Here are some software tools for writers, particularly novelists.
I have had Scrivener installed for months, but I have not used it, because my internal censor says, “Fiddling with new software is not writing.” (Blogging, however, is.)
Anyone have experience with it? Is it significantly better than Word, Open Office, or anything like that?
Dave Haxton at MacRaven, in a post titled “Why Crunch Mode Doesn’t Work,” endorses the Pomodoro Technique for pacing your desk work.
It’s good, although you don’t need special paper and a T-shirt. I sometimes use a basic wind-up kitchen timer and set in a bookshelf on the other side of the study, where I won’t be tempted to look at it until it dings.
In a lovely bit of synchronicity, this writers’ blog has a discussion of Scrivener today:
http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/
Hraefna
I’m of the index card generation; I get a futuristic rush when I use post-its. Having said that I know a non-fiction writer that uses Scrivener and adores it. Having read a little about it, it seems to me worth the trouble of learning it. For one thing, my index cards keep getting wrecked when stuffed into my baby laptop bag. The biggest issue for me is I don’t use a Mac. So I’m going to have to try the Beta system available for Windows.
I think I am stuck with Word for nonfiction writing, because I make heavy use of the EndNote bibliographic software, and it is designed to integrate with Word.
If I try fiction, that would be different.
I’ve been playing with Scrivener and I love it, but I see what you mean about the EndNote problem. Luckily Scrivener for Windows is still in Beta so they may address that situation in future versions. I hope so, because I am a non-fiction writer as well.
I haven’t tried Scrivener, but a quick review looks exciting for several non-fiction projects I currently have, particularly a complex book that keeps getting reordered.
I used Scrivener for my article on Asherah in “Goddesses in World Culture”. It enabled me to keep all my research notes in one project, to work on several sections and decide later where they should go, and a number of other useful features. To some extent it replaces index cards.
It isn’t comparable to Word and related programs. In fact, the final stage of working is to export the whole document to Word. But it is far better than Word for rearranging text, for looking at text and research notes at the same time and so on.
I’d say that if the software you currently use to write with more or less meets your requirements and doesn’t drive you crazy with glitches or peculiarities, there’s not much reason to change or add another application to your tool kit. Unless you are a collector or a reviewer.
Even though I am a fan of life hacks, I find that lots of them aim at targets that I am not aiming at. Tactics like the Pomodoro technique just don’t apply to the realities of my own time/task management. Or it works not to keep me attentive to a task but to get me to take a break.