Recently I’ve discovered Scrivener, my new obsession. Oh my goodness, do I love this software! I’d heard of it before and I knew it was some kind of writing software, but I always thought, “I’m happy with good old Microsoft Word…” Well, yes, Word is fabulous for most things, but do you know what it’s not great for? Planning out a book. I recently discovered that my outline for book three in The Aurella Trilogy is now up to thirty-seven pages. Thirty-seven pages! Of outline! And whenever I want to find a particular section I have to scroll through the entire document, sometimes a few times, before I can find it. Then I have to minimize the screen and open up my draft to add to it, then minimize that screen to go back to the outline. I’ve tried doing a split screen, but even that’s a bit of a hassle, because then both documents must be really tiny in order to fit.
Now here’s something I want to clarify before I discuss the wonders of Scrivener: Most of my research I did on Scrivener was comparing Scrivener to Microsoft Word. That comparison is WRONG and STUPID. Here’s the thing: Scrivener is not meant to replace Word. They serve different functions. You use Scrivener for your planning and drafting, then you export your manuscript to a Word document so you can edit, share, and format. They’re meant to be used together. Make sense? Cool! Moving on.
I thought I’d do a post on my 6 favorite features, since there is SO MANY amazing features for writers that I simply adore!
Feature #1: Cork Board
Basically Scrivener allows you to sort your notes and chapters onto little note cards on a “cork board”. (Mine doesn’t look like a cork board, because I thought it looked kinda ugly, so I changed the background.) I LOVE THIS. If you look closely, you will also see that I have note cards behind my note cards with even more ideas. The cool thing about these note cards is that they are linked directly to a larger document. If you click on a note card it will take you to a white screen that looks just like a word processor. This is nice for when you have extensive notes on a topic, or if you’re writing a chapter. If you look to the left, you can see that there are a ton of files under “Draft”. Those are all chapters. If I were to click on “Draft” it would take me to the cork board view of all the chapters on note cards. If I clicked on any of those note cards (or just clicked on the chapter on the left), it would take me directly to where I had typed out the chapter.
Feature #2: Custom Notes
This is what the screen looks like if you click on any of the note cards or links on the left. If you look to the right there are a bunch of tools. One tool I really like is the “Custom Meta Data”. Basically those are just little tidbits for you to remember as you are writing out your chapter. I created and color coded those categories to help keep me on track as I write. Oh, also, you can see the actual note card this chapter is attached to on the top right.
Feature #3: Status
Status is a way for you to keep track of your notes/documents. You can create your own custom lables for things so that you know which ones you need to go back to or revise. If you look at the red arrow pointing to the right, that’s how you access the status option. If you look at the arrow pointing to the right, you can see how it shows up on the note cards. This is SO HELPFUL. This way, I don’t have to search all the files to find the ones I want to work on. There’s also a way to group things based on their status to keep them all together.
Feature #4: Snapshots
One of my greatest anxieties when I mess around with a chapter is that I’m going to ruin it and wish I’d left it how it was originally. With snapshot, you can save a copy of the original version and access it at any time. If you want, you can revert back to it. Or maybe you decide later that you want to use the original content in a different chapter. You don’t actually have to do anything with the original version of the document if you don’t want to. For me, it’s mainly for peace of mind. This way I don’t have anxiety that I’m going to mess up what I’d worked so hard on. (FYI, I left this document in note card form so you wouldn’t see that actual chapter, which would be a HUGE spoiler. Just be aware that the note card highlighted represents a larger document.)
Feature #5: Color Coding
Everything on Scrivener is customizable. You can change the font, color, size, and shape of virtually anything. I really love the color coding aspect. As you can see in the picture below, I use two different colors in my draft to show whose perspective that chapter is from. The pink represents Aurella and the blue represents Mavic. (Yes, I decided to throw in a few chapters from old Mavvy’s perspective. He’s an interesting fellow, that boy is.)
Feature #6: Distraction Free Mode
While I clearly love all the fancy little buttons and stuff along the sides, sometimes they can be a tad distracting while I’m trying to write. That’s when “distraction free” mode is nice. It basically just pulls only the document you’re working on to the front and creates bars on the sides so that you can focus. I changed my background to the chalkboard background I used for my cork board.
Obviously there are way more features in Scrivener than what I discussed in this post. I think the main thing I love about it is that it was obviously created by real writers with writers in mind. It’s kind of like shopping at Target – I find a ton of awesome crap I didn’t know I needed! If you are at all interested in writing, I would highly recommend that you to try Scrivener. They give you a 30 day free trial if you’re not sure. The price if you do want to purchase it is about $45. That’s actually not bad compared to other word processors, and this is WAY more than just a word processor. It’s basically a writer’s paradise. When I purchased it the other day, my files from the trial version disappeared, and I’m not gonna lie, I threw a little tantrum like a five-year-old girl. I started crying and slammed my laptop down on the couch. It turned out I simply needed to uninstall the trial version before it would let me install the paid version, and then my files were back… The point is, this is a very valuable tool and I have appreciated it so much that when I thought all my hard work was gone I pretty much flipped my lid. Anyway, any and all writer friends should try Scrivener. It will help you organize your thoughts and save you tons of time.