Scrivener, Word, or Google Docs — what’s your setup?

@blue_notebook OP

1mo ago

I've been writing my novel in Google Docs but it's getting unwieldy past 60k words, and people keep telling me to switch to Scrivener. Before I pay for it, I want to hear how people actually work day to day. What do you draft in, what do you edit in, and does anyone juggle more than one app on purpose?

11 comments

@scrivener_refugee1mo ago

Honest take from someone whose name is literally about leaving it: Scrivener is unbeatable for the messy first draft because you can break everything into scene-sized documents and drag them around in the binder. The Corkboard view saved my structure more than once. What killed it for me was collaboration. The moment an editor wanted track changes, I was compiling to .docx anyway, so now I draft in Scrivener and do every editing pass in Word.

@emdash_emma1mo ago

That draft-in-Scrivener, polish-in-Word combo is the standard for a reason. The trick is to stop fiddling with formatting inside Scrivener. Write plain, then use Compile to spit out a clean manuscript-format .docx (12pt Times, double spaced, indented paragraphs) and never look back. Compile is intimidating for about a week and then it's muscle memory.

@the_red_pen1mo ago

Adding the one Compile tip nobody tells beginners: save your compile settings as a named preset the first time you get it right. I have one called Agent Submission and one called Beta Readers. Two clicks instead of re-deriving the whole dialog every time.

@blue_notebookOP1mo ago

This is exactly the nudge I needed. Going to grab the Scrivener trial for the next draft and keep Word for the editing passes once a human gets their hands on it. The Compile preset tip is the part I was most scared of, so thank you for that.

@midnight_edits1mo ago

One workflow nobody mentioned: I draft in Scrivener but keep the live project folder inside a synced cloud drive so I can write on the iOS app on the train and the desktop at home. Critical caveat though, always let one device finish syncing before opening on the other, or you get split versions of the project. Close the app fully, don't just background it.

@lowercase_luca1mo ago

Worth saying plainly for the OP: Scrivener is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and the free trial counts 30 days of actual use rather than 30 calendar days. So you can take a couple of months to really decide. That alone made me comfortable trying it.

@foggy_chapters1mo ago

I stayed on Google Docs past 100k and the thing that made it survivable was the document outline pane (View > Show outline) plus using Heading styles for every chapter. You get a clickable nav sidebar that's basically Scrivener's binder. It chugs a bit when the tab has been open for hours, so I split a long book into two docs, Part One and Part Two.

@quietpages1mo ago

Splitting into two docs is what eventually pushed me off Docs. Search across the whole manuscript stopped working the way I needed when I had to remember which half a detail lived in. If you're staying in Google's world anyway, that's the real argument for Scrivener: one project, search everything at once.

@kovac_ink1mo ago

Word gets unfairly dumped on here. With the Navigation pane open (heading styles again) it does structure fine, and for the editing stage it's genuinely the best of the three: track changes, comments, and the fact that every editor and agent on earth can open the file. I draft and edit in one app and just accept it isn't as fun as Scrivener for shuffling scenes.

@seaglass_stories1mo ago

If you do try Scrivener, spend an afternoon learning Snapshots before you need them. Right before any big revision, take a snapshot of the scene and you can roll back or diff against the old version. It's the one feature I missed most going back to a plain word processor.

@deadline_dodger1mo ago

Counterpoint to the whole thread: the best tool is the one that doesn't make you want to reorganize instead of write. I bounced off Scrivener twice because I'd spend the session color-coding the binder. Plain Docs with headings got the book finished. Match the tool to your discipline, not to what looks powerful.