Travel Writing Tools
Finding the right tools to streamline your travel guide writing process is essential so you can focus your energies and effort on writing and not getting distracted because your writing process in unorganized and chaotic.
Even though Scrivener writing software is well-known in fiction circles, it still amazes me how many non-fiction writers don’t know about it and aren’t using it.
I’ve been using Scrivener for years and although there’s a small learning curve, once you’ve mastered this software you’ll end up using it for all of your writing projects like I have.
Using Scrivener for Content Management
I love using Scrivener to plan all of my writing content. This screenshot above, is the current view of my “How to Write a Travel Guide” Binder. It’s my one-stop-shop for all the content I’ve created for this 4-part series of books.
See those colour-coded flags? Each one is a folder for each different volume in the series, and the other folders are my planning content.
Even though the core-part of of this binder is the four books I’m writing, I also use Scrivener to capture the planning stages of the project, and the project goals. I have a file with ideas and notes for developing the free giveaways I’m creating to build my audience mailing list, and ideas for planning my “How to Write a Travel Guide” e-course.
Benefits of Using Scrivener
When you’re planning a book, especially a 4-part series, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed with how to approach the project. When I Plot Out my concept and ideas in Scrivener it helps to focus my priorities and attention.
Then when I move onto creating the actual book content the various Scrivener views and structure help me create the content in small chunks, but view the manuscript as a complete document.
It’s this breaking up the project into small bite-size chunks that helped my write my travel guides, and is now helping me to organise my approach for blogging my “How to Write a Travel Guide” series.
Blogging my Book
I’m using Scrivener to help me blog a book, and you’ll see some of the articles I’ve already published are here on this blog already. I craft my blog posts in Scrivener and then move them over to WordPress.
When blogging a fiction book, it’s best to blog in sequential order of the plot, but that’s not an essential element of blogging a non-fiction book, so I’m blogging my “How to Write a Travel Guide” content in a random order.
Well, partially random – I am blogging the Plan It Content volume first, before I move onto the Pen It, Publish It, and Promote It volumes.
I do get ideas an inspiration for the other volumes while writing the first one, and it’s easy to use Scrivener to capture those ideas but not get waylaid or sidetracked by focusing on them.
“How to Write a Travel Guide: PLAN IT” Scrivener
The Corkboard view below shows the 5 key chapters I have planned, and the colourful binder on the left shows the exploded out folder view of the Main Chapters and Sub-Chapters for each of the topics I’ll be blogging about.
I like the functionality of being able to unfold and condense the folder and document views. The image above shows how I’ve unfold some but kept some nested so I can’t see them. This helps to focus your attention on what you need to see, and hides the rest so that you don’t get overwhelmed or sidetracked.
See how to use #Scrivener to plan and write your #nonfiction book. Click To TweetRead more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series
I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.
