Writer Wednesday - Tools

Since I started writing in 2001, I have created my manuscripts in Microsoft Word. As a former administrative assistant who came up using WordPerfect, I was thrilled when Microsoft released the first version of Word, and I use Word to this day. It's the best word processing program out there. All of my manuscripts have been created in Word

 

Even though I love technology, it isn’t in my nature to immediately embrace new programs until I’ve heard a good number of people endorsing them. So when I first started hearing buzz about Scrivener, a software program that makes the creation of a manuscript easier, I intentionally ignored the hoopla. A few months ago, someone posted this video on Facebook, and after I watched it, I was sold. If you’re a writer, and you’re not aware of Scrivener, you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s an all-inclusive writing program you can buy for forty dollars that makes it possible to have everything pertaining to your project in one place.

 

 

I downloaded Scrivener to my laptop, and last week, I spent time fooling around with it. Once I felt comfortable with it, I imported the manuscript for A Woman's Worth, added all of my character photos, the storyboard, story notes and research documents into the program.

No more switching back and forth from Word to Excel, Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary/Thesaurus.com, Brainy Quotes, etc., every time you need to look up something. I can click into any of my documents on the left side of the screen.

 

So far, I’m loving it!

If you’d like more information on Scrivener here are two good articles:

 

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/08/31/test-driving-scrivener-software-for-writers/

http://www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com/using-scrivener-for-plotting/

Scrivener site:

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php