Don't miss a freebie, deal, or new release.Join Now!
banner with headshot and name

Tell your friends!

11 Comments

  1. S. J. Pajonas (spajonas)

    Reply

    Just read it through! I love all of those things about Scrivener! I think next year I want to learn how to use the notecards more. I’ll add it to my New Year’s Resolutions list 🙂

  2. Tom Vegod

    Reply

    Gwen, I read your article and I’m still intrigued by the “idea” of Scrivener. I’m your opinion, what realistic amount of time would the average genius (me, lol) need to see benefit. I have a 70k working draft that needs any helping hand I can give it. Organization and tools can help me, I’m sure.

    Thanks!

    Tom

    • Reply

      Thanks, Tom. That’s such a hard question to answer. I know people who fire it up and understand it right away, and others who never do. But, I think if you spend a few hours focused on learning the basics–maybe go through the tutorial to see what’s on offer–then you can decide what you need to get started and build over time. Much less overwhelming that way.

      So, I’d focus on the basic parts of the interface, how to work with files and folders, and how to import. That should be enough to get you going with your existing manuscript. Hope that helps!

      • Tom Vegod

        Reply

        Perfect, Gwen. I’m going to investigate more closely, and I’ll be sure to pick up “…Dummies.”

  3. Reply

    So excited to see you on Writer Unboxed!!
    For everyone who has not tried Scrivener or who are struggling with the learning curve, Gwen’s class is awesome!!

  4. Reply

    Hi Gwen, nice summation of Scrivener’s attribute. Just one question. You said this:
    Color-coding. In Scrivener, you can color code your documents by whatever piece of data you want to track. For example, in the drafting phase I tag my fiction scenes by point-of-view (POV) character, using blue for the hero and pink for the heroine (original, right?). Instantly, I can see the POV of a scene and check my overall balance.

    How do you do this? I’d love to color code my POVs. Your instructions weren’t really clear, or I was quite befuddled at the time of reading. Where do I tag?

    • Reply

      Thanks, Andy! That article was meant to be an introduction to Scrivener’s capabilities, rather than a full-blown how-to. Here’s an old post that runs through it really quickly: http://gwenhernandez.com/2010/01/14/make-scrivener-work-for-you/. Once you create your custom Label values and apply them, you can turn on the colors by going to View–>Use Label Colors In–>Icons. (Note: If you change the name of Label to POV, the menu will say “Use POV Colors In.”) HTH!

  5. Reply

    Hi Gwen,
    I left you a comment on your article there, which I found because David Webster’s Paper.li collation picked up Joanna Penn’s shared RT on Twitter. He shares some of my RTs too, from time to time.
    I thought you would like to see how the word is passed around.
    I am looking forward to being on your newsletter list, and to getting back to my keyboard.
    I have some stories to tell.
    Cheers
    Lesley

Leave Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: