Google Docs, Microsoft Word or Scrivener?
I’ve had some great conversations over the past year with fellow writers about our individual writing processes. One common question keeps cropping up in the conversation: “what program do you use to write?”
Of course there is absolutely no ‘correct’ answer, as it all comes down to personal preference. And as the personality behind this personal blog on a website titled after my person, here’s one person’s opinion on all three:
Google Docs.
Technical Pros:
The obvious technical pro of Google Docs is that it is Free Dollars. Absolutely free. Accessible if you have a gmail account – and that’s about it. The “price” of use is putting in your mobile number for security authentication, and then – wow! You have access to a plugin that is almost identical to Microsoft Word with all of its most useful functions without the frills.
Added pro is it saves your work automatically to your Google Drive, so you’re less likely to lose anything if your laptop runs out of battery, your power goes out, or any such first-world-problem calamity.
Anecdotal Pros:
Because of aforementioned frequent saving to Google Drive, your story is accessible on multiple desktops. I found this aspect of veeeeery useful in previous places of employment, especially when I found myself in front of a computer with literally nothing to do. I just logged in to my Gmail and could access my story with the click of a few buttons. I just could then log back in once I was at home and pick up from exactly where I had left off.
Cheeky? Absolutely.
In my defence, some of my previous jobs supported a culture of ‘looking busy’ in lieu of having actual work, and typing on a word document looks a lot more corporate and studious than scrolling through online shoe sales.
Which I have also done.
And gotten into trouble for.
Whoops!
Technical Cons:
Aside from a familiar typing interface, the ability to download and save documents as multiple formats and the word search feature, Google Docs is only the bare bones of a writing program. But that might be enough for initial drafts of your next magnum opus.
2. Microsoft Word
Technical Pros:
Out of the three programs I talk about in this post, Microsoft is arguably the most sophisticated in terms of its features. It can be jigged up to save your document after a specified amount of time of your choosing, much like Google Docs. If you have One Drive, it can also save your documents to a ‘cloud’ so you can access documents on multiple devices, again, much like Google Docs.
Anecdotal Pros:
I also found that it was the only one of the three that offered a very specific formatting ability that I needed at the time of self publishing my book. More on that below.
Technical Cons:
It requires a paid subscription which isn’t cheap and requires renewing every year. At the time of publishing this, the current sub rate is currently $16 AUD a month, or $159 AUD a year.
Another con is it has a tendency to crash when handling large documents with multiple tracked changes – as I was forewarned by my editor when she sent me back my initial edits for ‘The Secrets of Sirona’.
In a nutshell, this was quite annoying to the point of being almost detrimental to the editing process and bloody frustration for writers, and dare I say it, for the whole editing industry!
Yeah, I said it.
3. Scrivener
I was put onto Scrivener thanks to a fellow writer who sold it to me as “being more useful than Microsoft to organise a manuscript” and “less distracting than Google Docs” as you can open the program without needing internet access. I was also assured it is “absolutely worth the price of $68 AUD” to use.
I have now been using it for several years and am a firm advocate of the program.
Technical Pros:
Scrivener allows you to organise your document into chapters, making it easier to navigate your whole manuscript. It also has templates for character profiles, locations, and any other notes you will ever need to world build. Everything will be consolidated into a side menu while you happily type away.
Another huge pro, is it easily formats your manuscript into .epub formats for ebooks as well as print books, and you can create your own formatting templates.
Fun fonts, anyone? You got it.
Technical Cons:
So far, I’ve only found one, in that it didn’t allow for wrapped text when justified alignment was selected.
“What the hell is she on about?” you might be thinking. Let me explain, also for my own benedit as I’ve only recently learned these terms myself:
‘Justified Text’ refers to the four straight lined option for text formatting, most commonly used for novels or printed newspapers. You’ll find it as the fourth option after left, centre and right text alignment.
Without being able to ‘wrap the text,’ the text body would spread out the words across the specified margins, instead of hyphenating and, quite literally, ‘wrapping the text’ so that the spaces between the words were exactly the same.
Take my word for it, justified text + wrapped text is a solid equation that equals polished and schmick.
Insert chef’s kiss.
Anecdotal Cons:
Further to aforementioned justified/wrapped text shebozzle, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is not an issue with Scrivener on an Apple device. Alas, at the time of writing this, it is not possible with Scrivener on my Windows laptop – much to my disappointment.
In order to solve this issue, I had to extract my manuscript from Scrivener to Microsoft Word, jig up the desired justified text + wrapped text combination, then save it from there onto my desktop and then upload it to Kindle Publishing.
Imagine doing this for every newly discovered typo.
I don’t have to imagine because I lived the experience.
Ha. Haha. Woo. *cries*
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, where you choose to write your stories really is Dealer’s Choice. TMI, maybe, but I’m drafting this blog post on Google Docs – something I would never use Scrivener for or pay a Microsoft subscription for.
Yet Scrivener is still my firm favourite for organising long manuscripts.
It is always open on my desktop, allowing me to jump in to any chapter with the click of a button.
I love it. I recommend it.
But at the end of the day, you do you, Betty Boo.
———
Currently reading:
From Blood and Ash - Jennifer Armentrout
Currently listening to:
How Do You Like Me Now? - The Heavy
