Scrivener - StoryMill - Storyist - WriteItNow 5

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Yes, but can you name one (or three) successful authors who use it?

No, I cannot. But I fault my ignorance [re: lack of knowledge], rather than the program itself for my not knowing what successful authors may (or may not) be using it.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Yes, but can you name one (or three) successful authors who use it?

Charles Stross:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...rivener-e.html

[Rizla]

Any more? I'd like to see at least three.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's another one. But why three? I would suggest 5-10 for a full validation.

Michael Marshall Smith
Novelist
Michael Philip Marshall Smith is an English novelist, screenwriter and short story writer who also writes as Michael Marshall. Wikipedia
Born: May 3, 1965 (age 50), Knutsford, United Kingdom
Education: King's College, Cambridge
Movies: Cruise of the Gods
Awards: Philip K. Dick Award, August Derleth Award
Nominations: CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, more

[Dr. Drib]

Scrivener is where I live. I’m planning the next novel, two screenplays and a couple of short stories with it and it’s amazing how fluid the software makes the process. I genuinely think this is the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor.”

— Michael Marshall Smith, best-selling author of Spares, Only Forward and The Straw Men.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's Neal Stephenson, a well-known genre novelist:

In the past you’ve experimented with different ways of writing your books –like writing The Baroque Cycle by hand. How did you write REAMDE?

This one I wrote on a laptop. The Baroque Cycle and Anathem I did write long hand, and then typed it in. And in this case I just happened to be moving around a lot, and it was less convenient for me to sit up my little nest with the paper and the pen and the ink and all that, and more easy to just bang it out on a laptop.

Are you still using Emacs?

I use Scrivener.

[Penforhire]

I doubt there exists a "best" writing tool. Each of us prefers different features or is most comfortable with different interfaces.

I'm not entirely comfortable with Scrivener's interface. The developers do things their way and put things in different menu locations than I sometimes expect. However I very much like the extra layer of database-like functions, such as notes on chapters, tags, and such that are generally lacking in MS Word and the way you can create and organize smaller chunks of writing. That is a little funny because after many years of using MS Word at work I'm almost completely at ease using it. I suspect my unease with Scrivener will diminish with use and time.

Almost every professional writer who talks about their output mentions you cannot really get away from using MS Word because that format is preferred by most customers for reviewing and final writer's output. Lots of software purports to work with .DOC and .DOCX files but I don't know of any, aside from MS Word, that always translates highly formatted Word files correctly.

[Graham]

Dr. Drib (et. al.), if you're writing screenplays and want to move seamlessly around between devices, take a look at WriterDuet:

https://writerduet.com/

It's got a nice corkboard, like Scrivener, and the pro version also works offline (the online version is free).

You can use it for fiction as well, with a little tweaking, although it doesn't have the export functionality available in Scrivener. (As a Chromebook user, though - with no direct access to Scrivener - this is a reasonable alternative at least for laying out and writing a longer work.)

EDIT: Sorry, just realised you were quoting Michael Smith above with regard to screenplays.

Graham

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Any more? I'd like to see at least three.

Depending on your definition of successful, Joanna Penn may count. She's certainly making a reasonable living off her books:

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/books/

She's active in her praise of Scrivener.

Graham

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Graham

Dr. Drib (et. al.), if you're writing screenplays and want to move seamlessly around between devices, take a look at WriterDuet:

https://writerduet.com/

It's got a nice corkboard, like Scrivener, and the pro version also works offline (the online version is free).

You can use it for fiction as well, with a little tweaking, although it doesn't have the export functionality available in Scrivener. (As a Chromebook user, though - with no direct access to Scrivener - this is a reasonable alternative at least for laying out and writing a longer work.)

EDIT: Sorry, just realised you were quoting Michael Smith above with regard to screenplays.

Graham

I use Fade In, which is a very nice program.

Unfortunately, the creator of writerduet is a well-known spammer on many forums. He spams forums by talking up his program. He's been called on it, and yet he continues. I think most members here know what I do with spammers. If he comes here, I'll be on the look-out for any of his spammy shenanigans.

[marovada]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

What do you write with on Android? What will sync with Scrivener from an Android?

See this video for instructions on how to use folder sync in Scrivener:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVzmMFRGjnQ

I sync to a folder in Dropbox. I use Textmaker free on my Android device because it reads and writes rtf files:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...kertrial&hl=en

Textmaker supports saving to/loading from Dropbox.

I'm writing a novel and I like to edit it on the train commuting to and from work every day.

Edit: If you're using ywriter on windows, there is a utility that does the same thing for ywriter. See:

http://www.babbacom.com/ywSynch/

[Kumabjorn]

@marovada
Very useful information, much appreciated.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I use Fade In, which is a very nice program.

Unfortunately, the creator of writerduet is a well-known spammer on many forums. He spams forums by talking up his program. He's been called on it, and yet he continues. I think most members here know what I do with spammers. If he comes here, I'll be on the look-out for any of his spammy shenanigans.

Doc Drib:

You use Scrivener--does it have an automatic character time-lining feature like YWriter?

TIA,
Hitch

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Doc Drib:

You use Scrivener--does it have an automatic character time-lining feature like YWriter?

TIA,
Hitch

I'm not aware of a timeline.

I'm testing Aeon Timeline for that very purpose, but it's about the cost of Scrivener.

Aeon Timeline is geared specifically for writers.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm not aware of a timeline.

I'm testing Aeon Timeline for that very purpose, but it's about the cost of Scrivener.

Aeon Timeline is geared specifically for writers.

Well, drat.

I've been a happy YWriter user for a long time, but the way YWriter actually works--or doesn't--is giving me some agita with my Win8 laptop. I have:

1. YWriter;
2. LSBXE (all hat, no cattle, but I have some stuff in it that I don't want to lose--worthless as a writer's program, IMHO);
3. Snowflake Pro, (useful, but also, not really designed for a cloud environment), and,
4. something else I'm forgetting. Obviously, not that important.

None of these are really designed to work with a cloud environment. YWriter literally can't "see" its own RTF files, if I save it to Dropbox, from the Win8 laptop, because it uses the Dropbox for Mobile "app," really, not the usual Dropbox Desktop. That means that the dir. structure isn't one that YWriter can see or recognize. So, that's out. I tried using a LAN, across my own network, to shared folders on my desktop--where I do a large part of my work--but of course, that means that both computers have to be running, for that to work.

I don't want to lose YWriter's (frankly AWESOME) built-in timelining, if I can avoid it. I don't know any other writing program that has one--not one that you don't have to do manually. I'm utterly disinterested in that. (Having to input material I've already done, to manually create a timeline--what happens when you move scenes around? In YWriter, IT does the work.)

SPro can't, it seems, peer across a network and see the files that I've created on box X for box Y. That's frustrating as hell. I don't want to give that up, because frankly, I like the way that SP makes me THINK about my character development. If I've learned one thing, it's that if you create characters that people love, they'll read almost ANY dreck that has them.

I've debated on simply using YWriter with some type of kluge for Evernote or OneNote, but...that feels all clunky too. I really don't want to buy Scrivener, because it looks/feels a lot like LSBXE to me. Now--I'm just going to say this, and please, everybody, don't get offended, but vis-a-vis LSBXE, frankly, to me, it wasn't that useful. I felt like the developers spent more time creating a program that was all foofy and had all these bells and whistles, so that someone could feel like a REAL WRITER, rather than focusing on FUNCTIONALITY. For one simple example, the RTF that it outputs is crap. The storyboards, which are a big focus of the program, are just...like index cards. You can't (for example) do a bunch of scenes, and then output a new outline or story from that revised storyboard listing. The timelines are the same as using something manual--you have to do all the input, even if you've already written the scenes, whereas in YWriter, it tracks that for you, if you ensure that you put the start-stop time of the scene in whilst writing it.

I realize that there's no magic tool. But I've reached the point with several programs, two computers that I do use relentlessly, and these programs NOT suited for saving across the Net/Cloud/LAN....phhhllllbbbfffftt. Just frustrated today, I guess.

Hitch