Writing with Scrivener

When I write my novels, I use a program called Scrivener, which allows me to arrange each scene as I want it in the fly or during a revision. (Yes, that’s happened). It’s an inexpensive program and can be found here. It’s a word processor and a whole lot more. With Scrivener, you can dive in and start writing, creating scenes as you go. Then you can rearrange the scenes using what the developer calls a corkboard, a view that shows index cards of your scenes. As you rearrange your index cards, the scenes themselves move, which make it easy to change the order of your scenes if you need to.

You can start in the middle of your story, play, or novel, and move to the end or beginning without having to insert. Just create a new scene and write in the space provided. Then move the scene into the correct order. Once you have finished your piece, you just select compile from the menu, choose the format that you want and Scrivener takes all the little files that you have created and puts them in one file, formatted as you requested.

The program makes it easy to write your work by allowing you to see your outline on the same screen with the work, if you use outlines, access your notes on your characters, settings, backgrounds, or even thoughts on the plot note without leaving your original writing page. It’s a great program for writing stories, nonfiction, screenplays or even term papers. You can view your research notes as you write the piece, no moving between windows and trying to find notes that you’ve written. It’s all there, in one place for you to use as you need to.

You can save the output as rich text, plain text, Microsoft Word compatible, open source office, html, xhtml, or PDF. It’s a very flexible program that lends itself well to the writer. While I do not use this software for writing these blogs, it lends itself to that task. I am using it to work on a project where I will be producing FFL in book form. Feline Freedom League Archives will be available sometime next year. I will be using Scrivener to assemble the archives into order. I’ll be using Scrivener to add new material to the old to flesh it into a book, rather than a collection of memos. That’s one of the things that makes this program so useful, its versatility. If you are a writer, try it. You’ll like it. You can check out the program on its website, or you can visit its Facebook, or Twitter pages. It’s reasonably priced and a very good writing solution.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!