Why I love Scrivener

I have mentioned in before that I have ADD and this makes writing a novel into a challenge.

Today I want to discuss how Scrivener (the writing program) helps minimize distractions so I can be productive.

I have written some non-fiction books previous to my attempt at writing a first novel, and one of the problems I ran across really quickly was that a long document took a very long time to scroll through.  In fact, I never composed non-fiction books with all chapters in the same file.  (Heavens, that would be the worst mistake of my life.)

Here’s what would happen if I did compose with all the chapters in the same file: 

1.     I would open the document intending to look for Chapter 14.

2.     While scrolling to Chapter 14, a mistake in Chapter 9 would catch my eye and I’d stop to fix it.

3.     Then I’d start reading the rest of Chapter 9, looking for more sneaky mistakes. 

4.     I might remember I’d intended to go to Chapter 14, but while scrolling toward it again, I would notice a sentence in Chapter 11 that didn’t sound right and stop to fix it.  This would lead to more reading in Chapter 11.

5.     I would never actually make it to Chapter 14, but spend my time distracted on the way.

Before Scrivener I would have a file for each chapter so that I could go quickly to where I needed to go.

Scrivener makes it so that you can do this automatically in the same window, but its binder feature keeps all your chapters visible and instantly accessible.

Not only that, but all my research files are also visible and accessible.

This feature alone has saved me so much time and distraction it probably can’t be counted except by visiting a parallel universe.  

If you want to see what Scrivener is like, I have a link to it in my sidebar. (No, I do not get money from this recommendation.) They have a 30-day free trial, and the price is pretty reasonable for the features.