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Oh, I'd had 'relationships' beforehand: with black pens, almost exclusively, sometimes plain Bics and the occasional fling with a fountain pen. Then there were typewriters with whom I shacked up for a time: the Smith-Corona 2001, the IBM Selectric -- but I knew all along that I wouldn't stay faithful to them because I never really enjoyed our intercourse. I did it because I had to do it...
Then I threw them all over for the world of computers, and I realized that there were better ways to fling words at paper. My first affair there was with MacWrite, but I abandoned her quickly for the allure of the powerful: Microsoft Word. Her, I married... because I was certain that I had found the love of my life.
The two of us were married for a long time. A couple decades. I think there was genuine love between us back in those early years -- a joy in producing work together: of weaving words, of cutting and pasting, of spellchecking. But Ms. Word... well, like many of us, as time went on, she lost her figure. She became... bloated. She started taking interest in things that had nothing to do with me. She started lecturing me, she started offering to help me when I didn't need help. She wanted to be more than my word processor. I tolerated it for a long time -- all her expensive 'updates' and makeovers, all of her changes.
But I was slowly falling out of love with her, and by the end -- a few years ago -- I was only tolerating her, afraid to leave but not enjoying my time with her and thinking about how nice it might be to leave her behind to seek our own ways. I confess that I started seeing other word processors behind her back: Mellel, Mariner Write, Appleworks, Pages, TextEdit, AbiWord, Nisus...
Ah, Nisus... She was -- and still is -- a beauty. She felt good. She was young and lithe, she seemed to know just what I wanted in a word processor. She was affordable. I took the plunge: I left Ms. Word and I went to Nisus, and she took me in. And we were happy -- things were like I remembered them, long ago. Novels came, and short stories. We talked of marriage and commitment.
But... I had been hearing about this other program for a time. Whispers in conversations about something.... different. A few friends were using her, this stranger: Scrivener. And I listened to them raving about her, and I wondered. I even downloaded her once and played with her furtively on my computer while Nisus wasn't running. I found her intriguing, but I never really went beyond a few quick kisses and fondlings. We never quite became intimate, and after a few days, I deleted her, thinking "No, I shouldn't do this. Nisus is good to me..."
But I kept hearing her name, now and again. And when another person I know mentioned her and sang her praises, I was intrigued again, and downloaded her once more and loaded in the current work-in-progress and really tried her. And all through the process I was saying "Wow!" and "This is neat" and "Yes!"
I realized that I had gone to Nisus because she was familiar: she reminded me of when Ms. Word had been young and vital. But Scrivener.... Scrivener was something else entirely. She would be whatever I wanted her to be. She was interested in what I was doing; she thought the way I did.
Right now, I'm in that wonderful honeymoon of a new relationship. We're still discovering things about each other -- wonderful things, for the most part -- and learning how we each fit together. I haven't yet come across those flaws that at first seem endearing but later turn into skin-flaying irritations. But...
I'm thinking right now that perhaps she's the One. And it's a good feeling.
Then I threw them all over for the world of computers, and I realized that there were better ways to fling words at paper. My first affair there was with MacWrite, but I abandoned her quickly for the allure of the powerful: Microsoft Word. Her, I married... because I was certain that I had found the love of my life.
The two of us were married for a long time. A couple decades. I think there was genuine love between us back in those early years -- a joy in producing work together: of weaving words, of cutting and pasting, of spellchecking. But Ms. Word... well, like many of us, as time went on, she lost her figure. She became... bloated. She started taking interest in things that had nothing to do with me. She started lecturing me, she started offering to help me when I didn't need help. She wanted to be more than my word processor. I tolerated it for a long time -- all her expensive 'updates' and makeovers, all of her changes.
But I was slowly falling out of love with her, and by the end -- a few years ago -- I was only tolerating her, afraid to leave but not enjoying my time with her and thinking about how nice it might be to leave her behind to seek our own ways. I confess that I started seeing other word processors behind her back: Mellel, Mariner Write, Appleworks, Pages, TextEdit, AbiWord, Nisus...
Ah, Nisus... She was -- and still is -- a beauty. She felt good. She was young and lithe, she seemed to know just what I wanted in a word processor. She was affordable. I took the plunge: I left Ms. Word and I went to Nisus, and she took me in. And we were happy -- things were like I remembered them, long ago. Novels came, and short stories. We talked of marriage and commitment.
But... I had been hearing about this other program for a time. Whispers in conversations about something.... different. A few friends were using her, this stranger: Scrivener. And I listened to them raving about her, and I wondered. I even downloaded her once and played with her furtively on my computer while Nisus wasn't running. I found her intriguing, but I never really went beyond a few quick kisses and fondlings. We never quite became intimate, and after a few days, I deleted her, thinking "No, I shouldn't do this. Nisus is good to me..."
But I kept hearing her name, now and again. And when another person I know mentioned her and sang her praises, I was intrigued again, and downloaded her once more and loaded in the current work-in-progress and really tried her. And all through the process I was saying "Wow!" and "This is neat" and "Yes!"
I realized that I had gone to Nisus because she was familiar: she reminded me of when Ms. Word had been young and vital. But Scrivener.... Scrivener was something else entirely. She would be whatever I wanted her to be. She was interested in what I was doing; she thought the way I did.
Right now, I'm in that wonderful honeymoon of a new relationship. We're still discovering things about each other -- wonderful things, for the most part -- and learning how we each fit together. I haven't yet come across those flaws that at first seem endearing but later turn into skin-flaying irritations. But...
I'm thinking right now that perhaps she's the One. And it's a good feeling.
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do you think....
Hope it's along and happy relationship for you.
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As to the "long and happy," well, we'll see. I can be fickle when it comes to software! :-)
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perfect music in the background
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WordStar
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yWriter
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Re: yWriter
It would be hard to switch from MS-Word, though. I'm used to having a flat text editor.
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Great entry. Very entertaining. I'm thinking of switching to mac with my next computer purchase, so I might give your program a try.
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I've used Macs since 88. Hopefully the labeling, outlining and keyword flexibility will sell me on Scrivener. So far, so good.
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I'm really liking this program. I keep waiting for some annoyance to rise up and smack me in the face, but so far, it's all good.
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Keeping track of characters and shifting POV is a big plus. And being able to reference correct spellings of names ... big big plus in addition to the selection capability. I'm still in the 30-day trial, but so far so good. I'm just working on the synopsis so far. I'll test the exporting this weekend and see how well it moves over into Word for pagination.
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It would work fine for an essay, too... but if you're not pulling stuff from here-and-there and making back-and-forth references, an essay's probably short and uncomplicated enough that a word processor might be as effective. OTOH, the Full Screen mode (which blanks out everything else except the text itself) is great for forcing concentration on the task at hand.
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For non-fiction, there's lots and lots of background.
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Just downloaded it...
She seems rather popular already. (One of the writers for Spooks [known as MI-5 here in the US] sang her praises.) Hope she's got lotsa sisters...
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I'm sure they'll make more as needed! :-)
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And I remember the name XyWrite, though I never had a chance to play with it.
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But you've always been a Mac user. And yet you still felt Word was controlling you?
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But yes, even on the Mac MS Word is a bloated hog of a program and I find the interface ugly, unpleasant, and intrusive. My opinion only, of course...