Scrivener - the ultimate writer's software friend

I love Scrivener! It's a fantastic writing system for Macs!! A quick search says it's for PCs too but I obviously have the Mac version so I can't vouch for the PC version. Plus there was other s/w that was highly recommended for PCs and I spent hours trying to figure out how to get it to work on my Mac before I gave up and did some research and found Scrivener. Sure it's $45 bucks but it's well worth it and has turned my novel writing into a dream!

It comes with it's own tutorial, which I am slogging slowly through and then I also downloaded David Hewson's template which I am trudging through as well. I love that both of these "tutorials" are completely different and you learn different things from each of them. And if you spend time writing in between reading the tutorials you can apply what you are learning while feeling industrious and creative.

Scrivener is a program that let's you add folders on the left hand side of the screen, write your text in the middle and fiddle with other pop-up boxes on the right side of the screen. I'm in the midst of the right hand side screen tutorial so I can't really comment on all the features (of which there are MANY) but I can comment on the handy dandy highlight/sticky note function that I am using far too much. When you write a bit of text in the main part of the screen - also known as - the body of your novel and you come to a point where you don't have all of the fine tuning dialed in (say you have a character and you know she's from South America but you haven't decided where exactly) you can highlight any section of text and add a sticky note (which shows up on the right hand side) and add notes there which will show up again when you click on the highlighted text.

But my favorite part of Scrivener so far are the folders. I was already an organizational folder junkie so Scrivener almost rewards my folder OCD. You can create folders for your chapters and the scenes in each chapter. If you click on each folder you get only the "scene" but if you click on the top folder you get the entire manuscript. And that's not all... there are folders for characters, folders for places and my favorite - a folder for research! David Hewson recommends adding a folder for "unplaced scenes" which is amazingly helpful and I highly recommend copying the one from his template or creating your own.

And then the other super cool thing: your project target. You set how many words you want to type in a period - for example I picked 6,000 words in 13 days and then with each writing session it will show you how many words you have typed and how close (or how far) you are to (or from) your target of 6,000 words for example. And at the bottom of each page in your manuscript you can see how many words you've written so there is no constant highlighting and choosing *word count*.

Also check out: Writing a novel in Scrivener: lessons learned by Charlie Stross. 

His review is much more technical than mine and he conscientiously lists what Scrivener can't do. I'm just a novice here, having fun writing my first novel. And if you fall under this category, I highly recommend Scrivener. Before transferring my data to this system I was lost. I had excel spreadsheets (and still do for my character info), pages of data in word and links saved in folders in my browser. For me Scrivener makes sense because I can keep everything in one place. You can also download a trial version to check it out first and I highly recommend that you do! With Scrivener I actually look forward to writing every day!

Why Aren't I Writing?

I've been so inundated with starting a new business that I haven't been able to write. I've "put it aside" for now. I've been told this is not a good idea. I've been told that even if I write for 5 minutes a day, that is better than not at all. I've been told it's a habit you must form. And I believe all of that, I really do!

My "problem" is that I can't just write for 5 minutes. I pick up where I left off in my novel and I get involved with the characters. I do research, I find that something I'm writing does not support something I wrote 10 pages earlier or I forget what I wrote 10 pages earlier!

So right now I'm focusing on my new biz. And I'm reading. I'm reading a friend's novel - before it's published, which is really great! Not only is the novel itself great but it's great that she asked me to read it because she values my opinion AND it's great for motivation!

I don't have to finish my novel tomorrow. I will finish it at some point in the not too distant future because that's the most important thing - to finish. I learned that when I used to write screenplays. Make sure you finish. Starting is the easy part. And of course I already have ideas for my next 2 novels and will admit I did start one of those - but very briefly! Another "rule" -- don't start the next one until you finish the first one!

One thing about the way I write that may not be the same as other people is that I get it all down first and then I edit (rewrite and rewrite and rewrite again). I used to worry about this until I heard Anne Lamott speak about her worst fear being that she would die after a first draft of a book was written and everyone would think she was a horrible writer. Her writing she admitted was in her rewrites. Or - her brilliance, as I like to think of it. I'm the same way. I get it all down and it sounds like it was written by a 5 year old. Then I rewrite over and over and with each rewrite my writing IQ goes up. Luckily it's not that way for me with non-fiction - blogging and such - only with fiction.

According to Anne Lamott it's best to get through your complete first draft before rewriting or you may never finish. When I first started this novel over 10 years ago and it was a very different novel back then - I re-wrote the first 50 pages ad nauseum. And they were good but the next 50 pages were awful. And the problem was that I didn't work on finishing the book, I worked on the rewrites. So this time I'm not rewriting until I'm done and I'll be honest, it's really difficult for me and looking back on what I've written is almost painful!! It's that bad!!!

So here I am, close to a month into my new business and close to a month of not working on my novel. It helps to tell on myself!!