It is official. Scivener is helping me with my academics.

It is official. I have purchased Scrivener.

I had been searching for a robust software program that would help me to organize my thoughts on several book projects, as well as my graduate thesis. After much deliberation I decided to try Scrivner. They offered a 30 day trial and I downloaded it, and worked with it for a month.

I am not only impressed with the software, but I’m also impressed with the software company Literature Latte. I loved that they offer a student discount and have also offered a 50% discount to NANOWRIMO 2010 winners. NANOWRIMO is Nation Novel Writing Month- a challenge to write 50 thousand words in 30 days. I know that sounds pretty crazy. Here is an interview I did with both NANOWRIMO and WNFIN-Writing Non Fiction in November.

Last November I decided I would give NANWRIMO a try. The thing I liked the most about doing NANOWRIMO is that it disciplines you to write every day. That I did. I worked on a nonfiction piece, and after that I just continued and fleshed out the beginning of a young-adult novel. I am happy to report, I was one of the winners of NANOWRIMO. Now, the work begins. I’m working on edits for both.

I also had academic reasons for picking Scrivener, as well. I will be writing my graduate thesis this year. Scrivner is not only good for writing fiction or nonfiction it is a terrific resource for academic writing. Therefore, between now and June 2010, I may begin on my thesis. I will be starting to gather and sort through my notes in Scrivner. In between getting the other two books ready.

Keith Blount has been actively developing the software since 2004. I love what he had to say about the development.

“ I felt I needed a tool to help me really get a grip on my writing, notes and research, to organise it and start putting it all together like a jigsaw.”

“Scrivener should never try to be all things to all writers; software that tries to please everyone only ends up bloated and annoying most.” And he did not make the program expensive because he did not want to “price out struggling writers”

The NANOWRIMO website gives this description and information from Keith.

"I wrote Scrivener because it's the tool I wanted for my own writing, as I was fed up with having multiple chapters written in Word scattered around my hard drive, and trying to sort through all my notes and research, attempting to organise and get an overview of everything. Scrivener isn't the sort of writing software that presumes to tell you how to write (I'm not a fan of that sort of software myself); instead it just provides a number of tools that are hopefully a lot more geared towards organising and hammering out a first draft than a standard word processor. (It's not intended to replace a standard word processor, though - when you've finished your draft you can print it or export it for tweaking and polishing in your word processor of choice.) I'm not going to claim everybody needs this sort of software or any such nonsense, but if like me you've ever struggled with getting an overview of your novel and keeping all of its disparate threads and ideas together, then I hope you'll give it a whirl, and I'd be delighted if in some small way it helps some of you attain your 50,000 words. (If you like the idea but Scrivener just doesn't suit you, there are lots of alternatives on our links page, by the way.) If you want to know their competition check out their link page."

Scrivener is a mac program but is now also available in a Beta version for windows.

The cost is $45. Free trial $38.25 for educational and if you are interested and a NANWRIMO winner you get a 50% discount of the regular cost.