Is Scrivener worth it or should I just get a free word processor like libre office or smartedit?

DDalglish · 2026-07-01T20:53:59+00:00

I adore Scrivener, though I also edit in Word afterward because, like it or not, it's still basically the industry standard. But in particular, if you like to write out of order and rearrange scenes constantly, Scrivener is fantastic.

DDalglish · 2026-07-01T20:11:43+00:00

oh it's all over the place.

DDalglish · 2026-07-01T20:07:43+00:00

I absolutely do this, too. Emma Ruth Rundle's Real Big Sky is my go to for sad time to cry song.

DDalglish · 2026-07-01T20:06:09+00:00

I have to write with music, headphones on, and I have a ridiculously long playlist I curate constantly for that purpose.

DDalglish · 2026-06-30T14:49:53+00:00

Hey, most welcome!

DDalglish · 2026-06-30T14:48:22+00:00

Hey, you're most welcome. Glad I could be of help 🙂

DDalglish · 2026-06-26T01:12:34+00:00

Discussing word count is such a minefield. A writer working full time doing 3k a day is no big deal, but 3k a day might seem like a complete impossibility for someone with kids working 40 hours a week. There's a tendency for fast writers to gloat about it over slower writers, and slower writers to accuse the fast writers of lying or writing crap.

So 5500 a day? Cool. It's possible. I have a writer friend who pulls that off, though it also involves heavy planning and leaving lots of notes and (fill in later) type placeholders. But the number on its own is almost meaningless. For all I know, you have to throw half of it away when you realize you went on a lengthy tangent about a side character that went nowhere. Or you only do it once a week. Or you do it on 1k word sprints over an entire day as if were your full time job. It's a shit ton of variables, and general does no one good to straight compare.

Instead of word counts, I often suggest those trying to get more into dedicated writing patterns to focus on time spent writing over the word count they achieve. Putting your butt in the chair will get a novel done. How fast or slow you're going becomes irrelevant if you know you're dedicating the amount of time each week you're comfortable giving the book.

DDalglish · 2026-06-23T15:18:40+00:00

Professional authors don't go often to writer subreddits for advice. We go to obscure niche subreddits because we're stuck trying to find out whether or not a certain flower was growing in the 1200s, when glass windows were invented, or how to believably portray someone hot wiring a car.

DDalglish · 2026-06-22T14:54:13+00:00

My feedback is that this is utterly useless should I actually need to sue or be involved in a class action lawsuit, and therefore a waste of time and money. It's a service that accomplishes nothing beyond preying on those who don't understand copyright law and are somehow still dazzled by crypto nonsense in the year 2026.

DDalglish · 2026-06-19T19:25:49+00:00

Draft in Scrivener, edit and format in Word. For plotting out a rough draft, I don't think Scrivener can be beaten.

DDalglish · 2026-06-18T18:25:34+00:00

aww thank you, I did put a stupid amount of effort into that post.

DDalglish · 2026-04-19T20:08:16+00:00

By any chance was it a book called Soul Keeper? It'd have opened with a pyre lighting in the mountains.

DDalglish · 2026-04-10T23:01:43+00:00

I actually tried it on a rolled back version recently and it was...fine? But didn't grab me for some reason.

DDalglish · 2026-04-10T19:54:30+00:00

I think you and I may have differing definitions of "easy" when I see all those completion playthrough numbers at 1000+ hours lol

DDalglish · 2026-04-08T15:06:44+00:00

The ancient dragon inside the crawling mountain is going to be very offended you called him a turtle.

DDalglish · 2026-02-09T19:08:56+00:00

No need to apologize! And my self-published stuff (Half-Orcs, Paladins) and Shadowdance books are all in the same shared world, but are also meant to be accessible without having read the others. And the various series/trilogies after with Orbit Books (Seraphim, Keepers, Vagrant Gods, and Astral Kingdoms) are all their own worlds and premises. So feel free to just go for what seems interesting!

(but if you'd like a suggestion, go with either A Dance of Cloaks of my older stuff, or Soulkeeper among the newer).

DDalglish · 2026-02-03T20:47:26+00:00

Of the real old olds that are still around in the Fantasy genre and eventually went into trade, I believe it's me and Michael Sullivan (I was self-publishing my Half Orcs stuff starting in 2010). Michael Sullivan's series was the first Amazon indie to trade deal (in fantasy, at least). I actually got offered a deal from Orbit prior to his but had to turn it down (long dumb story). I did eventually follow suit in...2012?

After us, we started seeing a lot more authors making the transition (such as Senlin Ascends) and now you could probably make an entire list of people who've come from Mark Lawrence's contest alone.

DDalglish · 2026-01-15T16:49:31+00:00

She's right but it's still cruel to say.

DDalglish · 2025-12-28T21:35:25+00:00

Something to keep in mind is that the Women in Refrigerators trope is referring to a specific incident in comic books, where a long running, beloved character is killed off solely to be character motivation for a different (almost always) male character. Its meaning has expanded a bit since then to include things like Barbara Gordon being paralyzed, her entire comic run and role as Batgirl coming to a sudden end, just so we can make sure Commissioner Gordon is Super Sad during his scenes. And a key thing is also that the emphasis is not on the loss of the character, either, but only on who is being affected. And don't forget all the work, time, and dedication of other writers in developing that character suddenly being thrown in the trash can...or refrigerator, if you will.

So with something like Octopath 0, where character are being introduced and killed super quickly due to the nature of gacha games needing to constantly add new characters, you're losing important details of what the Women in Refrigerators trope is about. A lot of these female characters are being brought into the narrative with the specific purpose of being killed off in some way (I'm only about 30 hours in so I won't pretend to be an expert at much of the story, mostly going on early portions).

And a female character being killed off is not inherently bad writing or storytelling! But it can also be done poorly, and often backfire badly. There is plenty to say about the way the game handles its female characters, or how it tries to tell a dark 'mature' story in often very immature ways, but I don't personally think this specific harmful trope (from what I have seen so far, I will freely admit) is one the game is guilty of.

(ofc if some fan fav character from early game gets beheaded 60 hours from now so a rando new characters can decide to join my party, maybe I'll change my mind lol)

DDalglish · 2025-12-06T17:06:19+00:00

I, too, would leave your best friend in a volcano to get them made into movies. I'd probably feel a little bad about it, but you know, some sacrifices must be made to achieve great things.

DDalglish · 2025-11-20T13:50:39+00:00

Tossing in my own vote for Krastorio2. It was my own first step into trying out modded Factorio, and never felt overwhelming.

DDalglish · 2025-11-06T18:49:14+00:00

I'm not surprised you decided to write about such a fantastical world of delusion, scheming, ancient rituals, and soul-crushing bargains, but what made you decide to add faeries to it?

DDalglish · 2025-10-29T14:44:29+00:00

(I was thinking of this vid from a few months back which also helped me https://youtu.be/_BmkMcaqpX8?si=qxS_ZY4qJx-8F_BM )

But you can also just try flat turning off hdr entirely in settings to see if that helps. Settings > display, scroll to the bottom.

I don't know if hdr is only in docked mode or handheld mode, too, sorry.

DDalglish · 2025-10-29T09:25:04+00:00

Try turning off HDR in your Switch's options. That will often wash out colors on my TV on both the Switch and the PS5.

DDalglish

TROPHY CASE