Reviews || Writing books and products.

Ever since Scrivener reached 1.0 and went on sale, it has been getting rave reviews all over the web. I figured it's long past time I wrote up a bit of a formal review, as I've been using it since the early beta days in November of 2005, and recommending it to everybody, everywhere.

Scrivener is a writer's program for Mac OS X. It costs $35 US, and worth every penny. It's deliberately priced lower than most programs that aim for the same market, because it's intended to be affordable to those who don't (yet!) make money from their writing as well as those who do.

Since there's no way I could list all of its features here, and since that would be silly anyway, I'll just talk about what I particularly like about it, and how it works for me.

Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig is a clear look at copyright law, how technology is affecting it both technically and in people's perceptions, the current trend in legal responses to the technology, and how it affects the artists and authors in the world. Lessig is uniquely qualified to write such a book, because he is a professor of law, a computer geek, an author, and an activist in the field of copyright and creativity.

The book is of necessity extremely focused on U.S. copyright law, and U.S. legal history (and British legal history before that), since that is the legal system Lessig works with. The U.S. is also where many of the high-profile copyright lawsuits are taking place. Given the influence of the U.S. on other countries, however, I was very interested, even as a Canadian, to read this book. If nothing else, it can be taken as a warning to other countries.

This review is primarily intended to inform us as authors about the state of copyright, since there is a lot of misinformation about copyright law available, whether posted intentionally or not.

Why do we need editors?

Well, if you're like the vast majority of writers, there are many reasons. We are too close to our work; even when called for, it is extremely difficult to "murder your darlings." Revision is necessary, no matter who you are; whether your first drafts are rough or smooth, they can always be improved.

"Getting the Words Right: how to rewrite, edit, and revise" is about making the good better.