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The result is I have a visual both in the Binder and Corkboard, plus I can make my changes all in one place without having to switch back and forth between applications.Already own Tinderbox? Be sure to get the latest version.
I have it vertically stacked with the index cards wrapped. At the bottom right of the Corkboard, you’ll see that you can change the layout. The Editor will turn into the Corkboard you’ll see that each selected sequence has its corresponding Corkboard-each one stacked on top of another. Select each sequence by pressing Cmd+clicking on the sequences with your mouse. To see the structure of your story on the corkboard, you can use the Stacked Corkboard feature. Okay, now I have to manage expectations because the next step is a Mac-only feature.
I want to see the sequences laid out in the corkboard-similar to what I had in Tinderbox. Presumably, each scene has a blurb in each text file, so it appears in the Inspector’s synopsis. The next step is to see it as an index card. I love this! What a neat idea to break it down this way in the Binder. The numbers to the left indicate, Act 1, Sequence 1. So fiddled with my scenes in the Binder and broke it down into acts, sequences, and climaxes:Īs you can see, Sequence 1 in Act I, I’ve expanded it so you can see the scenes. To see them, you end up having to zoom in and out to find them (unless, of course, I figure out a better way to rebuild this).īut I wanted to do something similar in Scrivener where I have this visual. The downside is that if you need to add a scene to a sequence, your notes (index card) aren’t locked in place in the container, and they end up moving around. If you click on it, you’ll see how I’ve broken down, using Sokoloff’s index card technique, by acts, sequences, and climaxes for each act. However, it can be cumbersome and it took me a long time to set up my digital corkboard to look like this: Tinderbox has more oomph under the hood, and I wanted to see what it does. If you like to use another application, Literature and Latte’s Scapple works well as do other mind-mapping applications. I wanted to play around with the application because it helped me see how the story was broken up. Wait! Are you telling us that we need Tinderbox? With that in mind, I first turned to Tinderbox, which is a powerful application, but has one helluva learning curve. I wanted the same flexibility, but also the visual quality, of a traditional whiteboard or corkboard. First some history.Ĭrikey, not one of those long-winded explanations. : So what does this have to do with Scrivener?Īh, I knew sooner or later someone would ask that. It’s the foundation of your story’s structure, and you can see where all the plot points are laid out. This is when Sokoloff’s method proves to be a gem. So now that I have these various scenes, I need to organize them into acts, sequences, and climaxes. In one version your leading man is this charming and funny guy and in the rewrite you realize the story is much improved if he’s a narcissistic prick. Other than that, I don’t go into micro-plotting because, as in life, shit happens in fiction. One way is to create a number of scenes and just title them and provide a one line summary (at some point nailing these summaries will be helpful when you begin to write your synopsis). I like to have a general idea of where the story is heading. I consider myself a cross between a pantser and plotter. If you have a collection of books on the craft of writing, you’ll see that much of it is repetitive, but Sokoloff writes in an engaging manner that no matter how many times you’ve read about character arc, you keep turning the page to learn more of how she gets the story down. I read the post several times and decided to purchase her book, Screenwriting Tips for Authors. For that post, she broke down her plot by acts and sequences using the index card and structure grid method. A few months ago, I came across a blog post by Alexandra Sokoloff that detailed how she plots her novels using screenwriting techniques.