Scrivener for Windows
By Cynthia on Feb 16, 2011 in Software
It’s been a slow start to getting back into my writing in 2011. But I vowed at the beginning of the year to stay motivated and focus on finishing my novel. One major issue I identified with holding me back is my lack of organization.
I have notes everywhere, on tiny bits of paper, strewn throughout several notebooks, a notepad on my nightstand, a notepad in my car, and even a small spiral notepad pulling double duty as a bookmark for the latest novel I’m not finding time to read.
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I figured if I could just get past football season then I can finally start putting that extra half day that turns into all day football Sunday to good use. Now if I could just find something to help me get my writing organized.
Last year I participated in NanoMoWri. It was a great month to prove to me that I could prioritize my writing and fit it into a very hectic schedule. One of the side benefits to completing 50,000 plus words was a discount for some writing software. I’m now big on writing software of any kind. In the past I felt that none of them lived up to the hype and I spent more time trying to get it to work than writing.
I had vaguely heard Scrivener mentioned around the writing circles I travel, but did not pay much attention to. After all, Word was doing a fine job for me. There are several files of novel, updated novel, submitted portion of novel (times 6), current novel, edited current novel, chapter notes, character sketches, and don’t know what to do with it so stick all notes in here document (times 3). Very, very organized don’t you think?
After going to Literature and Latte to find out what Scrivener was, I was hooked. The only bad part was that this software was developed for Mac. If I ONLY had a Mac, which I don’t. I’m a PC girl through and through, I mean hey, I’m still sticking with the Philadelphia Eagles, why switch now, right?
On the bright side they had just started Beta testing for Windows.
Now I know most of you would run in the other direction at the mention of Beta Software, but not me. After looking through screen shots and reading what Scrivener could do, I was chomping at the bit. I thrive on challenges and being a technical writer I’m usually testing software anyway, so what was one more software to test. And a product I was readily going to enjoy.
I immediately downloaded Scrivener Beta 1.3 and set out going through the help and the online tutorials. Being a the technical writer that I am, I’m a bit critical of the help and the tutorials. For the most part the Help helped me understand the structure of the software, but it wasn’t easy to find answers after I started working through setting up my project. The help is in another Scrivener project and I found it cumbersome to use while in my project and sometimes got lost in finding an answer to my problem.
On the flip side, Scrivener is pretty intuitive. I think chunking my word document into manageable parts in Scrivener was tedious, but after is was in there….WOW!
I am happy to announce I’ve had little to no issues using Scrivener. I find the later Beta’s are slower to open, but that, so far, knock on wood, my only issue and to me that is a non-issue. I work with RoboHelp which is slower to open than most software because of it’s complexity, so taking a couple three minutes to open doesn’t bother me.
Now, as Scrivener is on the verge of going out into the world for Windows, I decided to sign up as an affiliate. So, the links you see to Scrivener are affiliate links, but I have never become an affiliate for a product that I haven’t tried and don’t wholeheartedly support.
This is such a wonderful product, I plan on detailing some of the better features over the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, check out Scrivener for yourself. Then come back and let me know what you think.
Related articles
- Review: Literature and Latte Scrivener 2.0.2 (macworld.com)
Finally, another female writer who feels like I do about football and Scrivener. It was a good and bad thing when the Saints lost out so early in the playoffs. I got more Sunday writing done…
I’m Hooked on Scrivener.
@marleydelarose
Marley Delarose | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Thanks for this nice review on the beta! The documentation situation is one that will be improved with the final release. As a technical writer, you probably already know it is difficult to document a software project while it is still in rapid transition, to the point of being useless to even start until things settle down. With the beta feature freeze coming up in a few weeks, the writing of the full user manual will begin in earnest, and this will be a much more exhaustive reference for the software. The tutorial is meant to be a quick(-ish) introduction to the basics of the software, and it does good for that.
On some items strictly involving theory, you could try downloading the Mac PDF from our web site and looking up topics in that. While the menu names and shortcuts will all be different (not to mention Mac features that don’t exist in the Windows version yet), basic theory like how everything fits together is common to both platforms.
Ioa Petra'ka | Feb 18, 2011 | Reply
Marley — thanks for stopping by. Tell me about going out too soon. The story of an Eagles fan
Just downloaded the new beta and can’t wait to find time to check it out.
Cynthia | Mar 1, 2011 | Reply
Ioa — you’re welcome. Thanks for dropping a comment. Yes, I know about that moving target, but after {bleep} years I’m pretty good at hitting it in the dark. I really enjoy Scrivener and can’t wait to see how it ends up comparing to the Mac version (not that I can do a good comparison since I don’t have Mac), but from the forums I can’t wait for Windows to “grow up.”
Cynthia | Mar 1, 2011 | Reply
I understand your dilemma. Writing is a big part of my work and I was working (actually started) on a book, based on my 30 years in the health care business.
And yes…football season slowed things down…then hickey season…then baseball season…then football season…then my son’s golf tournaments…and then…
Well…you get the message. Anyhow, I have completed about 14 pages in 7 years. I guess I better get moving.
Ed @ Virginia Car Insurance´s last blog ..How To Compare Virginia Auto Insurance Prices
Ed from Virginia Car Insurance | Aug 11, 2011 | Reply
Whoops! That’s HOCKEY season, not HICKEY season.
Ed @ Virginia Car Insurance´s last blog ..How To Compare Virginia Auto Insurance Prices
Ed from Virginia Car Insurance | Aug 11, 2011 | Reply
If you think Scrivener is a tool that would help with your writing process, I’d recommend downloading the trial or beta versions and giving them a try with a writing project you’re working on. Since it’s easy to export your work from Scrivener into another form (such as an RTF file, which most tools read) you have little to risk.
Merrel from Remote Login | Nov 28, 2011 | Reply
There are so many useful and new services for writers now!
research paper | Dec 7, 2011 | Reply
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