11/17/21, 8:09 AM Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler, from published author Vicki Watson - SmartEdit

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Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler, from

published author Vicki Watson (index.html)
When you spend as much time on the computer as I do it’s important to have the best software tools
for the job. I’m a programmer and web/graphic designer. I also create video courses, and I’m writing a
series of children’s books.

I have an arsenal of software for each of those areas and I’m always on the lookout for programs that
might improve my work flow and efficiency.

As a self-published author, one of the things I’ve found most challenging is locating a reasonably
priced, competent editor. When I reviewed a few of the early books in my series several years after
they were published, I was dismayed to see errors that an editor should have detected. I began to
wonder if there might be software that could help me find and correct many of those errors — before
I sent my stories to an editor. That’s when I found SmartEdit (../../../).

Since I didn’t use Microsoft Word, I purchased the stand-alone version of SmartEdit. It was helpful to
have the proofing capabilities it offered, but juggling text between my word processing software and
SmartEdit was less than ideal.

A year or two later, I received an email announcement about a new program, Atomic Scribbler. The
fact that Atomic Scribbler was created by the same programmer who had developed SmartEdit
caught my attention. Immediately, I could see the advantages of combining the two programs.

I had already been using software developed for writers, but the combination of Atomic Scribbler and
SmartEdit would be enough to make me switch. It wasn’t long before the two were integrated and I
became a convert.

For my books I use Atomic Scribbler for storing and organizing ideas as well as for writing first drafts
and making revisions. I love the simplicity of the software and its scene-based approach. Writing the
next scene is much less intimidating than writing an entire chapter. The outline or tree structure
shows an overview of the scenes and allows you to easily rearrange them. You can attach notes to
any scene or chapter, add images, links to websites and other research information.

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11/17/21, 8:09 AM Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler, from published author Vicki Watson - SmartEdit

Even without SmartEdit, Atomic Scribbler is an amazing program. But SmartEdit makes it even better.
The two work seamlessly together. I can run the SmartEdit checks on a single scene or on the entire
document. I can run all the checks at once or select them individually. The results appear, nearly
instantaneously, in a window on the right.

One of the checks I find most helpful is repeated words — I just can’t seem to stop using the word
just repeatedly in my writing. SmartEdit counts the occurrences of repeated words and highlights
them in their context. Double click any of the occurrences, and the cursor appears in that section of
the scene allowing you to make a correction. There’s even a User-defined Monitored Words & Phrases
list where you may enter your own problematic words for SmartEdit to track.

Another of my favorite checks is Sentence Start Words. I ran this check on a scene I recently finished
and it showed that twenty-one of my sentences began with the word, she. By scanning the results
window I can see where best to change some of those.

The last check I use frequently is Dialogue Tags. This shows the usage of tag words, such as said,
replied, explained, added, and so forth.

I’m a member of an online writers’ group. We periodically submit chapters for the other members to
critique. The required format is doc or docx. Atomic Scribbler allows you to export a scene or your
entire document in either of those formats, as well as rtf, txt, and Open Office’s odt format.

When I receive a critiqued chapter from other members I view that file using Libre Office Writer. That
program allows me to see the revisions and comments added to the docx file. I then make changes
based on that feedback to my scenes in Atomic Scribbler.

I continue revising and refining the text in Atomic Scribbler until the work is ready to submit to an
editor. At that time, I export the entire document in the docx format.

I would again revise my text in Atomic Scribbler, based on recommendations from the editor. At this
point, my text is in nearly final form and ready to move to page layout software. I don’t apply any text
formatting in Atomic Scribbler. I use QuarkXpress to create the print-ready versions of my books and
do all formatting within that software. To transfer from Atomic Scribbler to Quark, I export chapters
or just copy and paste the text.

Although Atomic Scribbler was designed as software for writers, I find it useful when I create video
courses as well. For my courses, I begin with a tentative sequence of topics. That’s a natural for
Scribbler. The script for each video goes into a scene, making it quick and easy to rearrange them as
needed.

My current writing project is a study guide that incorporates many small chunks of information. I can’t
imagine creating this project in typical word processing software. Once you’ve used something like
Atomic Scribbler with its organized, modular approach to writing, anything else seems rather
awkward in comparison.
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11/17/21, 8:09 AM Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler, from published author Vicki Watson - SmartEdit

(https://www.sonrisestable.com/)
A guest post from Vicki Watson (July 4th, 2018)

Vicki Watson is the author the Sonrise Stable (https://www.sonrisestable.com/) series of books
for children. As well as being a prolific writer she runs Homeschool Spark
(https://www.homeschoolspark.com/), a website offering courses and information for home
schooled children in the US. Vicki is also a teacher, computer programmer, and video course
designer.

Previous Posts

SmartEdit Writer Automatic Backups and Fail-Safe Backups (../SmartEditWriterBackups/)

SmartEdit Writer now 100% free (../SmartEditWriterNowFree/)

Renaming Atomic Scribbler to SmartEdit Writer (../RenamingAtomicScribbler/)

Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler (index.html)

Going With the Flow — Writing Downhill with SmartEdit (../GoingWithTheFlow/)

SmartEdit Pro released today — May 21st (../SmartEditProReleased/)

Introducing SmartEdit for Atomic Scribbler (../IntroducingSmartEdit/)

SmartEdit for Atomic Scribbler Released (../SmartEditForAtomicScribbler/)

SmartEdit for Word Version 6 (../Version6/)

SmartEdit Future Development (../SmartEditFutureDevelopment/)

Survey Results — 10 Questions We Asked Writers (../SurveyResults/)

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11/17/21, 8:09 AM Getting the most from Atomic Scribbler, from published author Vicki Watson - SmartEdit

Version 2 — The Research Tree (../Version2/)

SmartEdit Writer in 1,200 words (../In1000Words/)

Tips for PageFour Users (../PageFourUsers/)

Atomic Scribbler under the covers — a tech overview (../TechOverview/)

My requirements for version 1 of Atomic (../MyRequirementsVersion1/)

Why I built Atomic Scribbler (../WhyAtomic/)

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