When you buy Scrivener from our store, we’ll send you a licence key which will remove the time limit from the trial. If you bought from the Mac App Store, use the App Store to install Scrivener. Download Older Versions. Next, use Scrivener Reveal Support Folder to locate your Scrivener application support folder on both computers. Once you have the folder open quit Scrivener on both Macs. Copy the contents of the original support folder onto the new Mac, and into the same location. It might take a while to complete the transfer, particularly if you have not. Free download Scrivener Scrivener for Mac OS X. Scrivener is a project management and writing tool for writers of all kinds that stays with you from that first unformed idea all the way through to the first - or even final - draft. Scrivo Pro is more than an innovative, fast and reliable writing app designed for anyone who writes. This is a writing workspace for your iOS devices and a great Scrivener and Ulysses companion on your Mac or Windows computer. If you are a Scrivener 2 or Scrivener 3 user on your computer, Scrivo Pro will open your projects (binder and cork.
Scrivenertemplates will open up a whole new world of writing and allow your creativityto come alive. Some Scrivener templates are available directly through the Scrivener software,while others are created independently and must be imported.
Either way, you will be able to find alot of Scrivener templates that will help you through any writing project.
Why a template?
It saves you from reinventing the wheelwhich saves time and several other resources.
Scrivener offers you with several features whichare mostly customized. Your Scrivener experience can be as detailed or as minimalisticas you want it to be.
While a lot of writers prefer to simplyuse the basic bare-bones blank document, there are many other options thatdon’t get due attention. With that said, let’s dive into the Scrivenertemplates that will make writing easier and fun.
Default Scrivener Templates
Scriveneritself offers a few basic templates to help you get started immediately. That’sthe beauty of using book writing software. They keep you going right away.
Choose anappropriate template based on what you want to write, and you are all set. Hereis a list of default Scrivener templates that are available to everyone whodownloads it.
Fiction
If you are a fiction writer, Scrivener has three optionsfor you.
The basicnovel template provides a title page and compile settings for creating amanuscript using a standard novel submission format, or for exporting as an eBook.It includes places for character and location sketches as well as a researchfolder.
There is atemplate for novels having different parts. It is the same as the basic noveltemplate but allows the draft to be broken down into separate parts as well aschapters and scenes.
Lastly, youhave a shortstory template whichis similar to the novel template, but it includes proper formatting forstandard short story submission.
Nonfiction
Scrivener isn’t only for novelistsand fiction fanatics. Any form of writing can benefit from Scrivener and thisincludes nonfictionbooks as well asuniversity essays.
You will finda basic nonfiction manuscript template with in-chapter subheadings. You willalso find templates for research or thesis proposals and undergraduatehumanities essays. The essay template is based on one that is used at severalUK universities.
Script Writing
Scrivener includes a fewdifferent options for scriptwriters. For those who write for radio, you willfind templates for BBC radio “scene style” and tapeddrama.
It hastemplates for comic scripts, screenplays, and stage plays – both UK and USstage play structures are included.
Miscellaneous
Scriveneroffers templates for those who are writing a motivational or persuasive lecture,or a recipe collection.
The recipetemplate provides a cookbook/binder style to organize your cooking resources.It includes color coding and a rating system.
External Scrivener Templates
If none ofthe core Scrivener templates work for you, you can import your own templates. Thishas opened up a huge market for template creation and there are hundreds oftemplates out there to choose from.
You can find Scrivenertemplates for pretty much anything you think of:
- Genre-specific fiction
- Novel outlining and structure
- Scientific papers
- Blog posts
- Newspaper articles
- Research papers
- Brainstorming
That is justto name a few.
When findinga suitable Scrivener template, it is important to determine what type ofwriting you are doing and what will work best for you.
You mighthave to go through a few different templates before you find a structure that youwill love.
Scrivener Templates for Outlining
If you areplanning and outlining fanatic, you can find Scrivener templates that will helpyou get the job done swiftly.
K. M. Weiland’s Scrivener Template
StuartNorfolk and K. M. Weiland designed an incredibly detailed template that coversevery aspect of outlining you can imagine. It is arguably the most popular outliningtemplate out there.
It is basedon the principles she covered in two books she has written on outlining and structuringa novel.
You candownload this powerful and comprehensive template here.
Seven Point Plot Structure
Differenttypes and genres of novels will sometimes followslightly different story structures. If you want a good basic structure withseven points laid out to guide you through creating the major events of yourstory, then the seven-point plot structure template is your best bet.
Click here to download the template.
You will findseveral other templates. Feel free to download as many as you want. One of thebest templates is “Hero’s journey” structure which is a popular archetype infiction. Do download it.
Scrivener Templates for Novels
Scrivenerprovides a basic template for your novel project. If you need more noveltemplates, you will need to download them.
There aretons of novel templates available out there to choose from. These cater todifferent writing styles and preferences.
No Nonsense Novel Template
Herron created this template andI have to say that it is one of the best templates out there.
If you areserious about completing your novel from first draft to finished and then topublishing it, this is the template for you.
It includessections for research and notes and sections for character and settingsketches. It includes a place for storyboarding and has a nine-point outline tohelp you map out your plot.
It helps youcreate your sales copy and about the author sections which you willneed for publishing.
30 Chapter Novel Template
If you are abeginner and looking for a simple yet effective template, this is for you.
This template is rather basic in nature– it outlines a general 30 chapter novel for you. Of course, you are free totake your story in any direction, but it provides a good general guide.
It has customizeddocuments for each of the 30 different chapters, each with a general topic suchas introduction to main character and enemy or antagonist strikes. It makes iteasier for you to navigate the structure of a solid story.
You will finda lot of other novel templates, short story templates, story structuretemplates, and more.
Scrivener Templates for Short Stories
Scrivener is agreat tool for researching and completing your short fiction. Short stories areas meaningful and creative as a novel, so don’t hesitate to write short storieswith limited word count.
Scrivenerhave got you covered with its amazing templates.
The Anthology Template
There aredifferent types of writers. Some will come up with a couple of brilliantone-offs in their lifetime, while others are serial short story fanatics.
If you canrelate to the latter category, you can use Matt Gemmell’sapproach which issure to help you a lot with your short stories.
He used Scrivener to complete his anthology of short stories. You can read the complete process here. He explains how he began with the basic novel template provided by Scrivener and made some adjustments suitable for an anthology.
Though this is not a complete template available for download, he gives a detailed description of how he did it and the instructions are not difficult to follow. He does include a download at the end that provides the compile settings.
If you are wanting to get going a little faster, you can check out this short story template:
This template is ready to go and will help you craft your short story in the most effective way possible.
Scrivener Templates for Essays
Scrivener isa perfect bookwriting software that is of great help for students too.
Essays and research papers always include ample research, copious amounts of note-taking, and usually, several drafts. With its organization system and several features, Scrivener can assist you with the most complicated and in-depth projects.
If you’re astudent who wants to get started with Scrivener, try downloading some essaywriting templates and get started right away.
Essay Writing Template
This basic essaywriting template is a great way to get you started on any paper. With documents fordrafts and revisions, you can keep track of your editing as you go.
An additionalsection includes documents for your research and another section handles your notes.
Advanced Essay Template
If you are furtheralong in your schooling and are writing extremely long, in-depth, andwell-researched papers, there are helpful templates for you too.
WithScrivener’s powerful features, you can get that paper written in record timewithout sacrificing quality.
Hattem has outlined his processand experience writing a dissertation with Scrivener. He talks about what hedid and shares actionable tips that will help you replicate his technique likea pro.
Genre Specific Scrivener Templates
The beautifulthing about writing fiction is that you can pretty much do whatever you want.It’s your story in your world with your rules.
With thatbeing said novel structures exist for a reason. All stories follow some sort ofbasic structure and the same holds truefor certain genres.
Some avidScrivener users have taken it upon themselves to share their genre-specificoutlining process in the form of customized templates.
Murder Mystery
Mysterynovels are hard to write. They require a lot of planning. Every detail must bethought of and kept straight. If the outline is not organized and thorough,plot holes are going to pop up everywhere.
Murdermysteries take it up even another notch.
When donewell, a murder mystery is interesting, exciting, nail-biting, and intensely thrilling.But they are complicated to write.
JenniferMattern has sharedthe template she used to create a good murder mystery. It is a comprehensivetemplate that is well-thought and includes everything. You don’t have to do alot of tweaking. Download it and start writing immediately.
Romance
A romance novel can be fairly easy towrite or it can be very complex and detailed. It depends on what type ofromance you choose to write.
Romance isversatile as it can be interjected into almost any other genre and taken injust about any direction. The typical happy-ending romance is great butsometimes a romantic tragedy can be a breath of fresh air.
If you are aromance writer or want to give it a try, check out this basic romancetemplate by JamiGold. The template walks you through a basic novel outline/structure. Gold hasshared a lot of actionable tips along with detailed instructions on creating asuccessful romantic arc.
You are sure to love it.
If you're looking for something a little simpler or more linear, this one might be a good option:
This template walks you through each section of a romance novel. You are free to include as many chapters as you want or need within each section, depending on the length and style of your novel.
It allows you a lot of freedom while still offering solid guidance.
Non-Fiction
A non-fiction book can take any form.
You can writehow-to guides, self-help books, biographies, etc. You can choose creativenon-fiction which is a true story that is written in the same storytellingformat of a novel. There are tons of options available to choose from.
Writing anykind of non-fiction book requires just as much time, effort, research, and attentionto detail as a novel. You can seek help from book writing software along theway.
A goodnonfiction template for Scrivener is extremely helpful if you are interested inwriting an exceptional nonfiction piece.
Scrivener Download Mac
Read this article for a simple and easy formatting template. Lise Cartwright has explained everything in a step-by-step guide along with a video tutorial that will make your life a whole lot easier.
For something more general that you can fiddle with and customize to your own topic, this template is a great choice:
It offers help and guidance without being restrictive to one style or topic.
World Building Scrivener Template
A good chunkof awesome novels take place in the real world. They maintain real-lifesettings, real-life limitations, and real-life laws of physics.
Some novels,on the other hand, take place in another world. A world created by the author.
If you havedecided to write a story that takes place in a world/reality of your ownmaking, it is going to take a lot of hard work. You must decide on several thingssuch as:
- Rules
- Laws
- Physical limitations
- Social norms
- The economy
- Currencies
- Education systems
- Government
The list goeson.
Worldbuilding is an arduous task and it can be difficult to keep everythingstraight. Plus, you need several book writing software to help you throughoutthe process. But if you know how to do it with Scrivener, it will get easier.
Read thisamazing article by Amber on how to useScrivener for worldbuilding. It is a great tutorial with screenshots that willshow how you can create your own world easily in Scrivener without gettinglost.
The World Building Leviathan Template
This is anincredibly detailed and comprehensive world building method. It has several stepsand it covers all the necessary details and information that will help youbuild a complete world for your next novel.
BelindaCrawford has a free leviathan Scrivener world-building template that you candownload here.
Download Scrivener For Mac
It includes abasic layout to help you write your novel as you build the world. It has chapterand scene documents, and a place for ideas, references, and research.
It alsoincludes a “story bible” where you can store basic plot information as itrelates to your specific world – characters, groups/factions, major events,items, etc.
Lastly, itincludes an outline of the Leviathan method. There are 53 steps to buildingyour world. It may be a daunting process but once you get through it you’llhave everything you need.
You are sure to love this template.
Fantasy Template
World-building is often something that goes hand-in-hand with a fantasy novel. If you're looking to write fantasy but want a template that focuses more on the structure of the novel, this is a great one:
You can still achieve some world-building in here, but it's much simpler to follow and a little easier to understand.
Choose the Template you Love and Get Started
That’s allfolks.
Now that youhave access to numerous new templates that will aid you in your writing journey,it’s time to get cracking.
And thisdoesn’t end here. There are hundreds of other Scrivener templates that arewaiting to be explored. Find them.
Remember tolook for a few key elements when choosing a template:
- Organization
- Easy to understand
- Relevancy to your project
- Includes note-taking support
- Includes research support
If you can’t find one that works for you, try creating your own. There are endless options when it comes to creating a Scrivener template.
If you’re a writer seeking tools to help you with tasks such as research, organization, and formatting, you’ve probably heard of Scrivener, the writing software created by Literature and Latte. For quite a few years, Scrivener has been one of the leading and most comprehensive software suites made exclusively for writers. There have been several important updates over the years and the current version, Scrivener 3, is now available for Mac while Windows users can expect the update to be released shortly.
This review is designed for people who are new to Scrivener as well as anyone who has an older version and may not be familiar with the update. Whether you ultimately choose to use Scrivener or a competing product, you owe it to yourself to learn the various features and benefits of this renowned software product for writers.
Overview: What Can Scrivener Do For You?
Scrivener is a tool for serious writers. It helps you in a variety of ways.
- Helps you organize long writing projects such as novels, nonfiction books, academic papers, even scripts.
- Simplifies Editing is an essential part of any writing project. Scrivener has many tools to help you edit more efficiently whether it’s correcting simple errors or restructuring entire sections and chapters.
- Enhances o An outline helps you clarify your ideas and plan your manuscript. Scrivener’s system of folders and subfolders helps you arrange and rearrange the various parts of your writing project.
- Formatting for screenwriters. Without the right tools, you can end up spending half your time worrying about formatting. Scrivener lets you easily format your screenplay so you can focus on the essential elements -characters, dialogue, and action.
- Features for academic and nonfiction writers. If you’re creating a well-researched nonfiction book, thesis, or detailed report you have to make sure you have features such as footnotes, references, and a bibliography correctly formatted. Scrivener provides templates for writing in styles such as APA and MLA so you can focus on your writing.
- Helps you set goals and track your progress. Time is always a factor for writers. Scrivener helps you set goals and track your progress every step of the way.
- Tools for exporting and publishing. Scrivener integrates with many formats so you can export to Microsoft Word, Open Office, RTF Final Draft (for screenplays), PDF and more.
Unlike many more specialized writing products, Scrivener is designed to take you from your first draft to finished product, covering all of the steps in between. Writers of all styles and genres can choose among many tools to guide them throughout the process. Now let’s look in more detail at some of the leading features.
Editing Tools
If you’re serious about writing you can’t really separate writing from editing. Your ability to make changes, additions, and revisions really determine the quality of the final product. While software such as Word, Open Office, and even the most basic text editor or word processing tool gives you editing capabilities, Scrivener goes much further.
- Speech Feature (so far only for Mac) – One of the challenges of writing is that you don’t always know how dialogue and other passages sound. With the speech feature, you can literally hear how your writing sounds. This helps you catch errors as well as clunky sentences.
- Track Word Frequency – When you write long documents it’s easy to lose track of the words you use. The Text Statistics feature shows you how often words appear in your manuscript. If you catch yourself overusing certain words you can make substitutes.
- Color Coding – Color coding lets you label characters, points of view, topics, or anything that you need. You can color code icons such as flags or other labels to identify important features. For example, you might use different colors for different characters in a novel or screenplay.
- Split Screen – One important task you can’t perform with software such as Word is viewing your work in a split-screen format. Scrivener lets you choose between vertical or horizontal screen split and switch screens around as you wish. Why would you want to do this? Suppose you’re writing a complex novel with many characters that jumps back and forth in time. You can use a split-screen to view an earlier chapter dealing with a certain character/setting/time period while writing a current one to remind you of what was going on. Similarly, you can do this with nonfiction if you refer back to a topic from an earlier section.
What’s New in Scrivener 3?
If you’re using an earlier version of Scrivener you may be wondering if it’s worthwhile to upgrade to version 3. At this point, this is only an option for OS X, though Literature and Latte promises that the Windows upgrade is coming soon.
- Improved User Interface – Some users have complained that Scrivener isn’t as user-friendly as it could be. The creators have listened and made some notable adjustments. The Quick Search tool makes it easier to find documents.
- Bookmarking – One of the most useful new features is Bookmarks, which replaces the old Project Notes and References & Favorites to give users easy access to frequently used documents. You have the ability to bookmark items anywhere on your computer or online not only those you’ve saved in Scrivener.
- Tracking – New progress bars for drafts and sessions makes it easier to track your progress. There’s also Writing Statistics, which lets you find out if you’re meeting your daily or hourly word count. You can also track other metrics such as paragraph length and word frequency.
- Updated Compile Tool – This feature lets you combine multiple sections into a single document. This has many uses such as combining the best sections of several drafts. You can also use it to compile difference scenes in a novel or screenplay. The new Compiler is both more flexible and easier to use.
- Easier Formatting – Using Styles, you can more quickly change features such as fonts, headings, block text, and titles.
- Metadata – This feature lets you add dates, lists, checkboxes, and other data to help you keep track of important issues. If you’re writing a section for a report, for example, you might add a checkbox such as “Add Footnotes” or “Explain this character’s backstory” for your novel.
- EPub Compatibility – Simplifies self-publishing as you can export documents into Kindle EPub3 format.
When you first download the software, you’ll want to spend some time consulting the very thorough video tutorials. This is quite substantial so, unless you’re very ambitious, you probably won’t want to tackle it all in one sitting.
The best way to start using Scrivener, once you’ve browsed around a little and studied the tutorial, is to actually start writing. Then, if you encounter difficulties, you can watch a tutorial on that topic. The following are some of the steps and features that can help elevate your writing.
Choose a Template
Unless you’re only writing for yourself, you need to create documents in a specific format. In some cases, such as submitting an academic paper or screenplay, the wrong format will instantly disqualify your work no matter how good the writing is. Scrivener gives you many options for templates.
The template you choose will depend on what kind of document you’re creating such as an article, short story, novel, blog, term paper, or screenplay. If you’re writing a script, you can also choose more specialized templates for genres such as stage plays, documentaries, comic books, and even BBC radio and TV format. When you start a project, remember to give it a relevant and memorable file name so you don’t lose track of it.
Customize Settings
There are many customizable components in Scrivener. Among the most important are editor settings. In the Editor, you can set your preferences for elements such as hide/show ruler or format bar or turn on Page View. You can also set up Full-Screen mode, which makes your document the whole screen and blocks out the rest of your desktop.
If you want to block out distractions as much as possible, choose Composition Mode, which always displays what you’re typing in the center of the screen. Most likely, you’ll want to experiment with different settings to find the ones that you prefer.
Folders and Binders
Folders in Scrivener perform a similar function to folders in other software programs. You use them to store important information such as a list of your characters, topics for your book, or anything that you need. All of these folders for any project combine to form a binder.
Just like a traditional binder, the Binder in Scrivener stores all the folders you create for any project. Depending on the nature of your document, a binder might consist of book chapters, movie scenes, or topics for a report.
Using Scrivener For Research
Research plays a big role in challenging writing projects such as novels, nonfiction books, academic works, and technical articles. When you use a traditional tool such as Word for writing, you usually have to keep the research separate from the main document. This isn’t the case with Scrivener. We’ve already mentioned how projects are made up of folders and binders. Your research will be included in a binder, making it easy to access.
The Corkboard view is especially useful for research. It shows you, at a glance, what you’ve gathered and what you may still need to do. You can use this index card format to show you any type of material, from scientific formulae to the names of characters in your novel. Another useful research tool is the Split Screen view. One way to use this is to have your document on one side of the screen and your research on the other. Once again, you can display the two screens either horizontally or vertically.
Still another way Scrivener helps with research is the new Bookmark feature, which gives you easy access to content that’s elsewhere on your computer or on the web. Thus, while working on your manuscript you can bring up a relevant website or file on your computer that has the information you need.
Compiling
As mentioned, Compiling is one of Scrivener’s more challenging aspects that’s been updated in the latest version. The Compiler lets you combine parts of your manuscript that may be formatted differently such as the title page, preface, table of contents, and chapters of a book.
One of the most efficient compiling tools is Collections. You create Collections using any criteria you want. This allows you to reorder material in your manuscript by dropping and dragging folders into a new Collection. For example, suppose you’re writing a book or long article and decide you want to put everything related to a certain topic, which could be “European travel,” “Nutrition,” “SEO Tips,” “19th Century Art” or anything else together into a new section. You create a Collection out of this material and compile it the way you want.
Corkboard
The Corkboard is an outlining tool that performs a similar function as a standard cork or bulletin board. Corkboard view lets you see all of your documents as note or index cards. This is a powerful visual tool that gives you a broad perspective on your document and may suggest changes you want to make such as adding, deleting, or rearranging sections.
For example, you may have two notecards, each representing a chapter in your book. You may decide that you need another chapter in between to clarify the story. You can then add another notecard to your Corkboard. This feature is also good for helping you decide where to put different sections or chapters. Looking at notecards, you might decide to reverse the order of two sections for clarity. The Corkboard is a visual tool, so it helps that you can customize it. You can adjust the size and appearance of notecards to your preference.
Scrivener Pros and Cons
As valuable as Scrivener is, every software has its drawbacks. Let’s look at the leading pros and cons of Scrivener. Some of these, of course, are subjective and your own experience will depend on your needs and preferences.
Pros
- Comprehensive writing software guides you for virtually any type of writing project. Once you have Scrivener, you won’t need separate programs for screenwriting, academic writing, or blogging.
- Reasonable, one-time fee is cheaper than many competing products. There’s also a free trial.
- Many features are highly customizable.
Cons
- Not compatible with all operating systems. You need Windows 7 or later or Mac X. As of now, Scrivener 3 for Windows is not yet available.
- Doesn’t have a dedicated dictionary or thesaurus. There is a spelling and grammar checker but these are fairly basic. However, you can now find many resources for these for free online (e.g. Thesaurus.com and the free version of Grammarly, the Hemingway app, etc.).
- Learning curve. You need to learn the terminology (e.g. folders, binders, compiling, etc.) and put in some time to be able to benefit from the software.
Operating Systems and Costs
Scrivener 3 is currently available for Mac OS. As of this writing, the Windows version of this update is not yet ready (but it should be released any day as it was promised in early 2018). However, if you buy the current version for Windows, you’ll be able to get a free update when Version 3 for Windows is released.
Scrivener offers a 30-day free trial to let you explore the features and find out if it’s right for you. The full version for Windows or Mac OS costs $45. There’s an educational license for students and academics for $38.25. You can buy a bundled package (Windows + Mac OS) for $75. The iOS app is $19.99. If you’re an existing Scrivener 1 user for Windows or If you’re a Mac user with an older version you can upgrade to Version 3 for $25.
Considering everything that you can do with this software and comparing it to the competition, Scrivener provides solid value. As noted, several spelling/grammar checkers are more expensive. Final Draft, the leading screenwriting software for Mac costs $299. Another popular tool for fiction writers, Writer’s Blocks, charges $149. Considering that none of these tools offers nearly the number of features as Scrivener does, you can appreciate that the one-time fee of $45 is a great value.
Why Use Scrivener?
Some writers why they need a product like Scrivener when they can edit with Word or Open Office and perhaps use an additional tool such as Grammarly for spelling and grammar. The fact is, there aren’t many comprehensive writing products on the market. Scrivener does far more than a word processor or spelling/grammar checker (it’s also worth noting that the paid version of Grammarly is significantly more expensive than Scrivener).
Scrivener helps you with every stage of the writing process including research, editing, organization, formatting, and exporting. If you’re like many users, you might feel a bit overwhelmed when you first start using Scrivener. In fact, there are even courses dedicated to making Scrivener easier to use. Fortunately, the program is getting more user-friendly with each update. Nonetheless, with so many features that there’s definitely a learning curve.
Scrivener is the kind of tool that becomes more valuable the more you use it. At first, the time it takes to figure everything out negates some of the efficiency. As you learn how to do things like use bookmarks, use folder, look up word alternatives, view split screens, and lots more, you’ll start to notice how the product improves your writing.
The main caveat for using Scrivener is that you do have to put in the effort to learn it. Otherwise, you risk being one of the many buyers who get frustrated and leave it on their computer or phone unused. If you do take the time to learn it, however, you’ll soon wonder how you survived so long without it!