Scrivener is a long-form writing application that organises a manuscript into movable sections, combining a binder-style document tree, planning boards, research storage, and flexible export so novelists, screenwriters, and researchers can draft and restructure a project in one place.
Scrivener is a writing application designed for long projects, where a manuscript is broken into sections that can be written in any order and rearranged at will. Everything lives inside a single project file: draft text sits in a binder-style tree alongside character sheets, research images, PDFs, and imported web pages, so background material stays one click away. Scrivenings mode lets you edit one scene alone or the whole chapter as continuous text, while the corkboard and outliner give an overview for restructuring. When the draft is ready, the compile step assembles the sections into a single formatted document. The value is simple: structure that grows with the project instead of fighting it.
Planning tools cover both approaches to drafting: index cards on the corkboard can be arranged in columns to track storylines, and rearranging them reorders the manuscript itself, while the outliner shows synopses, word counts, labels, status, and custom metadata in resizable columns. Sections can also be gathered into collections, including smart collections that update automatically, so revisions, flashbacks, or viewpoint scenes can be pulled together temporarily without disturbing the binder. Tools like these reward writers who keep many threads of a project in view at once, the same way a utility such as 1Password CLI rewards people who keep many accounts organised in a single controlled place.
The core benefit of Scrivener is that structure and drafting stop competing. Sections can be written out of order in whatever size suits the scene, then dragged into the right sequence without cutting and pasting through a hundred pages of text. Because research, notes, and reference images live in the same project as the draft, checking a detail no longer means leaving the writing application or losing the thread. Snapshots and a compare view make bold revisions safe, since an earlier version of any section can be restored after a rewrite, and automatic saving with scheduled backups removes the low-level fear of losing work. Targets and writing history turn vague ambition into daily numbers, and metadata, labels, and status fields make progress visible at a glance. The compile stage rounds it out: write under comfortable settings and still produce output formatted for submission guidelines, a proofreading copy, or an ebook.
Key capabilities and highlights.
The binder holds every part of a project in a single resizable tree: draft sections, folders, character and location sheets, research files, images, PDFs, and imported web pages. Sections can be nested and reordered by dragging, and splitting or merging documents takes one step, so the manuscript's structure stays as flexible as the thinking behind it.
Individual sections can be edited alone or stitched together into continuous text with a single selection, which suits writers who draft scene by scene but need to read a chapter or an entire draft as flowing prose. Notes and highlights stay attached to their own sections, so context is never lost when swapping between views.
Every section carries a virtual index card holding its synopsis, and the corkboard arranges those cards as a planning board. Moving or restacking a card at the same time reorders the corresponding manuscript section, and cards can be placed along labelled lines or freely positioned to map storylines and thematic arcs.
The outliner presents the project as a table with synopses, word counts, labels, status, and custom metadata fields in columns that can be resized, reordered, or replaced with your own. Sorting and filtering by those fields makes it quick to see which chapters are drafted, unfinished, or waiting for revision.
Reference material such as images, PDF documents, audio, video, and web pages can be imported into the project and viewed beside the draft, with the editor split into as many as four panes. An interview can be transcribed while it plays, or a description written while looking at the photograph it describes.
Word and character targets can be set for the whole manuscript, for individual sections, or for the current writing session, with progress tracked as you type. The writing history records how much was produced each day, turning an abstract goal like finishing a draft into measurable daily output.
A snapshot captures the state of a section before a risky rewrite and can be restored at any time, while a compare view highlights exactly what changed. Projects are also saved while you work and can be backed up automatically when opened or closed, so a poor editing session is recoverable rather than final.
The compile step assembles selected sections into one finished document and applies formatting during export rather than during writing, so a preferred drafting font can coexist with submission requirements. Output can be produced as a word-processing file, rich text, PDF, ebook, or screenplay format, and markup workflows are supported for more technical typesetting.
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Common questions about Scrivener.
It is built for long-form projects such as novels, theses, non-fiction books, screenplays, and research papers, where a manuscript is too large to manage comfortably as one continuous file. It keeps draft sections, planning notes, and research together in a single project and assembles them at the end.
A word processor treats a document as one continuous page stream. Scrivener splits a project into sections of any size, so text can be written out of order, reorganised by dragging, and viewed as an outline or planning board. Formatting is applied mainly when the draft is compiled for export.
Yes, and that is a core part of the design. Sections can be created and written in any sequence, then reordered later in the binder, corkboard, or outliner. Because rearranging changes the actual project order, no cutting and pasting is needed to move a chapter to a new position.
Yes. Images, PDF documents, audio, video, web pages, and imported text files can all be kept inside the project, opened beside the draft in a split editor, and consulted while writing. This keeps source material in the same place as the manuscript instead of scattered across folders.
Yes. Snapshots save the current state of a selected section before editing, and any snapshot can be restored later. A compare view shows the differences between the snapshot and the current text, which makes it safe to attempt a large rewrite and then judge whether it improved the work.
Yes. Scriptwriting features handle industry formatting conventions, and scripts can be exported in Final Draft format with script notes preserved. For non-fiction and academic work, footnote support and ready-made templates for common citation styles such as MLA and APA are included.
The compile function gathers selected sections into one file and applies the formatting chosen for that output, including headers, page setup, and front matter. Formats available include word-processing documents, rich text, PDF, ebook files, and screenplay format.
Yes. Targets can be set for the manuscript, an individual section, or the current session, and word and character counts update as you write. The writing history tracks output day by day, so progress toward a deadline is visible rather than estimated.
Scrivener is a long-form writing application that organises a manuscript into movable sections, combining a binder-style document tree, planning boards, research storage, and flexible export so novelists, screenwriters, and researchers can draft and restructure a project in one place.
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