New Narrative Guide - We want your feedback

Official Announcements
#1

Hi All,

Some of you already know the narrative inside out, but if you’re still getting to know it, we’ve got a new guide to help. It’ll show you how to make the most of the narrative to plan and shape your writing.

Check out the Narrative Guide for Writers here

We’d love you to take a look and tell us what you think. Both seasoned veterans and newcomers alike. Let us know whether we missed anything important and what you’d like to learn about next. Your feedback makes all the difference!

Please drop a comment to tell us how you like to use the narrative, whether you use it on its own or alongside the timeline. If you have any tips or tricks that others might find useful, we’d love for you to share them. Your insights could really make a difference for someone else in the community.

Also, be sure to keep your eyes peeled - Guides for syncing your Narrative with Scrivener and Ulysses are coming soon!

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#2

@AeonRob, I had an “aha” moment with regard not just to the documentation but to how to make the user interface less confusing for new users. It’s unrehearsed (obviously!), but I think I get the thoughts across eventually. :slight_smile:

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#3

@AeonRob: I find the instructions understandable; however, I am already familiar with the concept. In any case, it is good how the use cases are explained here.

I would like to emphasize one point, and I agree with @SCN: The chapter structure and an underlying dramaturgical structure are not mutually exclusive. The instructions, however, suggest that the software’s narrative tree structure should represent one or the other.
The leading view for most authors is probably the chapter structure. If there is to be an additional breakdown on a more abstract level, into acts or story beats for example, which then also includes plot points etc., then it makes sense to visualize this by other means, as @SCN demonstrates with his tags. This problem is touched on rather roughly in the instructions, so that the really challenging questions arise later during the work. But that’s what the forum is for, isn’t it?

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#4

It occurs to me I probably miss out on a lot since I’m not a Scrivener user.

If there was a real document attached to each event and each data item, AT would be a lot more usable. I can see syncing to Scrivener might satisfy that.

On the other hand, updating things would be a two step process. Update the timeline, sync to Scrivener and vice versa.

Scrivener is great but it lies outside my workflow. A document, not just a tiny description in the inspector, would be a really cool thing.

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#5

Thanks for taking the time to record your thoughts @SCN. You made some really good points about potential UI improvements that we’ve taken on board.

Also, great feedback from yourself and @Peter_T about parts of the article that could be made clearer. We’ve made a quick edit so far and will think about how we can improve the rest of the article.

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#7

A syncing guide with tips about how to use scrivener custom metadata to get the most info transferred over. One trick for me is to save the project I intend to sync as a copy labeled title of project Aeon. This way I have the original project open while on aeon after sinking copy. Close copy and fix issues in original while aeon open. After done delete copy and sync original.

#8

@Goaliedad It’s definitely not a bad idea to make a copy of both your timeline and Scrivener files and store them in a separate folder whenever you reach a milestone or change something in the sync settings. That way you’ve always got a backup on hand.

We’re working on a guide to syncing with Scrivener that covers syncing custom metadata, and lots of other handy tips. We hope to have that published soon!

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#9

Great thanks, I am really enjoying the software and exploring the possibilities. I am using a nearly completed novel to understand the program and look forward to implementing this with a fantasy novel which I’m in the planning stage on.

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