#MELLEL FOR IPAD REVIEW SOFTWARE#

This can be used both to put you in the right mood, or to show something specific that you need to describe in detail.Īnd a closer view of the binder, on the left: In this example, we also have a photo showing the setting of the scene. The card titles are reflected in the left-hand column – what Scrivener calls the binder – so that you have an overview of the structure while you write. You may notice that chapters 2 and 3 show multiple cards – that’s because any card can become a folder, with smaller-chunk cards within them. You can drag-and-drop cards around the board to restructure things, and double-click on a card to open the actual chapter text. You write yourself some crib notes describing what happens in each chapter. I’m not going to show you my novel, so this is just some nonsense I threw together to give you the basic idea. By default, it looks like an actual corkboard, but Jony Ive threatened to come round to my place and confiscate both my Macs unless I changed it to something neutral. The corkboard view is intended for planning, and for rejigging the structure when your plan doesn’t quite work out the way you thought it would. Scrivener is such a flexible tool, and so customizable, that it’s hard to even provide an overview without a dozen different riders saying “if you choose to” and “this is just one of several ways of doing this,” but with that understood, I’ll give an overview based on the way that I use it. I refer to it as an app for novelists, as that’s probably the most common usage, but it can be used for anything from a college thesis to a screenplay. The app is currently available for OS X (with a much-lagged version available for Windows), and there’s an iOS version in the works.

Outlines, pen-portraits of characters, web pages, photos, notes, PDFs … absolute anything and everything that might help you create your opus magnum is right there all within a single app … What Scrivener does is bring together in one place all the resources you are likely to need to plan, research, write and either submit or self-publish a novel. What’s wrong with Pages or Word? It was only once I tried it for myself that I understood.

#MELLEL FOR IPAD REVIEW SOFTWARE#

I must admit that the idea of specific software for creative writing stuck me as on odd one when I first encountered it. Most never start it, and most of those who start it never finish it, but if you want to make a serious attempt, using Scrivener would definitely be the biggest favor you could do yourself. ‘Writing a novel’ seems to be one of the default items on most people’s wish-lists.

Mellel for ipad review