Writing a Novel with Scrivener Kindle Edition

This guide to Scrivener keeps everything simple and clear, and I found it helpful even after going through the program's tutorial.

The 2nd edition didn't have any of the shortcuts for Windows, and some of the tools mentioned weren't included in the Windows beta, but now with the 3rd edition, on the release of the official Windows version, all that is fixed, with not only the Windows shortcuts, but which tools are found in which versions.

The book focuses on just what it says - writing novels with Scrivener (Hewson has written seven with the program), and so shows how you might order chapters and scenes and then covers useful folders, research, formatting, and how to set up the screen to look exactly as you'd like. Hewson advises us not to not get bogged down in learning the whole program, but to use the best tools to get on with the writing, and in that the book works very well.

Hewson also tosses in sections of advice outside the program, such as scene length and revision. Much of it is good advice, such as not limiting your descriptions to sight, and yet a few tips might not be the best way of working for everyone, such as not knowing more about your characters than your readers do. But he's sincerely sharing what works for him, what he calls "practical strategies."

On the technical side, the book explains setting up automatic Back-ups and using DropBox (including for collaborating on projects), as well as editing with SimpleNote (for Mac users only), how to Compile to Word, and why it's best to work with Word files when submitting to publishers. There's also about ten pages on editing manuscripts on iPads and Kindles, and he's updated his suggestions on tablets to edit with, including a link to his blog post about using the Android HTC Flyer.

Next there's a short overview of e-book publishing and why he works with Kindle, and then onto Formatting and the Layout of the e-book and how to preview it on various devices. It's far from a complete manual on the process of converting to an e-book (you'd need a whole book for that), but it does make it very clear what you can do with Scrivener in that regard.

Finally, there's a chapter on his favorite shortcuts, including Split with Selection as Title, which is very handy when importing Word documents.

There's also a link to download Hewson's Scrivener template, but I didn't find it worth the time since it doesn't tell you anything the book doesn't and simply has his Unplaced Scenes folder included in a blank project, which you can create yourself in seconds.

The only error I found is when he mentions finding the usual menus at the top of the Full Screen layout. You can do this with Macs, yes, but it isn't yet available in the current Windows 1.0 version.

To sum up, very useful, covering all the basics, and very much worth the e-book price.

The author seems infatuated with arcane aspects of the app which he dwells on to distraction. As for outlining and structuring, he glosses over them in 3 pages. Why? Because he doesn't work that way! Thus, he deprived me of the total reason I bought his book to begin with.
If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of exporting and compiling ad nausuem, don't let me stop you. If you're looking for a book that explains what most writers want to know re Scrivener, keep looking.

Excellent, practical usage of Scrivener for novel writing. Hewson skips all the tens of dozens of features that don't apply to the novel format. He also gets right to the point, so you won't get bogged down in fluff.

I learned a lot about how to set up the Binder (Parts, Chapters, Text), and how these function, more about how Group Mode and View Mode work, and the use of Collections (just enough to see the power of using them).

I wish there had been more about the Compile/Formatting settings, specifically the different Levels. In all the documentation and books, there seems to be an assumed level of knowledge about these, and I feel I'm missing some basic understanding.

Also, many of the screenshots seem to be from Scrivener version 1. This isn't a major problem, but often statements in the book don't match up with what I see onscreen in Scrivener 2.

Overall, this little ebook boosted my understanding of the application (and I've been using Scrivener for over two years), helping me get to the next level of usage.

A nice little book that gives a summary of how to use Scrivener, but at 3 years old, it's a bit out of date. Upgrades for the Windows version have nearly caught up to Mac now. However, this tome still paints a pretty easy overview of the program and how to use its basic features. Hewson's meanderings about writing are also interesting, and I found it a useful read on both accounts. As someone already familiar with Scrivener, I still found enough useful info to make it a worthwhile read, although I kept wondering why Hewson would write such a book in the first place, since it's so far from his seeming ken. In any case, I'm glad he did, but it's time for an update.

I've tried other sources to find out what makes Scrivener a good tool for writers, but there was little indication why this program was better than an ordinary word processor. I gave up on one book after about 50 pages of descriptions about how to change format, menu options, text color...get the picture? There was a lot of information but no context.

I've decided this book must have been written by an educator, because the first order of business was to get the basic concept out there about why Scrivener is different from an ordinary word processor. Case in point: In Scrivener you can link text you have written directly to a reference file about a particular character, place, etc. so that the next time you want to write about that character, etc., you don't have to scroll back through all your work to find out whether your main character's mother had blue eyes or brown. Just check the character's file.

I would like to offer a large THANK YOU to Mr. Hewson for writing this book.