Scrivener is a powerful writing tool. I write about it weekly with tips and usage ideas. To read more of my posts click the Scrivener tag or category at the end of the page.
The Conundrum
My book, The Bow of Destiny, has been with an editor for a structural edit. I’ve received the manuscript back with a list of changes to address. But I need to make some regular decisions on where to make additions and how.
One of the beauties of Scrivener is that I can use the Binder to easily find places where specific changes should be made. I’m using this feature heavily as I revise The Bow of Destiny for its next round of editing.
However, one of the first things which I found to be a quandary was where to add a particular, short scene. I knew I could add it to the end of chapter 9 or the beginning of chapter 10 without any effect on continuity. However, I didn’t know which to choose as the best.
The Answer
Then it occurred to me: which one is longer? This would likely be a determining factor since I didn’t want to make one chapter inordinately long. That’s where another feature of Scrivener came into play.
To determine the length of each chapter I clicked onto each folder and obtained the project statistics. The comparison allowed me to quickly decide on the end of chapter 9 as the place to add the scene. I created a new document container and wrote the scene without hesitation.
How-to
If you need to make such quick determinations about pieces of a project you can do so easily just like I did using Scrivener. While in the section of your project in question, click on Project and then on Project Stastics:
What’s displayed in the following is a window that indicates the totals for the whole project and then for the specific selection. For my purposes, I looked at the selection statistics for each chapter, comparing the number of words and pages and found chapter 9 to be the shorter of the two and my choice was easily made.
With Scrivener, the question at hand was easily answered so that I didn’t waste time on it. I finished my scene addition in less than forty-five minutes – and in the process got the idea for this tip. Once again, Scrivener has proved to be invaluable as a writing tool.
What decisions hold you up while editing? What are your favorite features to use in Scrivener? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section.
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About the Author
P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. The Bow of Destiny is his first novel-length title with more soon to come.
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