Import feature for complex fictional works

[Grabinfeld]

Hi;

I’m in the process of building a rich fictional world with two major plot lines, and at least 6 very involved minor plot lines along with numerous supporting character arcs (often more than one per character).

The only effective way to plan out a work of this complexity is using the JK Rowlings-esque speadsheet method.

Once the spreadsheet is done, I have a rather large dataset that tells me for each scene, what happens when, to who, from who’s perspective, where and what it means for the overall story. This dataset lets me quickly check for continuity and other logistical issues prior to commencing the writing bits. I can use Word’s MailMerge feature to break this 2D system out into a 1D text file with the following data for each scene:

Chapter #
Scene Name
POV
Other Characters
Synopsis of scene
Notes on what needs to happen in the scene

I can export it such that the output would look like this (using your existing import and split paradigm)

+++
Chapter 1

---

POV: Scene Name.
This scene is about XXX and includes character A and character B in location Z.
This scene needs to accomplish the following things;
Get A and B to kiss
Get B to question her morality
Get A to wonder whether she is really interested in B
Get reader to doubt sexuality of B
Blow up B’s car just before she leave’s the apartment

---

POV: Scene Name.
This scene is about XXX and includes character A and character B in location Z.
This scene needs to accomplish the following things;
Get A and B to kiss
Get B to question her morality
Get A to wonder whether she is really interested in B
Get reader to doubt sexuality of B
Blow up B’s car just before she leave’s the apartment

---

POV: Scene Name.
This scene is about XXX and includes character A and character B in location Z.
This scene needs to accomplish the following things;
Get A and B to kiss
Get B to question her morality
Get A to wonder whether she is really interested in B
Get reader to doubt sexuality of B
Blow up B’s car just before she leave’s the apartment
+++
Chapter 2

---

The idea would be as follows;

Importing a file similar to the above would;
A) use the +++ symbol to denote a new root folder (to the importing folder) with the title as listed in the next line.
B) use the *** symbol to denote a new scene text file inside the most recent Chapter folder
C) use the first line after the *** to denote the Text File (Scene) title
D) use the next line to denote the Synopsis (what shows up on the corkboard card body)
E) use the remaining lines to denote the Document Notes (what shows up on the right hand Notes pane)

This would VASTLY improve the planning to writing transition, which right now involves manually doing all this on a scene by scene basis. What did we invent computers for anyway?!!

Thanks for considering this. If you want me to send you the Spreadsheet/MailMerge Docs to play with, let me know.

[RMA]

I just imported my project from yWriter, and I’d love to see more robust import features, too. (Posted about it here: [url]https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/ywriter-5-to-scrivener/5450/5]

If I could import Keywords, that would be helpful for indicating POV & location as I’ve also seen discussed in the forums. I’ve also got worldbuilding information in seperate spreadsheets…

[Siliconserf]

I would like to see an option choice for scene card columns to listing characters present. This is something the Snowflake system suggests. Ideally I would like to link back to character cards to insure updates to the character names ripple back through the scene cards. The same treatment, if done, would be nice for POV entries. In spreadsheets this is easy, but in many other ways not as convenient as how Scrivener functions.

[brookter]

@Siliconserf

I would like to see an option choice for scene card columns to listing characters present. This is something the Snowflake system suggests. Ideally I would like to link back to character cards to insure updates to the character names ripple back through the scene cards. The same treatment, if done, would be nice for POV entries. In spreadsheets this is easy, but in many other ways not as convenient as how Scrivener functions.

EDIT: Apologies, I’ve just had a chance to try this on the Windows, and it looks like you can’t have keywords as a column in the Outline – you can on the Mac and in V3. I’ll leave the post up though, because the other elements still apply — e.g. use Keywords to collate scenes with certain combinations of POV and characters and/or custom data (or labels) for POV/Location) which some may find useful now or in the future. See the second screenshot below. Or ignore me entirely

Forgive me if you know any of this, but it’s possible to use Scrivener now to replicate a spreadsheet view quite closely.

For example, you can track characters in a scene with keywords: create a keyword for each character, making sure you add the keyword to the character sheet as well. Then you only need to rename the character and keyword once. You can also create a new custom metadata field for POV.

Both fields can then be used to create Collections to pull together, say, every scene from the POV of X in which both Y and Z are present.

For the spreadsheet view, you use Outline mode, where you can see the synopsis (which is just the scene card text and vice versa) and any standard and/or custom metadata columns you choose. The columns are arrangeable and sortable.

This screenshot was taken on the Mac, but I think it’s all (or mostly) doable in Windows at the moment. (BTW, the coloured rows are keyed to the POV using Labels, which is another way of tracking that information in the outline / cork board / binder.)

There are changes coming in V3 which make some of this easy and better (have a look at the blog on the Literature and Latte site to see some of the features) but it’s possible to do a lot now – and there are some benefits over spreadsheets in doing it this way.

Windows version (minus keywords in outliner – see EDIT)