Fantastic writing software for Mac

I can introduce my new favorite tool with one word; Scrivener. Lets just put it this way. I have known that I needed to write this story for a couple of years. Now, using this tool, I am confident that I can!

If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. I heard about it on Mur Lafferty's "I should be writing" podcast. Afterward, I searched for writing software for mac and found several options. However, the one I liked best also happened to be one of the most affordable. Scrivener.

I realize that this kinda sounds like an infomercial. Don't worry, it's not. And, I am in no way connected to the author of Scrivener, other than the fact that I am using his software.

I believe that in my first post I mentioned the gigantic task of tracking all of my plot components throughout my 500+ page book. I didn't know what to do. I actually shot-out emails to several authors asking for advice on this topic, and not surprisingly, received absolutely zero replies with advice on how one might organize his/her vast novel writing project. So, I downloaded the thirty day trial for Scrivener. After working in the program for ONE HOUR I was up and running and more organized than I ever thought that I could be. Within that single hour the intense feelings that I had been plagued with, of being lost withing my boiling project, dissipated. As the fog vanished I found that I had COMPLETE control of every aspect of my story. It was all laid out and broken down by part, chapter, and scene.

This is a screenshot of my project before Scrivener rescued me. I would pull parts of my story out and drop them in the back of my working doc. Notes were written everywhere of things to redo, and I spend WAY too much time trying to find scenes that I had written so that I could grab little details to keep the story consistent. To sum it all up; I had a huge mess.







Here is what my project looks like now! As you can see my entire book is plotted out by ouline in the left column. The writing area is next for the scene that I am working on. Next to that is a visual "index card" breakdown of the entire chapter; scene by scene.






After pulling my material into the software and adding notes to scenes that I have not yet written, I have the overarching structure of my novel built and distributed by section and plot arch. needless to say, I LOVE SCRIVENER! I have actually really enhanced my story since working in this software. Being able to see the structure of my story has shown me plot-holes, and areas where I needed to add or remove pieces of my story to make it work better. I believe that this single tool will dramatically affect how much time I spend in the editing process in November. The other neat thing is that I can keep all my files together in one easily backed up file. I can also take "snapshots" to keep track of changes and go back to earlier versions of a scene if I rewrite and decide I dont like it as much as what I had before.

I just cant say it enough. I LOVE IT! I'm not sure how I stayed motivated to write before, as I sat at my computer swirling in frustration and feeling like I couldnt keep track of basic details; details that began to evade me as they mixed in with the whole of the rest of the story.

If you are a writer and work only on Mac's then you gotta check-out Scrivener.

Thanks for reading!