Scrivener vs. Focus Writer
This may be a wild take, but hear me out.
I've got Scrivener for a while now, I do know how to use most of its fancy features and it does not scare me (anymore). But the longer I analyzed my writing process, the more I realized that
Scrivener just doesn't work for me
It is meant to be a software supporting writers, enabling them to keep all the research, planning, outlining and character development in one place, which is nice.
Seems to be nice. But to me personally is also
I fiddle with the theme, I color-code the outline cards, I change the font almost every two weeks because it suddenly feels off and then it's inconsistent across the files and it drives me crazy, even through it's one of the Scrivener's feature that it doesn't matter. But it does drive me crazy, so I just fiddle with it more and more. There are so many things that can be fitted just to my liking that I just keep changing everything all the time because I just never seem to like it. And in the end it triggers my anxiety, because I just spent an hour on my writing without doing any actual writing. Maddening.
a program that is at the opposite end of the spectrum
if Scrivener has everything, Focus Writer has nothing
but guys, after seeing my word count skyrocket for the past few weeks, let me tell you
The things that may annoy others but that I grew to love:
the typewriter sounds - they make me feel like a writer and set the rhythm and atmosphere
tick-tick tick-tick-tick tick-tick-tick-tick-tick
the little percentage bar at the bottom that shows my daily progress (depending on the set daily goal)
counting the words from all the open projects together into the daily goal (so I don't set the goals for a project, I set the goal for my daily writing)
the little summary of the written scenes on the right side
the fact that it has everything I need and not a thing more
In short: I recommend Focus Writer because I noticed that it truly works wonders for me.
It may not be perfect for editing (in fact, I'll probably edit through Word or Scrivener in the end), but it is perfect for getting those words on the page.
Here's where you can download it for Windows and Linux and I'm not entirely certain where I downloaded it for Mac (the page I linked to says it's not available for Mac, but don't believe it and google /FocusWriter for Mac/ since I know for a fact that it can be installed and used there too).
If you're curious about my Focus Writer Theme*, let me know - I'll share the details in another post.
*yes, I did not stay with the defaults for long
