Intro and Asking for Tips

Scrivener Newcomer Central
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Hello everyone. Let me briefly introduce myself before I start asking questions. :slight_smile:

I am a high school American Lit teacher, and a graduate student in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. My undergraduate background is in Philosophy. My interests include phenomenology, Gestalt therapy, existential psychology, literary and critical theory, qualitative research, affect studies, subjectivity and theories of the self and all things related to these topics. These are the things I write about and the reason I got Scrivener (and Scapple, which I haven’t “unboxed” yet).

I haven’t written a word in Scrivener yet. From the moment I found out that you could change themes and even create your own I have been busy playing around with it to create my own space. As an aside - in the process of doing so I have learned that the aesthetic I have been into for a long time is apparently now known as dark academia :books: :open_book: :nerd_face:

I have envisioned using Scrivener in an atypical way and came to the forum to ask around for advice and tips. I want to use it as the central hub for all of my studies. I was thinking about having a single project wherein I keep all my notes and research so that I can always quickly cross-reference things, and from which I can pull to write the actual papers (and eventually dissertation) that I will have to work on. So far what I have is of course the single draft/manuscript, under which I have folders for the array of topics and/or authors whom I may study. I started with a fresh, blank project because I found the APA pre-formatted one confusing - most likely because I don’t fully grasp the compiling feature/process just yet. But as I gather all my research here, including entering many essays I have already written, I was thinking I could also work on future research here as well, using the compile to export a variety of essays all from the same original project just based on whatever I need to select for that particular essay.

So that gives you all an idea of what I have had in mind. Where my nonfiction authors at? Ya’ll got any pointers?

Thanks :slight_smile:

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Hi.

One thing that perhaps you don’t already know and that might very well turn out to be useful in your case is the ability to have two projects side by side and drag documents from a binder to the other. (It clones them documents.)
I am a fiction writer, and similarly to you, use a “master project” where I write all my new story ideas as they come.
Once I decide to turn an idea into a novel or short story, I create its new project from a template of mine, and I drag whatever I have so far concerning the said idea to the new project.
Simple as that. My work never got interrupted.

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Scrivener is designed as primarily a writing tool. While it has very capable research features, it does not attempt to replace purpose-built database tools.

Personally, I use Scrivener side by side with DevonThink, and find the two complement each other very well.

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I am not sure whether to thank you or to curse you for sending me down a whole 'nother rabbit hole - Obsidian. I use Windows but when I looked up DevonThink I learned about Obsidian ^.^

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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I find scrivener to be excellent for data organization. I have a scrivener learning project, several on writing. I also love document bookmarks so if writing an article or part of a dissertation, you can have all the research files attached to the document and view in the inspector or open as a floating quick reference panel. You can create collection of documents based on search criteria or build as you add information. I have a group of articles on metadata and collections on my website. There is a search bar on the first page.
Before you go too far develop a backup strategy to prevent losing your work . ( I have articles on that too.)

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