True lyricism is a mix of plainer, more serviceable lines with lines that stand out and sing. If you’re trying to write lyrically, it’s important to realize one thing: quality over quantity. Purple prose, in case you haven’t heard the phrase before, is-according to its Wikipedia entry-”text that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself.” So how, exactly, do you know when you’re writing something that would be classed as literary or lyrical, and when you’re veering into purple prose?
#Storyist vs scrivener 2018 how to#
Recently I got into a discussion with some friends on Twitter about how to find the line between pretty prose and purple prose. I love authors like Laini Taylor and Maggie Stiefvater, who have such a deft touch with phrasing that their books are not only engaging, they are positively delicious. I love writing that makes you see the world differently, that pulls you so deeply into its narrative that you can’t seem to leave that fictional world once you’re done. I live for poetic prose, for dazzling descriptions, for the sentences that make you feel like you’re sipping something delightful as you read. My DnD world building used to be spread amongst hundreds of documents, now it's all in one Scrivener file.I have always been a line-level writer. My theology papers were once all written in pages, now they're done in Scrivener. For my screenwriting, I used to be 100% FinalDraft, and now I'm 100% Scrivener. There's stuff I wish Scrivener did better/easier, but overall it has completely changed how I approach the writing process.įor a long time, I was a disorganized mess (in a lot of ways I still am) but Scrivener has gone a long way to helping me polish my workflow. The output tools in Scrivener manage to be INCREDIBLY frustrating, yeah, but it's because they're so damn powerful and flexible. When it came time to write my master's thesis I was able to work through multiple drafts and redrafts all within the same document. This is a life saver in a lot of ways for me, as it keeps all of my notes in one easy to reach place. I keep everything for the semester in one file, organized by class, and then by assignment. Over the last few years I have made Scrivener files for my class notes/work. So Scrivener has completely changed (a) how I write my independent work, and (b) how I write my academic work.
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If that sounds distracting, then Scrivener may not be for you. If that sounds like it would be helpful for you, then yeah, Scrivener is 100% worth it.
![storyist vs scrivener 2018 storyist vs scrivener 2018](https://www.softwarehow.com/wp-content/uploads/scrivener-vs-storyist17-300x221.jpg)
You can customize everything: the background, the text size and font, the toolbars, the colors of the outliner, corkboard, and binders, the icons.I mean, everything. The best thing about Scrivener is that you can absolutely customize it to the way you use it, which means that the features you don't use don't get in your way and the features you do use can be placed front and center so that you don't have to go digging around to find them. Oh, and outliner mode, which is super useful for planners. Scrivener features I use regularly include: full-screen mode, where I can choose my own background based on what I'm writing the ability to customize my text color, font, and editor color the ability to use icons and color-coding to organize my stories the ability to add my own icons easily and without any hassle the "target" function, which shows me if I'm on track for my daily word counts and for my overall goals the corkboard feature, where I can see all the "index cards" that make up my story at a glance, including their labels, status, and metadata the metadata, which I use to tag scenes with things like locations or POV characters so that I can see at a glance where I'm at and what I should be doing the notes function snapshots, where you can take a "snapshot" of a part of your work before you edit it and then easily revert to what it used to be if you decide you don't like the edit and collections, which I use to organize all the scenes for particular plots/subplots so that I can make sure I didn't miss any.
#Storyist vs scrivener 2018 trial#
It's worth getting the free trial they give out in October or November for NaNoWriMo participants and at least seeing what you think, and if you love it, you can get it 50% after NaNoWriMo if you win (or, as another person suggested, if you find a generous soul willing to give their coupon away - people who already have Scrivener don't necessarily need the coupons and often pass them out after they win!).
![storyist vs scrivener 2018 storyist vs scrivener 2018](http://powerfulmp386.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/6/1/126155886/390690388.jpg)
It does have a bit of a learning curve and the tutorial that comes with it is kind of terrible, though - I learned everything I know how to do just by messing around with the program and asking my friends about their favorite features. I use Scrivener for everything, and at this point I don't think I can go back.