I reluctantly but openly admit the insufficiencies of my methods. Over the years, I have used Scrivener as a warehouse for ideas, aphorisms, short essay comment, storylines, scenes -and the list goes on and on to include 95 files or compartments or ‘chapters’ as I think of them on the left of my screen, presumably the binder. The project statistics (all documents) betrays 2,000 pages paperback sized.
I am confident that the totality of the work is thematic, in that the entire premise of using this vessel has been intended to sporadically, journal-like, contribute to a long-term aspiration to unravel it into novel (or more than one) form. But, here I am, in a resulting distraught that it may never take form, surrendering instead to the comfort of habit and convenience,
To the point: it’s an organzational mess on the surface. How would any of you suggest I begin the excavation and re-assembling of its parts. I think it’s time to do the real work,
Move everything to the references folder, so you have a new (empty) binder. Spend some time mind-mapping or outlining what you would want your book to look like in structure and order. Then go through the documents that you moved to your references folder, one by one, and figure out where they belong in your new outline. Cut-n-paste them there. After finishing that, consider the interval progress to be your organized notes that you will now use to start writing the first draft.
An alternative approach to what I just described would be to view your existing documents in “notecard” form and drag-n-drop them into an initial order that makes sense for what you are trying to achieve. Then, group them into logical units like parts or chapters. At that point, you have your organized notes with which to start writing your first draft.
Don’t try writing your draft before you do this organizational step.
Use the Notes section and Synopsis section of each chapter to keep you focused on writing what belongs in each chapter.
Do not be afraid to throw things away. Scrivener makes undeleting from the Trash folder easy. The more you get rid of, the clearer will be the scope of work left to accomplish.
Agree with the above suggestions and suggest using a plot structure like save the cat. You could put this on Scapple (like I did see image) or now on Simple mind pro (one time fee mindmap) which offers a different flexibility.
Once have ideas attached to the beats, make a keyword list based on the Save the Cat beats. Now you make a collection for each beat. As review item A for Save the Cat anything that fits gets a keyword and right click and add to the collection. If you find something that is not pertinent give it a non pertinent label color to prevent reviewing again and move on. When you encounter material does not have to be reviewed in order, but assigned as material for a beat, (could have keywords and collections in the same manner for your major characters as well), character, or not pertinent and mark with a checkmark box to show reviewed or a reviewed/non pertinent label color.
My simple mind pro Save the Cat has the beats with the explanation of the beat in a hidden text box you can open as needed and topics for the main characters to add info for each beat. I use this to put info from project in one place. see below
Or this can be done with Scapple as well.
Overview and small closeup of first beat with info on each pov for the story, though some may have no info this early.
You can create a new project and have them both side by side.
The left one, the messy one, as your source and reference as to how things were.
Move the files from the messy project (from the binder) by dragging them in the new project’s binder, where the said document should be, as per your new organization/sorting.
Delete the file from the old project (it’ll still be in the trash, if ever needed.). Or prefix the name in the binder with something highly visible, to tag it as “already moved”.
Repeat until all files have migrated to the new project.
Alternatively, you could create categories in the custom metadata. Give all of your documents a category assignation in the custom metadata.
Then use collections to isolate them visually from the other files in the binder.
If it were me, I would think in terms of clusters. You might have something that resembles a “plot,” but you might also have discursive essays, notes to yourself, completely disjointed ideas. Take your notecards (virtual if you like, but Scrivener will also print them for you), and put them in piles of “things that belong together” according to whatever criteria you like. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a better idea of what’s there, and can proceed accordingly.
A very good point. You could do both approaches at once by doing an outline and have folders to group related items in clusters. Doing both at once should get most of your documents placed somewhere.
I think it depends on how much structure the materials already have. If you know there’s a plot in there somewhere, that might be the basis for an outline. If it’s just however many months of freewriting, maybe start with clusters.
I should add that, if you do want to use Obsidian as the repository for your ideas, etc., one way to quickly get everything into Obsidian is to use Scrivener’s sync folder feature. The idea is to use the sync folder to import all your ideas, aphorisms, etc., into Obsidian without manually moving everything over, and then use Scrivener for your writing.
There are plenty of discussions in the forum about using the sync folder. One that I started is here: Scrivener, Obsidian, and Aeon Timeline…Oh My!, though in this thread I’m discussing a different need and workflow. In your case, I don’t think you’ll need to sync Obsidian back to Scrivener once you’ve moved everything over; just move it over once via the sync folder, copy everything in the sync folder into a new Obsidian directory, turn off syncing, and you’re good to go.
That said, Scrivener is quite capable as a repository of your notes, etc. See Using Scrivener for project notebooks written by @AmberV. I’m just offering another way to work with Scrivener, so maybe this is helpful.
P.S. Another way to move the files over to Obsidian is to use Scrivener’s compile function. I personally don’t spend time with the compile feature, which is why I didn’t think to suggest it at first. It’s quite possibly the better and more direct method compared to syncing.
Something I have to keep in mind with my messes is to not rush the ordering. I have several repositories just like yours and, sometimes the sheer weight of it on my psyche is a buzz kill… but a walk, nap, or good night sleep magically obliterates the block. Like you, I spent years capturing stuff. The capture part is easy, the follow-up will take time.
Any of the ideas in the other responses will work but the choice of tool(s) depends on how you think. You will become much more fluent with Scrivener during this phase but Scrivener is complex so prepare for more walks, naps, cursing … we’ve all been there; your in good company; it’s just a new thing to get used to but it will test your patience.
For me, when I do get butt in chair and start ordering I see patterns emerge: multiple pages have a common thread: a scene, a sequel, a character description… figure out a method to capture info about those patterns. All of this stuff we’re gathering about our ideas is called meta data and it is time well spent to create it. I use synopses, notes, bookmarks, and a handfull of Custom Metadata (Project Settings): priority, missive (book or essay name). You can show this metadata in outline view.
Steve, in the previous post recommended post by AmberV - it is excellent.
This is a tangential to the question but: are there any classes you can take or writing groups that you can join? I found that drafting and plotting felt relatively easy, but revising and rewriting were overwhelming. Taking some creative writing classes helped me with with editing-muscle development. Maybe that can do the same for you?
Though I owned it, I never properly used Scrivener until I was in a similar position: lots of material, wanting order. I learned the value of the Research folder where everything goes, in shaping broad plot beats, and in dropping in scenes or fragments into those beats. I’m leaning on “revsion” mode now to give me a visual indicator of progress and position.
I often compare writing to sculpting or gous-building. You have the materials at hand and your tools, so now start roughing it out. It takes iteration to make the final work, and there’s a lot of big chiseling or frame-hammering to go. You can always change your mind, too, and advantage over working with priceless marble.
Start rough, as other say, and start sorting. If it’s fiction, start labeling scene notes from character ideas from timeline ideas. Don’t focus on the size of the pile or the scale of the marble. Lay hands upon something and put it into an approximate location. Scrivener will let you do that, without bias.
There is a course by Jessica Brody (who wrote Save the Cat! Writes a Novel), called “The Complete Novel Revision Course.” It’s one of several courses she offers through her Writing Mastery Academy. If you subscribe, you can optionally join the writers’ community.
Your local library or college is almost certain to have a writing group. A local bookstore like Barnes & Noble or indy bookseller is a great resource to find out what is going on locally.
If you want to sort your “mess of files” but don’t actually want to move things around just yet (for fear of breaking something or for technical reasons, whichever might it be),
here is how I would personally go about it.
I would use inline tags/keywords.
Those you can later search for in project search.
The search results then shows what documents you’ve pasted the tag in, and you can then navigate through these files, from tag to tag, using Find...
It does the same as project keywords, already built-in – unlike this –, except that it allows you to navigate to a precise location within the file’s content/text.
I have built a project you may download and add the tag document to your actual project. (Make sure to import the style first.) [EDIT⮚ And do a backup of your project, before anything else, whenever venturing into large scale project manipulations. Or anything you do for the first time. – If you are not sure whether you should do a backup or you’d be fine without: do a backup.]
