Scrivener is a powerful writing tool. I write about it weekly with tips and usage ideas. To read more of my posts click the Scrivener tag or category at the end of the page. Just as a note, I’ll be changing the schedule of my Scrivener posts to Friday in the near future to accommodate my novel’s release in September as well as several events that will occur on Mondays. Expect 2 posts next week and thereafter they will appear on Friday!
If you’ve ever run a race you know what happens. You get to the line, wait for the signal to start and your off! You don’t think what to do you just run – you just have to be aware of your starting pace.
However, when it comes to other tasks it may not be so obvious how to begin. In fact, it’s often difficult to begin using something new like Scrivener when you don’t even know where to begin. You can easily just stare at the open screen and do nothing or even give up on using it altogether. I recently received just such a question and here’s my answer with more details.
I do suggest that anyone starting with Scrivener clear time to work through the tutorial. It’s a lot of information but it gives you some experience working with the software interface. The tutorial will give anyone starting out a sense of Scrivener’s flexible design power.
But what should you do after you’ve completed the tutorial? Well, start a project. It’s easy enough to begin – choose File and click on New Project. You’ll choose what project template to use, name your project and then browse to the location where you want to save it all.
After that, start using some of what you learned in the tutorial to organize and customize your project. Use the Binder to organize you folders and documents into an a working structure – don’t worry if you need to make changes with this later, it’s quite easy with Scrivener. Next use the editor to configure the format of your documents. This is much like using any other editor in that you need to choose the details of your font and spacing – just be aware that Scrivener doesn’t wrap pictures.
Next week, I’ll dig a little deeper into beginning your Scrivener usage and other features you may want to use soon to take advantage of Scrivener’s development power. In the meantime, you may find some of my other posts and a few of these links from Literature and Latte helpful as well:
8 Ways Scrivener Aids My Writing (Archer’s Aim post).- Why You Should Begin Using Scrivener Today & How (Archer’s Aim post).
- Read about starting with Scrivener. (Literature & Latte)
- Watch a video to help start with Scrivener. (Literature and Latte – the very first one listed is a great place to start!)
- Additionally, I have a number of other Scrivener posts that you can access by browsing my Scrivener blog tag or category.
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About the Author
P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. The Bow of Destiny is his first novel-length title with more soon to come.
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Just as a note: I now have a marketing affiliation with Scrivener. For support questions, pricing, licensing and other concerns please contact the vendor. As such a buy ad for Scrivener appears on the sidebar. I’ve started this program since I like the product so much and want to offer readers the chance to obtain this software. I’m not required to write about Scrivener to be an affiliate; I just like it that much. You can also find my FTC statement on this site’s sidebar.
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