Last year Tim F. turned us on to a little software program for Mac novelists. The software, Scrivener, cost a whopping thirty bucks but boy, does it pack a wallop. I’ve been using it to try and get my novel under control. All those scenes that exist for themselves all those beautiful and brilliant sentences you know will never find a home, all those errant directions you think the characters should head...in Scrivener, each idea or fragment gets put in a folder so you can find it in an instant. (Frankly, I liked it better when I could blame the computer for my mixed up mind!)

Turns out the NYTimes Virginia Heffernan has discovered this fantastic program. She wrote about it in Sunday’s paper, along with a couple other programs she test drove.

Recently, in the Novelists Roundtable, we spent some time talking about software and how it can help. And I do believe it can. But at the end of the day, it’s still about facing down the blank page and filling it with imagination.

Ironically, as much as I love Scrivener, I’ve recently begun putting together all the pieces of the novel I think still belong into a Word document. Word may be overwrought and completely annoying, but sometimes that clean white screen is the kick in the pants I need.

Tell us your novel organizing principles.