Goodbye Word, Hello Scrivener

Writing’s all about the words. It doesn’t much matter what tools you use, just as long as you get the right words in the right places. I used to write with pen and paper, and sometimes still do. I’ve consigned the typewriters – both manual and electronic – to the scrapheap. These days I’m most likely to be found using a laptop. Until recently, the tool on that laptop would have been the hateful but undeniably useful Microsoft Word.

Not any more.

I started hearing about Scrivener through the writing community on Twitter. It’s a nifty piece of software that markets itself as ‘your complete writing studio’. Whenever I hear a claim like that, I’m sceptical. I’ve tried any number of word processors or outlining tools that purport to have the professional writer in mind, but none of them cut the mustard.

Scrivener’s different.

To begin with – and most importantly – Scrivener puts the actual process of writing first. It’s as easy as pie to get down to it and join the words together. “So what?” I hear you ask. “I can do that with Notepad.” Well, in addition to being a smart, clean word processor, Scrivener has a number of special features that make it, in my opinion, an essential tool. Here are just two of them.

The first essential feature (actually, lots of features in one) is the deceptively simple way Scrivener allows you to break your writing into sections. Now, I prefer to write novels as single documents, because I can’t bear chopping back and forth between separate chapter files. But a long novel can get unwieldy, and searching through it when editing can be a pain. However, Scrivener has a clever trick – an overarching binder system that allows you to write chapters as individual files, but merge them into a single working document whenever you choose. Critically, you can switch endlessly between these two modes, without pain. You can group chapters into sections, and even customise labels for them – for example, “First Draft,” “Final Edit,” and so on. When you’ve finally completed your manuscript, you compile the whole thing together as one correctly-formatted file, and export it in the universally-accepted Word format.

The second essential feature is the way you can set up a complete hierarchy of folders and files in addition to the actual manuscript, all within the same binder. Here you can store things like research material, character descriptions, outlines, multimedia files, PDF – you name it. If you want to get really clever, you can hyperlink these files to specific locations within chapters, or connect them together so you can track individual story arcs as they progress through multiple-POV narratives. And so on.

I’ve been using Scrivener for just a few weeks, but I’m already a passionate convert. One of my current works-in-progress is a novel I need to complete by February. I had three chapters and an outline saved as separate Word documents, and it was a simple process to import the files into a new Scrivener project. I’ve also imported all the historical research I’ve done, doing away with the need for multiple reference files. And off I go.

Having everything in one place means I don’t have to leave Scrivener to check a reference. This saves time. Now I’m writing in convenient separate chapters, but with the knowledge that I can flip to my favoured full-length manuscript any time I like. I can reorder material just by dragging and dropping. By switching to full-screen mode, I can strip away all the surrounding paraphernalia and focus on the words alone. In short, Scrivener lets me get on with the job, helping me out when I need its extra features and politely getting out of the way when I don’t.

Oh, Scrivener also has a rather cute random name generator too. The default name database leaves a little to be desired but you can install your own lists, which is a nice feature. I’m not sure how useful it’s going to be, but when it comes up with names like Aubrianne Kibble you can be sure you’re in for some fun.

• Official Scrivener website