How Writers Can Use Scrivener for More Than Books: Organize Writing, Marketing, and Your Author Life

From Edie: Lynn Blackburn helps writers discover how they can use Scrivener for more than books. Learn how to organize your writing, research, marketing, and entire author workflow in one powerful tool.

How Writers Can Use Scrivener for More Than Books: Organize Writing, Marketing, and Your Author Life

by Lynn H. Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn

Scrivener is for far more than your manuscript. 

Have you heard of Scrivener?

Scrivener is writing software designed specifically for organizing large manuscripts.  I’ve been a Scrivener devotee since 2010 when I became a beta user of their first offerings for PC.

When I purchased my first Mac, I immediately grabbed the iOS version of Scrivener. I’ve gone through a few big updates with Scrivener.

I have written every book I’ve published in Scrivener. And I’ve written almost everything else, including this blog post, in Scrivener. And y’all…my love affair with Scrivener has never burned brighter! 

Full disclosure: Not everyone will agree with me. That’s okay. 

Here are a few common complaints I hear: 

• Scrivener has a learning curve. Depending on your computer skills, that learning curve can be STEEP. 
• Some people don’t think it’s worth it to take the time to master Scrivener when they could use that time to write. 
• The Scrivener interface isn’t as intuitive as some users would like for it to be. 
• Compiling your work can be…challenging. 

Fair enough.

BUT…

Y’all…you can do so much with Scrivener. SO MUCH. 

Here are a few of the things I use Scrivener for:

1. Writing all my books.

This is the big one, obviously. But I want to throw this out there —if you’re an intuitive writer, an organic writer, a non-outlining writer—Scrivener could quite literally become your new bestie. When you’re moving scenes around with ease instead of trying to find them in a 400-page Word document? You’ll be so happy you took the time to learn Scrivener. 

When you’re on Book 3 of a 3-book series, and you just drag and drop ALL of the research and character profiles you’ve created for Books 1 and 2 into your new manuscript file, and it’s all at your fingertips? You’ll be whistling while you work. 

And when your editor asks you for a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of your book and you’re able to provide it in approximately two minutes? Yeah, you’ll be doing a happy dance at your desk. 

2. Writing everything else.

This blog post, newsletters, the notes for classes I teach, social media schedules…When I say I write everything in Scrivener, I mean everything! 

3. Organizing all my marketing and publicity. 

I use Scrivener to organize the many publicity and marketing requests I receive from my publisher. This includes everything from creating a playlist to accompany my latest novel to maintaining the schedule for podcast interviews. By keeping everything in one place, I’m able to minimize the chaos and maximize my productivity. 

At a glance, I can pull up what I did for publicity all the way back to Beneath the Surface in 2018! It’s freakishly convenient!

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How Writers Can Use Scrivener for More Than Books: Organize Writing, Marketing, and Your Author Life from @LynnHBlackburn on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Lynn H. Blackburn loves writing swoon-worthy Southern stories—from nail-biting romantic suspense to butterfly-inducing contemporary romance—because her childhood dream of becoming a spy crashed into the reality that she'd probably dive behind the nearest potted plant at the first sign of actual danger. The truth is, she was more interested in those dashing fictional spies than in the actual spying. It's safer for everyone for her to live vicariously through her characters!

Lynn lives in South Carolina with her husband, children, and an overprotective goldendoodle. She writes her novels in between homeschooling, parenting an adult with special needs, watching her boys play baseball, and teaching at conferences. You can follow along with her real-life plot twists by signing up for her newsletter at LynnHBlackburn.com and connecting with her @LynnHBlackburn on social media.