Scrivening
Friday, June 8, 2012 at 10:54AM At the risk of making it seem like this blog is turning into one focused on reviews (which I assure you it ain’t), here’s another review — this time for a computer program rather than a book.
As a writer I’m always interested in tools and procedures designed to make writing easier. Recently I’ve heard several writer friends speak highly of a program called Scrivener, which can be found here. It costs $40 but there’s a free trial version you can test out. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to spend a day or two seeing if it would be worth learning to use.
The first thing I have to say is that in general I’m extremely impressed with Scrivener’s trial terms of use and related features. The free trial copy allows for 30 days of nonconsecutive use. So I can try it for, say, three days, then leave it alone for two months, then open it up again and use it for a week — and I’ll only have used up ten days of my allotted 30-day trial. That’s quite generous compared to the usual method of 30 days from the day you download the trial, period.
Another point in Scrivener’s favor is that its creators recognize that writers often use multiple computers. According to the information on their website, if you buy it you get a “household” license, meaning you can put Scrivener on any computer you’re the primary user of and any other computers owned by members of your immediate family. Again, quite generous, and very much in tune with the times. I wish more programs did this.
I also like the tutorial video on the website and the “get started” tutorial that comes with the program. Working my way through it was quick and easy, teaching me the major features of Scrivener without any problem. Having done the whole tutorial I now feel reasonably confident that I could start using Scrivener and have a minimal “on the job” learning curve.
All that being said, at this point I don’t think I’m going to actually use Scrivener to do any writing.
The main stumbling block for me is this: if I’m going to start writing with another program, it has to be so good and offer me so many useful tools that it’s worth abandoning the programs and work procedures I’ve been using for decades — the ones with which I often write well over a million words a year. And I just don’t see that being the case. I’ve been using WordPerfect (my word processor of choice) for over two decades. I know it so well that I can make it sit up, beg, roll over, do tricks, and attack the mailman. Overcoming that built-in foundation of experience and skill is going to be difficult for any program I consider switching to.
I like Scrivener’s “corkboard” and “outliner” features for organizing the flow of a story, scenes in a manuscript, and so on. They seem well put together and pretty flexible, all in all. But I don’t think it’s worth the time and effort to learn how to use them when I can prepare a perfectly good outline using WordPerfect. That’ll offer me the same level of utility, and I can even color-code the entries the way Scrivener does if I want to.
Scrivener’s also got what look to me like some really good tools for collecting research documents, images, web pages, and so on into one place so you can easily reference them. That would be great if I wrote the sorts of books where I needed that, or if I wasn’t already used to doing my own research my own way. But I don’t and I am. So by and large this doesn’t seem like a feature that’d be of much use to me.
If you’re the sort of writer who likes to re-arrange scenes within a manuscript frequently, Scrivener makes that quick and easy. But I’m not that sort of writer. Those tools might come in handy every now and then, but for the most part I can live with good ol’ cut-and-paste.
Scrivener also seems to offer some excellent features/tools for writers who like to make major changes between drafts, or who tend to make wholesale alterations during the writing of a book. For the most part that’s not me, either, so again those aspects of the program aren’t that useful to me. (To be fair, though — I’m still relatively new at writing fiction. Maybe I’ll end up becoming one of those guys eventually, or under the whip of some editor. In that case Scrivener would be more attractive.)
Scrivener also seems tailor-made for writers whose process isn’t entirely linear — who like to jump around within a manuscript, writing Chapter 3 one day and Chapter 37 the next, or who write all the bits with Character A before writing all the bits with Character B. That’s definitely not me, though. Sometimes I move around a bit (largely as a way of keeping the creative juices flowing when interest in one section of a book flags a bit mid-afternoon), but for the most part I start writing at Page 1 and keep going until I reach Page Last.
So ultimately, right now I don’t think Scrivener’s going to be the writing tool for me. I may try it out a little more, maybe start a novel with it just to see how things work hands-on, and blog again if I have anything further to report. (I don’t have to worry about losing any work if I decide not to stick with it; Scrivener’s exporting tools seem really solid. I just wish its importing features worked with WordPerfect. Ah, well.) Nevertheless I can see why so many writers like it, and if it sounds like something that might work well for you I encourage you to check it out.
Reader Comments (4)
I was already planning to pick it up. (since I can't make wp do all those things lol) I waited years for them to develope a non-mac version. Since I'm getting a new laptop, I'll wait till the end of August when Camp Nanowrimo is over and either get 20% or 50% off depending on weither I get my 50k done or not.
Sounds like a good plan! A discount never hurts. :)
I was talking to a buddy of mine about this post, and he brought up the curious question: "is a version of WordPerfect still being produced?"
Surprisingly, it seems like it is. (http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?storeKey=us&pid=prod4720109&trkid=NASEMGglOP#tab1&LID=35552624)
I was a big fan of the program circa WordPerfect 5, lol.
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Keep us apprised of how your fiction writing is going. Any chance of giving us a chapter beta read?
I've been thinking a little bit about that, actually. Might be worth recruiting some blindreaders or the like at some point. Maybe after I get my next novel done. ;)