![]() ![]() Here’s an example three-act story structure with three chapters in each act, opened to Act I. You can nest your scenes within your chapters (or your chapters within your acts), which will require a lot of hopping up and down levels to view the cards you’ve created across the whole story, but which will show fewer cards on the screen at any given time. Most writers have multiple scenes within a chapter, so keep breaking them your index cards down until you have a card for each scene.Īt this point, you might have to make an organizational decision. If you write those short one-scene chapters like Dan Brown or David Baldacci, you’re in luck: that's as deep as you need to go. Scenes are the basic unit of storytelling, so your goal is to get down to the scene level. If you started with chapters, break them down into scenes. ![]() If you started with acts, break them down into chapters. Once you have your first round of cards is complete, it’s time to start going deeper into your story. It’s that simple, but unless you’re an experienced storyteller-and perhaps even if you are-it won’t be easy.Ĭhallenge yourself to be as specific as possible. until you’ve reached the end of your story. Once you’re done the first chapter card, create a new index card for the second, third, fourth, etc. In both cases, the story is stronger for it. Other times I break the chapter out into two chapters because there are two important points I want to hit. Often, I don’t know what the main purpose of my chapter is and I’ll have to think really hard about it. The challenge here is to get to the point. In the body of the card, write a one or two sentence description of the main purpose of the chapter, like I've done above. This isn’t the final result, but an exercise in getting to know your story better. Challenge yourself to title your sections anyways. Maybe you’re writing a literary story and you want those fancy roman numerals to head each chapter, or you don’t want chapter breaks at all, just a blank space between sections like Frank McCourt uses in Angela’s Ashes. Create a card and write the title of the chapter at the top of the card.Įven if you don’t plan to title your chapters in the final story, use titles as an exercise in specificity. Let’s say you've thought about it for a while and now have a vague idea of how your chapters should be laid out. Sometimes I start with a “beginning” card and an “end” card. Sometimes, I’ll start planning (especially in the early phases of idea generation), with only three or four cards, one for each “act”. When you switch back to the corkboard view, these documents will automatically become index cards. To do this, just create a new document, as you normally would for a new scene or chapter, within the Storyboard folder. Next, create an index card for your first act or chapter. Create index cards for the major sections of your book ![]() Now you should see an empty corkboard like this (background color/style varies depending on your settings):ģ. View the folder as corkboardĪfter you create your new storyboarding folder, open it, and view it as a corkboard. Move the new folder outside of the Manuscript section in the Binder. Here are the steps to start storyboarding in Scrivener: 1. How To Create Your Storyboard in Scrivener These things will make the storyboarding process easier. I suggest you also have a few character and setting sketches and a solid grasp of plot and structure. To begin storyboarding, you must at least have an idea for a story. It’s a way to see the big picture, make sure your story has good bones, and that everything logically flows from one scene to the next. planning/plotting), during the rough draft (when I get stuck), and when I’m revising. Storyboarding is a tool I use several times during the writing process: before I begin writing (i.e. The storyboarding process can be undertaken at any phase in the writing of a story. Scrivener’s corkboard view provides the perfect interface to storyboard your novel digitally. ![]() Storyboarding as it pertains to novels and short stories is the process of mapping out your story, often using index cards, in a high-level way that allows you to see your story visually and rearrange it. ![]()
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