The Endorsement: Scrivener

As an author, sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud.

We have so many tools at our disposal that make it easier.

I don’t handwrite. Can’t imagine doing it. I think I would, if I had to.

But really? Without my MacBook, I’m lost.

Pen and paper? I love it. For making a grocery list. Not writing a novel.

Remember typewriters? And sliding the carriage over at the end of the page. And using Wite-Out on your mistakes. And God forbid you want to save the project. Not happening. Wanna travel and write? Pack that typewriter and some extra ribbons and lots of paper. Have fun with that.

These days, if you want to write, the only thing stopping you is you. Really.

If you’re reading this, you have access to a computer. And if you have access to a computer, just write the damn novel already.

I like to play around with programs that are designed to help writers. My favorite, by far, is Scrivener.

Like most writers, I procrastinate. But even when I’m not writing, I’m writing. If I’m reading the latest isssue of Glamour, I might come across a name or a personality trait for a character.

You can bet money that one day, I’ll write a novel with a character based on the Indian guy who owns the local corner store in my ‘hood. He’s a rich character and I file away all our conversations in my mind. It will become dialogue in a novel one day I’m sure.

You can make the most of your  non-writing writing time with a program like Scrivener, a great program for storing your thoughts on a particular project, creating an outline and then, when you’re ready, actually writing.

Here’s what Scrivener looks like when you open up a new file:

This is like your dashboard. Consider it a desktop solely for your current project.

You can start by creating index cards to outline each chapter.

When you go into Corkboard mode, it gives you this nice corkboard-style interface. And you can add as many index cards you like. (You can change the colors too.  No Tea For The Fever As-Yet-Untitled follows four characters, so when I outlined, I used different colored cards for each character. It makes me very happy for some reason).

Once you’re done outlining, you can always refer back to your cards if you want to rearrange them or just look at the big picture of your work.

Each index card may represent a chapter. And when you click on it and begin writing, your chapter will remain in that card. Then, you can switch the view and look at it as a regular document as well. Very helpful. Especially if you need to move whole chapters around later. Which you will. You just drag your card to wherever you want it. And that’s it! When you print it out, it will be in the right order.

My favorite part of Scrivener is the Research folder. It’s another corkbard where you can just throw up random things you want to reference as you’re writing.

Like, say for example, your novel features a main character who looks, acts and talks like Russell Simmons. And the character lives on Turtle Island. And one day he reads a story in the New York Times about a writer named Aliya S. King who has troublesome hair that she can’t control. And he sets out to find her and make her his muse for a new line of haircare products called TurtleIslandKinks.

Well, you might want to have some photos, news clippings and other random things spread out that you can look at from time to time as you write.

Voila! There’s your inspiration board! Refer back to Russel’s dimples, the color of the water on Turtle Island’s, a newspaper clipping from the New York Times, a shot of Aliya S. King and her troublesome hair.

In the Research folder for my novel, I have dozens of tidbits like this. I scoured stock photos on Google for images of people who looked like the characters in my head. I dragged and dropped them here for reference. If I read something a magazine, I uploaded the link here. If someone gave me a suggestion, I jotted it down on an index card and put it here.

Very helpful to have all this stuff in one place. Particularly in the same exact file where you will write.

Speaking of, Scrivener also gives me something I desperately need: a blank page.

When I’m working in Microsoft Word, my computer screen looks like this:

It’s pathetic to admit it. But that’s actually distracting for me. I can see my screensaver back there. I see other open documents on my desktop and random folders. Next thing you know, I’m on Twitter.

Scrivener has a feature called Full Screen which is just that:

It darkens your desktop. You can choose whatever color “paper” you want. And you will nothing else but your text.

I love clicking into the Full Screen mode. I feel like it tells my writer self to shut down everything and just get the words down, one after the other.

You can also set goals for yourself. I try to write 500 words a day on a new project. I enter that number in the software and I can check to see if I’ve made my goal or perhaps exceeded it.

I’m sure a lot of writers would say, please. I’m not paying for software. Just sit your butt down and write.

And I’m sure there are many writers who do it with no special tools with cute interfacing.

I’m not one of those people.

Scrivener does two things for me:

1. It helps organize my random thoughts. And keep track of my writing-while-not-writing ideas.

2. It gives me something to do that is writer-y, when I’m not yet ready to write.

Right now, I feel like I’m ready to start writing a novel. (Just saying that made my heart start pounding). Before I get overwhelmed and start doubting myself, I’m going to open a new project in Scrivener and just look at my soothing, calming chalkboard. I’ll jot some notes on index cards and see what happens. Then, soon, I will give myself a goal–500 words and don’t get up til you’re done–flip on the Full Screen option and get to work.

500 words a day for 200 days, is a 100,000 word novel.

200 days seems like forever. But it’s really not.

200 days from now, you’ll be glad you started writing that 500 words a day.

Happy writing. I’ll let you know how far I’ve come in 200 days…

Check out Scrivener. It costs money, can’t remember how much. But not more than 20 bucks. And check out other writing software, there are tons of options.

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