This is the third a series of posts on using Scrivener.
Part 1 was about preparation; Part 2 about writing.
When I write a novel or non-fiction book, I generally do not edit or revise until the draft is completely finished. Once the piece is completed, it is in rough form. I liken this manner of working like a sculptor. I once visited the Uffizi Museum in Firenze, Italy, and viewed David, a stunning piece of work. Michelangelo began by choosing a block of stone that he thought would work well. He then began to chisel away large parts to make a rough outline of his idea. Humanoid perhaps, but a crude and lacking in detail. Next, he began to chip away smaller pieces to reveal the shape of the legs, the torso, and where the head would be. Using smaller tools, he began to refine and shape details (down to the veins on David’s hands). He did not worry, at the beginning, what he final form would be (though he probably had a pretty good idea in his head and perhaps in drawings.)
I think of the first draft as one of those early blocks of stone. A shape perhaps, an idea of what is to come, but rough and blocky and unrefined. Now, I begin to chip away, shape, add, and form the parts to greater and greater detail. This perspective helps me not to worry too much about what the early phases look like.
Once I have researched, outlines, made scene notes, character sketches, and perhaps some bits and pieces of scenes, I am ready to revise and edit. I switch to my third Scrivener layout, named simply “Editing with Outline.” The following is the description of each pane from left to right.
- The leftmost column is the Binder, which is the same in every layout. This is a list, iTunes-style, of every folder and document in the project. (With the pane selected, choose View—>Outline). The most important, of course, is the “Manuscript” folder, which contains folders and documents that make up the book project. My folders are chapters, and within each chapter are the scenes (as Scrivener calls them), or subsections of a chapter. (The wonderful thing about Scrivener is that a writer is not limited to my choice of an organized chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene list. You can use one long document as your entire manuscript; you can ignore folders and just use multiple documents; you can combine the two concepts—”loose” documents and folders. what is even better is that you can change it up by combining documents, splitting documents, and create folders later and drag and drop to re-arrange the entire project.)
- The next pane is a list of documents, and depends on what I have selected in the Binder. (To get the outline view, select the pane and choose View—>Outline. If you select a single document, only the text of that document will show. Outline is only useful if you want to see a list of specific documents with other data; you can select more than one folder, folders and documents, even non-contiguously). Here, I have “chapter 2” selected; the pane shows nine documents inside it (scenes) that make up chapter 2. The columns are user-selected (option-click the column headings). Each row can be changed right in the pane. For instance, once I finished editing a scene, I can click on the Status of that scene in the outline, and choose “second draft.” Much of the data here can be assigned; if so, a popup menu of those items will show.
- The first three columns are (1) the title of the scene, (1) the word count, and (3) the status I use to assign a draft stage (first, second, third, etc.)
- The next column is a special field that gets added when syncing Aeon Timeline with Scrivener (it is the date of the scene—more in future posts).
- The last column is a label. This novel is based on the literary structure and themes of the book of Job, and includes poetry, narrative, flashbacks, and dreams. I can assign one of those elements to each scene from the popup menu.
- The third pane from the left is the text of the selected scene—whatever scene you select in the second pane (here, the outline of chapter 2) will appear here. This makes it easy to work back and forth between scenes in a chapter (or several chapters). This, of course, is the pane I use to edit the current scene. (I can also split a scene into two or more scenes, combine scenes, add new scenes, rearrange scenes, and delete scenes.)
- The fourth pane is connected to the currently selected scene (and is the same for most panes in Scrivener.
- The top is the synopsis of the scene (shows on the “card” in the cork board view).
- Below that is general meta-data such as label and status (same as in the columns in pane 2), modification date, and some options for when you compile the document for export.
- Next is a pane which can show different data for the selected document: notes, document references (hyperlinks), keywords, custom meta-data, snapshots, comments and footnotes. (These are selected using the icons art the bottom.) I usually have open the notes. Here, you can see a few notes that I wrote about the scene in my preparation stage: some research, ideas about he scene, perhaps a brief outline or timeline of what I want to happen—it is basically a scratchpad for the scene. I can easily switch to the “snapshots” view (camera icon at bottom) if I want to save a version of the scene before I begin editing. (This function allows you to save as many versions as you wish, and recall them here with a click. You can compare versions by paragraph, sentence, or word and roll back your changes. Wonderful.)
- The window open at the top left is the “Project Notes” window, which I have discussed in the last post. You can add as many notes as you want here, and name them accordingly. Since I already use the “document notes” pane (the yellow in the fourth pane), I use it for notes and to-do lists that apply to the whole project, and then a note for each chapter. I use this as I am writing and editing for various things that might not be strictly editing or revising, or I might want to remind myself of later. Perhaps I need to do some further research, but I don’t want to stop editing—I write a note to myself here. Or, I may be editing a scene and realize that what I am writing necessitates a change in another chapter. I can quickly click that chapter note, make myself a reminder, then return to editing.
- The window below the Project Notes window is one of Scrivener‘s “Quick Reference” windows. You select the contents of this window from the “View—>Quick Reference” menu. A submenu lists all of the documents and folders in the project (same as the leftmost pane), from which you can choose any document. Here, I have one of my character sketches open, with the accompanying picture and notes. The character is in the scene I am working on, and I wanted to have his picture and sketch available as I edited. (I can also edit the sketch as I edit—sometimes I find characters are different than when I began, or they somehow shape-change…). [Note: This feature is a nice one, but I wish the developers would make it possible to select a new document right from the window; it seems that I can only select a new document from the View menu, which opens in the middle of my screen, and I have to drag it to the side (and close the previous floating window unless I want both open).
- The lower right window is the document targets window. I don’t really need it open while editing, but sometimes I do like to know how my word count has changed through editing, and how many words I have typed that day.
I have appreciated all the comments and questions on the previous two articles in this series. If you do have a comment or question, feel free to enter it in the comments section below. Others may benefit from your question. Also, I know many of you are more proficient in Scrivener than I, and may be to shed light on things I have missed or answer questions I cannot.
All articles in this series:
How I Use Scrivener to Write Books & Blogs (Part 1: Preparation)
How I Use Scrivener to Write Books (part 2: writing)
How I Use Scrivener to Write Books (part 3: editing)
