Okay, I admit it: I'm a fantasy nerd wannabe.
Why wannabe? Well, I live with my parents. Who hate fantasy and call it "childish escapism". So, though they haven't tried to forbid me from reading/watching/writing it, they have made it clear that they think I read/watch/write far too much of it.
That means I'm quiet about my fantasy habits while around them so I don't rub it in their faces. Respecting their opinions, y'know? I mean, I am kinda mooching off 'em, since they're not making me pay rent while I pay off my school debt…
As much as I enjoy grammar and editing, I often prefer writing my fantasy. (And playing fantasy RPGs, but that's a topic for another time.)
I have a knack for finding projects that are inherently difficult to write, too, more so than a more "normal" book would be. (You try writing a novel with a paranoid narrator without killing the story. I dare you.)
So, while I've been thinking about Scrivener to review it and figuring out what to review, I've been writing my current major WIP, one of my few without a solid working title. Despite that, it's actually one of my easiest to write, just how the characters and scenes are coming out. I've grown as a writer between starting this novel and starting some of my other WIPs, and it's showing.
While doing that, I remembered the novel draft of my paranoid girl's novel that needs editing. So I pulled out MS Word (which I used for that novel) and started editing it, realizing that it needs a major edit.
Line edits I don't mind. I like line edits. I'm good at those.
But plot edits?
*shudders* Eeep. Eeek. *hides*
I like the end result from plot edits, certainly. With my current unnamed WIP, the plot edits are coming easily. I write until I get stuck or start getting a niggling about a scene, back up, squint, and copy the dialogue and info from that and put it aside until there's a better place for it, then work it in. I'm having very little excess material thus far, except for cutting out the characters who walk into scenes when they're not supposed to be there.
(Which explains why this one's so easy to write. These characters have such strong, independent personalities that it's scary. I'd meant for the vampire to be a bit character, I really did, but my setup would've produced a much weaker story if I'd gone that route.)
Off the rabbit trail and back on the main: I poked into the WIP in need of editing to read it. It's been four or five months since I've looked at it, so I'd forgotten a few scenes.
Well, what do you know, thinking about what Scrivener has that MS Office doesn't has made me find some things I didn't know MS Office (2004 for Mac) had. Office has a project manager, a scrapbook, a versions tracker… But no note cards, no full screen, no music files, no split screen (that I've found yet, anyway). And Scrivener just updated, so I have more new things to figure out exist in the program and how to use them.
I'll review Scrivener after I'm more comfortable with what, exactly, it can do that MS Office can't. I already know some things that it can do more easily than MS Word, that's for sure.
I can say this: if you have Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5, it'll be worth your while to try the free 30-day trial. (That's 30 days with usage, not loaded on your computer—at least, according to how it's functioned on my comp.)
And if you're looking for a fantasy RPG strategy game for some mental exercise, no matter your system, try Battle for Wesnoth. It's even free! (Avoids the question of how, exactly, she knows about this game.)
*waves good-bye and pokes her nose back in her untitled WIP*
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