Using Scrivener to Write Posts for Steemit.com

I have a love/hate relationship with Scrivener. There are some things about it that I love, and some that drive me absolutely insane. After reading about how wonderful it is for writing novels, I finally purchased the Windows version. While I didn't hate it, I wasn't nuts about it either. I have come to appreciate it more but it wasn't until I was looking for a good way to manage my posts for Steemit.com that I realized what a fantastic tool it is for managing blog posts.

The idea came to me when I decided to start tracking my posts to my Steemit blog. I didn’t want to wait until I had done a few dozen posts before organizing them. So here is what I did:

I created a new project and added my posts to it
I created text files for each of my existing posts
I created two folders, one for October 2016, and a second, WIP, for works in progress.

Now when I want to start a new document, I add a text file to the WIP folder. When I'm done with it, I will publish it, and then move it into the October 2016 folder.

So far, this is all manual stuff. What I was hoping to do is edit in Scrivener and use WYSIWYG formatting, then compile the document to Markdown. Scrivener has this ability and I became really excited by the notion. I started by buying the iPad version of Scrivener and signing up for a DropBox account. Now I can edit on my iPad and then edit and publish the same project on my computer. Here is a screenshot of the iPad version of Scrivener.

Being able to apply WYSIWYG formatting and then generate Markdown is, as Martha Stuart says, “a good thing.” And it would a truly wonderful thing if Scrivener actually produced good markdown. Unfortunately, the Markdown produced by Scrivener is not even close to what I want. I read several articles that claim that Scrivener is perfect for generating Markdown but I just don’t see it. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, although after 30+ years of using all kinds of programs, I doubt it.

If I can figure out a better way to produce the results I want, I will report on how I accomplished it, but in the meantime, I guess I will be writing directly in Markdown and then doing a copy past from the text file in Scrivener. That was a disappointment.

I made the decision to use Scrivener with my Steemit posts, despite the problems, for the following reasons:

• I wanted a way to keep track of my posts. I read a book called How to Blog a Book, by Nina Amir and thought I might try it with my Steemit posts.
• I assign myself a daily word count goal. I try to write 2,000 words a day. Yes, I could do that with Microsoft Word but it doesn't work and play well with text-only formats.
• The ability to attach notes to my posts allows me to track stuff like when I posted a piece, what tags I used, and how much it earned.

There are a few other things about Scrivener that I’m not crazy about.

Scrivener is not Intuitive.

In fact, sometimes it seems as though it does everything it can to be unintuitive. For example, in the image below, would you think of clicking on the small, blue A in order to select a font name? And what does 1.0x do? Turns out it sets line spacing, but there’s nothing to indicate that.

Once you have defined the “default font” for your text, you have to apply it to all of the existing text files in your project. In every project, on every computer on which you have Scrivener installed. And the only wway to perform the updates is to select all of your files in the Binder (the list of files on the left of the screen) and then select Documents/Convert/Formatting to Default Text Style… to do the conversion. Of course, that will also convert all of your headings to default text as well, so now you have to go through and change all of the heading fonts.

This applies to every version of Scrivener, and it makes the program more difficult to use. Although there is a dropdown in the toolbar to allow you to select predefined styles, the program does not indicate what style you applied to the text you are editing. Why have styles if you can’t tell which one you have chosen? Once you apply a style, there is absolutely no indication of what style has been applied. In fact, Scrivener doesn’t work well with styles at all.

The iOS Version is Limited

I can’t access the document information as I can with the Windows version so I can’t change document status or add notes to it easily when I’m editing on the iPad. Then again, Scrivener is not the only application that has a more limited version for the iPad/iPhone. Microsoft Word on the iPad is extremely limited.

It is difficult to move files around when working on the iPad. On the other hand, it is very easy to do so when you are working in the Windows version.

Scrivener’s Compiled Output isn’t Particularly Good

The biggest complaint that I have about Scrivener, I mentioned before. If I was using Scrivener to created manuscripts, I would have to do a lot of manual editing of the output file. The documents it generates with its Compile command just aren’t very good. On the other hand, when I’m writing directly in Markdown and then performing a cut/paste to post to Steemit, that isn’t a real problem.

Will I continue to use Scrivener to write my posts? For now. I’m beginning to think that the best solution to this problem would be to roll my own blog post manager.

What do you use to write your Steemit posts?

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Who is Irene P. Smith? I am an author, programmer, and web designer. A former Contributing Editor to PC Techniques Magazine, I have written about computers and programming since 1989, and began publishing fiction in 2003. My home is in New York State, along the Delaware River, where I live with my husband and son.

You can also find me elsewhere on the web:

• My "other" blog: An Irene Thing
• My Author's Website: irenepsmith.com
• My Professional Website: irenesmith.com
• Facebook: IrenePSmithAuthor
• Twitter: @Story_Teller

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