If you’re writing a book with multiple timelines or point-of-view characters, Scrivener allows you to compile each timeline or point-of-view character’s sections to ensure consistency.
If you write a book with multiple timelines or point-of-view characters, Scrivener lets you create individual files for each scene or chapter, allowing you to organize these timelines and character arcs. When it’s time to revise or edit your manuscript, you can compile these groups of files sequentially to ensure consistency.
In this article, we show you how to compile specific parts of your manuscript so you can read timelines or character arcs on their own.
Writing in discrete chunks
Scrivener is designed so you can write in discrete chunks. Some people write each chapter in a file, and some write each chapter in a folder with individual scenes in separate files. These techniques allow you to organize your writing as you want and write out of order; you don’t have to write chapter four after you’ve written chapter three, but you can write it whenever you want. (See Different Ways of Setting Up Scrivener’s Binder for Your Projects)
Each file can change the timeline or POV character from the previous file, and you can tag each file in different ways, marking them with labels, status markers, or custom metadata. For the purposes of this article, labels are the easiest way to tag files so you can manage your timelines or POV character arcs and compile their sections whenever you want.
Managing multiple threads
In Keep Track of Point-of-View Characters and Timelines in Scrivener’s Corkboard, we explained how you can use labels to tag files according to their character. The example used was the novel A Game of Thrones, which has many POV characters, and if you write a book like this, it can be daunting to ensure continuity and consistent voice.
We discussed labels in this article. With labels applied to each character, the Binder looks like this:
Labels also allow you to view and manage timelines and POV characters in the Corkboard.
In my example project, each character is assigned a label:
And each chapter contains a character name along with a number, indicating its position in the story.
You can view these documents by character using a search collection, and you can then read all of them sequentially within Scrivener using Scrivenings view. You can save a collection for each character, or each type of label you have set for timelines, and come back to them at any time.
Compile timelines and POV character arcs
Instead of reading timelines or character arcs in Scrivener, you may want to compile them to read in PDFs, or compile them to ePub to read in an ebook reader. This allows you to read each timeline or character arc on its own to ensure consistency, continuity, and voice. Or you may want to send these to beta readers or to your agent, so they can give you feedback.
When you compile your Scrivener project, Scrivener stitches together the various elements of the project into a single file. You can use section layouts to format the compiled document, or you can use the basic format options in the Compile dialogue.
But you don’t have to compile the entire document. The Compile dialogue gives you many options, the most basic of which is to check and uncheck specific items in the right-hand section of the dialogue.
This would be time-consuming if you wanted to compile each of the character arcs in this project: you would have to check and uncheck a lot of files, and there are eight different POV characters.
An easier option is to use the compile filter. In the screenshot below, I’ve clicked the Filter icon (the one that looks like a funnel), and in the pop-up, I’ve checked Apply Filter. I’ve chosen Documents with Label and selected a label from the bottom menu. So in this example, all of the Bran chapters will be compiled together.
Other options in the Filter dialogue are:
- Documents with Status
- Documents in Collection
- Documents in Current Selection
Documents in Collection is especially useful if you’ve created search collections as explained above. You can save each collection, which organizes files according to search criteria, then compile them whenever you want. And these collections update in real time: if you add new files meeting the search terms, the collection includes them.
Most writers won’t need this feature, but if you are working on a complex book – fiction or non-fiction – that has multiple timelines or character arcs, compiling like this is a great tool when you are revising or editing your manuscript.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener. He also offers one-to-one Scrivener coaching.