Chances are, anybody writing a novel, screenplay or regular-old play has come to love and hate Word.
Mostly hate.
Whenever a piece gets long and complicated, Word starts to fail you.
After 5,000 words or so, it takes five minutes of fussing with the mouse to scroll around to where you need to work. Anything of length becomes a chore. Navigating your immense document becomes more work than writing more words.
This is where Gwen the Hernandez can help.
Gwen the Hernandez is literary muffin of stud. Also, not even the peoples who INVENTED Scrivener know more about it than her.
She is not only an author and blogger, but an expert at Scrivener, which is designed to help writers crank out stuff that is long. Especially novels and screenplays.
From using it, and writing helpful posts on her blog, she branched out and is now busy writing SCRIVENER FOR DUMMIES, and getting paid to be, I don’t know, some kind of world-class expert on the thing.
This is good for Gwen, good for writers and good for America.
(Sidenote: I’m not leaving out writers in the UK, Australia and whatnot on purpose. It’s just that the Bob Dole triple-play doesn’t work unless you end it on “good for America.”)
SCRIVENER FOR DUMMIES by Gwen the Hernandez. If you're a writer of novels or screenplays, and you are even thinking about using Scrivener, you want to check her blog and maybe, one day, save your pennies to buy her book.
Also, Gwen the Hernandez is blonde, wrote some kind of novel that was a finalist for some award, likes to puts on a gi to punch people / get punched and has ties to the Air Force.
It’s as if I have a female doppleganger on the East Coast.
Gwen, I raise my massive mug of caffeine in your direction.
Visit her blog — and sign up for the thing by email or whatever:
http://gwenhernandez.wordpress.com/
Also, follow her on the Twitter:
@Gwen_Hernandez
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Guy – Photo by Suhyoon Cho
Reformed journalist. Scribbler of speeches and whatnot. Wrote a thriller that was a finalist for some award.
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Haha, thanks, Christine!
Gwen is the best. Everyone needs to buy her book next fall.
Just a note to say that I found Gwen through the Red Pen O’Doom and she is, as Guy says, the real deal. I did a Scrivener consult with her this week and learned so much more than I knew it was ridiculous. She is teaching a class on Scrivener in September and I think she is nuts if she doesn’t raise her rates. Sign up!
Thanks, Cynthia. You all are going to bloat my ego!
Great post and Gwen is a genius. She’s also pretty awesome with WordPress and thanks to her and our former RWA PRO Liason I now have an awesome site and know how to create others as I wish! I will be taking her course, buying her book and Scrivner, after falling on love with the Beta version two years ago.
Hi, Calisa! Thanks for the kind words. You’re making me blush! I look forward to having you in my next class.
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Hi, Guy and Gwen, terrific post. I started using Scrivener this year and I’ve fallen in love. It THINKS the way I do. I can’t state in total honesty that my desk is tidy, but the clutter is at least manageable now thanks to the program. The more I discover that I can do with it, the more I want to learn. I’ll be watching for your book, Gwen.
That’s great, Jaye. I know exactly how you feel. I didn’t even wait for my free trial to expire. I was in love after three days and I bought it. =)
Gwen, I wrote an 87,000 word memoir on Word (now cut down to 72,000 for publication) with no problem. Now, when editing a short piece with track changes, a little pinwheel pops up and won’t stop spinning. I have to shut down to make it stop. If I haven’t saved changes, they are lost. Is it my Apple Air laptop? Or Word?
Darrelyn: Not sure. Could be a Word glitch, but I also find the MS Office for Mac programs to be serious RAM hogs. That’s why I switched to Numbers from Excel for all but serious spreadsheets.
I’d make sure you have all the latest updates for the program. Oh, and switch to Scrivener. It saves your work every two seconds!
Gwen is a goddess. Neither plain nor simple, but a goddess of the Scrivener. I just finished her class. I’ve pre-ordered the book. I bow down to her sauce of awesomeness. Now, where’s the caffeine hiding, Guy?
I am stealing ALL THE COFFEES.
NOOOOO! Must share the COFFEES!
Coffee is life. There’s never enough.
How are you? We should talk smack and make evil plans.
You could have warned me you were doing this! But, thanks. I’m honored. Somehow I doubt Keith would agree that I know more about Scrivener than him, but I won’t request a retraction.
As always, you made me laugh out loud. Tipping my Scrivener tea mug in your direction, sir.
I just bumped it up a notch with an Uma Thurman / KILL BILL clip.
Um, don’t think I can live up to that one!
I have faith.