Converting to Scrivener -or- Getting Tired of Pages on the iPad Eating my Work

The cloud is swallowing words.

I had to stop using Pages on the iPad. Even after a call to Apple Care, where they assured me that all I had to do was close a document after working on it and it would save to the cloud, neat as you please.

I’m sure they wanted to believe that’s  true. But it isn’t. I kept losing work.

Enter Scrivener, to save the day!

This program is freaking amazing. It organizes novel length projects with a plethora of tools that allow me to tinker with my work in numerous ways. Each chapter, even each scene, can be viewed as a notecard and rearranged on a virtual corkboard. I have constant access to character profiles, place profiles, and any kind of research I need, organized any way I want. Brilliant!

And when I want to take work on the run, it synchronizes with Simplenote, an app on the iPad, which saves versions of your work.

All the organizational tools are essential for fantasy and science fiction writers in particular. And I bet they’d be useful for writers of historical fiction and mysteries, too. Anything that requires you to keep and frequently refer to multiple pieces of reference and notes.

So to my writer friends out there, go here and check it out!