by Pascale Potvin
Writer, a few questions for you:
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then Scrivener, the “gold standard” writing app for writers working on books who want excellent support with brainstorming, outlining, and writing may be the answer.
Chaos and disorganization are the cause of death for any creative work.
The reason Scrivener is used by most professional writers is it quickly and easily helps you get organized, focused, and prepared for some serious writing, once and for all!
Disclaimer: We are in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Scrivener and do not guarantee a 100% accurate portrayal of the software.
Not only is using a writing app like Scrivener not cheating, it’s the preferred method for nearly all professional writers.
Why? Because instead of battling all of the organizational elements that go into writing a book, story collection, or screenplay, the app neatly provides you with a way to keep everything categorized, sorted, and at-hand.
(Think of it as the software equivalent of a closet organizer).
Say what you want about life being harder nowadays than it used to be; writing apps are a miracle of technology because they are like brightly lit stairs that help you glide with ease to the top of where you’re meant to go.
Unlike AI, which removes your creativity, human essentialness, and authentic voice (and all that is beautiful and raw about a work of any literature), writing apps simply provide an organizational method so you can focus all of your energy into the actual writing.
In our article “The 10 Best Apps for Organizing Your Writing,” we review the best writing apps on the market, both free and paid.
Among the excellent options in the article, you’ll see that while Scrivener does come at a cost ($60 USD for a lifetime license), it also does the heaviest lifting of your organizational burden, making it a highly valuable option for most writers that changes the way you look at your writing, your efficiency, and your feeling of overall calm- forever.
Scrivener is a program that makes it easy to brainstorm, outline, and create your projects all in one perfectly organized place. No longer will you have to jump back and forth between different programs or hand-written notes-
☛ No more papering your walls with sticky notes-
☛ No more *hoping* you formatted your work properly before submitting it for publication or to a literary agent-
☛ No more scrolling through a 200+-page document to standardize elements or to go from chapter to chapter-
☛ And you can easily click on uploaded photos, illustrations, or scanned texts to help you write.
Scrivener handles all of that and more.
This all-in-one writing app allows you to move with ease between chapters, notes, and references.
You can import files of basically any type: PDFs, word docs, images, videos, sound files, web pages, and more. You can even view up to 4 files at once on-screen—so, if you’re using a photo for inspiration or for research, you can have it sitting pretty right there while you type.
Your notes and your ideas can be digitally linked to the manuscript itself, so that you much more rarely forget what you meant in that note you jotted down right before bed.
But if you do have an idea that don’t you know where exactly to fit, Scrivener can make special room for that, too.
Your manuscript can be split into sections of any size, and you can choose to edit those segments by themselves or within the bigger picture.
You can also opt for full-screen writing to keep yourself from going back to your e-mail or to Facebook. The look of the “composition mode” is customizable, too: from an old-school green-text-on-black look to a soothing landscape backdrop. Whatever gets your creativity going!
Scrivener is also quick and flexible when it comes to formatting: export your work to standard manuscript format, to screenplay format, or to an academic journal article format with one click (imagine your dissertation- beautifully formatted- at the click of a button!)
From there, you can save each file type or print.
There is some learning curve with Scrivener as you sort out how to use all of its many features, but that is time well spent.
Overall, you will find if you’re feeling scattered, weary of the visual clutter, and are yearning for one compact way to keep all of your writing drafts, notes, reference materials, quick brainstorms, and more in one place, writing app Scrivener is a fabulous tool.
If ever you feel like talking through your writing ideas, getting help with accountability or your writing process, or need another set of eyes on your projects, please reach out– we are always here to support you in your writing goals!
Our 4-month Mentored Book Programs, Online Courses, & Writing Coaching and Editing Hours. From November 21-27, 2023
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