How to get up and writing with Scrivener.

1. Choose a Template

There are several Template options that come with Scrivener, but to get started you might as well choose the Blank Template. You can add in anything you want and you’ll soon find you have a complex setup of your own.

Take a look at the Novel Template as well. It has a bunch of pre set up information and sections which will give you an idea of how to structure your writing. But – you don’t really need any of this to get started and it might just confuse you.

2. Where to write

Choose the Blank Template and save the project. Now you’ll have the basic Scrivener window open.

This is a very simple place to start working. In the left hand column you have three Folders: Draft, Research and Trash.

Draft is where you’ll construct your work. Research is where you can put any research documents you want. You can create more folders easily, but this will do for starters.

Make sure you have highlighted the Draft folder and then click the Add button.

This will create a new document in Draft. Name it, or click in the right hand window and just start typing.

Keep typing until you finish, or until you reach a natural break point like a chapter or section end. Then click the Add button again to get a new document.

Scrivener saves everything as you go along.

You can make as many documents as you like – I create dozens of small bits of text and rearrange them at will. You can drag them up and down in the left hand column and your work will rearrange itself immediately. You can also drag them into a different folder, like the Research folder (I make a Folder called ‘Extracted’ and drag things that aren’t working into it so that I can find them again easily afterwards.

It does something else wonderful. If you use the Trash button that is next to the Add button, it deletes the file, but it just puts it into another folder, called Trash. And you can drag stuff out of there again at any time.

The Inspector and Index Cards

That’s not very complicated, is it? Now, if you want to move on to the next wonderful thing that Scrivener offers, how about Index Cards? You can plan your entire novel on these.

Click the Inspector button at the top right of the screen.

This opens up a new column on the right hand side of the screen.

Type your card notes in the green bit in the right hand column. This will be stored as a synopsis. You can make one for each part of your book, and then display them all by clicking on the middle icon of Group Mode to show the Cork Board with your cards pinned to it.

You can move these cards around in this view to re-organise your work.

Write in peace with Compose

Now you have the start of a long piece of work. You know how to make new parts and to write in them, you know how to keep notes on your Index Cards and you know how to re-organise your work as you go along. Scrivener will save the work for you as you go.

All you have to do now is write, there is no excuse. If you want to write without distraction, click the Compose button and you will get a plain writing area with a black background. (Click Esc to return to the interface.)

And that’s all you really need to get writing in Scrivener. There is, of course, a lot more to it than that. But you may never use it. So go write that novel.