Build A Better Mousetrap

The easiest part of the whole being-an-author process so far has been actually writing the books.  People have asked me how I can just sit down and plunk away at the keyboard and come up with a book.  For me, it's not too tough, especially since I'm focusing on silly fantasy adventure stories.  In that sort of world, anything is possible, so I don't have to worry too much about reality.  I just unhinge my brain and let the goofiest oddities bubble to the surface and call it a day.

So what's difficult?  Editing and (of course) selling/marketing the book.  But put aside the latter for the moment.  That's always going to be hard and I don't know that there's much any of us can do to make it easier, other than becoming the next J. K. Rowling.

That leaves editing.  Typesetting.  Pushing and shoving all those words around.  Being a little bit cheap about such things and a little bit strapped for cash, I'm using OpenOffice to write.  It's free.  It's pretty much Word, which Microsoft doesn't even support anymore for the Mac.  It does all I need it to do, right? Well, sure, but so does a printing press from the 1800's, but I'm not about to handset all that type.

I've always hated Word.  As far as software has come, why is word-processing software still such a pain? I shouldn't have to have a master's degree in Word to be able to type on my computer.  It feels like they've just been layering on new features since the original release and the software has become this big tangled mess of confusion.  I wrestled so much with headers and footers in my first book that I was ready to throw the computer across the room.

It shouldn't be this hard.

So I admit to being really interested in Scrivener.  Saw an article about it online and checked out its features on the website.  I'm tempted.  I truly am.  Someone made some software considering ease of use and practicality?  Unheard of!  Just the mention of features that get you around scrolling and scrolling through your work make me salivate.  I just may have to try it for book #3.

Has anybody used this?  Anybody have any reports?  I'd love to hear.