Scrivener Review: Is the Software Worth the Cost?

What Can Scrivener 3 Help You Do?

1. The corkboard outliner

If you’re still in the process of outlining your book, Scrivener has a “corkboard” that lets you move virtual “index cards” around.

This is the most useful part of the app, but it isn’t worth $70 plus the time it takes to learn how to do it.

Instead, I recommend that you write your outline in any word processing app.

• MS Word
• Pages
• Google Docs

Pages ships free on every Apple computer, and Google Docs is free to everyone. As long as you have internet access, you can use Google Docs on any device.

Scrivener likes to show off how easy it is to move your outline around, even as you’re writing. But you shouldn’t do that—especially not if you’re a non-fiction Author.

Write a solid outline first. Then write your draft.

2. The word processor

Scrivener also makes a big deal of the fact that you can use its word processing software to move pieces of writing around easily.

But you shouldn’t have to do that either.

If you created a solid outline before you started, you won’t have to move things around—at least, not a lot. And definitely not while you’re writing your first draft.

Don’t stop to edit as you go. Just keep writing.

Once your draft is finished, every word processor in the world lets you cut and paste.

If you’re really that excited about dragging and dropping your work around a virtual corkboard, I’m not going to stop you.

But you don’t have to do that to write your book. You’re better off writing in an app you’re already familiar with.

3. The built-in templates

Scrivener does come with built-in manuscript templates for books and short stories, but we’ve posted our book manuscript template for free.

Plus, when you’re done with your first draft and you’re ready to send it out for editing, most editors will want that draft as a docx (MS Word) file anyway.

Microsoft Word isn’t free, but it’s still used a lot in the publishing world.

If you don’t have it, both Pages (free for Apple users) and Google Docs (free for everybody) let you export files into the docx format if you ever need to.

4. The word count tracker

You should 100% set word count goals in your writing plan. But you don’t need Scrivener to track them.

Every word processor will count your words for you.

5. The research organizer

If you visit the Scrivener Vimeo page and watch their Getting Started video, a lot of what it can do looks and sounds pretty cool.

But here’s the thing:

Every Apple computer ships with all of those research “tools” included for free.

They’re built right into the operating system.

Scrivener keeps all your research for your book in one folder

Create a new folder for your writing project anywhere on your Apple computer.

There’s your research folder. You don’t need Scrivener for that.

Scrivener lets you save web pages with your photos and documents

So does your Apple computer. Just visit any website. Drag and drop the address into the research folder you just made.

Apple creates a link to that website inside your folder, and you can store photos and other documents in there too.

Scrivener lets you see a preview of your research documents

You can set any Apple folder to show you previews of the items in that folder. You don’t need an app for that.

Scrivener lets you keep your research and writing side by side

Open your research folder. Move and resize the window however you want. Big, small, left, right, whatever.

Now, open your word processor. Move and resize your document window however you want.

It’s much more flexible than Scrivener, and it’s built into your operating system for free.

Scrivener lets you open any research item in a different app

So does your computer. Right-click or control-click on any research icon to open it in any app you want.

Scrivener saves a copy of all your research and documents right inside Scrivener

Yeah, which fills up your hard drive twice as fast and bloats your book file.

Keeping one copy of each research item in one folder is a lot more efficient and a lot easier on your storage space.

You can also create folders within that folder to organize your research by topic.

6. The user guide

The user guide on Scrivener 3 is horrible. It’s just a wall of text that goes on forever.

There’s even a caveat about the instructions themselves. Apparently, you can edit them.

Whose idea was that?

Yeah, the instructions come with instructions on what to do if you edit the user guide and screw it up so badly that you need a clean copy.

If and when that happens, will you remember where the instructions for the instructions are?

I know I wouldn’t.

7. The video guides

The video guides on their Vimeo page are a little better, but if you scan through those screenshots you’ll have a good idea of what you’re getting yourself into.

It’s not a simple program.

It’s not even easy to get started.

Maybe if you could just download the app and start typing, you could figure out the complexities later. But you can’t.

It’s about as far away from intuitive as you can get.

8. The Bottom Line

If you’re going to take the time to learn something, learn the operating system your computer came with—you’ll get everything Scrivener does for free, only better.