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- Nov 12, 2015
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I use Scrivener to write and manage my WIP proper but except for a few things I need to constantly reference like my list of character names I haven't been using it as a research/worldbuilding manger. Some of it may be unfamiliarity with those features of the software, some of it may be the fact that a lot of that material is multimedia - web links, images, etc. - and I haven't figured out how to manage them gracefully.
I haven't settled on a best way yet but these are the things I've tried:
TidlyWiki: I have the computer expertise to set up my own MediaWiki but that experience also tells me that I really don't want to go through all that bother if I don't have to. With MediaWiki you need a server and a database or you need to pay someone to provide you with the use of one and you don't really want to use public wiki-hosting sites because all the ones I know of will leave your wiki open to the world for viewing.
TidlyWiki runs entirely in your browser (with a Firefox helper extension) with no server required. You can put the files in a folder on your computer or in your cloud storage or on a web host for public viewing/colaboration; completely up to you. There are some fairly dire warnings about needing to back up your TidlyWiki well as if something goes wrong you can lose everything but I've never run into the problem. I keep mine in Dropbox with my Scrivener project folder.
Evernote: This is a newer experiment and I'm not sure I'll stay with it because you have to pay to access your files offline. But it is a better OneNote. The browser integration for saving references is good, you can more easily organize things than in TidlyWiki...I haven't figured out how or if it will store images yet.
As for Scrivener proper, I find it's greatest strength is as a scene manager. My working manuscript is divided by folders into what will probably end up as chapters and each of those has multiple text sections roughly divided by scene. It's easy to rearange, add and remove scenes and scenes can be annotated with notes for changes I want to make later. Outside the main manuscript I have folders for cut material, old versions of revised scenes and fragments (stuff I've written as experiments without being sure they have a place in the story) and my (rather small) notes section.
I haven't settled on a best way yet but these are the things I've tried:
TidlyWiki: I have the computer expertise to set up my own MediaWiki but that experience also tells me that I really don't want to go through all that bother if I don't have to. With MediaWiki you need a server and a database or you need to pay someone to provide you with the use of one and you don't really want to use public wiki-hosting sites because all the ones I know of will leave your wiki open to the world for viewing.
TidlyWiki runs entirely in your browser (with a Firefox helper extension) with no server required. You can put the files in a folder on your computer or in your cloud storage or on a web host for public viewing/colaboration; completely up to you. There are some fairly dire warnings about needing to back up your TidlyWiki well as if something goes wrong you can lose everything but I've never run into the problem. I keep mine in Dropbox with my Scrivener project folder.
Evernote: This is a newer experiment and I'm not sure I'll stay with it because you have to pay to access your files offline. But it is a better OneNote. The browser integration for saving references is good, you can more easily organize things than in TidlyWiki...I haven't figured out how or if it will store images yet.
As for Scrivener proper, I find it's greatest strength is as a scene manager. My working manuscript is divided by folders into what will probably end up as chapters and each of those has multiple text sections roughly divided by scene. It's easy to rearange, add and remove scenes and scenes can be annotated with notes for changes I want to make later. Outside the main manuscript I have folders for cut material, old versions of revised scenes and fragments (stuff I've written as experiments without being sure they have a place in the story) and my (rather small) notes section.
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