Anyone else using this program? I just downloaded it yesterday (30-day free trial) and it's incredible.

It's basically a word processing program that's designed specifically for writers. It has tons of features including a corkboard, outliner, the ability to take "snapshots" of your work that you can go back to if you like previous edits better, the ability to organize an entire story in one place (and break it down into chapters and their respective scenes - giving you the ability to move scenes and chapters around easily), and a lot of other really useful stuff. It's also capable of exporting entire stories into various formats, including PDF and word.

Anyway, here's a 13 minute video that demonstrates some of the more useful features of the program: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/videos/ScrivenerIntro.mov

It's also completely safe - for those concerned about their original works.

EDIT: Wasn't exactly sure where this topic fell, so apologies if FanFic Discussion isn't the proper place for it.

 

I've used programs like this before - mainly for scriptwriting in the past - and have just never really gotten the hang of them. Probably because I do most of my writing first by hand and then move it over to the computer, but when I do try to write with a program like this somehow things get too complicated, even though technically a program like this should (and logistically probably does) simplify.

All in all, it looks like a useful program, but I'll stick to my pen and pad of paper.

 

Probably would go better in Multimedia or something.

I'm watching the video right now and there's no chance I'm not getting it. Thanks! Shit is awesome.


Edit: Download link for those who are interested.

http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Scrivener-Download-23157.html

 

There's a whole bunch of these. From PageFour to CopyWrite to LiquidStoryBinder. The problem with all of them is that they're no where near as good as actually having these things physically present and often the price of a 'corkboard', pins, pens, paper and index cards is less than the software.

The only useful things that I can really see are the snapshots and if you're working on anything valuable like a novel, you should be backing your work up regularly anyway.

Personally, I find WriteMonkey or Q10 (Which is portable for those of you who like those kind of things) for PC, WriteRoom for Mac or JDarkRoom for Linux are pretty much the only useful writing software.

 

Yeah, Scrivener is supposed to be on par with, if not more useful, than WriteRoom, according to review websites. I wouldn't know from experience - this is the first program of the sort that I've used.

I don't do anything by hand (yet, at least) - so for fanfic writing it's pretty much everything I would ever need. Though once the free trial dies, not sure I'd spend $40 on it. We'll see I guess.

 

Scrivener and WriteRoom represent two completely opposing ideas. Scrivener gives you a whole bunch of tools, WriteRoom gives you an empty screen and allows you to type on it.

 

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/videos/Writing%20Environment.mov

EDIT: Yeah, Scrivener has a customizable, full screen mode as well. (halfway through the video it shows it)

 

Either way, it's still just one tool of many in Scrivener's toolbox. I don't use Mac but WriteMonkey for the PC is still the greatest writing platform I've yet to experience. It just works exactly how it ought to.

 

Meh. This is for Mac. :< MACFAGS!

On topic: I really like yWriter. Its pretty pimp.. Pretty simple but very useful... AND Best of all. Free.

[yt]Ti5HNVVIV1w[/yt]​

Link

 

Vash, I only like you because of your avatar. Now go fap to your Windouche XP.

:awesome

 

Windows Seven, Faggot. Get with the tim.. orite...Macfags is just a new flavor of Social Media Fag. D:

Also, I'm cool and unique. I use Linux!!

 

I use UltraEdit32 for virtually everything.

If I actually need bold/italic/underline... I'll still write it in UE32, add notations that indicate where the bold text, or whatever, should go, then transfer it over to something like Open Office to make the changes.

I just prefer writing in plain text.

Plus some of its functions seem better than the competition; find/replace (in files), search, etc.

 

I've had the full version of Scrivener for about one and a half or two years now (since about the time Escape updates were as frequent as they ever got, for those who do the math ). I think I got it illegally somehow, I used to do that a lot. I found it mostly useless for fanfiction - many others have mentioned a word processor being the most useful tool, which I agree with - but for original fiction, it had a hell of a lot more uses. Instead of half a dozen documents tracking a magic system, main and supporting characters, and the political heirarchy of the capital city, I used a single Scrivener document. Was fun and neato to play around with, for sure.

Still, to quote Han Solo in reverse, a good Scrivener at your side is no match for hokey Word processors and ancient pen and paper.

 

Oh, yeah? Yeah!? Well, then you...you are...

You like this!

Yeah, I'm unique too, coz I use Windows and defend Mac. But I wouldn't know about the cool part...

 

That's cold, bro... That's cold.

How are you not ashamed of your existence?

 

I personally use OpenOffice.org: I find it both very user-friendly and pretty useful, although I do only use the 'Writer' program, and none of the others.

 

Thanks for letting me know about yWriter, it's a fantastic program. It helps organize things immensely and it's pretty damn simple to use. It's really nice not to have my notes scattered throughout a Word page or in a bunch of different files.

 

Hey, just thought I'd make a note of something I found out recently. It may be old news, I don't know.

Anyway, apparently Scrivener is coming to Windows.

Scrivener for Windows - BETA

Right now it's still in beta, but a public beta so you can go download it if you want. The full version is supposed to be released early 2011 and will have the features of Scrivener 1.0 and maybe a few things here and there from Scrivener 2.0.

So, for those of you who don't have Macs and had wanted to give Scrivener a go, you might want to try this.

I've only used it a little bit so far.

I like the ability to split the screen, especially during editing so that I can work on one side and use the other to look back at other chapters or various notes or whatever. It's a brilliant feature.