OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I used Scrivener for my latest book, Prophecy. It's been a truly life-changing experience after the dreadful cutting and pasting process in MS Word that plagued my last novel, Pentecost. I am now entirely converted and am also an evangelist for the product.
I used Scrivener happily without reading the Help (because I hate reading the Help) but then I found David Hewson's ‘Writing a Novel with Scrivener‘ which I highly recommend. It will convert you and make your writing life a whole lot easier, I promise!
Here are 3 reasons you should be using Scrivener (which is on Mac and PC now so you have no excuse.) It's just US$49 and you can use it for all your books, fiction and non-fiction as well as academic publications and loads more. No, I'm not an affiliate but I truly do believe in the product!
(1) You can write in scenes then drag and drop to re-order.
If this was the only feature of Scrivener, it would still be enough for me!
I write in sporadic scenes, not in a linear fashion so the final scene is often one of the first I write. I'm already plotting novel #3 and have maybe 5 scenes I could set down right now, but I wouldn't have a clue where they go in the story yet.
So for the Prophecy work in progress I had all these scenes but it was only in the 2nd edit that I decided on the order they needed to go in. Scrivener makes it easy to drag and drop the scenes to re-order the scenes. There's no cutting and pasting and no huge Word files to manipulate.
I also like the cork-board view of the scenes. If you use index cards, you'll be at home here!
(2) Auto-create Kindle and ePub files.
This is a game-changer.
You can now create your own ebooks by compiling and exporting from Scrivener which is under $50, which once paid you can use over and over again. You obviously need to check your created files carefully but for plain text novels with little complications, this is a no-brainer.
I still recommend using professional formatters if you have complicated books or lots of images, but for basic books, you can just use Scrivener. This is also great for providing files to beta-readers and for reviewing your book in the way many will now consume it. You can also export to Doc and other formats including Latex if you want to format in more complicated ways.
The point behind Scrivener is that book length works can be complicated and easier to write in chunks, but when you want to submit them you need it in one document. Scrivener compiles them based on how you have structured your Parts/ Chapters/ Scenes and also by how you define the compile and export settings. There are preset defaults but you can also customize, and there are lots of helpful videos and a forum in case you have trouble.
(3) Project Binders can also hold notes, research, pictures and more so you have one place for the whole ecosystem of your book
There is one manuscript/draft folder within your Scrivener project and then there are other folders which aren't compiled into the final document. You can use these for research or for character sketches, for pictures and other associated media as well as pasting scenes you don't know what to do with (I do that a lot).
You can also split the screen while you are writing so you can reference the notes at the same time as writing text. I use a great deal of art history in my books so having the painting or image in the split screen is useful so I get the details right.
One memorable image is the Escher print of angels and demons (shown right) which is on the wall of a character's study. It was great to be able to see it on the page as I wrote.
Using Scrivener for my own novel, Crypt of Bone (previously published as Prophecy)
My own process for Prophecy has been as follows:
* Write first draft scenes in Write Or Die or Pages app on the iPad which I use for writing in the library and out of the house. I have found this the most effective way to write fiction now since my home office is orientated towards podcasts, interviews, videos, product creation and the business of The Creative Penn. I need a different space for making stuff up.
* Paste the scenes into Scrivener and move them around as well as revise scene by scene within the program. It's easier to revise on bite-size chunks like scenes.
* At the end of every day, compile and export a .doc file which I email to myself on Gmail so I always have a backup of my work. Gmail is online storage so you'll always be able to find this again. I also back on an external hard-drive and monthly on Amazon S3 cloud storage (paranoid, me??)
* After the first draft is completed, I compile the full .doc and print it out. Read, scribble, self-edit, destroy, rework. Write some more scenes and fill in the blanks.
* Edit full 2nd draft on Scrivener and repeat print and self-edit, then repeat print and self-edit until satisfied
* When I'm finally happy with the draft, I distribute to my editor to review and provide feedback. Then I make changes and send to beta readers.
* Make changes on Scrivener and compile for the final time and output for Kindle and submission to Smashwords.
Once you have the master project saved, you can always go back and make any changes and recompile. It's a brilliant system and I am definitely going to keep using Scrivener. I can't imagine writing without it now and in 2012, I will also be revising my non-fiction work using it too.
Are you a Scrivener convert? Do you have any questions about it?
Roger Colby says
I use Scrivener every day and as a novelist it is a Godsend. I love its many features and it is absolutely user friendly. The help feature is almost nanny like in that it points out exactly what pull-down menu you need to go to in order to complete the task you search for. Fantastic!
Laura Pauling says
Yes, I have it! And I’m going to use it for epub and mobi too for the first time. I need to delve in and learn more than the basics. But I love it so far for drafting!
Doreen Pendgracs says
You mention that Scrivener is best suited to books without images.
I am working on a book that will be heavily illustrated with pics. Is there another program that would be better suited for my project than Scrivener?
Joanna Penn says
Hi Doreen, It actually does images as well now – I have used them in my book for various formatting options and it comes out well on the Kindle file. So give it a go!
Michele says
I’ve been trying to compile a copy of our blog posts into a document/binder/whatever on Scrivener, and have had no luck. I’ve read through the tutorial, but must have missed a critical instruction.
I did find out that only text can go into “draft”, and that all websites and other non-text must go into “research”, so I put them there, copied and saved individually as posts. They show up on cards, and when I click them to open, they show up the way I want to see them. They are saved as html, it looks like, but all the photos behave themselves in the posts when opened in “research”. This is what I want to have as my compiled document — all the headers, the photos, the italics, etc. — an old “wysisyg” idea.
However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to “compile” them — or drag them into a text doc, or anywhere else, for that matter, so they will respond to “compile”. All I really want to do at the moment is make a pdf of all the posts, with their comments, so we have them captured and could print them out for ourselves. (This is a group blog.)
Ideally, I’d like to sort them later, by poet, and/or by keyword, but for now I’d be grateful to find out how to pull them together into something I could save as a pdf, and then send a copy to my other bloggers. I’m the only one working on the Mac, but one other person now has Scrivener on her pc.
Any help is gratefully appreciated. We’re planning our next anthology, and I’d love to use Scrivener to pull it together.
Michele
Elisa Nuckle says
Do you know any editors you can recommend who don’t break your wallet? I’m very curious about Scrivener and am very seriously considering it, as I need something that has this sort of organization for my ever-so cluttered brain.
Debra says
I got the new version with the NaNoWriMo win, too. I don’t think it’s the miracle you describe here, and I still find myself returning to Word to print out sections for my writing group. I’m going to use it for this novel, but I’m not sure I’ll use it for my 3rd book.
Wendy Van Camp says
I’ve been a convert to Scrivener for a couple of years now. I have separate projects for my novels, each of my blogs and other projects. It keeps everything organized and the epub feature is excellent. I also do not write my drafts in Scrivener. I do my rough drafts on an Alphasmart Neo in various locations outside of my home office. The Neo just uploads right into the Scrivener files without a problem.
Lori says
Thanks for the tips. I am new to Scivener and I’m trying to figure out how to export the entire manuscript as a single word file. I see where you can export word files of every scene, which creates multiple files. And I see how you can compile a single pdf file, but I don’t see an option to create a single word doc.
Conrado Adolpho says
Hi, Joanna,
Congratulations for your blog. That’s amazing. I found your blog in a post of “Write for your life”.
I’ve been used Scrivener during 3 or 4 months. I’m a beginner.
I’m writer in Brazil and I’m looking for a portuguese dictionary for Scrivener. Do you know if there is anyone?
One more time, congratulations.
Regards,
Conrado Adolpho
Joanna Penn says
Hi Conrad, I’m glad you’re finding Scrivener so useful. That’s fantastic.
I think you’d be best sending an email to the Scrivener guys themselves re Portuguese or indeed any technical questions. I am just a fan and a user 🙂
Thomas says
Hi,
I was contemplating getting Scrivener for writing my novels. However, I have one question: is the amount of money to pay a one-time payment, or monthly? Or is it even a set amount to pay every time Scrivener is updated? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!
Deborah says
It’s a one-time payment.
Linda says
For all you windows users out there using Schrivener and wondering how the heck to sync to dropbox…I have finally figured it out.
1. Have drop box available on your desktop.
2. go to shrivener – On File menu, scroll down to ” back-up”, then “back up to”…desktop. (The recent projects name will show up with a bunch of numbers).
3. Go to desktop…drag and drop this project into the drop box.
Whoola!
Happy Dance.
Graham Stewart says
Another option is simply to create your scrivener projects in dropbox and open them from there. Scrivener saves automatically every couple of seconds, so your dropbox files should always have the latest version of your book/story/blog posts available.
This works well for me when I start writing upstairs at my desk and then carry my laptop down to the coffee shop and continue there.
Donna says
I’m just a beginner as far as Scrivener goes, but I have all my files syncing into Dropbox too. I also use the wonderful WriteRoom app (for Mac, iPod, iPad, from Hog Bay Software) and use Dropbox to sync across all my devices. I was thinking that might prove easier for you Joanna, than using Pages on iPad. WriteRoom supports the .rtf format, which is the format Scrivener uses for your drafts. Dropbox will automatically sync the drafts you write when you’re out to your computer (as well as storing them online). I can open the Scrivener drafts directly in WriteRoom on my Mac, I’m assuming you can do the same from the iPad version of the app. Not all of my Scrivener projects have the drafts exported onto my hard drive, so maybe there is a setting you need to check to do that. Like I say I’m still trying to get my head around Scrivener. I love it though, I do a lot of research, and it provides a convenient way to organize it and have it right there where I’m writing.
Shaquanda Dalton says
I hit compile and it said to download and install KindleGen from Amazon but I can’t get it to work. How do you do this step?
Thanks for the post
Joanna Penn says
Hey Shaquanda, you do need to download kindlegen. Just follow the link. It shouldn’t be too hard 🙂 Or go to the scrivener forums to find help. Sorry! I’m not tech help 🙂