writing on a mac

Teppo

One of my naive hopes with my switch to a mac is increased productivity.  (This review alone suggests that I won’t be waiting nearly as long on data processing).  So, I am hoping to also switch my writing software, I am hoping to be done with MS Word. 

There appear to be some beautiful writing options out there.  The reviews for “Scrivener” are particularly glowing.  Boy, if the Times’ Virginia Heffernan is even half right, my life might just change.

Our redeemer is Scrivener, the independently produced word-processing program of the aspiring novelist Keith Blount, a Londoner who taught himself code and graphic design and marketing, just to create a software that jibes with the way writers think.  As its name makes plain, Scrivener takes our side; it roots for the writer and not for the final product — the stubborn Word.  The happy, broad-minded, process-friendly Scrivener software encourages note-taking and outlining and restructuring and promises all the exhilaration of a productive desk: “a ring-binder, a scrapbook, a corkboard, an outliner and text editor all rolled into one.”

That’s only a start, read the full review here, seems to over-promise.  (Here’s the Scrivener site, and wiki with additional glowing reviews.)

Other options appear to be WriteRoom, Ulysses, or Mellel.  I’m not writing screenplays or novels (those are two areas of writing that frequently get mentioned by supporters of these software), rather, academic articles; but, it seems that many of these options might be far superior to MS Word.  Let me know if you’ve made the switch and haven’t looked back.