What Could Happen?

[scarlettina]

I've heard any number of writers talk about keeping a notebook as they write their novels, something in which they record minutiae of all sorts. Because this thing I've been working on for so long has been taking so long, I decided to start a notebook for it, separate from the actual novel itself. My idea was that it be not just a place to keep

Comments

[scarlettina]

I did wind up using Scrivener and I like it quite a bit. Scrivener isn't just a word processor. It has all sorts of features intended to make the structure of the novel more visible to the author as the book proceeds. It provides a view that lets you summarize each chapter in a way that's available no matter where you are in the book. It allows you to tag chapters for content so that you can track what happens when or how often a particular plot thread is touched. You can see an outline view of the book. It's quite all encompassing, and the structure tools--in the form of index cards on a bulletin board--make things visible that I would never have noticed otherwise. You can port the book out of the software and into a Word format. You can move chapters or scenes around individually or in bulk without selecting pages of text and fearing their loss in transit. Lots of stuff is so much easier in general.

When I downloaded the trial version, I went through about half of the tutorial before I started using it--that was all I had patience for. I have several friends who use Scrivener religiously who swear by it who gave me some pointers when I got started that helped me settle into the tool more easily.

Short version: I definitely recommend it for novel work. I don't think it's as necessary for short fiction, but it makes novels much easier to manage, to look at from the 30,000 foot perspective, and to wrangle down to the smallest details.

[herself_nyc]

Thanks for that! Very convincing. Is it relatively easy to import a novel in progress into it? I've already got some 600 pages of material in Word docs. Also, what did it cost?

[scarlettina]

Costs about $45ish, maybe $55--I bought it earlier this year and don't remember precisely. I found it easy to port the manuscript in. There is some set-up work involved, in that if the book is in chapters, you may have to rebreak them once they're in the software in order to make everything visible. I strongly recommend you take some time with the trial and run through at least part of the tutorial to get a sense of whether or not it will work for you before you do all that work. The trial is free for 30 days.

[herself_nyc]

Just watched the 10 min tutorial and I think this software is just what I need at this point in the project. Going to try it out. Thanks!!!!

[ext_995057]

Quickie addition. Scrivener is free for 30 days of Actual Use. If you don't write every day, it's not just a month of calender time.