Trying Scrivener
I’ve owned a copy of Scrivener for years – since my first proper tilt at NaNoWriMo back in about 2007 if memory serves. If you’ve not heard of it, Scrivener is a word processor designed for writers, where you can organise your writing projects into binders with research, chapters, and so on. It’s all rather wonderful, and lovely.
So why haven’t I been using Scrivener all this time? Because I’m a software developer, and I’m so used to working in text editors. It’s really that simple. During my typical work day I live in text editors, so it seems only natural to use them while I’m writing blog posts too. There’s also the “lowest common denominator” argument too – you can always find a minimal text editor on any operating system. In Windows the app of choice tends to be “Notepad++”, on the Mac “Textmate”, and on Linux the Gnome Editor.
There’s also the whole debate about where to save the things you write – I’ve tried Dropbox, OneDrive, Github, Google Drive – pretty much everywhere. I’ve also tried writing posts directly into Wordpress, and kind of hated it.
My “master-plan” (or rather “randomly chosen plan”) is to try using Scrivener for a while, and let it save everything into OneDrive. I’m running Windows 10 on both the old home computer, and the old laptop I inherited from the kids – so it kind of makes sense. OneDrive is free, after all.
Of course using Scrivener will not improve my writing – far from it. Look at this post, for example – an endless dirge of waffle about word processors and free online backups.
It begs the question though – do you write your posts directly into Wordpress, or Tumblr, or wherever? Do you write them on the computer? On your phone? On a tablet? Do you have a preferred word processor when writing anything of consequence? Enquiring minds would like to know.