RTW: Scrivener Love

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

Next week's topic: 
What word processing program do you use to write your manuscript, and can you share one handy trick you've learned in that program that has helped you while you write?

Two months ago, I downloaded the free trial for Scrivener (for Windows) and fell head over heels in love with it. At first I just used it for revisions but last month I decided to try it for writing my new WIP. I haven't been able to use it too much so far, but I'm really liking it. I can't wait for the Windows version to catch up with the Mac one. 

There are a lot of really awesome features, but the one that comes to mind that helps me while I'm writing is the project target feature. It allows you to set a target word count for the manuscript and for the session. Then a colored bar shows you how far you are towards that goal and changes color the closer you get. If you finish one session and you want to do another one, you can just hit reset.

Another thing I love is the notecard feature. My MS is divided up into sections where each scene gets their own "document." Then each document is attached to a notecard where I can jot down a couple lines describing what happens in the scene. If I have an idea for a future scene but I'm not ready to write it yet, I can create a notecard with the idea and just leave it at that.

Comments

Nickie said…
I've heard of Scrivener on a few other blogs, but I haven't used it yet. I'm worried that I'll be too busy playing with all of the cool features that I'll forget to write!
September 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM
Sara Biren said…
Colin wrote about the notecard/flash card feature too and I'm intrigued! And I think the status bar thing would be good for NaNo events, but I'm not too strict about goals and word count if I'm not in a NaNo month. I just sort of go with the flow and word count takes care of itself. :)
September 12, 2012 at 9:10 PM
Unknown said…
I LOVE the project target feature. I also really love the full screen mode. It's great when working on a draft and trying to avoid Twitter. :)
September 12, 2012 at 9:23 PM
Anonymous said…
Wow. That is a great feature. I love that there is a color bar to watch. I would get motivated to win if I had that. I use Word. Which means I currently motivate myself with cookies. :)
September 12, 2012 at 10:12 PM
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