Drooling over software

While I am waiting for my father to come back home to lend me his credit card (that's something I really wait for in turning 18 - getting my own credit card and being able to shop online, woo) in order to buy a total license for Scrivener, I will--

Well, I was going to talk about something other (but still writing-related) first, after stating why I am writing about it, but then I thought that after my shameless product replacement (and announcing the fact that I use a mac - and love brackets), I should at least talk about this piece of software that has changed my life.

Don't get me wrong - I still don't understand nothing about computers, and I'm still of the opinion that even though I don't know exactly what's going on with it, I can use it moderately well (except when it crashes; that's when I go to my father). This, and the fact that I sure understand Scrivener (though there still are some features I'll have to work out later, but meh) gives me fairly good grounds to talk about it.

Let's just say that Scrivener has made my life so, so much easier. Since I'm still learning the whole plot outlining thing, having started only, oh, three ideas for novels before, and that was a very primitive write-on-post-it-what-will-happen-next-so-you-will-not-forget, accompanied by some character profiles and so. The next novel I started, when the previous one grew dull, had a more sophisticated system that was thought through more, and that constituted on writing short descriptions of what will happen into my notebook, and that, too, was how Following the Gay Umbrella (the third novel, after I had abandoned the second one in lack of interest) began.

And that was the problem. Do you know how hard it is to look for a specific note you have made in one of your either word documents when plotting and wanting to remember some plot thread or crucial idea, only to forget that it exists later, and then to remember, and wonder what it was and where you put it? If you know, I'm totally with you, and if you don't, you should really be reading something else -- no, no, don't go, I was kidding!

*coughs*

Anyway, what I'm trying to say that combined with Scrivener's general idea of being a binder, something you can stick all your beloved ideas and plot threads and character profiles and outlines and other random bits and pieces without having to lose them somewhere in the folder you created into the folder you created for the characters, which was in a folder you created for the first chapter of your novel, which was in the folder for the first draft in the folder for your novel. The beauty of Scrivener is that you can still create all these folders (if you are as turned on by folders as me, ha-ha-ha-harrumph), but you can still see all their innards in one glance.

And even if you lose some specific bit or piece of information, you can still look for it - there is a marvelous search function that saved me from probably hours of skimming through my novel, trying to find this specific paragraph that would tell me just how many moons Crazyland has (three, if anyone was interested).

I could ramble on about Scrivener's superiority to your mum (sorry, too much Zero Punctuation for me) for ages and ages on, but basically all I'm trying to say is this: if you're as fond as me to see everything you're doing (and if you forget that it's there if you can't see it, like I do), but if you're simultaneously as addicted to neat organisation as my mum (really, this needs to stop), Scrivener is for you.

... Except, of course, if you have the misfortune to use a pc.

Oh, and did I mention that it looks perfectly streamlined and fabulous and I am going to send invitations for our wedding soon?