Comments on: Writing Showdown: Storyist VS Storymill VS Scrivener

By: roelani

roelani — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:12:22 +0000

Hi Stefan! As I said in my little review, the app I’ve been using most is Scrivener, so I don’t have all the answers concerning StoryMill. Both apps have some limited word processing features but neither of them is meant to replace software like Word or Pages. However, they both have some pretty complete export capabilities; the way they’re meant to work is as creative tools. You do all your writing and researching in StoryMill or Scrivener, distraction free. The apps are meant to provide you with a platform where you can get stuff out of your head and into a manuscript format.

I know there are some ready-made manuscript templates out there that you can use as a starting point, but you’re not supposed to actually format your piece on the writing software. You get word-count tools, not page-count ones. You get some basic RTF format options. Scrivener 2 will feature a “paged” option, but it’s not included in the current versions. Basically, you’re supposed to export your final manuscript (as a .doc document or some other such format) then work on formatting if you need it. The novel’s name and page numbers appear automatically upon export when you use, for example, Scrivener multi-markdown function; you can choose to include or exclude things like novel title, notes, chapter titles, etc.

I would suggest you take a look at user forums and see if someone more familiar with StoryMill’s export features can help you. :) Hope this clears things up a little for you, and thanks for taking the time to visit.

By: Stefan Morlock

Stefan Morlock — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:59:38 +0000

I just started to write my 1st novel using Story Mill and was surprised to find that it doesn’t set the borders on either side and it doesn’t make it clear when I am at the end of a page. It tells me at the bottom that I am on page 6 of 6 when on my screen it looks like page 2 of 2. I thought it would automatically format my story as I type by establishing borders and by having a broken line at the bottom when I get to the end of a page and so on so that the finished product would be exactly the way publishers want it to be so that I could send it off as is. Since I have no idea what page I am really on I am unable to type in my novel’s name and the page number on one page and my name and the page number on the next page. Am I doing something wrong or is the program not able to perform these functions?
Hopefully you can help with this… Stefan

By: roelani

roelani — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:45:54 +0000

I’m glad you enjoyed the review! I bought my copy of Scrivener a few weeks ago and am now using it for Nanowrimo myself. It’s been a great help so far, and my novel is going well. :)

I hope you find Scrivener is the right tool for you. If you have questions, the Scrivener main page has an awesome support forum where people exchange tips and answers. Very nice.

By: motivatedprocrastinator

motivatedprocrastinator — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:43:05 +0000

I absolutely love a good review to help me sort out the things I don’t know much about. This is my first year at nanowrimo and I was wondering what app to use and you’ve answered that for me. This is a very valuable piece of info and I will send the 2 readers that I have here :)

Thanks:
http://www.motivatedprocrastinator.wordpress.com
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