Macs get all the cool stuff.

Toni told me about it first. And shared her frustration that it’s only for Macs. And I blew it off. You know, just a nice little package of gimmicks and aren’t there other similar programs out there and why would I want this if I’m so happy with my real 3x5s and I’ve been using MS Word since I bought my first Mac in 1984 (yes, THAT Mac) and bought my first MS Word 1.0 for $129.95. Especially when writing a novel, I think the idea of buying specific word processing software is silly. Word is truly enough. Really.

I still haven’t reconciled with not using Word but I succumbed to the siren song of “free software demo” and am currently exploring the pleasures of Scrivener.

Right now I’m loving the gimmick aspect–I love this corkboard on my screen that displays all the character images I’ve gathered for my new project. I thought I might print them out and make some sort of a collage like Jenny Crusie (scroll to bottom to see what I mean/link courtesy of Toni, again), but right now this is so much easier and I like it a lot.

About the corkboard. I know other screenwriting programs offer similar stuff, and if you use one that does what Scrivener does, please let me know because I have friends with PCs who are jealous, ya know. But I know I’ve seen lots of programs that allow you to do things similar to this:

That didn’t impress me much, seen it before, more or less. But for the first time ever, I’ve been collecting visual images to inspire/intrigue me while I’m writing, and I regret not being able to show you a pic of it*, but you can also import images, videos, audio, etc. to a Research corkboard. My corkboard is now covered with lovely images of locations and characters. When my new widescreen monitor shows up (one that actually works, this time) I’ll be abe to have the corkboard open while I’m working. And did I mention, my images are really lovely and wonderful and inspire me to write?

Or, here’s an image from the Scrivener site that shows somebody with a single image open with their work, rather than an entire corkboard.

Okay, yes, bells and whistles. Gimmicks, maybe. But this stuff, I love.

So, sorry if you don’t have a Mac and can’t get a lovely demo of your own to play with, and pay for (only $39.95) should you decide to keep it.

This won’t replace my 3x5s because I don’t want it to. I love my real 3x5s. But I’ll also dupicate them into this program, because yet another way of using it is to have the scene card open in the right panel while you’re writing, along with any notes you’ve made.

Scrivener. Check it out. If you have a Mac. Let me know what you think. Do you really use it, or did the fun/new wear off after awhile?

*There is also the issue that even if I could do a screenshot of my corkboard with images to show you how pretty it is, the fact is that these are all images I’ve saved off the internet and are the creative property of other people. And while I don’t feel guilty at saving them for my own use (it’s not like I could buy them anywhere) I don’t think I’m allowed to actually post them to my blog, either. Which is a crying shame, because I’ve got some gorgeous original art here. But, just imagine something gorgeous and lovely and pretend you can see it, okay?

ATTENTION! Windows users get cool stuff, too! *Scrivener for Windows is available in beta here.