81–90 of 105 posts
Even more amazing is a little tool called Scapple from the same author. I use it to brainstorm and collect thoughts. Absolutely love it and I read that they plan to update it as well. Can't wait.
Before anyone says wouldn't it be great if there was a Linux version, Literature and Latte had one for more than a year. They discontinued it after less than 10 licenses sold. Perhaps that was because of the separate code base for each platform which meant in the previous versions the UI and feature set varied. L & L claim the Windows and MacOS versions will have the same UI but the fact version 3.x wasn't released f…
Can the iOS version import/export files for Windows/Mac without going through cloud storage like Dropbox?
I only used Scrivener for my master thesis a few years ago but keep recommending it to everyone who is about to write a longer text. It's a great tool and helped me a lot to overcome writing procrastination. Very happy to see it's actively developed.
I'm curious what features you found/find most helpful.
The biggest win for me was how Scrivener supports an iterative workflow. I started with keywords on the cards for what a chapter should be about, wrote a few sentences describing the keywords inside the document, added context so the sentences became paragraphs, fleshed it out and polished it. During this process I used colour labels in the outline view[1] to keep track of the state of a chapter.
All this took away the pressure to write a long, good and coherent text. I only had to increment little by little to which my brain had far less resistance. If I was stuck on a chapter or couldn't motivate myself to keep working on it, I switched to another one and do a little work here, a little work there.
Also the usual Latex applied as well: I only focussed on the content and didn't format anything properly and left placeholders for images. I used Pages (the old version with two sided layout) for the final assembly where I only had to worry about layout and not on the content.
[1]: http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/using-labels-in-scrivener...
Good work on the new release. As a long time Scrivener 2 user, I'm happy to see this. However, I wanted a simpler and subjectively nicer looking tool for distraction-free writing and thus made my own. It's free, has a few social features built-in, tracks writing progress/goals/distractions, and can make good looking books. Also, adding features to Singular Writer has been really easy, as evidenced by it being in exis…
My other authoring tool (Papyrus Autor) is great when it comes to Grammar/Spellchecking/Style and is pretty much the go to tool for German writers however it feels too cluttered for my personal taste. So I'm switching over to singular for prewriting with spellchecking turned off and then I'll load it into PA for the other tools (which will be an interesting and humbling experience).
Good work on the new release. As a long time Scrivener 2 user, I'm happy to see this. However, I wanted a simpler and subjectively nicer looking tool for distraction-free writing and thus made my own. It's free, has a few social features built-in, tracks writing progress/goals/distractions, and can make good looking books. Also, adding features to Singular Writer has been really easy, as evidenced by it being in exis…
Curious whether you have any plans for an iOS app accompanying this? My partner uses Scrivener for writing currently, but does a lot of it on their iPad, so Scrivener's app + Dropbox sync is a fairly important thing for them. (Scrivener's Dropbox sync being frequently buggy may help explain why I'm asking about this for them...)
Hmm, never had an issue with Scrivener/Dropbox sync.
Mind you, I open Scrivener only 3-4 times a week and close it after I'm done with a document. I also don't use it frequently from my other machines (iMac/iPad), so it mainly syncs what I save on the main driver.
For screenwriting I highly recommend checking out emacs fountain mode [1] (plus imenu-list and Olivetti minor modes). In combination with org-mode it is the most powerful writing/outlining tool you can imagine. Also, if you haven't tried them, I highly recommend checking out WorkFlowy [2], Gingko [3], or Nulis [4] (disclaimer - nulis is my own project). Outlining and organizing projects as a tree structure is insanel…
Have heard from quite a few writers that use and love Mindscope.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindscope-thought-organizer/...
For screenwriting I highly recommend checking out emacs fountain mode [1] (plus imenu-list and Olivetti minor modes). In combination with org-mode it is the most powerful writing/outlining tool you can imagine. Also, if you haven't tried them, I highly recommend checking out WorkFlowy [2], Gingko [3], or Nulis [4] (disclaimer - nulis is my own project). Outlining and organizing projects as a tree structure is insanel…
I was initially a fully paid-up Scrivener user, but just couldn't get on with it. I found myself fighting with it far more than I would have liked - especially around generated output. Granted this would have been nearly ten years ago now I think. I switched to Ulysses. I found I loved writing in Markdown! I then upgraded to Ulysses III when that came out and never looked back.
But GitHub changed everything...
Now I write pretty much everything in Emacs. I initially used AsciiDoc markdown, but now I use Github flavoured markdown (GFM) in Emacs. Public writing is in a public repo on GitHub and I have a private repo there too for personal/work-in-progress type stuff. Full revision history and command line goodness. Lovely jubbly.
The way I tend to write is each chapter is a GFM file. I can use command line tools to turn that into HTML/PDF and sometimes roll my own tools in Python/shell. I do sometimes write shorter pieces and combine them.
I do still use Ulysses for things like lists and odd notes, but it's getting less common.
I guess at the end of the day it's whatever works for you, but yes Emacs with GitHub is working really well for all my writing needs right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1 My mum uses Linux and is a writer and wants Scrivener (yes, Linux is mainstream).
There used to be a Linux version. You can still find it, it's v.1.6 or so (predating v.2), needs 32-bit libraries and is unsupported. But you can get it running. The problem is if you bring the project file into a new version it will convert the file format and there's no going back.
Good work on the new release. As a long time Scrivener 2 user, I'm happy to see this. However, I wanted a simpler and subjectively nicer looking tool for distraction-free writing and thus made my own. It's free, has a few social features built-in, tracks writing progress/goals/distractions, and can make good looking books. Also, adding features to Singular Writer has been really easy, as evidenced by it being in exis…