In my last post, I left Microsoft WordPerfect because they inserted their AI, Copilot, into my documents with no way to remove it. In my quest to find a new software for my creative writing, I landed on Scrivener. I must confess this is not my first venture with Scrivener. A few years ago, in a quest to organize the research for my creative writing projects, I purchased Scrivener. My original venture with Scrivener only lasted a few short weeks. I stopped using the program because it syncs with Dropbox. I had already moved on from Dropbox. I did try syncing with iCloud, but there were some issues. Just to be safe, I also backed up to a hard drive. Afraid I would lose data, I stopped using it and went back to Word.   

For a brief moment, I entertained the idea of giving Scrivener another try but decided to see what else was available. Like most people, the first thing I did was search the internet. Of course there was page after page of ads and blogs and YouTube videos, and so on. After clicking on a few blogs that ranked writing software, Scrivener was frequently in the top five. But so was Word, Atticus, Google Docs, Ulysses, Hemingway Editor, and a few others.

In fact, it became repetitive very quickly, so I asked friends and family what writing software they used. My son uses Ulysses because of its minimalist interference and low monthly subscription fee. A young woman in my writing group uses Google Docs because it’s free. Ulysses looked interesting but not interesting enough to pay the monthly fee. Over the years, I have used Google Docs. Other than the price (free), the only other perk is that Google Docs is good for group projects. My novel is not a collaboration. 

Since none of the other writing software programs offered anything worth the fee, and I had already purchased Scrivener, I decided to give it another try. In addition to the save issues, Scrivener has a monumental learning curve. It’s an opinion shared by every blog I read. As a writing program, compared to Word, it is a little stripped down. I would not call it minimalist, but it does not have all the tools and features of Word. However, I find that to be a good thing. It forces me to pay attention rather than rely on the software.

Now, about the learning curve—the steep learning curve is mainly based around the files and folders in the binder, which is located on the left side of the Editor. The Editor is where you actually do the writing. But this post is not a how-to for Scrivener. The software does include good tutorials and a blog. There are also plenty of blogs and YouTube videos to walk writers through the start-up process. Once a writer is up and running, they could spend years learning everything Scrivener can do. The same can be said about Word.

Edmond Rane