Scrivener App Review (2024)

Best Features, Pricing, Alternatives & Verdict

Scrivener is a very advanced writing tool to help you plan and write your first draft piece. This could be a novel, a screenplay, or anything else.

What is Scrivener?

Scrivener is a writing application used for book writing, screenplays & long-form writing.

A studio for your mind | A place to make sense of the world and create amazing things.

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Best For

Note-Taking PKM Idea Gen

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It's free. No credit card required.

What does Scrivener do?

Scrivener is a super detailed writing tool to help users create any piece of writing. It's more advanced than using something like Microsoft Word because you can have space to plan, use templates, create sections, and really write an entire first draft however you would like.

Scrivener is for those who want an advanced tool that has everything they need for editing, writing, planning, and more all in one place. This is a more advanced tool that does take some learning and getting used to, it also is more costly than say using another writing tool.

Scrivener Pros

Here are some of Scrivener's best features for writing.

• Write the parts you want - You don't have to write your draft in order, you can create sections to write different chapters if you need to change something. Easily go into different sections of your draft to edit and change.
• Character building - Create profiles for the different characters you want to have in your book, this helps you make sure you stay on track with the character's personality and behavior by checking what you have written.
• Split the screen - See your research alongside your writing by splitting the screen. This means you don't have to keep switching screens and can stay in the flow of writing.
• Share - When your writing is finished you can get it ready for publishing, sharing, exporting, and more. You can edit the writing to fulfill certain formatting needs if you are choosing to publish.

Scrivener Cons

So what are the cons of using Scrivener?

• Learning - There is quite a bit of learning that goes into fully understanding the use of Scrivener, the tool can feel overwhelming with all of its abilities, folders, and sections.
• Complicated formatting - Likewise with learning how to use Scrivener, the format editing for publishing can be difficult to understand and use.
• No collaboration - There are no collaboration abilities with Scrivener, you can only use this app as a single user.

A studio for your mind | A place to make sense of the world and create amazing things.

Try for free Try for free

Best For

Note-Taking PKM Idea Gen

See all use cases

It's free. No credit card required.

Verdict: Is Scrivener Worth It?

Scrivener is one of the most detailed writing applications on the market. It is used by scriptwriters, screenplay writers, and even those who are writing books.

The application isn't going to be particularly decent if you're not an experienced writer, as there are so many features that are great for long-form writing, but probably not suitable for those who are writing something that they might use as a one-time experience or a small, shorter form of content.

We'd recommend taking a look at Scrivener if you're using it to draft, edit, and format long-form content, and you like all of the features it has in terms of modifying in the long-form fashion. This won't be a good tool if you're looking for a note-taking application.