Why Scrivener is the Best Book Writing Software, Hands Down
Scrivener is still the coolest novel writing software out there
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If you’re a novelist, you’ve probably heard of Scrivener. Although Scrivener has been helping writers draft and compile their books since 2007, Scrivener 3 is even more feature-rich.
But first, do you need book writing software?
Do you need special novel-writing software to compose your novels? Not necessarily. I still use Word after I’ve written a complete draft of a novel. I love Word, and I’ll probably use it as long as I can type. That said, I’m glad Scrivener did come along. I snagged it in its first iteration in 2008, buying my very first Mac just to use Scrivener, because back in the day Scrivner wasn’t available for PCs (now it’s available for both). Even if you can’t imagine life without Word, Scrivener can help you streamline the novel writing process and make the best of your book’s many moving parts.
I’ve published six novels. For the last three, I used Scrivener*, and I’m using it for my novel in progress as well. I’m also using it to write a collection of essays. I’ll explain why it works for me. (And at the end of the article, I’ll also tell you about a really interesting piece of new editing software I tried recently.)
Scrivener for non-linear writing
Scrivener is especially useful if you write in a non-linear fashion, like I do, because Scrivener makes it easy to move chapters around and visualize your novel. It’s also a great way to keep all of your research and notes on a book in once place. (More than ten years ago, I created a set of four workbooks centered on this non-linear process. It’s called The Paperclip Method and you can get the latest edition here).
Scrivener also helps you to understand and manage narrative patterns. Let’s say you want your subplot to come back every six chapters; you can easily manage that in the Scrivener manuscript view as well as on color-coded notecards. You can also use tags to easily search characters, settings, subplots and more.
Great for motivation and maintaining a writing habit
I also find Scrivener incredibly useful when it comes to the pesky matter of maintaining a writing habit. Project targets allow you to easily see how much you’ve written each day and how far you have progressed toward your goal. Seeing those progress numbers tick up day by day, and even hour by hour, is so encouraging. I’m not a numbers person, but when I’m at 32,560 words, I think, “Just 440 more words to 33,000!” And then, when I see that 33,000 in the progress window, I think, “Just 2,000 more words to 35,000.” It really does keep me from setting my laptop aside to binge-watch Cheer! for a second time.
A streamlined corkboard for your laptop
My favorite feature of Scrivener is the digital corkboard that automatically generates index cards as you add scenes and chapters. When you move the index cards around on your corkboard, it also moves the scenes within your manuscript.
How Scrivener helps you focus and be more productive
I also love writing in Scrivener’s Focus mode, because I’m not great about cleaning up my digital desktop, and there are so many folders on top of screenshots on top of apps on top of notes that writing with icons in view stresses me out.
How Scrivener 3 Will Help You Improve Dialogue
One of the cool new features of Scrivner 3 is “Dialogue Focus,” which allows you to pick out all of the dialogue in your book. Since dialogue is one of the key elements of pacing, this feature can really help you identify and fix pacing issues.
Compilation is Better in Scrivener 3
If you tried Scrivener in the past and found compilation tricky, you’ll be happy to know that with Scrivener 3, compilation is simple and clean.
I should mention that Scrivener has a ton of features that I don’t use and probably never will. You could easily get lost in the funhouse with all their free training videos, but there’s no need to do a training deep dive to get more than your money’s worth out of Scriver. The color-coded cork board, flexibility, project targets, focus mode, organization tools, and affordable price tag ($59) make it a no-brainer for me.
Try Scrivener.
And for you outliners — the streamlined beauty of Plottr
If you want a simple, clear, highly visual way to outline your novel or story , you can’t go wrong with Plottr. New to the writing software game, Plottr’s beauty is in its simplicity. By moving colored boxes around on a timeline, you can easily insert scenes, chapters, and characters.
Plottr has a number of quick, free video tutorials, but you probably won’t even need to watch them to get started.
Note that Plottr does just one thing — outlining — but it does it extremely well. For a streamlined process that allows your novel to grow and mutate (as all great novels do), I recommend using Plottr with Scrivener.
Get Plottr and get your outline done quickly.
Recap
For drafting, organizing, focusing, compiling research, hitting project targets, maintaining a writing habit, and rearranging sections of your novel, story, or nonfiction project, Scrivener is excellent and affordable, a true powerhouse, and for me it a no-brainer. You can get Scrivener here.
For powerful outlining and a beautiful interface with no learning curve, Plottr is incredibly simple, useful, and intuitive.
And a free resource from me (The Caffeinated Writer)
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Michelle Richmond is the internationally bestselling author of six novels, including The Marriage Pact, which has been published in 30 languages. She mentors writers through Novel in Nine.
*This article includes affiliate links. I have purchased and continue to use both Scrivener and Plottr.
