I’ve wanted Scrivener, an absolutely amazing writing programme, since the very first moment I saw it. And finally I have it. It didn’t come easy. First off I made a deal with myself that I would only seriously consider the purchase if I won nano this year.
It’s got to be the most expensive piece of software I’ve ever bought because I had to buy the Mac computer to go with it. Macs are brilliant though, and I have absolutely no regrets. I suppose if I hadn’t loved Macs I would have though twice, and I was lucky enough to have a play with a friend’s Mac (and download a trial of Scrivener) to see if the object of my desire and I were going to be compatible. It was love at first sight and I’m now the proud owner of a MacBook Pro and Scrivener.
What I wanted most was the index cards. I reached the stage where I was dreaming about them. I use index cards for plotting, and up until now have had physical ones. I’m not sure the physical cards will be banished altogether, but if there’s one really big advantage that virtual cards have over real ones it’s that the virtual cards can’t fall on the floor and get muddled up just as you’ve spent hours putting them in order.
No more, thanks to the corkboard in Scrivener. I can have as many index cards as I like, all attached to their respective pieces of writing, be they scenes in fiction, ideas in nonfiction, or whatever. I can rearrange the order with the click of the trackpad, and see at a glance exactly what I have and what else is needed.
The split screen function is a stroke of genius and gives Scrivener an added dimension making it just the perfect writing tool whether you’re into fiction or nonfiction – or both, like me.
I do quite a lot of writing for web clients, where research is key, so I need lots of snippets from lots of different sites and it used to be hard to keep track of what I’d learned from where if I needed to backtrack. Not any more. Scrivener has a research section where you can store webpages, music and audio, pdf files, images, or anything else you may need to refer back to. A click of the split screen button and I can keep my research material in front of me while I write. It has really speeded up the process.
Of course I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Scrivener can do and what I can use it for. The few bits and bobs above are just the main things I knew it would help me with, and the things I’ve tried out and found to be just as successful as I thought they would. I expect to write a whole lot more about Scrivener as the months go by and I get further into its functions and processes.
D’you know what I really like? Scrivener doesn’t try and teach me how to write or force me to write in the way it thinks I should. It’s just there, to do the job I need it to do to hold the various elements of my writing in one place, accessible, moveable, and logically presented.
It’s beautiful.
I gave a huge cheer when I realised Literature and Latte, the company behind Scrivener, is English, based in Cornwall. I’m biased, I know, and I make no apologies for that. That great things still come out of England gives me a real kick.
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