Now when I have an idea at 2am about how to fix the plot hole in chapter 14 (that thankfully no-one noticed at the time), I make a note on my phone, and the next time I open scrivener, there it is, right inside the program.
I installed an app on my phone called Jota+-a basic text file program for android, and it saves all the notes I make with it in a dropbox folder. rtf document location, and this is when I realised that Scrivener can consolidate my writing life. I realised that I could make any folder I wanted my Scratch Pad. But the real strength of Scratch Pad, is how it stores its notes. This is designed so that you can leave scrivener workspace to do some web browsing and the scratch pad window stays with you, allowing you to take notes on the fly. While there are many ways of taking notes, like the research folder I mentioned above, the Scratch Pad is a small rich text window that floats above all others. These SaaS (Software as a Service) tools are getting more mature all the time and are able to see some very unique features that the desktop offerings can't match (specifically in the area of multiple-author collaboration and beta-reader reviews).This seemingly innocent note taking tool built into scrivener has turned out to be a central reason I use the program. And then, the newest entrant into the category are the online dedicated writing environments for authors like Wordslingr and LitLift and some others. Especially when combined with dropbox (or one of its competitors) to allow synchronization of your work across multiple devices. After that, desktop writing environments that are designed for authors like Scrivener and yWriter are popular. They are easy and accessible and everyone has them. MS Word and other desktop word processors are still the king. This thread was originally started way back in 2008 (that's some legs!) so I know the answers here have probably changed over the intervening 7 years. Plus, being online, these tools work pretty much across all devices. Being online (ala Google Docs) you are able to get some unique collaboration and review features that desktop applications can't provide.
There are several free ones like LitLift out there, as well as my own, Wordslingr. None of these will make you a better writer or your work more successful, but it will allow you to be better organized.Ĭlick to expand.I haven't seen many online writing tools mentioned in this thread. Once fully implemented this may well be a standout feature. An interesting one is oStorybook - an open-source version of Storybook - that is currently being developed by a small group.ĮDIT: I forgot to mention that oStorybook will allow creation and editing of scenes/chapters in LibreOffice. I gave up on Scrivener because I find its (Windows) UI is intractable, although it has a fair degree of power, and is not exclusively for novels. One of the most attention-grabbing is their character tab, which allows incredibly detailed character building. To me, the most impressive for writing a novel are yWriter (free and very good), WriteItNow (expensive, but it's the one I use), WriteWayPro (inexpensive and good), and perhaps Liquid Story Binder (complex, and no longer under development). WriteItNow is a rising star, combining Scrivener’s ease-of-use and organizational abilities with a host of compelling extra features.
Personally, I wouldn't consider going back to just using a wordprocessor - there's too many things for me to create, try, keep track of, etc - but some still get by with Word/LO, and good luck to them.