30 replies to this topic

[emoKid]

Thoth, on Oct 22 2008, 11:28 PM, said:

I hear Storyist is nice.
-Thoth.

I'm currently torn between 2 things, Storyist and Scrivener.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy them both (for an excuse not to play a certain game that my friends are all mind-controlled by, also for not putting all my eggs in one basket).
It's just a matter of which one to use for NaNoWriMo . I recently fell in love with the Story Sheets that Storyist has. Storyist also has more aid in organizing and planning a novel (easier and by default). I already had some character sheets and scene sheets filled out, but Scrivener had a 30 day trial, so I played around with it first and I'm not sure if I can learn how to use Storyist before November starts (I was planning on learning how to use Storyist, but my laptop died prior to being able to).

[Thoth]

emoKid, on Oct 22 2008, 11:59 PM, said:

... I'm not sure if I can learn how to use Storyist before November starts (I was planning on learning how to use Storyist, but my laptop died prior to being able to).

There are some good learning tools under the Help menu. There is also a User's Guide at the Web site.

Sorry about your laptop.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
-Thoth

[emoKid]

Thoth, on Oct 23 2008, 09:31 AM, said:

There are some good learning tools under the Help menu. There is also a User's Guide at the Web site.

Sorry about your laptop.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
-Thoth

I downloaded the user's guide, but it isn't as helpful as the forum (maybe because you're here? )...

[Marguerite]

Thoth, on Oct 23 2008, 09:31 AM, said:

There are some good learning tools under the Help menu. There is also a User's Guide at the Web site.

Sorry about your laptop.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
-Thoth

Yes, welcome. I've used both Storyist and Scrivener and find Storyist much more intuitive and more complete, especially in versions 1.4 and 1.5. Admittedly it takes a while to master the various types of linked sheets, but you don't need all that for NaNoWriMo: just fill in your basic character, setting, and (if you're a plotter) plot info and worry about tying it all together later. The Novel template in Storyist comes preformatted, so you don't need to worry about redoing the styles right away, either.

And Christina did a super-duper job on the manual, so it's pretty comprehensive and very clear.

If your Mac hadn't gone comatose on you you could have set up the whole structure in Storyist before Nov. 1 rolled around. Bad Mac! It's much more difficult to do that in Scrivener, which is more free-form.

In any case, I join Isaac in making a nonparticipants' pledge: I will write my 50-page ending despite the wriggling and squirming of uncooperative characters!

Checking myself into Pantsers Anonymous. I give my novel over to a Higher Power....
Best,
Marguerite

[emoKid]

Marguerite, on Oct 23 2008, 10:18 AM, said:

If your Mac hadn't gone comatose on you you could have set up the whole structure in Storyist before Nov. 1 rolled around. Bad Mac! It's much more difficult to do that in Scrivener, which is more free-form.

In any case, I join Isaac in making a nonparticipants' pledge: I will write my 50-page ending despite the wriggling and squirming of uncooperative characters!

Checking myself into Pantsers Anonymous. I give my novel over to a Higher Power....
Best,
Marguerite

It wasn't the Mac's fault. It was trying it's best to run until it's dieing breath. It had hard drive failure, apparently that's why it was starting to lag (a few months after I got it) and "I was lucky the hard drive survived so long with all the problems it had" (that's what the mac guy told me). I blame the hard drive provider, not the mac itself.

Marguerite said:

Yes, welcome. I've used both Storyist and Scrivener and find Storyist much more intuitive and more complete, especially in versions 1.4 and 1.5. Admittedly it takes a while to master the various types of linked sheets, but you don't need all that for NaNoWriMo: just fill in your basic character, setting, and (if you're a plotter) plot info and worry about tying it all together later. The Novel template in Storyist comes preformatted, so you don't need to worry about redoing the styles right away, either.

I like the plotting and planning tools it Storyist, but Scrivener makes it a lot easier for people who change the structure of their novel. The default novel template doesn't really work for what I need. Mine is:

Quote

Book
-Part 1
--Chapter #
---Scene #
-Part 2
--Chapter #
---Etc #

So this post was quite helpful. It'll also help me for another book (fictional journal) type thing I'm writing.

[Thoth]

emoKid, on Oct 23 2008, 10:11 AM, said:

I downloaded the user's guide, but it isn't as helpful as the forum (maybe because you're here? )...

You are too kind. ***blushing***
-Thoth

[Marguerite]

emoKid, on Oct 23 2008, 10:48 AM, said:

It wasn't the Mac's fault. It was trying it's best to run until it's dieing breath. It had hard drive failure, apparently that's why it was starting to lag (a few months after I got it) and "I was lucky the hard drive survived so long with all the problems it had" (that's what the mac guy told me). I blame the hard drive provider, not the mac itself.


I like the plotting and planning tools it Storyist, but Scrivener makes it a lot easier for people who change the structure of their novel. The default novel template doesn't really work for what I need. Mine is:

So this post was quite helpful. It'll also help me for another book (fictional journal) type thing I'm writing.

Did you find the template linked to that post? And do you know how to install new templates? The method is described elsewhere in the forums. In brief, you drag the file to ~/Library/Application Support/Storyist/Templates, where ~ is your home folder. If there is no folder called Templates, you can create it like any other folder.
Best,
M

[emoKid]

Marguerite, on Oct 23 2008, 05:32 PM, said:

Did you find the template linked to that post? And do you know how to install new templates? The method is described elsewhere in the forums. In brief, you drag the file to ~/Library/Application Support/Storyist/Templates, where ~ is your home folder. If there is no folder called Templates, you can create it like any other folder.
Best,
M

Oh, I was just planning on creating it instead of downloading it so I gain experience points with the program.

[Marguerite]

emoKid, on Oct 23 2008, 10:48 AM, said:

I like the plotting and planning tools it Storyist, but Scrivener makes it a lot easier for people who change the structure of their novel.

Does it? How so? You can drag sections all over the place in Storyist and have the text move right along with it.
Curious,
Marguerite

[emoKid]

Marguerite, on Oct 24 2008, 10:12 AM, said:

Does it? How so? You can drag sections all over the place in Storyist and have the text move right along with it.
Curious,
Marguerite

There's no "Styles." There are templates, but you can always deviate from them and there's no need to have to change preferences (or edit styles). You can also drag stuff around in scrivener.
If you have
Book
-Chapter
--Scene
And then decide to spit it up even more, you create a new folder thing and can call it Section or Part or whatever to get:
Book
-Part
--Chapter
---Scene
And you can also have as many levels as desired.

I just found it easier until I learned how styles actually work in Storyist and how to play with them. The Storyist manual states how, but the forum actually provides examples.

[Thoth]

emoKid, on Oct 24 2008, 02:43 PM, said:

The Storyist manual states how, but the forum actually provides examples.

You know, I would like to see more examples in the Storyist User's Guide. Thanks for the inspiration. I think I'm going to submit this as a Feature Request.

Ever searching for excellence,
-Thoth.