A pen, a pad of paper, a computer. What else could a writer need?
Feeling stuck, blocked or resistant often comes from not having what you need. Your resistance is there because something important isn’t. You need something to move your writing forward: it might be reassurance, support, time, training, experience, tools.
Looking for a new tool or technique can be a trap. Installing Scrivener, for example, can take distract you from actually writing until you know how to use it. And Scrivener isn’t going to write your project if you don’t show up to work with it.
But there are times when you really do need a new tool or technique. Today, I am profoundly grateful for both.
New Tools and Techniques Help Me See New Possibilities
I’m revising my novel using scene cards (that is, index cards with one scene per card and one card for every scene in the manuscript). The new technique is to revise my novel at the level of scenes, not at the level of the hundreds of pages in the manuscript.
When I lay out the scene cards on my dining room table, I see more of the story than I ever could trying to look at manuscript pages.
I also give myself an 30,000 foot view with a Word table that identifies the POV character in each scene, a fragment that describes the main action in the scene, and the timeline (e.g. Card 1 happens on Day 1, Card 12 happens on Day 3, etc.). At this level, I can see where to add new scenes for a new POV character. I can also see scenes that are probably no longer necessary.
I could never do what I’m doing at the level of words on the page.
For example, I deleted three entire chapters today. I haven’t altered the manuscript yet and I might salvage some of the dialogue from those scenes to copy somewhere else before I hit the Delete key. But I wrote Delete on three scene cards and pulled them from the deck. When I start working with the manuscript again, those pages will go.
I wouldn’t have the courage to contemplate deleting those chapters without agonizing over the great stuff that’s there. At the level of sentences and pages, I’m too attached. At the level of sentences and pages, the way the story is in the current draft seems to be the only way the story could unfold.
I wish I’d created scene cards first instead of drafting my way through, but I didn’t know about this technique when I started this novel. I learned the foundation – e.g. dreamstorm and create scene cards as you imagine an entire novel at the level of scenes, rather than trying to outline (with the analytical mind) or just sitting down and drafting your way through – from Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream.
Bane of Your Resistance 
Great process. I am a scrivener addict, myself, but I am very engaged in cinematic storycraft and my novels always move in scenes. Up until now, I have simply set up a new sub-document for each scene and put a title on it so I could recognize it and move it around. But there is the possibility to use the program the way that you have suggested using note cards. I’m looking forward to trying it out now. Using Scrivener, you can set up a new subdocument for each scene, then view them as notecards in a different view. From there you can type up your summary, color code them by theme, add all of the details that you suggested. I haven’t really taken advantage of this, but after reading this post, I’m gonna have a looksee. Thanks for the advice!
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Thanks Owen. Please comment again to tell us what you discover in your looksee. I’m sure other Scrivener users would like to know more. Since a few of my coaching clients use Scrivener, I’d like to be able to share your experiences with them. If you notice that using the Scrivener tools make it easier to get started or stay with your writing or find another writing resistance connection, I’d be interested in possibly publishing a guest post from you. Thanks again.
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Wow, thanks Rosanne! I’d love to send you what I find. I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.
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“At the level of sentences and pages, I’m too attached.”
Priceless. This is the next writing tool I’m adopting.
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Thanks Joel!
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