So I've gotten really, really interested in story design. (Or story work or “plotting” or the deeply inadequate “outlining”.) I may actually have gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole at this point. In any case, for grins and posterity, herewith is a glimpse into my complete story design for the latest book, Arisen : Nemesis. I write in the wonderful Scrivener. What you're seeing here is my Scrivener project, with:
- Composition window on the right
- A single notes document in the middle
- File tree on the left, with every folder expanded (and Frankensteinenly stitched together). This includes the manuscript chapters themselves (by act), comprehensive story beats (ditto), all my notes files, character sketches, research material from books and even an early version of the design based on the infamous Blake Snyder Beat Sheet. Something like 350 documents in total.
You'll want to click on it for the expanded view, to actually read the document names. (Unless you're still reading the book and don't want spoilers, in which case go away five minutes ago!)