Okay, I rescheduled the chat for later on Tuesday next week. If a different time is better, let me know?

Does anyone here have any experience using storybook versus scrivener (versus any open source writer-ly software)?

I am liking but not loving Scrivener right now (for novel building) and I don't know that I want to shell out $50 for it right now. I also don't want to try ALL the software.

It's not that I'm cheap. Okay, I am cheap. But I don't mind laying down that sort of cash if it's worth it. And right now Scrivener's not worth it. So I'm looking at Storybook and yWriter right now and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that people actually like and not just accept.

You have to talk to Lauren our Scrivener evangelist :)

I tested Scrivener during the beta of the Windows version and decided that it is not my tool.

I saw that. Scrivener isn't bad. It's good and useful. But it's not awesome, IMO.

yWriter could be probably defined as Scrivener for the poor.

I also started using Storybook but gave up after a day. So I do not recall why.

Right now I'm using wikidpad.

Okay. What are you using now?

Googling...

Wikidpad is a wiki-style editor.

Hmm.

So you can create a small wiki for your story (character pages, important scenes, background, research, ...)

Interesting. That could work.

So far it's going well. I have to mention that I am not a plotter. I define while I write and I have to put down everything to keep consistency.

Wikidpad helps my approach, because references are easy.

See, I'm a plotter. (Well, kinda... I like using the scripted improv model. The characters enter point A, goto point B and whatever happens in between is up to them.)

That could work though.

Well, give it a try. The thing is, yWriter (and probably Storybook also) are not that different from Scrivener. With wikidpad you can test a different approach.

Well, I'm not searching for something different. Just something that's at least as good at keeping characters, locations, events, plotlines, etc., etc., etc., organized in one easy to use location.

characters, locations and events I would go for wikidpad. Plotlines I'm not sure.

That really depends how you want to organize them.

true

I pinged Lauren.

Maybe she can tell you the "awesome" part of scrivener. She really loves that tool.

I can see that it has potential.

Oh, and Storybook is out.

Great little tool so long as you never want to print or export anything, ever.

Oh, no export - no wonder I didn't like it ;)

Another popular tool is Writer's cafe, but I've never used it.

Does not look like, Lauren is around. Sad. I need to get some food. I'm off.

It's ridiculous -- I love Scrivener but I've barely read the manual and I KNOW I haven't used 75% of its features. :)

What's awesome for me about Scrivener is the ability to collect all my "note scraps" in one spot. I can create a zillion notes and pages and documents and organize them in nested folders, and then with one click I can open all those folders and have them at my fingertips.

I can collect notes from all over the web, entire Wiki articles, chunks of research from books, whatever, and split my work panes so I have my writing or my plotting notes on top and my research at the bottom, and work from there.

Scrivener allows you to include images and video (and I think sound) as well. A big part of my character creation process is visualizing the person, so sometimes I have to "cast" my characters using actual people (often actors, but illustrations as well). Having a photo of my lead guy in front of me helps me to write in his voice.

Whether you can successfully use Scrivener to organize your plots and so on depends on how you have them on paper. I had one novel which covered a 25-year period with flashbacks, so I had one main folder for each time period and then organized in the order they appeared in the storyline. Any notes, thoughts, etc. which dealt with a time period went into the appropriate folder.