Managing scene and sequel using Outline view

Q & A
#1

I tend to outline (mostly) in scene pairs (scene and sequel, action and reaction, …). Would like to establish that pairing in AT.

On the surface, this strikes me as a simple relationship between two scenes; maybe I have tag or a property or something to identify a scene as either scene or a sequel. How do I setup the relationship that would pair them? Might it be a parent child thing in the outline hierarchy that could imply this relationship?

And, in the situation where a scene has both cause and effect (is both scene and sequel), is it possible to have a recursive relationship? I suppose one could use passages for this, eh?

I am using the out of box novel template and would like to do this sort of activity using only the Outline view, initially.

In my workflow, I capture stuff in a handwritten notebook over the course of many months. When I’m getting a gut feel that it is has a future, then I boil down that handwriting into cork board elements in Scrivener then spend weeks shuffling and sub dividing stuff around in the binder to a hierarchy with few plot holes.

AT just seems like a much better way.

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#2

My thought is that you could use a visual reference that makes it easy to see the nature of the scene (scene vs. sequel or even action and reaction if it combines both elements in one scene). For that, you could create an item type “Scene Type” (for example) and set Outline view to show the Scene Type as an additional column.

What do you think?

#3

@SCN - thank you. Your thought provided a useful nudge in a better direction.

Been messing with it this morning and extended your thought down to the passage (child level) within scenes. This allows me to identify story arc, theme, foreshadowing, and other story elements to passages. Your idea of “Scene Type” has morphed into “Passage Type” and currently includes scene, sequel, backstory (exposition), and dialogue.

Am sorta thinking I can do a credible first draft in AT - not fully fleshed out scenes but enough summary & notes content to ensure a adequate story.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my outline work automagically showing up on the spreadsheet view. It would be useful to have non-date narrative elements (i.e. exposition) exposed in the subway view.

Deliberate “stick time” is necessary with a tool like this; as are taking breaks to let it settle in:) I thought I had retired from the entity - relationship - object model world.

What a phenomenal product!

Cheers!

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