Hi everyone, Greg here.
I know a lot of you have set writing goals for 2023, so it seemed like a good time to introduce Scrivener.
On the ComixLaunch podcast, Tyler James often asks his guests about “the one tool you can’t imagine creating comics without.” For me, that tool is Scrivener, and over time I hope to show you how I personally use this long-form writing program.
Scrivener is to writing what Photoshop is to image editing. It is extremely powerful, no two users use it the same, and it can be very confusing to new users. It offers so many choices. Fortunately, the one area where it is not at all like Photoshop is that it includes a useful free trial and is actually very inexpensive to buy if you decide it is a tool you’d like to use.
I love, love, love Scrivener, but even I have to acknowledge it is not for everyone. In comics, we have the luxury of writing without a specific standardized format or program. Fred Van Lente has some excellent Microsoft word templates on his website. Writers who collaborate with a co-writer would likely be better served by using Google Docs. Still others use script tools like Final Draft because it is what they know or have on their computer.
But trust me. You owe it to yourself to at least give Scrivener a fair try and… this is the part where you are going to be tempted to ignore my advice… with Scrivener that means going through the interactive tutorial. If you have used computers for a while, this is going to sound like patronizing heresy. But trust me, as someone who taught Scrivener to my Grade 6/7 middle school students for many years, the number one factor determining whether or not a student continued to use the program was whether or not they finished at least the first part of the included tutorial. Frankly, in all my years of being in tech, it is the only example of a “manual” I’ve seen that is actually worth exploring from day one. And fortunately, the free trial makes that easy.
You will not understand or remember everything you read and do in the tutorial, and that is OK. The goal is to get a sense of how the program is different than the tools you currently use and how it might work for you. In future posts, I’ll show you how I use Scrivener specifically to write comic, but before I get into my writing workflow, do yourself a favour and download the program* and start the interactive tutorial today.
* Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link. Please note that I have not been sponsored by Literature & Latte to talk about Scrivener. If you have someone else who you’d like to support, feel free to use their link.
My Most Important Writing Tool