A Writer's Best Friend

I've heard others talk about it, of course.  "It has changed the way I write novels," says one author.  "I'm in love," says another.  "It has totally changed my life."

What is IT that has these authors totally a-twitter?  Scrivener, of course.  A word processing and project management tool that works the way that novelists think - all the ways, whether linear or chunks, outlined ahead of time or written on the fly.

I was skeptical.  But, I was also lost.  It became increasingly difficult to remember where I was in my work-in-progress, or what wonderful idea I'd had just before drifting off to sleep, or how Chunk A fit in with Chunk B.  So, in desperation, I gave Scrivener a try.

Now, let me just say, I am not getting paid for this testimonial.  Nor have I had the software long enough to be considered an expert.  Still, one day after loading Scrivener on my computer, I had imported all my previous work, parsed it into manageable bits, spent time dreaming and recording scenes that had previously been lost in the back of my brain somewhere, and then organized it all into a nice little outline to guide me when I'm at a loss of where to go next.  I have character bios and pictures and character-building exercises to round out my cast, scene descriptions and photos of historical settings to refer to while trying to describe my settings, and pages of historical reference links to guide me.  All this within one day.

I am encouraged.  Excited.  Energized.

I only hope the feeling lasts...