[HN Gopher] Interview with Keith Blount, Creator of Scrivener
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Interview with Keith Blount, Creator of Scrivener
Author : cocacola1
Score : 29 points
Date : 2022-11-26 20:09 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (syntopikon.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (syntopikon.substack.com)
| CrypticShift wrote:
| I used Scrivener more like a generic [Outliner + DB] combo than a
| tool for long form writing.
|
| IMO combining outlining and databases could be powerful if fully
| exploited (research...).
|
| I truly consider Keith Blount to be a "hero" in the sense that he
| offered this power for all writers out there (at a reasonable
| price.)
|
| ---
|
| FYI, Other outliner+DB beasts include the " _overlooked for way
| too long_ " Infoqube [0] and the " _probably soon to be a rising
| star_ " Tana [1].
|
| [0] https://www.infoqube.biz/
|
| [1] https://tana.inc/
| rcarr wrote:
| I switched from Scrivener to a two app approach: Obsidian for all
| of my own writing, DevonThink for all research materials. I love
| having this distinction and find both my mind and workspaces feel
| less cluttered as a result. I also like that all my writing is
| completely portable. I can link between the two apps using either
| app URLs or using Hookmark but I haven't used this much yet. If I
| needed timelines for a particular project I'd buy a copy of Aeon.
| I used to have a version on an old machine but it's since been
| updated and I haven't worked on anything that needed it yet
| although I imagine I will do at some point.
|
| Should also add that I do have a soft spot and gratitude for
| Scrivener as, coming from Word, it was the first software that I
| used that allowed you to organise all your notes together in
| folders and contained other cool tools for writers such as the
| built in name generator (which I still use), the corkbord
| organiser etc. Scapple (made by the same company) is also great
| if you want to do some quick mind mapping and integrates really
| well with Scrivener as you can import all the bubbles and get to
| work fleshing them out.
| ghaff wrote:
| I should take a look at DevonThink (and maybe Obsidian though
| I'm mostly fine with Google Docs). I own Scrivener and have
| used it. But I don't find it ideal for research materials and,
| for the non-fiction writing I do, I don't find functional flow
| all that complicated. And then I'm going to have to transfer it
| to a different tool at some point anyway.
|
| Scrivener seems like it's good at solving problems I mostly
| don't feel I have.
| rcarr wrote:
| Once you get it set up how you want it, DevonThink absolutely
| rocks and it's perfect for non-fiction research. It's got a
| 100 hour free trial so worth testing it out. I'd recommend
| downloading the manual and/or the Take Control Of DevonThink
| book from the devontechnologies website (both free) and
| giving both a speed read so you get an idea of some of the
| stuff it can do.
|
| Obviously depends on your own individual workflow but here
| are some of my recommendations:
|
| Make sure you get the iOS companion app DevonThink To Go.
| This allows you to capture everything on your mobile devices.
| Also make sure you install all add ons via DevonThink3 ->
| Install Add Ons.
|
| These add ons will:
|
| - Allow you to view and import emails in DevonThink (you will
| also have to enable the plugin in the Apple Mail app for this
| functionality to work)
|
| - Put an 'Inbox' folder in your finder which allows you to
| just drag any file or folder into it and have it appear in
| your DevonThink Inbox
|
| - Give you OCR for all your pdfs
|
| - Give you extensions for browsers to clip things easily.
|
| When you clip something that you want to read or refer back
| to you're generally best off using the 'paginated PDF'
| setting as not all the available options support annotation
| and the AI search. It's not a big deal if you don't because
| you can just right click something and click 'Convert To' to
| turn it into a pdf later.
|
| Two settings I'd recommend trying out:
|
| DevonThink3 -> Preferences -> General -> Interface -> Retain
| View (On)
|
| Stops the view from changing every time you switch databases
| which can be annoying.
|
| DevonThink3 -> Preferences -> General -> Interface -> Unify
| Inboxes (Off)
|
| Moves each databases inbox into the database itself which
| makes it a lot easier for when you're filing things.
|
| Four Shortcuts I Find Useful:
|
| Cmd-Ctrl-M - brings up a panel for moving a file quickly
|
| Cmd-7 for wide screen view (makes more sense than the
| standard view)
|
| Cmd-option-i - toggle right inspector
|
| Cmd-option-1 - toggle left sidebar
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I used Scrivener for a while. I switched to Vellum, which I like
| much better.
|
| What was the decider? I wanted to have "drop caps", that cool
| feature where the first letter of a chapter is 3 or 4 lines big.
| The forums for Scrivener suggested some very complicated ways to
| do it involving CSS. In Vellum it's just one of the styles.
| Silly, but it's my book and I wanted it.
|
| Vellum also seems to know publishing conventions better (the
| half-title page, the copyright page, About the Author, etc.) They
| make your book not look so self-published.
|
| I'm not trashing Scrivener, though. It's a good product.
| jacques-noris wrote:
| Strange comparison. Scrivener is for writing books, Vellum for
| publishing, even if scrivener has a publish option. But they
| rather complement each other. Scrivener is incredible value for
| money.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| I recently wasted three days trying to get Scrivener to do
| something very basic - autonumber sections in a book without
| including part numbers.
|
| It should have been easy, but the autonumbering features
| didn't work as advertised and I ended up with something that
| is probably a hack that relies on some bugs.
|
| It's good VFM, but considering its audience it's also one of
| the most user-hostile pieces of software I've ever used. [1]
|
| There's _far_ too much "Yes it does that but it's not
| designed for it so keep your expectations low" for comfort.
|
| Either include features and make them professional, or don't
| include them at all. I'd happily pay two or three times as
| much for something that does all the things it sorta kinda
| implies it does but you know actually not really.
|
| Vellum does almost nothing in comparison except produce a
| limited range of beautiful books. But perhaps that may be of
| some interest to writers?
|
| [1] TBF it's far better than Calibre. But that has the excuse
| of being free.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| Kinda my feeling. But I won't trash Scrivener.
|
| > Vellum does almost nothing in comparison except produce a
| limited range of beautiful books.
|
| Exactly. That's all I want. Hopefully a higher price means
| they can live on that alone.
|
| And they have fonts which not everyone in the world is
| using. Maybe Scrivener does too; haven't checked.
|
| But maybe _this_ will start a flame war: Guy Kawasaki
| recommends Adobe InDesign. To hell with monthly fees, so
| no.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| "writing books" vs. "publishing" ? Is that a sharp
| distinction?
| Rygian wrote:
| It's usually done by different people with different job
| descriptions.
|
| A writer's output are manuscripts, works of art.
|
| A publisher's output is a commercial offering of books, a
| business.
|
| [1] https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-author-
| and-p...
| MrVandemar wrote:
| I agree, but the latter can _also_ be a work of art.
| Typesetting is definitely something that can be done
| right or wrong, and sometimes to a breathtakingly high
| standard.
| least wrote:
| Scriveners tools are designed to help a person write like
| keeping track of timelines, character sheets, and the like.
|
| It sounds like the other product has tools for typesetting
| and layout, which are tools for publishing your finished
| work.
| cocacola1 wrote:
| I only tried the trial of Vellum but, from what I remember, it
| was easy to use and beautiful to boot. Definitely a lot less
| complicated than Scrivener (which, if your goal is to write a
| book, is probably the way to go). It seems like a joy to work
| in for the long haul.
|
| The thing for me is price. Vellum is $200-250, Scrivener is $60
| (I got it for ~$40 with NaNoWriMo discounts a few years ago, if
| I recall correctly). Plus you can write screenplays in it,
| which was another bonus. I have spent more time than I should
| customizing it, but that ended up being part of the joy. I've
| more than a million words in it so it's unlikely I'll switch,
| but it's a joy to use.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I actually think the higher price is an asset, not a
| liability (unless you can't afford it, of course). It means
| they have a business model that doesn't require a huge mass
| market to survive, so they won't go broke or get acquired and
| watered down by some big company.
| cocacola1 wrote:
| I'd agree with that. I certainly hope they're able to stay
| in business - it seems as though Vellum takes care of
| everything. About the only thing it can't do (I might be
| wrong) is that it can't output to Word format? I'm the
| process of publishing a book right now and they've
| requested everything in Word.
|
| Edit: Turns out that as of ~10 days ago, you can, in fact,
| export to Word (https://blog.vellum.pub/) in Vellum.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| I just looked: you can export to RTF. So couldn't Word
| import that?
| cocacola1 wrote:
| I was wrong. Just took a look at their blog and
| apparently as of 3.4 (Nov. 16, 2022) you can export to
| Word (https://blog.vellum.pub/). That's excellent.
| rcarr wrote:
| If you're interested in screenplays you might be interested
| in the fountain file format. It's like markdown but for
| screenplays. It allows you to write screenplays in any text
| editor and I really like the simplicity of it keeps me
| focussed on the task at hand. There's a very cool app created
| by screenwriter John August (Big Fish, Charlie and The
| Chocolate Factory) called Highlander2 on the Mac App Store
| that is purpose built for it (technically it uses a custom
| file format called highland but it's basically just a folder
| with a fountain file inside it and a few other files for
| editor settings, metadata and handling images if you have
| any). There's also fountain extensions for VS Code, Sublime
| Text, Obsidian and probably other editors out there I don't
| know of.
|
| Links:
|
| https://fountain.io/
|
| https://highland2.app/index.php
| vore wrote:
| I think Scrivener also has different goals: Vellum looks like
| it's intended for publishing, but Scrivener I think of more as
| an organizational tool. That said, I've been using Dabble if
| only because it's all cloud-based and I don't have to worry
| about syncing files around myself.
| [deleted]
| dinkleberg wrote:
| Vellum looks excellent, thanks for mentioning it.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Scrivener is amazing on macOS.
|
| I tried doing the cross-platform writing story with the new
| versions on Windows and mobile apps, but it just has too many
| issues of syncing and random formatting bugs across the OS.
|
| I absolutely love the mac experience though and it has helped me
| author two books in less than two years. I've tried markdown
| generators and traditional word, but Scrivener just feels right.
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