GUEST POST: Writing using Scrivener — how it’s done

I’ve used a variety of tools since taking up writing, but I’m going to talk about the one I’ve settled on for the majority of my work. It’s called Scrivener, and there’s a good chance you’ve heard about it if you’re a writer. Now, this isn’t an advertisement for Scrivener, and it isn’t a tool everyone will like. As a word processor, it doesn’t compare to the capabilities of Word or the free LibreOffice Writer. What it does offer is organization. This post is about how I use it to help write a novel, and it’s as much about my process as the tool I use. Everyone is different, but sometimes reading about someone else’s process can lead to useful ideas. Certainly that’s true for me.

The thing about Scrivener is that it really isn’t all that complex. All there is to it is a collection of folders and documents, and the user can do whatever he or she wishes with them. In addition, each document includes a place for a synopsis and notes as well as the document body. From user-selected folders and documents, Scrivener outputs a manuscript. One especially cool thing, is the corkboard display where virtual index cards are pinned up with the document synopsis printed on each one. I use it to see a bunch of information all at once–very useful.

Okay, here’s how I use it to organize my novel. Scrivener creates Manuscript and Research folders automatically. To these I add my folders Outline, Characters, and World.

First, I start with a pitch. As much as anything, I’m trying to sell myself on the novel, but I also get opinions from others and use them to adjust the pitch. The pitch goes into my Outline folder as I develop the final form. Next in the outline folder goes an overall synopsis. Finally, I make an index card with a short synopsis for each of my scenes, and sometimes I’ll put how the scene advances the emotional and/or overall plot in the document notes for that index card. This list of scenes really helps me stay on track.

As I create my detailed outline of scenes, I add index cards with a short synopsis for characters and places I need in the story. These go into the Characters and World folders respectively. As I’m writing, I’ll cut and paste information about characters and places from the manuscript to the document each index card represents. That way I can easily reference what I’ve already written about something.

Finally, there’s the manuscript. Scrivener creates a Manuscript folder so that’s where I write the novel. I copy my scene cards into the Manuscript folder, and I start to fill them with the actual novel. Sometimes scene cards get combined or new ones created, the novel is always flexible, but I always know what I’m working on next which keeps me writing. Notes from early beta readers or my own impressions can go into the scene’s notes so they’ll be easy to see during revision.

As I fill in the scenes, I create chapter folders in the manuscript and then move scenes into them as I see fit. When all my scenes are filled out, I’m done with the draft. It may sound absurdly methodical, but it works well for me.

So that’s how I use my primary tool for writing. What do you use?

W.E. Larson is a life-time midwesterner living in the Kansas City area with his wife, daughter, son, and two dogs.  He earned a degree in physics from Trinity University along with minors in computer science and mathematics then went on to pursue a career in software engineering.  Larson has always enjoyed telling stories and decided to finally put some to paper—especially stories his kids might like.

Guest Post: Putting the Pieces together

Tick tock, tick tock… my client W.E. Larson‘s writing functions like a well-oiled mechanical device, in the best sense of the phrase. I don’t mean that there’s no humanity in it, but rather that all the plot pieces fit together and unfold so gracefully, like clockworks or the inside of an old fashioned music box. And he has fun while writing. Imagine that?! Here’s what he has to say…

Something I’ve learned about myself while writing novels and stories is that there are parts that I work on before writing the story itself and parts that I don’t. It isn’t that not working at something means you’re better at it– it could be quite the opposite–but that it doesn’t feel as if it gains you anything.

Some people work on characters before starting the novel. I’ve come across character templates to fill out, advice to write vignettes in each character’s voice, and other exercises for developing the characters in the story. When I’ve done that work, it never seemed to change the characters from how they were born in my imagination. Only by writing the actual story do they evolve. I know them well when I finish that first draft and move on to overhauling the manuscript.

For me, the same applies to the setting. In a fantasy story, you can spend a lot of time building a world and crafting all sorts of details. This is something else I like to leave until I start writing the story itself. I create details as I need them, and during rewriting and revising I assemble them into a setting and flesh it all out. Though this doesn’t work for me in some science fiction where I need to make things plausible.

What I work on the most before writing is the plot. Some people can plunge in and create a plot by the seat of their pants, but that isn’t me. Fortunately, I like plotting. Why do I always imagine myself sitting in a chair stroking a white cat when I say that? Anyhow, I enjoy the puzzle-like aspect of it all.

Somehow I’ve got to take all the scenes and characters in my imagination and fit them into a whole. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle where I’m making the final image at the same time as I’m fitting in the pieces. I start with the key scenes and make sure I have some for the beginning, the end, and save or invent some good ones for the middle. I always want to save a nice juicy event for the middle. Maybe the scenes are pivotal events, or pivotal emotional moments, or pivotal turns in a relationship, but they are the scenes that make me want to write the story.

With some milestones anchoring the plotline, the fun begins and it’s time to dream up the scenes that put everything together. They’ve got to advance the story to one of the milestones while keeping characters in character, avoiding impossible timelines–no two hour nights, and providing motivation to push the characters along the storyline.

I try to make every scene both snap into place with the adjoining ones while also making sure each one contributes something to the whole. For me, this is where pacing comes into play. If every scene contributes without a string of pieces all contributing the same color, then the final picture won’t have dull stretches of a single color. Maybe a bit of a simplistic analogy, but it’s the way I think about plotting out the story. If I didn’t think of it that way, maybe it wouldn’t be as fun.

What do you work on before you start that first draft?