I’ve written all of my
novels using Microsoft Word. Before and during my writing I do extensive
research on the Internet and print out articles and keep them in file folders.
Occasionally I like to get away from the confines of my computer and desk. So,
instead of heading out with a laptop, I print out my work-in-progress drafts
and bring them and my research to a café. While sipping on a green tea matcha
latte and trying to avoid purchasing that oversized chocolate chip cookie in
the display case with my name on it, I’ll make corrections and notes on my
drafts, brainstorm further, re-read articles, ponder and daydream. It’s
important for my writing well being to sometimes get away from my home office
and computer screen, my working-from-home husband and my demanding Siamese cat.
But lately I’ve been
feeling stuck with a revision of a finished novel as well as the beginnings of
two novels-in-progress (yes, I am a Gemini). Colleagues and students alike have
been raving about Scrivener for years now and the questions come to mind, “What
am I missing out on?” and “Is there something I could do differently with the
help of tools that will enhance my creativity in ways I haven’t considered?”
It’s not that I haven’t
tried a few programs before. But I’m famous for downloading them and then letting
them rot on my desktop, saying I don’t have time to learn them and I’ll get to it
once I start my next novel. Or I simply use them once, throw my hands up in the
air and then forget all about them.
I finally did recently purchase
and download Scrivener (very reasonably priced) as well as the Scrivener for Dummies book. Fellow
writers told me that I may not need the book—that the online documentation was
quite well done, but trust me, I do usually need how-to books as well. I’ve
only just begun to explore Scrivener and I find that it seems best for help
with becoming better organized and having research all in one place (though not
easy to print out, which I guess isn’t the point). It also has a virtual corkboard
and index cards for storyboarding, which was fun to play around with, but I
couldn’t seem to print that out either or copy and paste the text and take it to
the café unless I wanted to print it on actual Avery 3x5 cards.
Organization is not
usually a challenge for me. I guess I’m looking also for help with plotting and
brainstorming—something that will help me get the ball rolling. I know how to
do this intellectually, but I feel that it’s good to have a jump-start and a
way to bounce ideas around that will stimulate my creativity. There are other
software packages designed with this in mind (The Marshall Plan, Dramatica,
etc.) but I have heard these are difficult to learn and perhaps more complex
than they need to be. So I guess it’s good to know up front what you want in a
writing software and how it is actually meant to help.
Researching on the Internet
I see that some writers like to use a variety of tools instead of one dedicated
software package. There’s Pro Writing Aid, which is a writing improvement and
editing software; Visual Thesaurus; and Evernote, which you can use for
clipping scene ideas, notes, photos, etc. And there are many more.
I also see that
Scrivener has a way to set a draft and session “target”—a total word count goal
that plugs into a deadline. I think this could be useful, if I do indeed end up
using Scrivener but it’s also something I could easily set up for myself.
So, girlfriends, what
software and tools do you use, if any? Do you utilize any kind of plotting or
story development software? What works for you? What doesn’t? And if you do use
and like Scrivener, what are the features that you find the most helpful?
Find me at:
Twitter: @Wendy_Tokunaga
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