Next, choose View - Cork board Options - Show Stamps. First, make sure you are using Status labels for all of your scenes.

For example, can't remember how many scenes still require editing in Chapter 5? Use the cork board. You can also use the cork board to measure progress. You'll have to fix transitions, of course (rarely is it true that you can move scenes around without adjusting the transition in and/or out of the scene), but this drag-and-drop is so much easier, for me at least, than 'find selection in Word, cut, find new insertion point, paste, rewrite.'ĭecide that the contents of a scene need to change? Instead of writing out a new note card, you can edit the synopsis of the virtual card - either by viewing the scene or right there from the cork board. Just drag and drop that scene - either on the cork board or in the tree view (or in outline view - whichever works best for you, but I like working on the cork board). Realize that the third scene in chapter 3 needs to be the second scene in Chapter 1? No problem. Now, from here you can do all sorts of things. Just select that chapter in the tree view. You can drill down the cork board to see the storyboard for individual chapters, too. Voila! You'll see a picture of a cork board with all of your cards. Choose View - Cork board or press CMD+2 (CTRL+2 in Windows, I believe). Once all of those chapter/scene cards are laid out, select the Manuscript node in the tree view (this will be the top-most node in the tree). You just want something descriptive enough to jog your memory ('oh, that's the scene where I introduce the love interest').īy the way, at this point, it is also helpful to use labels so you know if something on the cork board is a chapter or a scene. The idea here is not to jam in all of the information that is in the chapter/scene.

You would then write similar scene descriptions. For example: Chapter 1 - upon coming home, Jenny Smith discovers the dead body of a stranger in her bedroom. It will be particularly helpful if you can put a brief description of the chapter/scene in the Synopsis field. The first step, is to create your chapters and scenes. However, as I explored the concept of a storyboard, I realized that by doing just a few things, I could build a virtual storyboard relatively quickly. The cork board is one of those features that, when I did the tutorial, I didn't see a use for. A storyboard is also slightly more visual, if you use something like note cards - and it's easier to move a note card than constantly copy/paste in an outline (and fight Word's 'helpful' outline reformatting - but I digress).īut what if the thought of transcribing scene synopses to index cards gives your fingers cramps? And the thought of changing those synopses as the plot evolves makes you think you might need to take stock in an company that makes 3x5 cards? Well, enter Scrivener. You might get the same results from an outline, but a storyboard strikes me as slightly easier to use regarding lists of possibilities (e.g., 'in this scene, I might.). A storyboard allows you to visually lay out scenes in each chapter/section, move things around, make lists of possibilities, etc.

But my earlier posts on Scrivener continue to get hits and I continue to get asked questions, so perhaps it's time for a little 'Scrivener writing tip' post.Īt a retreat last fall, the presenter talked about a storyboard as a great tool for plotting a story.

So writers are not supposed to write about, um, writing. If you are using Windows, please allow for differences.

Does scrivener come with scapple