Tables needed for Parallel Plotting & Character Comparison

Scrivener Wish List
1

Hi,

[I was reading over previous Wish List posts about the need for Customized Columns, thinking those posts would be related to my request here. But from what I can tell, my request is a bit different].

I’m trying to figure out how Scrivener could satisfy my need for brainstorming and keeping track of:

  1. PARALLEL PLOTS and PLOT PROGRESSION OVER TIME
  2. CHARACTER TRAIT COMPARISON

Regarding #1: Many writers gravitate towards J.K. Rowling’s spreadsheet-style brainstorming and tracking of parallel plots.
Here’s the link to a sample from her Harry Potter plotting:

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/jkrowlingpage.jpg

For brainstorming multi-plot development within a single work, Rowling’s multi-column/multi-column spreadsheet format makes a lot of sense to me. You see how each plot progresses in parallel from month to month or chapter to chapter. All in one master page.

Regarding #2: Characters. What I’m talking about is something like this:

https://sites.google.com/site/stansfreeebooks/Home/character-trait-spreadsheet

It’s a way to get a master overview of all your characters and their traits, which helps when you need to compare between them.

I gravitate towards making similar charts when thinking about an ensemble cast of characters. For example, I’d have individual columns for NAMES, WANTS/NEEDS, PHYSICAL TRAITS, STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, JOYS, PAINS, etc.

I love Scrivener’s flexibility when it comes to creating folders, subfolders, documents and subdocuments, etc. And I love how you can hyperlink elements throughout the program.

So my guess is it wouldn’t be too hard (?) to have a table/spreadsheet document type in Scrivener the cells of which could contain simple text (linkable hypertext.)

My big question is: Is there a way to do this kind of thing in the current Scrivener?

As a workaround:
I could use Omni Outliner (or Excel) to create these kinds of simple spreadsheets and then import that in some way into Scrivener and then create the internal links?

Ideally, what export format out of OO would be used?

I tried RTF and that seemed to work ok. Then I just created SCRIVENER LINKS to link line items in the imported doc to Character Sketch sheets or whatever I wanted.

But the disadvantage of that is that I’m still modifying and editing the spreadsheet in Omni Outliner whenever I want to change it. (Also I could only seem to link whole lines, not individual cells).

I’d rather have this kind of display - this master table/chart - embedded as a feature in Scrivener.

Any other ideas?

By the way, I read that Scrivener now has two “customizable” columns in Outline view? I tried to see what was meant by that but I’m still scratching my head.

1 Like
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Have you looked at Aeon for the plot/time line thing?

I’ve not used it, but it may get the itch for you.

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I haven’t. I’ll look into Aeon. Thanks!

But…I can see now that part of my need is solved by Scrivener’s Table formatting function. Assuming I can link individual cell text to sheets and folders in the binder, this will at least allow me to brainstorm and link what I come up with to the main Scrivener content. Cool!

4

I would have thought Scrivener’s outline view would be perfect for the Rowling-style spreadsheet - that’s exactly the sort of thing it’s there for:

As for character spreadsheets, no, there’s no way of doing that exactly, but you can create individual character sheets, of course (see the Novel template for a way of doing so). Remember that Scrivener isn’t only for fiction writers, so having a character spreadsheet built in wouldn’t make sense to the philosophy of Scrivener as a whole.

Hope that helps.

All the best,
Keith

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Thanks for the reply Keith. I’m new at this and didn’t realize you could customize the columns that much in outline view.

I guess I just need to figure out how to do that. Any hints? :slight_smile:

I’m looking at View > Outliner Columns… but don’t see one for Custom Field. Hmmm.

6

Ah looks like this article answers my question about custom columns.

I have to modify the Meta-Data…

http://gwenhernandez.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/tech-tuesday-custom-meta-data-in-scrivener-2-x/

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Yep, that’s the one - use Project > Meta-Data Settings > Custom Meta-Data to add new meta-data fields (tick “Wrap” for any that you want to wrap across multiple lines as you type). Then you can add them to the outliner using the Outliner Columns setting and drag the columns around using the header bar.

The beauty of this is that once you’ve planned everything out, you can drill down into the individual chapters or scenes and start writing with the synopsis and custom meta-data information alongside:

All the best,
Keith

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Can’t wait for this to come out in the Windows version.

9

Me too x 1000000000.

10

Well, if you really can’t wait, there’s always store.apple.com . You could always ebay those collectibles/old car/children/spouse if you don’t have the funds. :smiling_imp:

11

Every time I try to eBay the spawn, everyone wants to charge me to take them. I’m not sure what is wrong with my method.

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I don’t have anything to ebay. Poor college student that’s in that awkward transition of having graduated school and trying to find their first real job. Maybe then I can afford to make the transition to Mac, but it would cost me as much as a decent car to do that since I’d have to get so much software over again and I can’t exactly get my education discounts (until I start teaching that is).

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Newcomer here w/the Win version. Just to clarify: what is meant by “this”? Custom meta data?

Assuming the answer is yes, is Custom meta data in the plans for the Win version?

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Yes, “this” means custom meta-data.

If you don’t know what that is, then here’s an explanation (if you do know what that is then just skip the following paragraph):

The Mac version of the software has a lot more features than the Windows feature. One of them that everyone is raving about is Custom Meta-Data. Right now on Windows, all we have is general meta-data, like label colors and status indicators, date modified, etc. That will all pull up on the outliner too. Custom Meta-data is where you can enter in all your own fields. For example, I can create my very own meta-data field for entering characters and be able to pull that up in the outliner as opposed to tracking them with keywords and collections. Same thing with locations, time, and just about anything else you could possibly think of, and then some. They’re meta-data fields that you can customize to your heart’s content. Have fun.

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And yes, all this is planned for Windows and is on the road-map. But the Mac version was in development for about 7 years before work started on the Windows version, so the latter is still having to catch up.

Mark

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I discovered that Aeon let me do a “custom timeline” that let me lay out arguments in place of characters, and the individual arguments as events. Thus, the “timeline” can be used to set up a complex set of arguments.

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“It’s the waiting around the kills me.” - The Lobe from Freakazoid

Everytime I see the features the Mac version has I start drooling and wishing I had a Mac (the only thing that keeps me from it is all the software I have that I love leftover from my college discounts would cost me as much, if not more, than the MacbookPro I’d want itself).

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Is there a time-frame for the custom meta-data on the road map? I’m in the process of trying to outline in Scrivener only (moving away from an Excel + Word combo) and finding the lack of customizable meta-data in the Outliner view quite limiting.

Is there a point in the future where the Windows/Linux platform is expected to have caught up, or will new non-Mac users be forever drooling over Mac-only features?

Overall though looks like a great product, its obvious that a lot of thought has gone into it :smiley:

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If you can fight past us Mac users and kidnap Keith, so that the Mac version’s development is halted for about 3 years, I bet that would give Lee enough time to catch up to the Mac’s features & refinement. Otherwise, I haven’t seen any signs that Keith is willing to let Scrivener for Mac stagnate… so my guess is: probably not.

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Lol (yes people still use “lol”) 8)

Ok, now that I’ve read the “about us” page to see just how ‘vast’ the team is working on the Windows version (or the Mac version for that matter) I think I’ll just have to settle in for a longish wait :confused: