Don’t Worry, You Can Make Scrivener 3 for Windows Aesthetic Too

You don’t need to own a Mac to have all the fun

Screenshot taken by author in Scrivener 3 for Windows

Scrivener 3 for Mac has been out for years now, but it’s only just been released for Windows in the former half of this year (March 2021) → Check it out here. Upon hearing of its release — being a Windows user — I immediately jumped to make the upgrade from Scrivener 1.

But upon upgrading, I found that I missed the old-time 90s charm of Scrivener 1, and Scrivener 3 for Windows is not quite so aesthetically pleasing and as the modern-looking Scrivener 3 for Mac.

If you’re a Windows user and a Scrivener user, I’m here to tell you that there are ways to make this program more aesthetically pleasing and, well, easier on the eyes. It just takes a little more tweaking and a little more customization.

I enjoy matching the aesthetics of the software I use with the genre of the stories I write. It allows me to be more immersed in the world I am building. If you as a writer can relate to this, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ll show you how you can tweak the settings in Scrivener 3 for Windows in the simplest way possible to fit the genre of your work.

Keep in mind that what I’m about to show you is all just for aesthetic purposes as you write in Scrivener. It does not reflect how your manuscript will look once you compile it. This is all purely for making the writing process more fun and immersive.

Tweaking Scrivener to match your genre

1. Find your photos

First, find two background photos that represent your genre or that set the mood for writing in your genre. You can just use google images for this. One of the images should be a landscape image, and the other a portrait image. The portrait image will be used for your main text editor background (as in the screenshot at the beginning of this article), while landscape image will be used for composition mode (the distraction free writing mode) in Scrivener.

For example, let’s say I am writing a suspense horror novel (like The Boathouse). I’ll choose the following images for this: