A little writing progress. I sat down last night and added some things to my story so the ending would make more sense. I explained something that was just mentioned in passing about one of the characters. I added the simple stuff right into my manuscript, but the more complicated stuff I wrote in a separate word document. I’m not sure exactly where I want to place in in the manuscript, so it was easier to do it this way until I figure it out. I also need to expand on the final “witch fight” scene. I rushed it a little just to get it done, but I know it needs more. Anya agrees. 🙂
I’m still trying to decide if I want to buy Scrivener. I guess I should download the free trial and see.
I’m really looking forward to this weekend with Susan Bischoff and Kait Nolan. Much fun will be had.
lauralynnelliott.com 
So glad you are making progress on this story. I think it will turn out great!
This book is the hardest I’ve ever written. I’ve labored over this one. Maybe that will make it better. LOL
I would be interested to hear what you think of Scrivener if you decide to try it. I think for what you described that you have done with the separate word document, Scrivener might be something that works for you.
I tried the trial version and decided I did not like it as much as just using a more standard text editor (Word, Libre Office, Google Doc, etc) – it just gave me a feel of having lots of bells and whistles that would distract me from writing, but I am easily distracted. It did have a lot of features that I could see being useful though.
I know other authors that use it and love it. I think it’s because they can do character sketches, research, take notes, etc. I’m curious to see how it works. If you didn’t like it, maybe it’s because you prefer something more basic. I’m not sure how I will feel about it. I’m kind of a techno geek, but sometimes things just have too much STUFF. But it won’t hurt to try out the trial version and see.
For me it was definitely just a personal preference – there were lots of great features, like the ones you listed, that I could see being useful – relating to your post, you could add in the short scene you wrote, and move it around easily to see where it fits best. For me, I could see myself spending too much time using all of those features instead of just knuckling down and writing – which is just me, not a shortcoming of the software.
I think it is definitely worth trying –
While I like Scrivenor for organising scenes and stuff, I’ve found I always send the draft over to the word when it comes to editing. It can be super useful, especially for my random ideas and scenes that seem to pile up everywhere, but I probably don’t use most of the features. Definitely worth a try, especially as you can compile the manuscript into different formats very easily which I find pretty useful. It’s excellent for outlining, too.
That additional info you worked on could have been kept in the same project on Scrivenor but separately from the actual manuscript. It’s pretty cool, but I don’t love it as much as I expected.
Thanks for the info, Claire. It said on the website you can make an epub file with it. Is that true? I’ve always made mine with Calibre, but this might be easier.
Yep. It’s way easier than Calibre (for me), so it’s worth it for that. Sometimes the file doesn’t come out perfectly for me, but I haven’t heard anyone else complain about that, so it’s likely a mistake I’m making somewhere.
Sa-weet! Good job, Lauralynn. 🙂
Thanks, Darlene!
I’ve been wondering whether to buy scrivener too. A friend highly recommended it but I’m just not sure yet. Let me know what you decide and if you like it.
Hi Ali. I don’t know why your comment went to my spam folder. WordPress does that sometimes. Grrrrr.
I downloaded the trial version last night, so I might play around with it tonight. I’ll let everyone know what I think of Scrivener after using it a bit.
I’m so excited to read your gnome horror story! I love it when authors show different sides of themselves. What writer only has one type of story to tell? That’s part of the fun of being indie, in my opinion, that freedom to cross genres without asking permission. 🙂
I don’t understand the whole “writer software” thing. Maybe that’s because I write and edit a lot for my primary career, so I’m very comfortable with Word. I also plot in Excel, which makes it really easy to jot down notes, organize ideas, and move around scenes or sections without much trouble. But once again, I’m proficient with these tools due to the day job. Maybe there’s some depth to Scrivener that would improve my organization with plotting and tracking ideas — but I think the tools I use now work just fine for me.
I hope to have the gnome story edited in about a week or so, then I’ll be sending it. It really is great to be an indie so that no one dictates what you do…except the readers. LOL. And the readers are our customers.
I feel perfectly comfortable with Word, and I’m a spreadsheet nut when it comes to keeping up with book sales. But I always like the “next shiny new thing” because I love technology. So I thought Scrivener might be fun. And many authors love it. You can keep up with a lot of stuff on it from what I hear. I’ll just see how the trial version works and go from there.