Thank you, Andrea. You have helped me figure out how to use my Scrivener for outlining. I may get my novel rewritten this coming year after all! That's my goal for 2023. I want to publish it before I turn 67 in September. I hope I can do it.
I think most people criticising outlining don't realise that all outlining is discovery outlining - the discovery part of writing, coming up with the story, has just been moved, in part, to the front of noveling process. Your method is basically my zero draft (though I aim for 1,000-1,500 words per scene, not chapter). I do the same thing as you do where I copy and paste a bullet point list of scene outline to the actual manuscript when I'm about to write a scene, and I write above the list, removing list items as I go. It's really helpful for me, too! Thanks for sharing, this was a really interesting video!
Yes! I totally agree. It's nice to find someone who has a similar process. I'm basically writing a 20k word version of the whole book when I outline. But it still leaves so much room for discovering and changing things while I write. Thanks for watching!
I'm a "Discovery Writer" (I like that a lot better than the other term), but I think this will work great for me. The first thing I'm gonna do is get rid of all those folders with nested documents that I have in my Scrivener Binder. Your method and structure looks clean and simple, and I think it'll allow me to focus so much better with my binder being less complicated. Thanks so much.
Thanks for watching! I'm glad the video was helpful. I like Discovery Writer better than the other term too lol. :) I think this method works great for discovery writing because you can just do a shortened version and not develop it as much as I do. And yes, in Scrivener, I don't like using the folders and nested documents and splitting it up into a million scenes between all the folders. That's kind of what Scrivener's default is but I get rid of that as soon as I create a new project. This layout is much cleaner and easier to manage.
Of course since your are a writing instructor it is no surprise that you are a great teacher. Not sure if you’re looking to do more instructional type videos on your channel in 2023 but this really feels like a zone of genius for you! Thanks again for sharing.
Aww thank you! I definitely have more educational/instructional videos planned for the year, it's just always a matter of filming them. The vlogs are easy because I film as I go, but these videos take more planning and set up. But I have so many ideas for videos!
Oh gosh no, you're not weird at all for outlining! Lots of people outline. I think it's fairly evenly split, plotters versus discovery writers. So you're not alone! :)
Thank you so much Andrea for sharing this wonderful method of outlining. I've looked at other methods and found them far too involved (I'm more of a Pantser) but yours is just right. Keep up the good work 👍
Great video, the way I explain my detailed outlines to people is it is a coloring page and all I have to do is color in the lines. I have everything I need and I just need to fill in the fun bits.
I love this video! I have Scrivener and I tend to get lost on how to use it. Your method seems the easiest for me as I'm a discovery writer. 😊I'm going to use this for my second book.
Thank you so much for this concise video that helped me a lot seeing clearer into my different projects and also tame that wild beast called Scrivener !
I hated doing outlines in school so I decided that I was a pantser. Out of school for about a decade now. I’m a plotter. I’m such a plotter. Outlining is a lot more fun than common core made it.
I'm so sorry for taking so long to reply! I feel like school does such a horrible job of teaching outlines. I teach writing at a university and most of my students hate outlines because of how they learned them in high school. I always try to get them to understand there are so many ways to outline and most of them are way more fun than they think. Glad you realized that you're a plotter. Being a pantser/discovery writer is fine, if that's what someone actually is. But trying to be a pantser when you're really a plotter is so hard.
Hi Andrea, in outlining, do you use the Save the Cat Beat Sheet or the Hero’s Journey? There are so many methods that it can become quite overwhelming. This is the first time that I can SEE with my own eyes how the outlining process works. Thank you so much for that. Although you write on Mac, it seems not that different from Windows. PS: Apart from subscribing, I have also gotten the first book of each of your series on Kindle and looking forward to reading them! Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦📗📕
Oh wow, thank you! Glad to have you watching from South Africa and thank you for buying my books and subscribing! :) As for outlining, I don't use a specific plot structure. My plots probably resemble Save the Cat a little, I don't know because I haven't read that. But I know it's very popular with other writers and I feel like a lot of the books I read use that structure so I've probably internalized it and just add my own spin. And I really love this outlining method because it can be adapted no matter what structure you use and can definitely be done in whatever program you use on Windows. :)
@@AndreaJSeverson thank you so much for the hard work you are doing. I’m riveted to the screen. The only difference being that I use Scrivener for Windows. I also thought Save the Cat would work the best. Have an awesome day!🇿🇦
Even those writers who claim to hate outlines are outlining, just calling it something else. Even if the heavens open up and drop a book into your consciousnesses entire, you're still going to have to break it down and organize it and that is, well, outlining. I think the outline feels so left-brain and so it's scorned, and yet even if you use a timeline or index cards or a scratchbook, or even reference points in our head, there is some form of the tool.
Thank you so much for this video ❤ I’m just a daydreamer who’s finally putting my dreams and stories on paper and this has been so helpful with understanding the process more and what could set me up for success when I start writing. Do you have any tips for when you face the struggle of finding motivation to write on those bad writing days?
I'm so glad this video was helpful! I love that you're starting to write. I think when it comes to motivation, remember that writing should be fun. So if you're really not in the mood to write, don't force it. But I still try to sit down and write for at least 10 minutes. Sometimes I feel better than I expect and write for longer, other times I realize it really isn't going to work that day. But every day I at least try. :)
I don't really outline my series. Since they're all interconnected stand alones, I just have a few sentences of description for each book in the series. :)
I'm pretty sure I show that in both my other Scrivener videos, if my explanation here isn't clear enough. But basically, on the top menu go to "Project" in the top menu bar and then click "Show Project Targets" (if you're on a Mac you can also press Shift+Command+T, not sure what the hotkeys on a PC are). This then pulls up a separate box where you can set your target goal and if you click "Options" in that box you can select a deadline and other things. My other videos go into more detail on that feature. When you're writing, you can leave that box open while you write to see your progress in the writing session or it will display in the box at the center top of the window. Hope this helps!
@@AndreaJSeverson I think I was able to follow your instructions. However, the days of the week are “grayed out” and not letting me select which days I intend to write. Have I clicked on a wrong option? I feel that without selecting the writing days, the daily required word count to meet my deadline will be inaccurate. Any help is appreciated. I am writing on a MacBook Air.
