Who here uses Scrivener and...

[Senkusha]

I must admit that I purchased Scrivener a while back, even before I tried it out and used it. I love the idea that you actually get to really use the product for 30 real days before the trial ends That right there, got me to purchase it.

A couple weeks ago, I got the fan fiction itch again. I had a great idea surrounding some magical girls, and although the idea has morphed into what I'm currently planning out, I decided to give Scrivener a try. I'm loving it, and I haven't even began writing yet! I come from writing my stories down in notebooks with a pen. I've tried using MS Word, but I found I was fighting the software more than writing. I've used Notepad with some satisfaction. The really cool thing about Scrivener is that I can write totally out of order! When I write, I usually create a very loose outline. Beginning event. The Conclusion. Some big climax in the middle, and maybe a couple of plot points, then I'll start writing, and see where my characters take me. It's usually quite the adventure.

I've tried the outlining the entire story before writing. It never works for me because the characters hijack my plan, and often the story turns out better in their words than anything I could have written. Sounds weird, I know. But getting back to the point, now that I can write out of order, I can finally get those thoughts down on paper, more than just an outline point, and hope to Goddess that I remember everything my brainstorm created, now I can just make a Notecard, and then jump right in and start writing! I'm sure I'll have some connectivity issues later on with smoothing the plot out so things aren't so jumpy.

But I have a couple of questions.

• Who here also uses Scrivener?
• What processes have you identified using it that have helped you write better?
• Supposedly there's a Timeline feature, but I can't find it. Is it only in the Mac version?

Furthermore, I'm looking at possibly purchasing Scriverner's companion Scrapple for it's mind-mapping functionality. Does anybody use that? What's your experience with it?, Like is it really useful, or just something that's shiny and neat to have?

 

[Doctor Blood]

I'm also curious if anyone on QQ has experience with Scrivener. My old-school tools are a bunch of 4" x 6" notecards and a pile of cheap spiral-bound college-ruled notebooks, followed by typing up a final draft in emacs with org-mode.

 

[Yuhabahha]

I must admit that I purchased Scrivener a while back, even before I tried it out and used it. I love the idea that you actually get to really use the product for 30 real days before the trial ends That right there, got me to purchase it.

A couple weeks ago, I got the fan fiction itch again. I had a great idea surrounding some magical girls, and although the idea has morphed into what I'm currently planning out, I decided to give Scrivener a try. I'm loving it, and I haven't even began writing yet! I come from writing my stories down in notebooks with a pen. I've tried using MS Word, but I found I was fighting the software more than writing. I've used Notepad with some satisfaction. The really cool thing about Scrivener is that I can write totally out of order! When I write, I usually create a very loose outline. Beginning event. The Conclusion. Some big climax in the middle, and maybe a couple of plot points, then I'll start writing, and see where my characters take me. It's usually quite the adventure.

I've tried the outlining the entire story before writing. It never works for me because the characters hijack my plan, and often the story turns out better in their words than anything I could have written. Sounds weird, I know. But getting back to the point, now that I can write out of order, I can finally get those thoughts down on paper, more than just an outline point, and hope to Goddess that I remember everything my brainstorm created, now I can just make a Notecard, and then jump right in and start writing! I'm sure I'll have some connectivity issues later on with smoothing the plot out so things aren't so jumpy.

But I have a couple of questions.

• Who here also uses Scrivener?
• What processes have you identified using it that have helped you write better?
• Supposedly there's a Timeline feature, but I can't find it. Is it only in the Mac version?

Furthermore, I'm looking at possibly purchasing Scriverner's companion Scrapple for it's mind-mapping functionality. Does anybody use that? What's your experience with it?, Like is it really useful, or just something that's shiny and neat to have?

Click to shrink...

Most everything I write --with the exception of spur of the moment omakes-- is in scrivener. From fics to stories meant for publishing.

Unless I'm misremembering, I wrote only my first story here in word and I can but mirror your own experiences, that is fighting word more often than not. I know that other writers swear by it but, yeah no, not for me.

As far as scrapple is concerned, can't help you there, but regarding scrivener itself, what you've described so far sounds pretty close to how I go about things most days. Except when I have to really outline but I digress.

The ability to create new 'chapters' and/or new folders in a jiffy to type out scattered thoughts and hopefuly put them in some order, as well as the fact that scrivener doesn't really start to chug until you're way past the 20k words in a single chapter (ask me how I know), yeah it helps.

As does the fact that the program itself opens up pretty quickly and puts you right in the document you last left it at. Or the fact that, unlike word, switching between chapters is blazing fast...

What I also use is the synopsis and notes tabs on the side of document itself, its an easy way to keep track of future plot ideas for said chapter and/or make a...synopsis of the events that took place in the chapter so that you can skim those if you have the need sometime after the fact.

But, that's just me, as far as scrivener's concerned I'm a 'simple guy'. My suggestion would be go through the in-built tutorial, its annoying yes, but its a pretty good showcase of the software's features and once you're done you'll quickly settle on what works for you. I'm using something like 15-20% of the software if I had to guess but it works for me.

Highly reccomend it to anyone else on the fence though.

For those who want to add more details to their character/story notes beyond a single extra document and/or the characters category in scrivener (where you can also drop reference images) I reccomend Obsidian, you can make your own 'wiki' per story to help remember stuff

 

[Senkusha]

These are some awesome tips! I never thought about re-writing my synopsis' after I write the chapter. But that's a great idea to have as a summary for a quick glancing.

Also, I'll have to look at Obsidian. I've already installed Media Wiki on my own website, specifically to help with fan fiction writing (and other people too, beyond must myself).

Thank you, @Yuhabahha !