I imported the Scrivener files for my next project this morning. I still don’t really have my brain wrapped entirely around Scrivener, but this is going to be a big project and it’s clear that Scrivener’s project management system is going to be extremely useful once I understand what I can really do with it. Even just having the character names/bio available at a click is obviously helpful.
I knew I’d written some little bit on the project last year, or possibly even the year before that (ai) but I couldn’t remember how much and I did remember I thought it was utter crap. Turned out it’s about 6 pages and its actually not crap, that there’s nothing wrong with the voice, and that I’m amused by some of the implied characteristics of the two people on the page. Furthermore, I know how the chapter ends, so hey, there’s only several thousand words between me and the first chapter of the new project!
And yes, that’s exactly the level of cryptic you can expect for a while about this one. :)
In the meantime, I’m up to about 15K on MAGIC & MANNERS and starting to wonder how far I’ve got to go on it before I start to feel comfortable with the idea of *doing* something with it. 20K? 25K? 125K? Seriously, this is ridiculous.
Of course, I also need to finish the 3rd book for my nephew. I need more hours in the day or less ambition. Or both. @.@
I am about as far from a pre-planner as one can get when it comes to writing fiction, and Scrivener’s strengths supposedly lie in the realm of those who outline extensively before setting out—but I find Scrivener’s corkboard feature alone worth the price of admission, if only because it helps me better organize what I have written.
The bigger the project, the more valuable this tool can be. Having everything related to a given project in one place is more helpful than I imagined.
Yeah, I can totally see how the more plan-oriented you are the more useful it could be, but indeed, the corkboard (or in my case just the dropdown list of names) is phenomenally helpful straight away. And I do better these days with more extensive planning anyway, so it might all work out. :)
So what is your next big project? I’m sad that the Walker Papers are coming to an end…but so excited that No Dominion is audio!! I keep waiting for Winter Moon to show up on audible.