Keeping Track of It All

I use Scrivener's metadata feature to keep characters and locations straight and quite like it. Here's an example:

I've seen these types of threads quite a few times, and the conclusion seems to be the same in all cases: it's more about what tool works for you than about what tool is 'best'. In my case, for instance, I bought and used Scrivener for a while; but I used WORD at work so much that it was beyond second nature for me, so I ended up switching back. OneNote and Excel worked for me for specific functions, and I ended up writing some custom apps for things like timelining.

So I guess the point is to try different systems and apps, and settle on what seems to get in your way the least. But don't be afraid to use something different for specific requirements.

I am obsessive in the difficult sort of way. I also work in tech.

So I made the leap, before OneNote or Scrivner was a thing, over to a self-hosted wiki. No more apps running on my computer, no more MS Office. Everything ranging from my cookbook to my project notes live there.

None of the wiki engines really have the ability to intermingle notes with the text of a document. But they do have generally pretty great ability to tag and index individual pages and if you were to use the engine Wikipedia uses, it has a lot of features for documenting fiction from the outside that may or may not help.

I do tend to keep a journal that's unfiltered ideas and thoughts and then filter that out over time into the more organized sections of my notes. And I also still need to keep track of changes to events in the timeline or bits about a character in two places manually. For me, that's generally not a problem.

Another tech worker chiming in: I've tried wikis but found them too high-maintenance, and I have an on-off relationship with Scrivener. Word is the only one I've used consistently and faithfully over the years, though I keep having flings with Scrivener.

I usually use a notebook and index cards if I really need to keep track of stuff. (I know some folks who find the bullet journal cataloging to be very useful for outlining and characters, but it requires some adaptation and a love of working with a tactile medium.)

I find Scrivener more useful for complex projects than Word, and most of its functions are reasonably intuitive with a little bit of scanning through the tutorial. (Also, 30 day free trial so you can check it out and see if it seems like it has tools that would help you.) I really like being able to quickly click back and forth from chapter to chapter via the index/notecards.

I'll also add that not every project (even ones that seem to be the same level of complex) benefit from the same methods even for the same author. Don't be afraid to try some different things to find what seems to work best for this series.

I don't use Scrivener. I feel so out of the loop, but I've never even tried it. By the time I was in a position financially where I might have bought it, Microsoft Office and Google Drive would both let me go from laptop to tablet to cell phone and keep all my data and keep up with what I was doing before. Scrivener does not as yet have an app, and I do a ton of my note-taking and outlining and even writing during downtime or break at work, so it's just out of the running for me.

What I do is I have two Word documents. One of them is my actual MS. One of them is generically titled "[Project Name] Notes." In that, I have everything sorted, with a table of contents hyperlinking to each section. I have a dossier of all the characters, detailed profiles for each main/POV character, various outlining tools that I fill in independently and make them match, etc. It's also, recently, developed spaces for me to just put thoughts that haven't yet made their way to an official outline.

Bear in mind that I prefer hopping between windows so I can be at a different place in each one. Consolidating my notes was actually difficult for me--I used to keep each of the above pieces of my notes in a different file, but it reached the point where it took ten or twelve windows to work on anything, and that crashed my old computer (and don't get me started on the days I was working on two things at once), so I had to bring everything into one.

Dittoing what's been already said--there is no "best" way to keep track of story data, just the one that feels most comfortable to you. And yes, it can vary from book to book, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Another vote for Scrivener, which has helped me enormously. I kept getting lost in the organisation of my work when using Word and Excel. The other posters are right, however, in that you need to find what works for you.

You can try Scrivener for free for 30 days - that's 30 days of actual use, not a calculation from when you downloaded it. There is a novel template you can use, but I personally prefer the simplest standard template with its Draft, Research and Trash folders. All my character notes and world building stuff goes in my Research folders.

Other writers sometimes offer their novel templates for free on the Scrivener forum.

Seems to me Scrivener is a bit like Marmite, you either love it, or cannot stand it.

Back up your project before importing anything into the app. I'm sure I'm telling granny how to suck eggs, but I have a bad case of twitchiness and cannot stop myself.

I prefer ywriter to scrivener, and it is free.

I only use it for writing, though. Everything else I keep in my head (notes, world building, etc). This is simply down to me being disorganised--i can't do it any other way.

JetFueledCar said:

I don't use Scrivener. I feel so out of the loop, but I've never even tried it. By the time I was in a position financially where I might have bought it, Microsoft Office and Google Drive would both let me go from laptop to tablet to cell phone and keep all my data and keep up with what I was doing before. Scrivener does not as yet have an app, and I do a ton of my note-taking and outlining and even writing during downtime or break at work, so it's just out of the running for me.

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FYI, Scrivener is available on Mac, Win, and iOS. (Scrivener's iOS app was released late last year, if that's what you meant by app.)

I run it on my Windows notebook and on my iPad/iPhone. Keep them all in sync via Dropbox. External bluetooth keyboard makes the iPad a great device for drafting/revising.

Google docs runs on phones as a little app thingy and scrivener doesn't, is what I assume JFC meant.

I also use gdocs on my phone. I get SO much editing and beta reading done that way.

Like Wirehead, I set up a self-hosted wiki (using Mediawiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia -- probably way overkill for my project, though) on my website long before I started using Scrivener. I continue to use it (both the wiki and Scrivener) to this day.

Harlequin said:

Google docs runs on phones as a little app thingy and scrivener doesn't, is what I assume JFC meant.

I also use gdocs on my phone. I get SO much editing and beta reading done that way.

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Scrivener runs on iPhones and iPads and iPod touch.

AW Admin said:

Scrivener runs on iPhones and iPads and iPod touch.

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I do wish they'd come out with a version that works on Android tablets. I'd buy the heck out of it. But I understand they work primarily in an Apple ecosystem so there's nothing that can be done.

Ah, yeah.

Like underpope here, I am not a denizen of the Apple dystopia universe. My gods are robotic (androidal?_?) in nature.

I use Word - once you know how to use the Headings method for navigating quickly to sections, I find it works much easier. I also use Excel for things like timelines, names (especially name elements if I'm adjusting them to create my own names), and certain types of notes like kings (king, birthdate, rule, consorts, offspring, noted events of reign, etc. - much easier when you can read across as well as down).

But as everyone says, it really depends on the tool for you.

@ avekevin - Scrivener is very good for longer stuff. It has far more features than I like to use; I prefer simple, being disorganised, and just keep things in my head. But I didn't find it any worse than Word for things like spell check. It doesn't split things up into pages, which is nice, and the formatting while writing is simpler (good). Resizing the window is much better in Scrivener than in word for text wrapping.

I like that I can put multiple books in the same scrivener document and have it run smoothly. The bigger the project, the more scrivener comes into its own imo. Dragging and dropping scenes is nice, too. I usually started out with scenes organised by POV char and then drag-drop into appropriate chapters as needed.

For small things I prefer Ywriter. More straightforward and I can keep an eye on wordcounts at a glance.

avekevin said:

A few quick questions for the Scrivener users: How are the actual writing tools? I thought I read somewhere on their site that they don't offer word processing functionality a la MS Word. Have you found this to be a problem?

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Well, it's not full-on MS Word, but there's a reasonably sophisticated word processor in there. It does everything you probably need it to do.

avekevin said:

I've used the Grammarly plugin for Word a bit. Does Scrivener provide similar functionality?

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Not really. I doubt Grammarly provides the functionality it claims, though. I'm skeptical of grammar checkers. Grammar strikes me as the sort of thing the author must face alone.

avekevin said:

How about timeline/story line management for multi-book series?

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That depends on how you manage the timeline. I have a three-book (I'm half-done with book three) series in there right now, and I've found it easy to manage. Then again, my chronology isn't particularly complex, so I just have a single timeline document (not visible in the image above) that I tie each chapter into.

avekevin said:

A few quick questions for the Scrivener users: How are the actual writing tools? I thought I read somewhere on their site that they don't offer word processing functionality a la MS Word. Have you found this to be a problem?

I've used the Grammarly plugin for Word a bit. Does Scrivener provide similar functionality?

How about timeline/story line management for multi-book series?

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Hmm. I know naught about the Grammarly plug-in. What little grasp of grammar I have is learned, not apped.

You do need to fiddle with the export settings on Scrivener if you want Italics instead of Underlines as the default is underlined (even if you have italic in the original Scrivener document). On occasion I've had some issues with the export feature, but that's mostly because I don't pay a lot of attention to where I put stuff and what I interpret as chapter breaks are sometimes read as scene breaks. (As far as I can tell, that's user error - not program error.)

For timeline management I find Scrivener to be easier than Word, but it is a question of using the tools they provide. (Which are not that hard if you take the time to go through the tutorial.) I learned how to structure using physical index cards pinned to a wall, so having that easily interpreted/presented in a writing program is useful when I want it.

Again, the trial is for 30 non-consecutive days and well worth exploring as a potential tool. And for free you can't beat checking it out, even if you decide something else works better for you.

avekevin said:

Thanks everyone. It looks like I have a new item on my to do list.

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If you have any technical or usage questions while you are checking out Scrivener, in addition to asking here, Literature & Latte have a very friendly & helpful support forum.

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/

Scrivener is not a substitute for MS Word (or another Word Processor). It's meant to take you through the process of writing a book or story, but lacks support for grammar checker, or track changes.

Do try the 30 days free trial.

Buying Scrivener

If you want to buy Scrivener, the links below to the Apple App store and to Esellerate (Literature and Latte's vendor) are affiliate links for AW. Scrivener for iOS is $19.99.

You can also just go directly to Literature and Latte's site.

Scrivener for Mac (or Windows) list price is $45.00. There are educational discounts, and often, coupons. There are usually discounts during NaNoWriMo and for those who successfully complete NaNoWriMo in a given year.

If you haven't used Scrivener for Mac or Windows, go to the developer's site, Literature and Latte, and download the free thirty day trial version of Scrivener for Mac or Windows first.

• Scrivener for iOS.
• Scrivener for Mac or Windows.