The second book, written with Scrivener, took me only 200 hours. My first book, written solely with Microsoft Word, took me 550 hours to write. And its effectiveness showed in my productivity. Once I got the hang of it, though, I found that I loved how it was geared specifically toward writing books. It was completely different, and there was definitely a learning curve. It wasn't until my second book that I discovered Scrivener. Inevitably, I would forget to copy an important line of text that belonged with the section I was moving and the whole thing wouldn't make any sense.

Often as not, I would decide the section I just moved fit better where it first was, and I would have to go move it back. I had to scroll, scroll, scroll, highlight the section, click “cut,” scroll, scroll, scroll to the place I wanted to put it, paste, and then re-read the section to see if I liked it there. I was in the middle of the second draft, and I kept have to reorganize sections to see what would make the book flow best. In 2010, I was writing what would become my first book when I got to a point where Word became impossible. How Scrivener Saved Me 250 Hours Writing a Book Plus, check out our Top 10 Pieces of Software for Writers for more tools to help you write better and faster. In this post, we're going to look closely at two of the best pieces of book writing software: Microsoft Word and Scrivener, and talk about where each word processor shines and where each falls short. And especially when you're writing something as complicated as book, you might want a piece of writing software geared specifically toward writing a book.

Microsoft Word is the default word processor, but that doesn't mean it's the only option. There has to be a better piece of book writing software than Microsoft Word.” When you're writing a book, you might come to this point where exasperation turns to desperation and you think: “There has to be a better way.

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