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Courtney Kenney is today’s quest.

Courtney’s book Creating Space to Thrive: Get Unstuck, Reboot Your Creativity and Change Your Life is a great read, full of brilliant advice, and is on sale at only $0.99 for five days, starting TODAY.

I’m so pleased to have Courtney here, sharing her Scrivener journey with us.

So, Courtney, you’re a Scrivener Supporter?

Absolutely! Scrivener has changed my life as a writer.

Before Scrivener, I wrote in Microsoft Word and kept hearing how great Scrivener was.

I’ll admit, I was scared to try it, because I knew there was a bit of a learning curve. But, it wasn’t too hard to learn. There are many tutorials offered by Scrivener and demos available on YouTube.

You now prefer Scrivener to Word?

Yes. Unlike Word, you can see your entire outline in Scrivener and easily drop and drag if you need to rearrange sections, as I often do.

You used Scrivener to write your four books?

Yes, but I use Scrivener for nearly all my writing, not just books. I have a project manager brain and like to break projects into chunks. Scrivener is perfect for managing writing projects.

Lately, I’ve also started capturing random ideas in a Scrivener project. Again, it’s powerful to work in folders and see the big picture.

Great idea!

I also use Scrivener to write blog posts and email newsletters. It’s so easy to look at past posts and see what I wrote four or five months ago without having to dig through computer files. I organize my blog posts by year.

And you’d recommend Scrivener for bloggers?

I highly recommend Scrivener for all writers. You’ll get past the learning curve quickly and see how essential the tool is for writing and helping you to be more productive.

Funny story, I recently attended a speech given by Veronica Roth, author of the phenomenal Divergent series. When asked what tools she used for writing, she told the audience how much she adores Scrivener. Out of 100 people in attendance, I was one of the only ones who used Scrivener.

We are in the minority! Now …

Tell us about your new book!

Thank you! I thought you’d never ask!

My fourth book, Creating Space to Thrive is about finding space to live your best moments.

So many of us get stuck — every day feels the same, we lose sight of the fun or creative side of our jobs, and we end up unhappy.

I explain why creativity is important: it has a big influence on our brains.

What advice do you give about creating space?

In my books, and on my blog, I write about the importance of having a morning routine. Using the first hour of your day is crucial to making your creative project a habit.

Many of us struggle to find time throughout the day, given all the demands and distractions we have in our lives. In my experience, and with the people I interviewed, something must be given up to find the time to create.

What did you give up, to improve your creativity?

I left a full-time job and changed my lifestyle significantly to spend more time on writing. Not everyone needs to go to this extreme, though!

One of the book’s case studies, Andre finds time to work on his fashion blog and personal styling business, outside of his day job, by giving up time on his weekends and evenings.

So, what’s your number one tip? What should we give up, to find time to write?

Many people spend a lot of time watching TV or surfing social media.

The average time spent on social media globally in 2016 was 118 minutes per day — nearly two hours a day! That’s 693 hours a year, or seventeen 40-hour weeks.

Wow!

Yes, I find this figure staggering.

I’d rather spend the extra hour or two of my day having something to show for it.

No more Facebook! Twitter! …

I’m not saying to eliminate social media — I love it!

I’m just saying we could be more intentional with how we use it by getting our most important things done before we start checking social media. Like, writing …

I have a goal this year to write 1,000 words a day. I plan to have 365,000 words written, which is the equivalent of six 60,000-word novels. Something has to go, to make space for this!

More about Courtney Kenney

Courtney Kenney was a project manager for 16 years at technology companies, Motorola and Workday.

She left corporate life behind in 2016 and started her own business as a book launch consultant. She’s currently managing a launch for a NY Times bestselling author.

Courtney Kenney is the author of four books including her latest, Creating Space to Thrive: Get Unstuck, Reboot Your Creativity and Change Your Life. Later this year, she will release her first science-fiction novel.

You can find Courtney Kenney through her website at projectmanagerwriter.com, and via her Amazon author page.

If you write using Scrivener and would like to have a guest blog, contact me!

The ScrivenerVirgin blog is a journey of discovery:
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