The Writing Program I Love!

The blank page. It can be daunting. The cursor sits there and blinks at you waiting. What will you write?

To write lengthy manuscripts such as novels, I write using Scrivener. I personally love it!

When I am writing short blog posts or other short stories without chapters, I use Pages on my MAC which is the same as MSWord, then I copy it over and paste it into my blog post.

Why Scrivener?

With Scrivener it is designed to be used by authors. I see all the chapters I create in a list on the side. I can move them around simply by dragging and dropping. It also allows me to put sections within the chapters which is something I have always done.

On the right side is a place to put research, maps, pics, and notes. I love this feature. And with each chapter you have a new place for new research and notes. The capacity is enormous. It is so easy to just scroll through and refresh my memory.

Load It Up With Research and Photos

As you can see in my example above of a screenshot of my book The Water. I had maps and definitions, etc. to refer to as needed. Notice on the left hand side is my list of chapters and the sections in each chapter. I can go from one to the other simply by clicking on it.

There is so much more that I have not even used. It has many more features that I would love to explore and plan to soon. It is truly a Ferrari in a Pinto world. I will go over Scrivener in detail in subsequent posts. Today is just an overview from a zealous fan.

Works Seamlessly with ProWriting Aid

Once I am done with all the story editing I think I want to do, I open the Scrivener manuscript in ProWriting Aid. I work on grammar, typos, and other jumbled garbage I missed while writing. I will explore ProWriting Aid in my writing post next week. It is another of my essential tools.

I edit there, save, and close then reopen in Scrivener and the changes are saved. I do this back and forth several times before I print and let my team of editors take their red pens to it.

Above is a screenshot of the many options you have when compiling a finished book. Because I have many more steps to go at this point, I export the compiled manuscript as a MSWord doc. More about why I do that in subsequent posts.

Time Saver

This program has saved me so much effort when writing. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Writing is challenging enough on its own, so I want whatever tools will streamline the process for me.

To find out more about Scrivener click HERE.

I want to encourage you to leave me any comments below. They are so encouraging and motivating to me. 

Nancy

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