Blog posts

Home > Blog posts (Page 21)

Posted on 17 October 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

Two weeks to go until we can start writing for real, and it's time to start creating the perfect writing space. The Scrivener workspace The basic workspace can be separated into three panes: The Binder on the left The editing pane with Scrivenings, or Corkboard, or Outliner in the centre The Inspector on the right Closing the Inspector pane The Inspector pane can be closed (and reopened) by clicking on the Inspector icon. You could then...

Avatar
by

Posted on 13 October 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

Project keywords provide another way of recording metadata. As a reminder: I've renamed Label as Location - so I know where each scene takes place. Not changed Status - it will prove useful when I start to edit. I've set up custom metadata for POV - see the blog post on 16 October. Now, I'm going to use project keywords to record who appears within each scene, and then consider other options...

Avatar
by

Posted on 10 October 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

The Label and Status options within the Inspector are valuable for metadata. But if you need more, you'll need to set up custom metadata. I've used Label for Location and am keeping Status for the progress of any scene. As well as this, I want to keep track of who has the POV (point of view) in each scene, plus who is present in each scene - and to access this data easily...

Avatar
by

Posted on 5 October 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

Writing a novel is never straightforward and one of the ways Scrivener can help is with the option to include metadata. What is metadata? Metadata is data about data. For a given scene, this might be any of the following details: Who has the POV (point of view)? Where does the action happen? When does the action happen? It could also be a note to yourself about how close to completion this scene is: ...

Avatar
by

Posted on 2 October 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

One of the most powerful features in Scrivener is the option to use the corkboard to outline your story. The structure of a novel A novel is essentially one scene after another. These scenes can be grouped into chapters and, if you want, you can group the chapters into parts. Recall that you can opt to set up a novel with parts using the Scrivener project templates. My LOL: Left Over Lovers doesn't have parts - I'm...

Avatar
by

Posted on 29 September 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

In the same way, as a scriptwriter sets the scene for a play or a film, a novelist needs to invent the world for the cast of characters to inhabit. The choice for each set within the world of your novel is entirely yours. You could stick close to home using familiar locations. Distant lands could give you the excuse to travel for research purposes. Or, you could create invent a world set...

Avatar
by

Posted on 23 September 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

One of the fun parts of writing a new novel is casting your characters: giving them names, deciding their hopes and dreams, and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Everyone needs a secret, and only you will decide what it is and if and when the other characters might discover it. Setting up a new character sketch To set up a new character sketch, right click on the Characters folder and select Add / New From...

Avatar
by

Posted on 17 September 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener, Training

Let’s start at the very beginning: setting up a new project file on Scrivener and deciding what our novel is about. Setting up a new project file In this one file, everything that you need to write your NANO novel can be collected ahead of 1 November. You won’t write a single word of your manuscript until NANO officially starts, but you’ll have everything at your fingertips when the whistle blows at...

Avatar
by

Posted on 12 September 2016
In NANO, Novel writing, Scrivener

Today’s blog post is the first of a series for those who might decide to use Scrivener for NaNoWriMo 2016. (NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and that's November - the month I set aside each year to write, write, write.) Why use Scrivener for NaNoWriMo 2016? Mainly, I use Scrivener because it makes me feel I am in control. Scrivener lets me see my novel from the top down, from the bottom...

Avatar
by