writing tools

I’ve been on a decluttering splurge recently, and that includes my computer and the programs that run on it. Ever since I got my new laptop, I decided that I was going to use it for my writing primarily and I didn’t want to risk slowing it down by installing programs I rarely used, like for instance, iTunes.

So when it comes to writing, I want to use the smallest number of programs. I already have Office installed so that was what i was going to use to continue my writing journey. To help organise my novel, I was also well into using Onenote (a fabulous program) for my research, and Excel for keeping track of scenes. And then I had to go and read about scrivener.

On the nanowrimo forums, Scrivener is mentioned regularly, but it’s historically only been available on Mac platforms so was out of bounds for me. Until, that is, the developer started work on a Windows version. This Windows version is now in beta, and going against my rules of only installing necessary programs on my laptop, I downloaded and installed the Scrivener beta.

It’s no overstatement to say that this program is bloody brilliant. If you’re writing a novel, screenplay, or some other piece of prose. this program is worth a try. No, I’ll go further – you must download and play with the free trial of this software. You won’t regret it.

But why is it so good? Because it’s been designed by a writer to do the jobs that he wanted it to do. A clean writing environment lets you work distraction free to get your words down into ‘documents’ that can be rearranged in many different ways as you shape your work. One of my favourite features is the corkboard, a visual representation of your documents as index cards that gives you a simple way to feel the shape of your work. I love this. One thing that I was beginning to realise was going to send me into an early grave as I worked on redrafting my novel, was tracking the blasted thing in Excel. The thing had become so massive that i dreaded opening that spreadsheet. Now though,I can use labels attached to each of the Scrivener ‘documents; and track it in the actual program I’m using to do the writing – you can’t do that in Word.

So having another program on my laptop is actually a form of simplifying. It’s taken several onerous stages of writing my novel, and melted them together into a delicious piece of software. I’m actually excited again about writing again, and Scrivener is a big part of that.