From Fantasy Faction, here is an article by Adrian Faulkner on how he uses Scrivener to outline.
I have long used OmniOutliner Pro (regular version) for outlining, though the program is a bit overkill for how I use it. I do not really need all the formatting and other bells and whistles. I begins most of my fiction and nonfiction pieces with three to six levels. I play around with the outline for a while, adding, deleting, rearranging, until I am satisfied with the bones of the piece. I then set up folders and documents in Scrivener, arranged in the same hierarchy, and start writing. (I have been using Ulysses lately, but the process is the same, because Ulysses does not have a outliner, and not even a corkboard—see below.)
The transfer is not elegant, and takes more time than simply doing it in Scrivener. But OmniOutliner’s interface is so intuitive and user-friendly, I focus on content and not tech.
Adrian does his outlining in Scrivener, and begins with the corkboard. This allows him to add scenes, metadata, synopsis, keywords, and so on. However, it is only a single-level outline. No sub-levels. This could be achieved by creating folders and dragging the scenes into a folder. But you cannot do this in corkboard view, only in outline view. But in the latter, you can see all the levels. (The same can be done in Ulysses).
I need more level of detail, and ability to see the big picture, though I may try this for a project in the future. Perhaps it is just that I am used to OmniOutliner.
Read Adrian’s full post (with graphics) >
(I appreciate that he uses scene examples from The Fellowship of the Ring, too.)
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