Writing in Scrivener – Read First Chapter.com

Peek Behind the Novel – Level 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF:

The last Peek Behind the Novel video may have been a tips video. So I’ll just jog everyone’s memory here. In Layer 4, that is the ‘down-and-dirty’ first draft. That’s where, using my scene outlines, I write the scenes. I just keep going. I don’t check anything.

WHAT WAS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS NOVEL:

Four-story timelines Although I follow a detailed outline of the story before I even start writing, each novel presents its own issues and/or problems. In this novel, I had several timelines I had to keep straight.

There is a crime timeline. Then there is the story timeline, where all the clues are dropped into the story. The characters had a night-out and that had its own timeline. Plus the subplot has a timeline.

Because I had to concentrate on keeping all of these timelines straight, I only sketched in the subplot. That means that in Layer 5, I will also be writing my subplot into the story. I can concentrate on the timeline for the subplot by itself.

Scrivener-Guidepost-subplot-availability

However, I did leave guideposts in Scrivener for myself to make laying in the subplot easier for myself. As shown above, I write in a guidepost where I have free time for a scene from the subplot. I also highlight it so it’s easier to find. Without these guideposts, I would have to pick through the whole novel looking for places to fit in the subplot scenes.

Scrivener-Guidepost-timeline-reminder

Another guidepost I left for myself is to highlight a timing that is involved in the subplot. By keeping this highlighted, it’s a constant reminder that this timing may have to change as I write the entire subplot. This too prevents me from having to search and find or nitpick through the entire novel.

WHAT I DO IN WRITING LAYER 5:

Normally, Layer 5 is where I write in all of the descriptions; descriptions of the characters and the locations. I fix any glaring errors that pop out at me, but I make sure I don’t get lost in any type of real proofreading.

Scrivener-Screenshot-of-Synopsis The second thing I do in Layer 5 is to fill out the Synopsis section. This section is in the upper right-hand side of the Scrivener platform.

I use only a few words to indicate what happened in this scene, especially what clues have been dropped. I don’t use anything longer than a short sentence. The purpose for this is so that once I am finished writing Level 5, I can look at the entire story in Outline View. I have a snapshot of the Outline View below.

Scrivener-OutlineViewExample

Once I have all of the scenes in and I have the synopsis filled out, I can view the novel from a bird’s eye view again. This will let me know where the book is “sagging” or where I don’t have enough going on.

I can see the weight of the story in this viewport. I can see the interactions of all of the characters.

LAYING IN THE ENTIRE SUBPLOT:

Now, because I had to kind of abandon the full subplot in Layer 4, I will be finishing the subplot while I’m doing the descriptions and the synopsis box. Once I’m done with this layer, then I’ll be back to discuss what happens in Layer 6!

Benefits of Writing Fiction in Layers:

1. Manage creative energy.
2. Keep the entire novel project manageable
3. Writing in layers leads to several layers of accomplishment
4. A story written in layers is a richer and deeper story.

Tips on Writing in Layers:

1. Name each layer and know your specific mission. This leads to a
feeling of completion and also a feeling of accomplishment several times during the entire project.
2. Learn the difference between creative energy and drudgery energy.
3. By breaking the writing process down into layers, it is less taxing on your memory.

YOU CAN SEE A VIDEO OF THIS MATERIAL BELOW:

Eight Tips to Keep on Track During the First Draft of a Novel Manuscript

ONE: Turn Off Smart Quotes and Sentence Case Correction.

Smart-quotes-straight-quotes Turn these Scrivener features off, especially if you plan to move your finished novel draft into Microsoft Word for final formatting. Because I self-publish and I need to upload in ePub and PDF manuscript, I use Word for a final proofread and formatting. I find Word is the best choice for me. The smart quotes do not translate well between Scrivener and Word. If you turn off the smart quotes, Scrivener will replace them with straight quotes and these translate better.

There is really no upside to using smart quotes in a novel. This is not a feature that will prevent you from leaving out a quote. It’s really useless for an author, so its best to shut this feature off.

The sentence case correction will not allow you to add a lower case letter after a period. This doesn’t seem like it would be a problem, but at least once during a first or follow-up draft there’s a time when this auto correct starts wrestling with me when I’m trying to do something. So I shut it off now at the beginning.

If you search “auto correct” in the Scrivener help bar, you will be able to open up this feature and uncheck these two items. You’ll thank me for it later.

Also, there is a whole layer of proofreading that I’ll be making a blog post about in my Peek Behind the Novel series where I will show you how I use the find feature to check on every single quote mark. I’ve always had at least one or two that almost got away! So the smart quotes are nothing but a nuisance.

TWO: JUST KEEP WRITING – DON’T LOOK BACK:

typing-hands-gif I’m writing my fourth novel in the Jack Nolan Detective Series. The book is still unnamed. This is Level 4 in my Eight Levels of Writing a Novel series. This first draft is down and dirty. It is the hardest lift of the entire project. At least for me, the first draft is the hardest. The characters all seem like stick figures. I find them unlikeable — even if I liked them in the last book! Any humor doesn’t seem to work. Everything just seems awkward. I have to literally force myself to keep typing. So this tip is to just keep writing. Don’t check on any spellings or grammar. Don’t even look back. Just keep going until you have the crime down, the main plotline down and the subplots at least in place. That will complete the first down-and-dirty draft. Every other layer will be easy compared to this one.

THREE: YOU CAN DO RESEARCH NOW ON THE FLY

With bard.google.com, now it’s possible to do research on the fly when writing fiction. Simply open a browser window, type in bard.google.com and start asking it questions.

Unlike ChatGPT, Bard is a Google AI product supposedly still in beta form, but it works like a charm. Unlike ChatGPT, it can research using the internet. ChatGPT is limited by time; the cutoff for ChatGPT the last time I checked was sometime in September of 2021 I believe. The cut off of what it can access is now way over a year ago. So I find that Bard is a better option for book research so you can get the latest.

FOUR: USE THE SCRIVENER HIGHLIGHTER AS A REMINDER:

scrivener-highlighter Scrivener allows you to highlight text in any color you want. I use this highlighter in the Level 4 Draft to make a mental note to myself to check on things. For example: If I say that someone is coming home from a hospital in four days, I highlight this. This makes sure that this lines up with the plotline, or the crime line, or the subplot lines.

As an author, I will often tweak the script, especially as I’m writing. It’s too easy to forget this early reference to five days. By highlighting it, it’s a reminder that this timing needs to line up with something later on in the story. I find this highlighter a great author tool.

FIVE: LEAVE THE POV | TIME | LOCATION HEADERS IN THE DRAFT:

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m in the first draft of my novel and each scene begins with the same Scene Template as seen to the left.

I leave the POV, which stands for Point of View at the top of each scene during the first draft. I don’t choose the POV before I write the scene. I write the scene and see which character claims the scene. Then I assign that one character to the scene.

POINT OF VIEW: By keeping the POV at the top of the scene, it’s a reminder to me to make sure the entire scene is in this one point of view. I admit that I allow myself one small head jump at the end of a scene. I’m a self-published author, so I can indulge myself and get away with this. I believe a reader can handle one head jump at the end of a scene for the purpose of informing them of what the other character thinks at one time. I don’t believe one head jump creates that big of a problem.

TIME AND LOCATION: By leaving the Time and Location information at the top of each scene, it is a reminder to make sure I describe the scene and whoever else may need a description in that scene. In Layer 5 of my writing system, I go through all the scenes and add descriptions of the locations and people. So this information makes that level of writing easier.

SIX: KEEPING TRACK OF MULTIPLE TIMELINES:

I write Christian mystery romance, private investigator mysteries and police procedurals. By leaving the timings in the header to each scene, it allows me to keep track of the story timeline. I am always keeping track of multiple timelines in each novel. I have the crime timeline. Then there is the timeline of the investigation and the dropping of the clues. And the subplots also have a timeline as each book has at least a small character arc. This is because I write in series and the characters have one small character arc in each novel.

So that’s a minimum of three timelines that I need to track. So keeping these timelines at the top of the scenes as I go from layer to layer of writing, it makes it easier to make sure things are lining up on each timeline.

I keep these headers inside the manuscript draft until I’m ready to put the book into chapters.

SEVEN: ADDING ADDITIONAL SCENES WHEN WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT:

There comes a time or two when I will decide to add a short scene or two. It may just be to have a change in the point of view or to get the characters to a different location. Whatever, it is, I use three asterisks between these two separate scenes. I also start the second scene with my normal Scene Template.

This allows me to know this is a separate scene and it will have a point of view. It also alerts me that I will need to insert a scene ending which I won’t do until I bring the manuscript into Microsoft Word.

EIGHT: USE SCRIVENER SYNOPSIS SECTION TO KEEP TRACK OF CLUES DROPPED:

Scrivener-Synopsis-Section When writing the first draft, I use the Scrivener Synopsis section in the Inspector Pane to list the clues I have dropped in that scene. Once I’ve finished the first draft, I can open the project in Outline View and this will give me a bird’s eye view and chronology of the clues that have been dropped.

Personally, I often also add background information that I dropped in the scene. I do this only because I have a tendency to forget whether I dropped that background information in the present novel or if my memory of dropping it is from the last novel I wrote!

This alone is a major reason why I love writing drafts in Scrivener.

CONCLUSION:

So these are the tips I would pass on about writing this first draft of a novel. Knowing that it’s the hardest allows me to know that once I make it through this first draft, all subsequent layers of writing will be easy peasy compared to this one.

All I need to do is to blurt out the entire story in the first draft. All corrections, additions, deletes and polish will come in later layers.

Peek Behind the Novel – Writing Scene Outlines

WHERE WE ARE BEGINNING IN THIS BLOG POST:

I left off writing about how I divide the crime skeleton, after adding in the subplots, into the Four-Part Structure. I am now entering the third layer of writing. This blog post and video below are about sketching in the plot outlines.

WHERE WE ARE GOING:

Most new writers want to get to the writing already. But in this layer of writing, all plot holes or inconsistencies will show up. Any clues that won’t work when adding more suspects and motivations will show up in this layer.

So this layer is like an insurance policy that you won’t be writing for the trash can.

USING THE SHORT TEMPLATE:

My template is short but it keeps me on track. I’ll break it down below. This small template I use keeps my writing on point and tight. It prevents me from meandering, dawdling, going off on an irrelevant tangent or writing myself into a corner.

POINT OF VIEW

In order to prevent head-hopping, which is very common among new writers, you need to be constantly reminded that each scene is in one perspective. Some writers write in first person and that’s easy.

However, I write in third person – one persons perspective. This prevents the reader hopping from head to head. It’s too confusing for a reader to do that.

However, I don’t choose my point of view this early on in the process. I wait until I am actually writing the scene before I choose. In my experience, as you write the scene, the first draft, one character will sort of ‘claim the scene as their own’. That’s when I choose the point of view and then make sure the entire scene is in that persons perspective.

Now, I must confess, since I write in third person narrator style, I do allow myself one tiny head-hop at the end of a scene if I think it serves the plot well. I think any reader can handle one tiny head hop.

I’m a self-published author at this time, and one of the benefits of self-publishing is you can do what you want. The professional publishers may be horrified by allowing one head hop at the end of a scene, but as a self-publisher, I can do what I want. (Hee hee)

KEEPING TRACK OF TIME

I don’t know whether I am an author who is obsessed with time, or whether I use time as an element to put pressure to solve on my characters, but I have always tracked time. I find this helps me balance the story and make the story more realistic.

What I mean by that is often times there is so much that is happening in a book on one particular day, that it becomes unrealistic that all of this could happen in one day. Maybe it’s just me.

Keeping track of time allows me to also know when the workday is over and the subplots can enter the scene as most subplots happen at least in part in a character’s off time.

CHOOSING A SCENE LOCATION:

Location is important for two reasons. One reason is casts the scene in cement. You have chosen a stage for the scene to take place. I don’t write any scene or location descriptions in this layer of writing. But I can write the action of the scene in context of a location.

Secondly, adding the location in this layer allow me to go off and find photographs that I can use in the layers down the road where I will add descriptions into the story.

PURPOSE – MOVEING THE STORY ALONG

Every experienced author who I listened to when I was first writing fiction said the same thing: Everything in the manuscript is there to move the story along. If it doesn’t move the story, it doesn’t belong there. So this Purpose in my template helps me keep my writing tight and on point.

CLUES – KEEP TRACK OF CLUES

This one is self-evident. A crime novel, murder mystery or police procedural is about solving a crime or mystery. So uncovering clues, following them to the next clue is the vehicle for the story. So it’s important to keep track of clues.

In the first stage of writing, it’s easy to remember if you put clues into the story. In the first draft, it’s easy to rely on your memory. But after you’ve read through the story a bit and begin to add more to it, you won’t be able to remember whether you saw that clue in the last chapter or the last time you read through the entire layer.

So it’s important to keep track of clues.

DIVIDING AND CONQUERING THE MANUSCRIPT:

By dividing the story into four parts, and then writing scene outlines, you can divide a huge manuscript down into bite-size pieces. It is less overwhelming and easier to organize, write and keep track of.

HOW SCENE OUTLINING WORKS IN SCRIVENER:

You can watch the video below for a full explanation, but each scene begins with the template. I leave the POV blank for now. I choose the time and location. And then under Purpose/Clues, I add everything I want to happen in this scene. I am thinking about the main plot, the dripping of background info, the dripping of clues, and the subplots.

I use numbers but using bullet points would probably be best as I have to change the numbers a lot. Although when I show you the rest of my technique, you will see that the number themselves don’t matter.

ABOUT THE VIDEO:

In this video, I talk about and lay out how to use a simple template and write the individual scene outlines. By sketching in the individual novel scenes, I can be sure that the clues and mystery scenarios will all work before I waste any time writing any scenes. I go into my strategy and work flow in this video and the benefits of outlining the scenes first. Once you have a scene outline, the actual writing of the scenes becomes only creative and fun.

Time Stamps of this video:
00:01 – Laying out the plotline into scenes
00:58 – The benefits of writing scene outlines
02:46 – The scene template
03:03 – Summary of the process up to this point. Showing a scrolling outline.
04:22 – The template in action – an example of how the template works 04:45 – Point of View
05:26 – Keeping track of time in the manuscript
06:26 – The importance of Locations
07:10 – Purpose – Moving the story along
08:20 – Keeping track of clues
09:20 – Dividing and conquering the manuscript
10:05 – Live in Scrivener with present novel – How the scene outlines work. 11:45 – Sneak Peek of the Synopsis
12:05 – Looking at Scrivener Binders a new one vs. a fully written book
13:13 – Knowing the story through the outline

Peek Behind the Novel – Writing the First Draft – Layer 4

LAYER 4 – WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT

PBN-SM-Layer4-Scivener

Use the Scene outlines to write the individual scenes.
Split Scrivener Binder into Four Parts representing the Four Part Structure.
I copy each scene outline into one document under the Part it belongs in.
I set up all of my scene documents in the proper sections. I don’t worry if certain parts are ‘heavy’. The clues are recorded but the rest of the drama of the story is not.

THE MIND IS ALWAYS WORKING:

This process will give you a bird’s eye view of the scenes.
I usually decide to move a scene or two closer to the mid-section of the story. Because it’s only an outline, it’s easy-peasy.
By seeing the scenes with the timings and a one to three word prompt, I start to see the story from above.

I DON’T FORGET MY LANDMARKS – PART 1

The Hook (Which we haven’t talked about yet)
The crime scene or the acknowledgement of the mystery
The Inciting Incident – When the detectives start off to solve the crime.
By the end of Part 1, I want there to be at least 2 suspects or even 3.
By the end of Part 1, more than one person looks guilty.

LANDMARKS OF PART 2:

Interviews begin – they point to different people
Clues begin to trickle in – they may seem to clear one or another
One of two secrets are exposed in Part 2.
The end of Part 2 is the midway point. There could be a big surprise or shock

LANDMARKS OF PART 3:

More interviews
More clues
Even the rise of another suspect, an unusual suspect.
This rise of an unusual suspect can twist the story into another direction.
This midway point could also be a Dark Night of the Soul where it may seem that the culprit may get away with it or it won’t be solved or solved in time.

LANDMARKS OF PART 4:

The first part of this section will be a big reveal.
The crime will be solved between the start of Part 4 up to 2/3 of the part.
There needs to be time to wrap up the crime and show how it affects everyone involved.
The last part of the story is for the ‘wrap up’ where you tie up all the loose ends.

ABOUT WRITING THE WRAP UP:

Reveal the guilty party and solve the mystery.
Reveal why the red herring couldn’t be guilty.
Do a quick review of the whole crime to confirm for the readers
Show a ‘new normal’ for the main characters, showing their character arcs completing.
In a series, you need to drop a clue that this crime is finished but their story continues.

TIPS ON WRITING A FIRST DRAFT:

Write forward only. Don’t look back.
Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, verb tense, too many over-used words.
The goal of the first draft is to get it down on paper and make sure you put everything into the story from your scene outlines.
Think of it as ‘blurting out the story’.

I’LL BE BUSY OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS WRITING:

I’ve reached Layer 4 in my present novel. This layer takes time to get it all down on paper.
By not worrying about prose or grammar, I’m free to just be creative about the story and whatever dialogue pops into my head.
The first draft will be just that — a first draft.
Rest assured that the first draft is important, but by the time I get all the way to Layer 8, it will be polished and not look anything like it looks in the first draft.

I HOPE THIS SPURS SHARING

I hope my revelations of my writing techniques will prompt other authors to reveal their process.
I love to learn new techniques and when I was brand new, learning from experienced authors was so very helpful.
Be sure to sign up at ReadFirstChapter.com to get on my mailing list. I send book promotions once a week and notices of new books and notices of when my books go “free” on Amazon.

Here is the YouTube video that goes along with this blog post. I have the timestamps below in case you want to watch a certain part over or just skip to the relevant part.

00:01 – How I set up Scrivener into the Four Part Story Structure 01:15 – This process gives you a bird’s eye view of the entire story
02:00 – Showing in Scrivener how I set up the Binder, the documents, the Title and Synopsis sections and how I can use the Outline view to see a bird’s eye view of the entire manuscript as it comes together.
03:00 – Tracking case time and personal time in order to weave in the subplots
03:36 – How I use the screen outlines, moving the scene outline into the Notes section to keep it safe
04:25 – The Corkboard vs. Outline View 06:10 – Keeping the writing landmarks of Part 1 in mind: The hook, inciting incident, etc.
07:15 – Landmarks of Part 2, how the evidence trickles in – middle of the book
08:20 – Landmarks of Part 3 – Names the suspects and a dark night of the soul.
09:20 – First half of Part 4 – The big reveal and the wrap up of the mystery. 11:03 – Tying up all loose ends and the subplots. Showing the new normal. Ending the character arcs for this story.
12:00 – Writing series and letting the reader know the crime has been solved but their personal lives continue.
12:37 – Five tips to Beginner Writers 13:30 – The story crafter vs. the story author.

Peek Behind the Novel – Layer 1 – Organizing the Crime Tips

This is the second step in writing a new fiction novel. In the first step, I start out with writing four potential storylines in FreeMind, which is a mind mapping software. You can see that video here.

Once I finish four potential plotlines, one of them usually pops out and wants to be written. I feel myself getting excited to write it. This process, although it’s hard to think of four different storylines, gives me confidence right from the beginning that I am writing the best book for me right now. This whole process fills me with excitement to write.

OPEN SCRIVENER AND BEGIN:

I take my new plotline and open scrivener. I open one document and plan the crime itself. I’m presently writing a police procedural at this time, but even if you are writing a generic mystery, this technique will work. Most great fiction has some level of mystery or suspense in it, so it would even work for generic fiction.

I make a chronological list of the crime as it happens. When it happens, who it happens to, who the first witnesses will be, if any. I also isolate in my mind an actual scene of the crime. I put in all the evidence the cops or detectives will find at the scene. This will begin the investigation. In a mystery or crime novel, this is the inciting incident.

I also add to the list other suspects and what their motivation will be for the crime or mystery. As you begin to add different suspects into the mix, you will most likely have to change your original plotline idea to accommodate these new suspects.

I go through this whole process adding, subtracting and changing up the suspects and plotline in this abbreviated format. It should look like directions from Google maps or a long list of very short paragraphs.

A SECTION CALLED THE ENDING:

I have a section at the end called “How it will end”. My books never end the way I indicate in this section. However, by having a solid idea of how I want it to end at this time, it gives me a direction and a destination. Then during the creative process, when I get new and better ideas, I simple go down my list and/or scene outlines (we’ll cover these in another installment) and change up the outline. It’s easy-peasy.

I do this for the entire storyline. At the end, you will have a good idea what the story is about, but there won’t be any nuance, or personality in the story yet, so if it seems dry, don’t worry about it. It is very dry at this point. You are knitting together a skeleton and bones are dry. You will breathe live into this as you get to the point of actual writing.

THE BENEFITS OF WRITING THIS OUTLINE:

Most new writers want to start writing scenes and dialogue. They want to just get on with it. But the dark side of working this way is that when you find out your clues won’t work when you need to add a new suspect, you will have written two chapters already. My process will save you from writing for the trashcan.

By going through this short one-liner outline in chronological order, anything in the story that won’t work, it comes out in this layer of writing. This saves you from throwing away already written work.

There is a video I made for YouTube below. I go over some of these points but others tips and tricks as well. For your convenience, I have time stamps below in case you want to just jump to the section you want to look at:

01:27 – Open Scrivener and open one document
01:45 – Other suspects, their motivation, red herring, etc.
02:15 – How it will End section
03:20 – Determining the framework of the script which will prevent writing for the trash can.
05:30 – Review of the layer elements
05:43 – Sneak peek into the next videos

A Peek Behind the Novel Series – Writing in Layers – Chronology of a Crime

WHERE WE LEFT OFF:

In the first installment of the Peek Behind the Novel Series, I wrote about working four different plotlines before choosing one. By working on four of them, it helps me ‘improve’ on some storylines and when I have four to choose from, I am able to go into the project knowing that I have chosen the best one. It’s a technique that I use to build my author confidence.

THE FIRST LAYER OF WRITING A NOVEL – THE CHRONOLOGY OF A CRIME

In the first layer of writing, I focus only on the crime or mystery. I make a list of the chronology of the crime. How it happens, who it happens to, how the detectives are assigned to the case. I focus only on the crime. I don’t think of subplots, or dialogue or even the outcome. Only on the crime itself, almost like a Forensic Files show.

This layer of writing is only a chronological list of the crime or mystery and how it plays out. Mine looks like a list with small paragraphs and one line clues. It could even look like a printout from Google maps!

DIVIDE AND CONQUER:

Once I have the chronology of the crime, I begin to break the chronology into four parts. Nothing fancy; just Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. By breaking the crime up into four sections, I’m preparing it to be plugged into the ‘four-act play’ format. I never took to the three-act play because the center section is too unstructured and it’s twice as long as the other sections. It’s called one part, but it’s really two parts in one. It was too asymmetrical for me. So rather than using a three act structure, I break Act 2 into two separate parts.

PART 1 – Introduction to the Detectives and Normal Life:

In Part 1, the detectives hear about the crime or mystery and are somehow assigned to it. That assignment is different in each case. I start in their normal working lives and have them pulled into the crime.

This part also entails the scene of the crime and whatever clues may or may not be present. One or maybe two suspects will arise at the scene or shortly thereafter.

Part 1 – The Inciting Incident:

In a police procedural, being assigned to the case is the inciting incident. They are called into this crime investigation whether they want to be or not. Part 1 will end with the inciting incident. They have seen the scene of the crime and have gathered their first clue or clues. They are now off on a quest to solve the crime.

Part 2 – The Investigation Begins:

The Jack Nolan Detective Series is about two detectives, Jack and Fiona, who have personal lives that are also in flux. Part 2 introduces the subplots about the detectives and the early investigations they go off on.

The facts as well as clues begin to trickle into the storyline so that the reader can start trying to10 guess who committed the mystery or crime.

The end of Part 2 is the midpoint of the story, so I try to have a twist or a revelation that changes the direction of the investigation in some way.

Part 3 – The Truth Begins to Seep Out:

Early in Part 3, the last suspect will appear and the detectives will be trying to figure out who has the greater motivation. Or which of the suspects had the time and opportunity to commit the crime. Also in part 3, the masks on the suspects begin to fall and their secrets are exposed and a couple even are caught in a lie or two.

The end of Part 3 is the equivalent of a Dark Night of the Soul. This is a place where maybe the detectives can’t figure out who did it, or they know but can’t find proof, or there is a chance the bag guy or girl will get away with it for one reason or another. It is a low point. This could also coincide with a low point in one of the detective’s personal lives.

Part 3 ends on this darker moment. I want the reader to be worried that the detectives won’t solve it in time, or the bad guy will get away with something.

PART 4 – The Big Reveal

The beginning of Part 4 is the big reveal. There is one clue or one revelation that confirms the guilt of whatever the real bad guy is. This sets up a situation where the bad guy is going to get away, or the detectives have to trap him or her — however you choose to ‘solve’ the case.

The second part of Part 4 is where I as the author, very quickly, wrap up the whole crime. I like to do this in case my readers are reading with one eye open. People are busy today and often they may miss something. So I like to spell it out very quickly — because I don’t want to bore the readers who were paying attention — how the crime occurred and how the evidence was there all along.

Next you wrap up the subplots and resolve and reveal anything that is hanging in the air, like the red herring, or how other suspects couldn’t have done it. You also want to wrap up the subplots on a satisfying note.

IF YOU ARE WRITING A SERIES:

My series are four or more books, so the personal lives are written a bit like a soap opera. The characters do have a full character arc in each novel. They learn something in that book that I reflect on in the end, but I also drop a clue at the end of the mystery/crime that the story will continue in the next book.

I DON’T WANT TO GET AHEAD OF MYSELF:

I’ve just given you a bird’s eye view of how the book will proceed when marrying all four parts of it together. But this first layer is only the chronology of the crime.

I also end this layer with a section I call “How it will end”. It never ends the way I think it will, but committing to an end this early at least gives me a direction and a destination. It’s easy enough to change the chronology when the story takes a natural turn or changes within the creative process.

Author’s Diary – Sneak Peek behind the Novel – Scene Template

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A SCENE TEMPLATE?

An Example of a starting template in Darius – A Vampire Story

I learned most of what I know about writing and self-publishing from several authors who graciously shared their knowledge on YouTube and on their blogs. I’m not an expert in writing novels by any means. I’m beginning my 11th novel, so I can say I managed to write 10 novels and get their published on KDP!

I consider myself a plotter, but I have a system that allows for a lot of creative stretching even within a pretty rigid system. I consider my writing template to be only guardrails. The main purpose of these guardrails is to stay on point, stay on the story, and prevent me from wandering off into some dead end or corner that I can’t write my way out of. This system does help me stay focused.

The template is simple:

POV:
TIME/LOCATION:
PURPOSE/CLUES:

Each scene starts with these three lines. I have a sample of a starting scene template from one of my vampire books, Darius, A Vampire Story. It’s permafree on Amazon and Kobo.

In the example above, I default to using numbers, but in all honesty, I wind up adding things and swapping positions on thing, so you may want to use bullet points instead.

Below I have a made-up version of a scene using bullet points.

- The main characters, John and Mary, meet & begin a conversation about work or a shared interest.
- They hear a loud gunshot. Mary is startled and John reaches out to comfort her.
- I continue on listing in a bit of detail everything that needs to happen in the scene. I don’t get into any conversation, or any detail. Just a plot point, so to speak. This list is more of a to do list that I can keep in my mind when I’m writing, and it then becomes a checklist to make sure I put everything in the scene that I need to.
- All things must have a purpose in the scene. (More on this below)
- In the beginning, you may also choose to highlight the dropping of any and all clues.

POINT OF VIEW:

When I begin to write the scene, I don’t know whose point of view the scene will be in. I don’t pick a point of view. I allow myself to write within the framework of the guardrails listed above until the scene comes to life. During this time, one character claims the scene. This allows me great creative freedom even within the framework of these guardrails.

Once I determine whose seen it is, then I can make sure that the scene is all in that person’s point of view. This is easy enough to do in the second level of writing.

DAY | TIME | TIMING:

In writing mystery romances and police procedurals, it’s important to keep track of time for a few reasons. One reason is that it’s too easy to get lost in the writing and forget the time line. It may be morning in one scene and in the next scene you’re referring to something happening at 4PM. Problems like these are very tedious to clean up after you’re done writing. It’s easier easier to track the timing while you create the scene, while you write.

Another reason to track time is to make sure that a reasonable amount of action takes place in a day. Very often, the subplot action takes place at night or afterhours, so knowing when a workday begins and ends and when personal time or evening begins is important.

Another reason is in police procedurals, they need judges to sign warrants and that’s an issue of timing. The witnesses work jobs and police tend to do things during the day. They also tend to work long shifts and have case loads, etc. I use the timing to keep things real, I guess you could say.

LOCATION:

I add the location of each scene to make sure that this is also taken into account. If they are one hour away from home or two hours away from the police department, then I have to remember that — because if I don’t, some sharp reader will!

I also log the location so that when I come back to my second and third layers — I write in layers — I can add details about the location into the scene.

PURPOSE:

I talked about this above, how important it is to only write into the scene things that move the drama, character arcs or the story itself forward. This is the most important guardrail. I take this instruction or advice literally and I make sure that everything in the scene has a purpose and/or reason to be there.

Very often the purpose is to drop clues, throw in a red herring, or move the subplots along. But every scene has at least one specific purpose.

Clues:

In writing mysteries, these are your breadcrumbs that will be dropped one by one during the story. By keeping track of the clues and where they are dropped, you can also look later on and make sure that you are disbursing them along the way at a nice pace. You don’t want to dump four clues in one scene and then follow it with two boring chapters with nothing going on.

LAYERS:

I mentioned writing in layers above. This is a secondary technique that I will blog about as I move along in my present book. I’ll also give you a sneak peek behind the novel to see what levels I write in.

I’ll just say that writing the initial scenes is the first level of writing. I write the outlines and then begin to write the scene. I NEVER LOOK BACK! That means I don’t correct verb tense. I don’t worry about typos. I don’t worry about polishing anything. It’s all raw and it’s supposed to be raw. Just get the story out on paper.

I don’t exert one ounce of energy proofreading or polishing until I know I have an actual manuscript. At the end of this first layer, I won’t have a manuscript. I’ll have a good, strong skeleton of a story, but it won’t be a manuscript — or anything close to one. But having a good strong skeleton is important.

I hope this helps someone new!

Scrivener Tip – Long and Short Lists of Keyboard Shortcuts

Long List of Scrivener Keyboard Shortcuts:

I made the four-page list of Scrivener shortcuts into a gif to give you an idea of how many keyboard shortcuts there are. Why make lists of them? These came in handy for me because until I made my own theme in Scrivener, I had to strain to see a lot. The default coloring of Scrivener is so white and bright that it made seeing the gray fonts very hard — at least on my aging eyes!

We each have our own methods of doing things, and only a few of these shortcuts may become your favorites. But it will come in handy as you get more and more productive as a writer. Which will happen. The one thing Scrivener does is streamline writing and allow you to power focus on your project.

Below is a moving gif to give you an idea of what the list looks like. I got this information from a website called How to Scrivener. I don’t have to tell you this is only one of the many resources he has for Scrivener users.

HOW TO USE THE SCRIVENER LIST:

I simply copied and pasted them into a Word document and printed it out. I keep it on my right hand side and one by one, I just chose a new shortcut to focus on that session. Little by little, they became natural. I no longer need to refer to the list anymore.

PASSING IT ON:

I’m passing this on to new authors as so many other authors passed on their tips and tricks to me. I hope this helps someone.

In case you don’t want to copy and past your own document, you can click below to print out my copy. Be sure to visit How to Scrivener to see all of the various resources he/she has for Scrivener users.

DOWNLOAD KEYBOARD SHORTCUT LIST

Writers Tip – Initial Proofreading in Scrivener – Part 2

PROOFREADING WHILE STILL IN SCRIVENER – PART 2:

Once my novel is now in Chapters and I have proofread it while still in Scrivener, I mark each of the scenes that have exciting events, vampiric events, even humor, to make sure the story is balanced and has events and surprised all throughout the story. Some books I read sag in the middle as everything is gearing up for a big bang at the end.

I like to sprinkle the books with enough to hold everyone’s interest. At least that’s what I’m trying to do!

I will be starting a new novel soon, and at that point, I will make a video showing this marking of the novel for a greater overview of all that is happening.

COMPILE IN SCRIVENER AND SAVE IN WORD – Name the Document “First Draft of BOOK TITLE”.

PROOFREADING IS NOW DONE IN WORD:

Do an initial spellcheck in word to eliminate any and all errors you may have missed in Scrivener.
Search for your usual mistakes. Below are an example of mine:

Awhile (a while)
going to (clean up verb tense)
it’s (or its? – check)
draw (drawer)
beginning to (check for verb tense)
in order to (check for verb tense)
going to (check for verb tense)
starting (check for verb tense)
Okay (how many times it’s used)
Just (how many times it’s used)
Really (How many times it’s used)
Very (Find a better descriptive word)
.” said (check glitch from auto correct)
.” whispered (check glitch from auto correct)
and all ly words
Search all quotes to check for opening and closing quotes.
Word spell check and Word grammar check.

SEARCH OUT A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR:

The one thing I need to spend money on is a line editor. I felt comfortable enough with the plot and character development in my own stories, so I limited myself to a line editor. They go over your work looking for grammar mistakes, confusion in the story, plot holes, any glaring mistakes.

I did a hard proofread on my work before passing it off, so the editor didn’t waste time correcting typos and things like this. So the better your ebook is, the more real pointers they will do for you.

The hard proofread ends with having the eBook read back to me by the AI reader in Word (Review tab) or NaturalReader.com which is a text to voice online reader. This is a great way to find mistakes you are reading over because you are too familiar with the work!

DURING THE EDITING PROCESS:

Put your eBook away for a week. This will allow your mind to refresh for the work that’s ahead. If you will be doing Advance Review Copies for your launch, get prepared to find Review readers.

I found two professional Beta Readers and Proofreaders on Fiverr. They read the book, found several typos and punctuation mistakes, and gave me amazing feedback.

Other Text to Voice tools: Grammerly, Ginger, PaperRater, Reverso Speller, NounPlus, After the Deadline

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A CHEAT SHEET WITH THIS INFO:

Writers Tip – Initial Proofreading in Scrivener – Part 1

PROOFREADING WHILE STILL IN SCRIVENER:

There are two levels of proofreading. The first level is proofreading for plot context to make sure the novel is complete. Before I leave Scrivener, I go over the different chapters and scenes and mark the following beats and make sure that everything is included.

Before I post the checklist, I need to say that I did not invent these ideas below. I have been listening to videos by other authors for several years now and I have taken copious notes and somewhere along the way I took a little from one author and a little from another. I think them all for their generosity in sharing their experience and knowhow.

Proofread and make sure you indicate where the following items are
a. The Hook – This is the thing or the event that will hook the reader’s interest.
b. The Setup – This includes the setting where the story will take place. It also includes an introduction to the main protagonist/hero and what his or her wants or needs are in life, so to speak. This is the starting point of the quest. (The Quest)
c. Identify the subplot. Be clear on how the subplot affects the plot.
d. Inciting incident – This is the point where the story has it’s first twist or turn. The Hero is pulled into a quest that he starts out not really wanting to go on. This is going in a different direction than “the setting”.
e. Setback(s): Depending upon what type of novel you are writing, you will have one or more setbacks that create conflict and drama that move the story forward. You may want to clearly mark these as well.
f. Major setback: about 75% of the way through the book, the big setback happens when things look like they are not going to work out.
g. The final battle/The Climax – In high suspense novels, this can be a physical battle for life and death. In a less dramatic story, this is where the hero has to conquer himself or herself in order to be able to pull off their quest.
h. All is lost – Right before the Hero gets their second wind and has a breakthrough, they will have a moment of despair where all will seem lost.
i. The glorious/surprise ending – Hero wins/gets what they want
j. The aftermath – 99% point of the story – This is where the story wraps up and you see the “new normal” now that the hero has broken through their fears and saved things.
Check the following about the subplot:
k. “Subplot Development” – any crisis, suspense, etc.
l. Any plot twists or pathway turns for the subplot
m. Point out where subplot reaches high tension
n. Point out where the subplot is setback or fails, or feels at a standstill
o. Scene that resolves the whole story
Make a document to check your background and descriptions
p. Make sure you don’t repeat information in multiple places. Make a separate sheet and record which chapters your descriptions and background info is at. This way you can make sure you have included everything and also make sure you haven’t repeated anything.
q. For the series books, make sure you include enough background
for it to be a stand-alone book.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A CHEAT SHEET WITH THIS INFO: