I have started to really look at what I have and what I need, also looking to cut cost where I can. Most apps or software now involve paying into a subscription. One place I probably don’t need to do this is in the software I use to write stories.
There are many free apps online you can use if you are looking for an app to use yourself. I eliminated many of these as an option for me due to how many times I would likely be working without internet. I have used an app or two, which claims to work offline, but they didn’t. I couldn’t get into my draft. Part of the issue was maybe that I didn’t know how to access the offline version, since it’s a web app and didn’t have a save feature to save to my computer.
My main two, criteria for the software are one, it needs a one-time payment option; and two, it needs to be available offline. This greatly reduced the number of options. I started with Campfire and Scrivener as these were the only two options I could find to meet this criteria. I’m not saying I reviewed all apps or software options, but of those I was able to find to then eliminate those not meeting these criteria, I was left with Campfire and Scrivener.
These are both fairly popular software options. I also previously used Scrivener. I left due to an error happening with the license I had purchased being forgotten and then I was unable to recover it. I had initially purchased for Mac, but then switched my computer back to a Windows laptop so purchased the Windows version of the program. One day it was asking for my license to get in, but when I tried to recover the license, it kept finding the license for the Mac version which of course wouldn’t work on Windows. Determined not to pay yet again for the program I moved on and tried other programs and software. Why am I giving Scrivener another chance? Because it’s also part my fault I lost the license. I used the same email, and didn’t save off the license code or at least not in a place I could find again.
I gave both Scrivener and Campfire a hard look. There are some similarities as they both have a section for research, character mapping, setting maps, you can upload images if you have an actual map of your world or what you are using to picture your characters, their differences are in how each of these sections work.
Campfire is more modular, both in terms of sections for your use like religion or magic, and in terms of within those sections having blocks.
Scrivener isn’t so modular until you get into the corkboard view when you are laying out your scenes.
Both also have a typewriter mode where your typing will be in the middle of the screen instead of constantly jumping as you type more and words move further down the screen and it jumps to keep what you are doing on the screen. When I tried this, Scrivener worked better. In Campfire the screen jumped and I had to find the words again. This may have been better if I had more words to begin with, but Scrivener didn’t jump when it had the same amount. I literally copied what I started with from Campfire to Scrivener before beginning trying this mode. Either way, this is not something that is important for me so didn’t really sway my decision.
What probably was the deciding factors were the cost, and plotting features. Scrivener is a straight up $59.99 where Campfire will cost per module. With Campfire you get so much of each section free, and then once your limit is reached you need to start paying either a subscription, or lifetime price to remove the limit. The manuscript section for example, is limited to 25,000 words. When writing an Epic Fantasy, you will likely need to pay for at least the manuscript section and maybe one or two other sections at least. If you have to do this, it will cost more than Scrivener.
Also, I feel Scrivener works better with how my brain works. When trying to edit some of the blocks and move them around in Campfire, I could not get them so they were even and “looked pretty”. Kind of like needing a clean desk before starting something, I felt those blocks needed to be a certain way before I could move on which was a major drain on my time.
Additionally, Scrivener is already offline, where Campfire, your work isn’t saved or backed up until you are online and it can sync with the cloud storage. I also ran into a problem when I took my laptop outside, not realizing I was specifically online, and the sudden loss of internet since my wifi couldn’t reach me outside, Campfire would not load my project. Couldn’t even get back to the Dashboard. Additional play by manually turning my wifi on and off on my laptop, gave the same results over and over. This would be a problem for me since we loose power here somewhat often. Meaning I wouldn’t have time or warning necessarily to go out to the Dashboard and change to offline if I’m online, nor would I necessarily think to do this as I would be focused on the story I am writing.
I will be using the rest of my trial version in case I find something else I would like to test or something happens and the search starts over. But this means I will very likely be using Scrivener going forward to write my stories, and hopefully get them to the end. I am participating in Kate Cavanaugh’s write 100,000 words in Q4 challenge; since I will not be participating in NaNoWriMo.
