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There are two things you should know about me: the first is that I love Scrivener and the second is that I participate in NaNoWriMo almost every year. (Though not in 2017, because I'm having a baby. Although, I might go crazy and do it anyway if I'm feeling up to it. I've heard of moms participating and even giving birth mid-November and still winning. Crazy people.)
I love using Scrivener above all else to write. For one, it feels like it's made with me in mind. But also because I was able to get it cheap. If you participate in NaNoWriMo and win, you get a code for like, half off.
I'm sure you'll hear me talk more about NaNoWriMo closer to November, so instead of telling you about it, you can just follow the link to read more.
Now about Scrivener...it's just so easy to get at writing and have everything else jump out of the way, but still be there when I need to find it. The biggest strength of Scrivener is the binder system. It collects all your single documents on the left in an easy to find place, and keeps them in order. With the power of the binder, I could write an epic fantasy series with 40+ characters and 15+ books and tons of backstory and short stories and notes and research, and be able to navigate the entire thing easily.
As I've been thinking about it, the binder system is a no-brainer and really quite simple. And sure, you could set up your own kind of binder system in a different program or in some folder system on your computer as long as you stay organized. But Scrivener helps mightily and is made for this.
Here's an example screen shot of my work to show you what I mean:
This is from a book series that I've written, submitted for publication, and ultimately had a lot of fun with but don't think the market is right for it. Maybe someday if Steampunk becomes more popular or if I get impatient and decide to self-publish. (Note: The text shown is a very early first draft and a part that I eventually cut from the final draft. So...basically my apologies for the bad writing. You don't have to read it.)
On the left, is the almighty binder. As you can see, I have folders for every draft from first to sixth, and other folders to hold a ton of other odds and ends.
The split screen is another one of my favorite features. It lets me look at the text I'm writing while looking at a character profile for reference, or an older draft, or any other notes. The pop-out screen is a picture of a devices I had planned to incorporate into the story, and having the visual right there was helpful when I needed to describe what part the main character was working on fixing. There's also a full screen feature
Wow. Looking back on this project, I remember just how much fun I had writing this. Ok, enough nostalgia.
Hopefully this gives you some insight into what Scrivener is like and how it can be used. And yes, you can export all your stuff to Word or PDF if you wish. For instance, if an agent asks you for your full manuscript in Word format, you can do that quickly without even needing Word (though I always like to double check how it looks before sending).
You'll hear more from me about Scrivener and some of its wonderful features in detail, I'm sure. I just love it and am passionate about sharing this wonderful tool with other writers.
If you have any questions about Scrivener, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Or if you just want to gush about it in the comments, I'd enjoy that too. :)
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