Work Flow and Scrivening by Mark Chisnell
An admission: I wrote my first novel in WordPerfect 5.1.
Fortunately, I’ve now got it out of that format (before the converters cease to
exist) and it currently resides on my hard drive as an MS Word file, along with
everything else. I can’t remember exactly when I switched but, judging by the
file dates, I’ve been using Word, or the cut-down version in Works, for almost two
decades.
For a writer, the word processor is much the same as a chisel and saw
for a carpenter, or the canvas and paint for a painter. It's our interface to
the creative output. It’s the most important tool in my life, and the Word interface feels like an old friend - even if I get annoyed every
time I have to upgrade and Microsoft move everything around.
There are many things MS Word won’t do for me
though – I can’t outline effectively, instead I have to use a spreadsheet for that
job, using a row of cells to hold all the necessary information for a scene;
weather, location, character motivations and so on. If I write the whole book
in one document/file it quickly becomes too big to be manageable, while if I split it up, I
then have to put it all back together every time I want to print or output a
full draft. If you create a new file for each chapter this rapidly turns into a
massive pain in the butt, and even with my preferred five-chapters-to-a-file rule,
it’s still a chore. And then there are all the other files I need for character biographies, location research, and the rest of the gubbins that goes on in the background in my efforts to make
the finished product polished and smooth. It’s easy to end up with the pc desktop
a confusing mess of open files and scarily unsaved edits. Disaster is only a
click away.
So when I heard about Scrivener I thought it was worth a look. The software was originally developed by a guy
who wanted to be a writer but - in the interests of procrastination - decided
to write the tools of creativity before he wrote the novel. He still hasn’t
written the novel, but Scrivener is a huge success as that rare thing - a computer programme written specifically for the authors of long-form narrative. I downloaded it a couple of
weeks ago, and (surprisingly) did exactly what the company suggested - went through the tutorial.
I’m no expert but it seems to be built on a database principle, and so it can do
things that just aren’t possible in a word processor. Everything I need is there – a single interface to the manuscript, outlines, bios and research.
It breaks the text down to make it easy to work on individual scenes, but allows
you to ‘compile’ it back into a complete manuscript at the click of a few
buttons. It’s simple to use, seems quick
to learn, and although I have yet to write my first story on it, I’m already a
fan.
Best of all, the software company that makes it, Literature and Latte, are based in my favourite part of the
world, Truro in Cornwall. There’s even a Scrivener for Dummies – which shows they’ve really arrived. So for me it's good-bye to the old familiar face of MS Word - at least for the novels and short stories, although I'm sure I'll be using it for blogs and journalism for a while to come. And hello to Scrivener...
Find Mark Chisnell online at:
Website: www.markchisnell.com
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/markchisnell
Comments
Scrivener. I quite like the programme. I particularly like the ability to move scenes around without cutting and pasting. I'll think about doing a post on it, although I still regard myself as a novice.
I still haven't gotten my head around Collections & wonder if you've tried their formatting function?
PS: Their forum is terrific. They answer questions & do it promptly. All in all, excellence!
I assume you are all familiar with Word's Document Map (aka Navigation Pane)? I ask, because I would have taken it for granted that you were, but when I was working as an RLF in a University recently, I met so many people - tutors and students - who had never heard of it.
It makes it possible to jump to any spot in a large file - basically, it's a quick, easy way of inserting a hyperlink. So you can jump backwards and forwards to chapter headings and subheadings at the start of scenes. I use it all the time.
I was already interested in Scrivener, potentially, as I'd heard it can create ebooks, mobi or epub, and with good formatting if the rules are learned...haven't embarked on experiment with it yet though!
It seems from the sound of it, like Catherine's work method, doing whole book in one go, in one piece like a traditional boat hull, is same as mine.
Your favourite book, though, Mark, ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE comes in here again: Robert Pirsig took 20 years over writing its sequel LILA, set on the boat instead of the bike, and he describes his writing method there...index cards, hundreds of them, written on for years until the book's structure emerged from the parts.
Sounds like Pirsig would have been a good early candidate for Scrivener himself!
I
Still, maybe I should have a look at this Scrivener tool.
Susan, thanks for the document map tip! I'm one of those who didn't know about it, since I generally just use the search function.
Everybody's Word looks different, so I can't tell you exactly where to find it, but study the toolbar carefully, and you'll see something called 'Navigation Pane' or 'Document Map'. The name varies in different versions of Word.
Click on it (or tick the box) and a panel opens down the left-hand side of the screen.
Now, say you want to find the start of each chapter. Highlight the chapter heading, and click 'Header 1' in styles. You may have to fiddle about a bit, pressing enter and so on - but the words you've turned into a heading on your page should appear in the panel to the left.
Do this with every chapter, and you will have a string of chapter headings down the left-hand panel. Click on any one of them, and it will jump straight to that heading in your file. So you can jump to the start of any chapter in your book - I'm up to 41 in my present book.
You can create sub-headings too. I find the scene I'm currently working on by putting HERE into the main text and turning it into a heading.
But if I want to find a particular scene, I give it a sub-heading, and make it a 'heading 2'. This insets it from the main chapter headings, so you can see a distinction between the chapter divisions and scenes within the chapters. I think you can add headings 3 and 4 too, if you want sub-sub headings.
Extremely useful! I have long files of recipes and poems, and research items for the current book, and I can find any part I want by using Navigation Pane. I kept my appointment file at university like this too. If a student wanted to know if I had a appointment free in March, I could jump straight to March and find out.
And it's easier to get back to the spot where you were working too, before you hopped off to make a change that had just occurred to you. Just click on the side panel and you're back.