Scrivener help

[Mel L]

Can anyone recommend a good way to learn how to work with Scrivener? I've been using it for a while now but find it far too technical to master intuitively and end up doing workarounds rather than taking advantage of the full software. Really don't have the patience to read through all the tutorials from LIterature & Latté but would be willing to pay for a decent course that could give me a working understanding. Any tips appreciated!

 

[CageSage]

I use what I find helpful and don't worry too much about other stuff.
The way I learned it was to jump in for NaNo (using the 30 day trial) and just kept writing and finding stuff as I needed it.
I do now know how to set up my styles beforehand, but don't worry because I generally put it to Word before publishing anyway, and I have to re-do/check all the styles from scratch ('cos, styles are a [curse]).
I like creating new scenes and either keeping them separate by part (easier to do the word count by scene, chapter, part), and the ability to 'remove' all the text and stick it in a 'notes' folder down the bottom for later perusal (when I realise it was a mistake to wipe out the whole mountain).

However, I am working my way through a short, online course (at your own pace) just to see if there's something that may be of value and I currently don't know about it (found one).
It's Australian, but don't know if that makes a difference ... https://www.writerscentre.com.au/store/courses/2-hours-to-scrivener-power/
It's the same place that does the once a month Furious Fiction competition.
However, as I haven't finished the course (a hand in plaster makes it interesting), I can't say whether it's worth the money or not.

 

[RK Capps]

This Youtube tutorial is old, and Scrivener for mac and for PC is different and it's changed over the years, but the basics are still the same:



I've picked up bits and pieces over the years, but I love the split screen function the most.

 

[Mel L]

I use what I find helpful and don't worry too much about other stuff.
The way I learned it was to jump in for NaNo (using the 30 day trial) and just kept writing and finding stuff as I needed it.
I do now know how to set up my styles beforehand, but don't worry because I generally put it to Word before publishing anyway, and I have to re-do/check all the styles from scratch ('cos, styles are a [curse]).
I like creating new scenes and either keeping them separate by part (easier to do the word count by scene, chapter, part), and the ability to 'remove' all the text and stick it in a 'notes' folder down the bottom for later perusal (when I realise it was a mistake to wipe out the whole mountain).

However, I am working my way through a short, online course (at your own pace) just to see if there's something that may be of value and I currently don't know about it (found one).
It's Australian, but don't know if that makes a difference ... 2 Hours to Scrivener Power | Australian Writers' Centre
It's the same place that does the once a month Furious Fiction competition.
However, as I haven't finished the course (a hand in plaster makes it interesting), I can't say whether it's worth the money or not.

Thanks, CageSage! Helpful to hear how you have approached the learning curve. Agree that styles are thorny! Have not figured out that bit at all, and what things look like as I go are really important to me. Will check out the Aussie writer's group course. Cheers!

 

[Mel L]

This Youtube tutorial is old, and Scrivener for mac and for PC is different and it's changed over the years, but the basics are still the same:



I've picked up bits and pieces over the years, but I love the split screen function the most.

Thanks for that! Will check out the video. Agree that the various updates to Scrivener plus differences between PC and Mac make it harder to follow these explanations. I'm on Mac and rather literal and non-visual when it comes to instructions.

 

[RK Capps]

Thanks for that! Will check out the video. Agree that the various updates to Scrivener plus differences between PC and Mac make it harder to follow these explanations. I'm on Mac and rather literal and non-visual when it comes to instructions.

There are more mac tutorials out there - Alexa does talk fast in this one so I hope it's not too fast for you (I think it's an older mac version).

 

[Robinne Weiss]

The tutorials embedded within Scrivener are good, too. I used those to get me going on the basics at the beginning. But I also keep picking up new tricks as I try to make it do more for me. It is a learning curve. But I found it well worth the effort. I honestly would not be writing novels without it. I love that I can separate each scene into it's own subdocument and shift things around with ease, see what amounts to a scene by scene outline of the whole book in the titles of my scenes, add notes as I go, so I remember to check things later or whatever, and link my research documents to the story so I don't have to leave Scrivener to refer back to them. I do use Word (for ebooks) and Affinity Publisher (for paperbacks) to do the final formatting, but the export options in Scrivener allow me to pop it into those programmes in a way that there's not a lot of work to do to finalise it. Good luck!