I bought Scrivener some time ago but haven’t used it. I am starting a writing project and I thought I would go through the Tutorial to get started. After trying both the original interactive tutorial and the Quick Start version, I need to find something more elementary. I found both tutorials very hard to follow, full of extraneous comments and poorly written instructions…perhaps my shortcomings.
Is there a “Scrivener for Dummies”, because that’s apparently the category of tutorial I require. I looked on Amazon and found the “Scrivener Absolute Beginner’s Guide”, the Kindle version of which mirrors the print version, having 521 pages! Double Gulp!
I have found some resources but they don’t appear to meet my elementary needs or are poorly reviewed.
My assumption is that you’re on Windows Scrivener v1.9.16. (Help > About)
Yes, there do seem to be more books and whatnot out there that talk about the Mac version. The good news is that when Windows Scrivener v3 is finally released, there will be very little difference between how the Windows and Mac versions function. The bad news is, to take advantage of this commonality, you’ll have to learn another version.
If you do find a Windows book that’s useful to you, great. Go for it.
But if you don’t, my advice would be to go through the Interactive Tutorial again (Help > Interactive Tutorial). This time allow yourself to take your time with it, and when you encounter things that aren’t clear, come back here with specific questions. There’s lots of posters here that would be happy to help.
The thing about the tutorial, at least for me, is that you shouldn’t beat your head over anything that’s irrelevant to you at the time. You hit a section on something you don’t need or want to know? Skip it. When the day comes you do want to know that thing, you can go back and pick it up.
The main reason I check in here is to see references to things I never use, which helps me incorporate those I now find helpful.
When I started, I brought an old 3-chapter short story into Srivener and played with it a while. That gave me confidence, and I started my next novel in it.
That said, Gwen Hernandez did write a Scrivener for Dummies book, but it’s not for version 3, and I think is focused mainly on the Mac version. She does have online courses, but I don’t think I’d pay for something I couldn’t preview first. I guess you could check out some of her articles and see if they’re your cup of tea:
