Scrivener - Help or Hindrance?

​As I sit staring at the blank screen in front of me,
I begin to wonder whether Scrivener is actually
​helping me.

 When I wrote, ‘What Lies Within’, the whole book just grew out of a one sentence prompt given at a creative writing class.  Not expecting terribly much to emerge I just sat down and started writing.  The book grew before my eyes.  Pat and Tom became like family and we explored together.  Sure there were bumps along the way.  I couldn't do ‘x’ because I had already done ‘y’, so that wouldn’t work.  In the end though, a fully fledged book emerged and, according to feedback and sales, people seem to like it.  

Is ‘What Lies Within’ a masterpiece?  Absolutely not.  Its simply a saga about a girl growing up and helping her brother in dangerous circumstances.  Finding the strength within her along the way. 

So, as I started to think about a follow up, I thought I should prepare better.  If I planned it all out at the start, things would go much more smoothly. Right?  That’s what all the advice out there says.  Work out the outline first, then you can easily fix any plot holes before you even start.

Then someone told me about Scrivener.  For those of you who don't know, Scrivener is a wonderful software package which aims to make life easier for anyone doing any kind of writing.  Kind of like an Excel for authors.  As a woman who loves Excel, I was hooked.

Like Excel, this package has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.  I eagerly set about mastering it, as I plotted book 2. The idea of a sequel fell away, but another beauty emerged.  This is going to be the best book ever!  I have all the scenes plotted.  Character profiles of all the main characters are prepared, and I’m ready to go.

Then the doubts creep in.  How can I start?  I cant possibly do this outline justice.  As soon as I start it, I’ll spoil it.

I pull myself together and leave the whole thing aside for a couple of days to let my sub-conscious mind mull things over.

Then I come back, full of energy. But wait, the outline is ridiculous.  There’s no meat in the story!  Who's going to be interested in this garbage?.  Your characters are unbelievable!  And that ending, well it’s just plain stupid!

So, back to the drawing board.

I have now been caught in this loop for the past six months.  Somehow paralysed by process.

I am writing this blog directly into Scrivener, which is a big step forward.  I have been using word and copying and pasting over.  Ridiculous, I know.

I think my problem is that Scrivener feels like a real tool for real writers and I know I’m not one of them!

So, let today be the start of my new love affair with Scrivener and the day I start real work on the second book.

Interested to hear if I’m alone on this one.

Happy Friday!

Audrey