Scrivener Software: to use or not?

[A. E. Lowan]

I think it's fair to say that my team uses Word for writing of the narrative on the page, vingettes and scenelets do not count, and OneNote for almost everything else. OneNote can also get really big, really fast, but I've been stuffing ours for going on 20 years and yet to slow it down. You can post links and files and pictures. You can make tables, but I haven't. My wife likes it, though. So, I use it to keep track of changes and eyecolors and random thoughts and inspiraiton pics. I've loved this program for years, and I've still not discovered all its treasures.

This is today, three different places. Autism brain on full display. <3

 

[Prince of Spires]

I've never used OneNote. I have been using Word & Excel. What ideas, suggestions do you have about OneNote? What exactly are you finding more handy in OneNote than Word?

To add to A. E. Lowan 's excelent example of what OneNote can do, as someone who also keeps all his notes in it: It's a very different tool from Word.

Word is great for linear documents. I do all my writing in Word. Part of the reason I like it is that I can put my whole 100k word novel in there at it won't even blink.

However, it's terrible for organizing non-linear information. In OneNote, I can easily group all my characters together. When a new one comes up, I can just give him his own page. I can organize worldbuilding notes in a separate group, and I have my plot outline in a third. Jumping between them is easy. And because everything has its own page, finding something is a piece of cake. It's easy to add images, create tables and list.

The whole tool is created to take notes and group them in logical ways. It works very different from something like Word in that regard.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

To add to A. E. Lowan 's excelent example of what OneNote can do, as someone who also keeps all his notes in it: It's a very different tool from Word.

Word is great for linear documents. I do all my writing in Word. Part of the reason I like it is that I can put my whole 100k word novel in there at it won't even blink.

However, it's terrible for organizing non-linear information. In OneNote, I can easily group all my characters together. When a new one comes up, I can just give him his own page. I can organize worldbuilding notes in a separate group, and I have my plot outline in a third. Jumping between them is easy. And because everything has its own page, finding something is a piece of cake. It's easy to add images, create tables and list.

The whole tool is created to take notes and group them in logical ways. It works very different from something like Word in that regard.

That's entirely too organized, LMAO.

My Scrivener is an absolute mess of organization. That's half the reason I decided to work with some readers and build out a Wiki: to organize all my crap, LOL.

 

[Prince of Spires]

To be fair, when I started it was mainly a case of having OneNote lying around and needing a place to put my notes. A happy accident really. I used A. E. Lowan 's examples as inspiration for organizing it a bit better.

Also, it keeps evolving. So half of it is probably out of date or uses a different organizational method.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

To be fair, when I started it was mainly a case of having OneNote lying around and needing a place to put my notes. A happy accident really. I used A. E. Lowan 's examples as inspiration for organizing it a bit better.

Also, it keeps evolving. So half of it is probably out of date or uses a different organizational method.

I'm glad someone thinks it's organized. lol My younger writing partner will get in there, and also into our Documents folder, and move shit around on me. Looks like this. Now, I can't find anything half of the time. I remind her, like I've been reminding her for the past decade we've been writing together, that I am autistic and my brain works differently.

Any need a 30 year-old pain in my- I mean, talented and hard working writer? Will ship.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It does look a bit like my folder list... As I write more, I keep changing how I organize things. So different books have different organizational systems. They all make sense (to me at least...), but they all make a different kind of sense. The trick is remembering what sense I had in mind when I set it up.

Also, I love the two 0. and 00. folders you've got going. I could definitely do that. A case of having everything neat and organized and in the order you want and realizing (twice no less) that you need another folder that sits at the top of the list. And of course, not wanting to renumber the whole thing. Nice.

Of course, really organized people would have considered the possibility and would have numbered in incremements of 10, which lets you add stuff in the middle without issue Not me, I just make it up as I go along.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Yeah... the numbers are all on Dingbat. I understand that yes, it really does make it so that all of the 'important' stuff is up top. It's a good thing. I want her taking the initiative and making her mark... but it also hurts my brain. And my brain is a tiny, furry brain and doesn't do change well. lol

 

[Eric]

I recently heard about the Scrivener program from a fellow fiction writer on Facebook. Has anyone else used this program for their manuscripts? I'm thinking about purchasing it, but I only have a laptop and am not sure how much space on my Dell it's going to use.

I've done some research into it, and it looks like something I could use to (finally!) organize my notes and stories in something other than notebooks and Microsoft Word. I just want others' opinions on the software.

Thanks!

I’ve recently purchased Scrivner and with a modicum of patience and some tedious poking around, I’m completely enjoying and appreciating the basic collation of stories/chapters and sidebar area to include synopsis and research.

 

[skip.knox]

Yes to the supplementary material. I routinely set up a project with folders for Front Matter, Back Matter, and Marketing. The latter includes all the blurbs of various lengths, synopses, and so on. It's convenient, though rarely easy, to work on that material during odd (but oddly frequent) times when I'm stuck on the main story. As the story evolves, I can revise the marketing copy as needed.