The first Difference is that the Characters are all simple text files.  This was a problem, because in the first book, I had a very quick link to Characters, that I chose to put at the top. 

In the second novel I had to throw all the character sheets into folders, and toss the entire thing under Notes.  Not as well thought out as using the Novel Format.

Lesson 2: Setting Up Scrivener with Novel Format

One other tool I missed throughout the process was the color coding of the Chapters (Green) and the POV – Helen in red, and Mike in Blue.  It made it very easy to tell how much time each of the two main characters received during the writing.

Don’t get me wrong, you can set up every single one of these – if you learn how – for your own book.  The point of the lesson I learned is that it is much easier to use a Template (called format) and adjust what you don’t like, than to go through all the settings and figure out what you like.

Scrivener is a writing tool.  It isn’t perfect, but it allows you to focus on writing instead of “Where did I put that!!!” that I find to be the case with Word.

Writing & Editing on Scrivener

The writing process is so much easier on Scrivener.  I have a spot for my notes, and where to keep track of progress.  I’ll talk about using Word – during my lunch hour – to write the novel.  But all the scenes are transferred into Scrivener for editing the rough drafts.

My process is relatively new (only two novels) but I start with a rough draft for each scene. I write the entire novel sticking to my plot outline. I do adjust the outline if I find that I’m getting too wordy.  Kind of like this post.

Setting Up Scrivener to Speak to me:

Once I’ve finished the rough draft, I start to edit.  I use Scriveners EDIT – SPEECH – START SPEAKING to listen to the story.  This does two things for me. First, it detaches me from the writing and puts me in the mode of the reader. Second, if the words don’t sound right, they the sentence is wrong.

Using Word and Grammarly:

Once I’ve listened to the scene and made all my corrections, I transfer the scene to Word and use Grammarly to help me catch the errors and horrors of comma usage.

I used to use the Hemmingway App to help me find long sentences, and poor structure.  It helped me get rid of “just” as my go-to word.  It also helped me shorten my sentences a bit.  But it was a bit too much.

Setting up Scrivener to send to Kindle

I like to read my edited rough draft on Kindle.  That’s the most likely format my readers are going to use.  Scrivener makes it easy to transfer the novel into .mobi format and I send it to my kindle on my phone. 

This helps me read the entire story, make notes as I go, and then fix it on Scrivener. I use the project find search and go right to the line I need to clean up. 

Setting Up Scrivener to Send Manuscript to My Editor

The reality is that no two editors like the work on the same format. Reformatting in word can be a chore.  Using Scrivener, it was a chore the first time. I’m able to set up formats for each of the editors I work with, and then for the standard manuscript the publisher wants.

Once set, it’s easy to simply tell Scrivener to dump the full novel into Word (or any other format you want) and have it exactly how the editor wants to see it.

Next in the Series

In part three, Writing in Word over Lunch, I’ll go through how I wrote the entire second novel at lunch.  Using Plottr to lay out the novel helped, and knowing I was going to finish it in Scrivener took the pressure off.  Lunchtime is only an hour, so I had to become very efficient at doing it.  I’ll go over the way the format developed to make it all work.