I'm looking for some software to try and organise my writing a bit better. At present I am simply writing in Word and adding bits in here and there when I need to but am hoping to find something that makes it easier.
I've read a review of Scrivener and it seems great but wanted to know if anyone has experience of it. Any other software recommendations greatly appreciated as well.
Yes, I used it to put up some shelves.
Sara, I use Scrivener. The first great thing about it is that you can try a full version of it on an existing project, absolutely free, for a month. If you don't get on with it, you don't need to buy it - and you don't lose the work you've done, because you back it up as zip files to your computer or Dropbox or wherever. You can import Word files easily.
You can, if you subscribe, download the programme onto three separate machines at your address - desktop, laptop, tablet - so you can always work on your novel wherever you are - all in the one subscription.
Scrivener can be as complicated or as simple as you like - rather like a washing machine, where you only ever use 4 of the 27 programmes. It comes with an on-screen tutorial, which I advise you to work through carefully, and make notes as you go. You can go back to this at any time. It is really learning on the hoof, but it uses terms that you may not at present apply to your work - binder, for instance. When I worked in Word I didn't envisage my novel as pages in a binder - it was on a screen after all.
You can add notes, character lists, pictures, all of it on the same screen if you want, but not in the novel itself. You can look at each page individually, or each section of a chapter, or you can have it as a scrolling page that lets you read through all of it in one go.
Worth a try - and if you don't like it, you have lost nothing.