I posted a picture of my desktop a while back. Well, it hasn’t gotten any neater.
Luckily however, we’re living in the digital age, and just as there’s a digital solution to just about any problem that ever plagued humanity, there’s help in the Fiction Writers’ Toolbox for slobs like me.
Is this familiar: you don’t want to clean up your desktop–even the thought of it makes you tired. And it’ll just get trashed again anyway, right? So what’s the use?
And yet you were so good: you printed out your research plus a first attempt at a scene that’s had you blocked, plus a ton of notes you entered randomly over the past few months. And not you can’t kind find them.
You did file, didn’t you? Uhh….
Let’s just take a look in this pile. No? Or this one…? And so on.
Inside your computer things are not much better. You’ve made folders and salted everything away according to a plan that made sense at some time or other, but you’ve forgotten what it was. You’d like to do some kind of global search for at least a few of the files but you never really learned how to do that, so…
Happily there is a way out. Several, actually, but I’m going to spotlight the best two: Scrivener (Mac only) and Page Four (PC only)….
Scrivener is the one I’m familiar with (and use) because I do everything on either on old eMac or newer Macbook. But I have no problem suggesting Page Four because it’s wholeheartedly recommended by the Scrivener folks.
In both cases, these virtual organizers have been designed BY writers, FOR writers.
What makes Scrivener so cool is its ability to squirrel away almost any kind of file in its “resource” area–website URLs, snippets of text, emails, PDF documents, images, etc. See something you want to keep? Just select and drag it in. You’ll always know where it is, because it will always be in the same place–along with everything else in that particular project. And you’ll always be able to open it without leaving Scrivener–even if it’s a website. The files are copies of the originals, or course, so your back is always covered.
So you’ve got all your research right at your elbow. Want to start a new chapter? You can plot it out with index cards in the cork board view, if you wish. Or the outline view. Or switch back and forth.
When you’re ready, start typing your chapter in the text section–a new file automatically opens for it.
Want to export to Word (or whatever full featured word processing program you use)? Just do it–and you can even pull it back into your text area, as a Word document, if you want!
I could go on, but you’ll learn more by going directly to the developers’ site
and letting them teling you. And Windows users, if you’re feeling a little left out of this little Scrivener love feast (isn’t that a strange feeling for you!) just click over to Page Four for what I’m sure is the equivalent experience.
Both apps are shareware. Scrivener costs $39.95, Page Four, $34.95.
Does that seem like a lot of money? What would you consider a fair price for double or tripling your productivity as a fiction writer? For me, looking at it that way, the money seems small enough to be almost irrelevant. Oh, and in case anyone wondered, I have no business relationship with either Scrivener or Page Four. I don’t even know who the developers are, individually, and they certainly don’t know me.
So guaranteed–this comes straight from the heart. And the head. Spend a little money on yourself. You’re worth it!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I was very close to buying a Mac JUST so I could use Scrivener. It looks AWESOME!
For all the PC Scrivener wannabes, and I’ve tried them all, I love Mindola Super Notecard best. It’s worth a test run, for those of us who can’t use Scrivener.
But I really wish Scrivener would make a Windows version!
Scrivener now makes a Windows version.