Image by Samuel F. Johanns from Pixabay
Lulled into a false sense of security by everything technical behaving lately, I have been delaying my plan to move my WIP from Microsoft Word to Scrivener. I believe in that old adage that if it ain’t broke, leave it alone…
My main reason for procrastinating is that I honestly believe that joining Scrivener is best done when you start a new story. Because I am two-thirds of the way in, so to speak, it does seem like breaking your eggs twice.
It had to happen, though, and yesterday, they tinkered again, and I had to jump through hoops to find and salvage the new chapter I was working on.
This must be the last straw, as I am getting too old for all this frustration.
Folly’s End is nearly finished, and I dread the thought of trying to format it on Word. I might have to shoot myself if anything untoward happens to it now.
It is weird, though, for I use Word for everything else. Letters, posts, and ideas, and I rarely have any problem. The trouble usually occurs when I want to move a file somewhere else.
I am also trying to create a newsletter on MailerLite, which is much more fun than Mailchimp, so transferring FE will have to wait a while. I will continue to save any progress with OneDrive like I always do.
Life continues to get more complicated than ever, doesn’t it?
Not yet, I don’t!
You said it Jaye, everything does seem to be getting more complicated. I’m a firm believer in ‘if it ain’t broken’. 🙂 x
Everywhere you look, things are being tweaked and improved, and never for the better in my opinion. Just when I get used to one thing, it changes into something else…
That’s exactly how I feel! 🙁 x
Some days, I feel as though I am being left behind…
Word and I have been tussling ever since it tried to lecture me on reflexive pronouns. Its latest trick is to pretend it has forgotten all the fictional words and names I added to the Dictionary and thence underlines them in ‘that’ red.
It annoys me; I annoy it ( at least I like to think I am)
Yes, it has driven me nuts once too often…
I reckon its concept is still based on Business, Academic and Social presentations.
The various ploys of writers seem to be at odds with its programmes.
I once used a few Italian words and phrases in a book. Word promptly changed its spell check to Italian and underlined not all but just random words. I had to visit the Language Section several times to convince to use UK English. a few weeks later it defaulted to Dutch 🤷🤷♂️🤷♀️
Word seems to find new ways to drive me mad, every blessed day!
My wife Sheila’s language when wrestling with Word would make an army barracks proud.
Glad I’m not the only one!
I started Scrivener with a new story too. It helped. 🙂
I have heard that formatting is easier with them, something Word has been mucking up lately, so looks like I will have to buckle up and get transferring!
I use word for everything. I think I might be too old to go anywhere else.
Surely not, John… hopefully you won’t need to
I did this not that long ago. All my more recent stories are on Scrivener but I have a lot of old manuscripts spread on numerous Word documents. I then took the plunge and created Scrivener files for most of them and started to transfer the scenes into Scrivener.
I have kept the Word files in a safe place and I make sure that I compile and save Scrivener documents when I’ve been writing in case something goes bad. I’ve used Scrivener for long enough that I do think it’s okay and won’t just destroy my work – but I like to be extra careful. It has made things easier to have them on Scrivener.
I have such a lot to transfer, but it will be worth it, Ari… 📚