality of Scrivener, but I don't think I could write books without it. Before Scrivener I had started many novels, but hadn't finished one; since purchasing Scrivener I've written five novels and a play in about a year and a half. Best writing tool I ever purchased.
I love it! been using it for 2 years. What I like about it is that when I edit, often realize some chapters need more work than others. You can simply edit/re-write that chapter and leave the original there, just unchecked for compiling, and it doesn't affect your whole manuscript. Then in the end, you choose which version to use and compile the book that way!
Tried it for some time, didn't like it. Maybe if it was for free, I might occasionally use it, but having to pay for it? Nope.I'm sure a lot of people find it useful, but it's just not for me. Plus, it messes up my formatting.
don't worry kat it's not for everyone. I too tried it hoping an all in one solution would free up space on my drive and the janky formatting on output nearly drove me up the wall. I also couldn't fine tune my templates as I wanted. so I went back to ywriter.
I'll probably switch to Scrivener when my Turbo-286 finally dies. In the mean time, I've found that the MSWord "Navigation Pane" feature [menu bar: view/show/navigation pane] is a v. useful tool for hopping around a large document. Use headings to separate chapters, create character lists (Biff, Villanious, Winifred), glossaries (boodog, skringle, stabulator...), even a list of on-line references. Use subheadings to create easy-to-use bookmarks (now just where was Villanious when he got skringled with the stabulator?). Not as powerful as Scrivener, but an easy work-around until I feel like climbing yet another learning curve [sighs].
K.P. wrote: "don't worry kat it's not for everyone. I too tried it ... and the janky formatting on output nearly drove me up the wall. ... I went back to ywriter."i'm going to give ywriter a go. hey, it's free, the screenshot looked pretty useful, it's developed by a published writer, and he's ported it to win10, which shows that his project is active.
i've been using openoffice for about 4-5 years now, but needed a kind of overview. i was thinking of eventually learning xcode and doing one myself or a plugin to openoffice, but that would take away from writing, right?
(scrivener looked to "heavy"; that is, complex)
thanks, K.P.!
No problem, Wisteria! Glad to have helped! XD
I switched from Word to Scrivener while writing my first novel, and I love it. The output can be an issue if you need a specific format, but then again, you'll have to fix it anyway if you're setting up e.g. the interior design of your book. :)
I haven't used Scrivener yet, but just experienced some major headaches formatting my book for both KDP and the print version. A fellow author (upon hearing my distress :) commented that she had used Scrivener for her previously published books and though there is a learning curve, she found it simplified the process overall.
I absolutely LOVE scrivener! Made the switch from Word and haven't looked back. It's worth the learning curve!
Mary wrote: "Wow, wish it could be used on Chromebook"Not on Chromebook, but there is now an excellent iPad/ iPhone version that works brilliantly with the other versions. Create your projects on Dropbox and you can access them from the iPad or computer. Just do a sync (one button) before you start editing and a sync after, and you can work on whatever device is handy. I've been using this feature on iPad and Mac since the iOS version came out last year, and I've had no problems with it at all. If I forget to sync, it usually warns me, and if things ever get out of sync you don't lose any work. It shows you where the conflict is.
It's in the mail. All you need to do is put a video card in it...I hope you don't mind Windows 95.