Scrivener for Macs

Writing a novel involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done. Collecting research, ordering fragmented ideas, shuffling index cards in search of that elusive structure—most writing software is fired up only after much of the hard work is done. Enter Scrivener for Macs: a word processor and project management tool that stays with you from that first, unformed idea all the way through to the final draft. Outline and structure your ideas, take notes, view research alongside your writing and compose the constituent pieces of your text in isolation or in context. Scrivener won't tell you how to write - it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.

You can find out more about Scrivener 2.0 for Mac here. Or click on the link below.

 The problem with using an ordinary word processor for writing your novel is that it's set up so you start at the beginning and keep going linearly until the end. But many novelists don't work like that. So you either do different files for different sections, or do it in one big file but they're in the wrong order. Either way is a receipe for at best stress and and at worst disaster.

Scrivener for Macs solves this problem by allowing you to work in any order you choose. It gives you the tools you need to plan and restructure your writing.

These tools include virtual index cards, which you can arrange and re-arrange as much as you choose until you get the best order for your story.

Scrivener for Macs also has a comprehensive outliner, and lets you use that outline as a prompter when you're actually writing your first draft.

Whether you like to plan everything in advance, write first and structure later—or do a bit of both—Scrivener for Macs supports the way you work.

And unlike other programs that only let you view one document at a time, with Scrivener for Macs you can split the editor to view research in one pane while composing your text right alongside it in another.

Scrivener for Macs also provides all the tools you need to prepare your manuscript for submission or self-publishing. Print a novel using standard manuscript formatting or an academic paper in a standard style such as APA or MLA. Export your finished document to a wide variety of file formats, including Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF and HTML - making it easy to share your work with others.

Or self-publish by exporting to ePub or Kindle formats to share your work via iBooks or Amazon, or for reading on any e-reader. And for those who want to typeset their own work, Scrivener supports the MultiMarkdown markup language, giving users with more exacting requirements all the power of exporting to LaTeX, XHTML, and more.

You can also take your work with you when you're out and about. Scrivener for Macs’ Simplenote, Index Card and folder syncing features allow you to sync your work with many mobile programs available on the iPad and iPhone. So you can edit and take notes wherever you are, and then sync them all back to your main computer.

While many other writing project management tools impose their own workflows Scrivenerfor Macs recognises that all writers of long projects such as novels often face similar problems, and provides an array of flexible tools that allow you to do things your way, no matter what your writing style is.

You can buy an e-book for only $5.99 called Writing a Novel with Scrivener. The bestselling author David Hewson, creator of the successful Nic Costa series, offers a personal, highly-focussed guide to using this powerful application to create a novel.

Hewson, a Scrivener user for years who's written five of his popular novels in the app, takes users through the basic processes of structuring a full-length novel, writing and developing the story, then delivering it either as a manuscript for an agent or publisher or as an ebook direct to Kindle or iBook.

Alongside the practical advice, he offers a working novelist's insight into the process of writing popular fiction. And this book is, of course, created entirely within Scrivener itself, from development through to publication on Kindle, a process followed in detail in the book.

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