Scrivener and Freedom
How I write
I wanted to share these quick tips with folks who are starting to write or who have trouble writing.
WORD: After my sophomore year of high school I stopped writing by hand and moved on to computer. At school I was raised on Word and it was the only word processor I used for writing.
But form does affect function. For me Word isn’t the best for planning out the writing or using resources for research alongside the writing. I like Word for formatting and free writing though. I also find it useful for imagine manipulation in-text and other things.
SRIVENER: However, Word didn’t cut it for planning out the writing and research part of the process. I thought I would just have live with it but it turns out I wasn’t the only who felt this way.
So some folks got together and made the Scrivener word processor. It has many different features than Word. For example, it allows you to split the screen to see sources right below what you are writing. Even video. It also allows you to break up the writing visually for better planning. I love it. It has helped me get over the stress of big writing projects by helping me break them up into little chunks visually.
Check out the trial version if you want. It’s around $40. The education version is a little cheaper. Note that there is a learning curve for Scrivener, but I think it’s worth it. After a few times using it I felt really comfortable with it.
FREEDOM: But once I sat to write, I would end up surfing the net on whatever thing popped up on my mind and one Wikipedia article led down a rabbit hole into endless Buzzfeed kitten lists, gifs, quizzes etc. So, lacking self-discipline, fortitude, strength or whatever that is called I turned to Freedom.
Freedom is this program that cuts off your internet. You tell it for how much time and it cuts off internet access. It’s great for concentration and writing. It is what allows me to be productive when I start writing.
It isn’t ideal that you have to pay $10 for Freedom (haha get it?) but it has been very useful so I think it was worth it for me. There is also a trial version. If you don’t want to use Freedom though, you can turnoff your wifi network. That should work too…. although it didn’t for me.
Anyway, I’m sure there are more things people do or use to help them write. Some folks even use voice recognition programs like Dragon to dictate their notes to text. That doesn’t work as well for me. Maybe because I need practice. But so far, this trinity of Word, Scrivener and Freedom works really well.
I hope some of these tips are useful Please let me know if if you have any other tips/tricks to write.
P.S. I should have noted that I also drink at least two big cups of coffee every morning. That definitely helps me get started!
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