I hope it’s okay to post on an old thread like this, but I love seeing other people’s workflows, and have wanted to share this capture of mine. It’s a couple of years old now, but absolutely my favourite ever use of any piece of software, used on my favourite essay I’ve ever written. I looked back at it while doing a design course when using Scrivener as an illustration of a design I love, and it made me really want to share this!
My setup is on an 11" MBA. At all times I keep the binder and inspector open, and the screen split horizontally. Depending on what stage my work is at, I adjust the width of the two ‘working’ panes to accommodate whatever I need to see - at the stage of composition, this was my essay in the left pane, and my sources in the right pane.
So, from the left:
Binder:
I made collections for each of the key areas I wanted to discuss in the essay (Martial’s presentation of the Roman baths, if anyone is interested). Each source was given keywords matching as many of these areas as the source discussed, and since many sources mention several of these areas, collections really helped me gather up what I needed to refer to in each paragraph.
When I began actually drafting, I split the binder so that all my collections were visible without scrolling, since these were what I needed to refer to most. In the research stage, I kept collections in a small area, and had all my research files and journal article PDFs - dozens of them - easily available, divided into folders where necessary.
I used different icons for different types and stages of file - for example the ‘thought bubble’ for basic notes, and a warning triangle for really important notes. Different coloured book icons helped me identify types and authors of sources and so forth. I used many different icons, but they really helped me find what I needed quickly. I also like colour, so I altered the binder background to be unobtrusive, but to me, attractive.
Left pane - the essay itself - in this case the marked version, but in use, whatever draft I was working on at the time. I almost always write from start to finish in a single document, so this is a long piece, as the word-count shows, though that also includes the Bibliography. If I were writing a draft I would set up the progress tracking bar to help me avoid going too far over the word-count and having to hack off more than a few hundred words. For the final stages of working, as opposed to early drafts where I might need to go back to my research, I would usually also lock both panes in place.
Right pane - Sources, displayed on index cards. In the case of short sources, these were copied both into the document itself and the synopsis card, while for long sources, just a key quote or note made it onto the card. I set the cards to show the keyword chips and be coloured according to label, in this case usually the author of the source (red = Martial, in this case).
Inspector - normally this would be focussed on the draft itself as I work, and might include project or document notes and the odd comment in the synopsis card, but here showing how I make use of multiple keywords per source. I rarely use the ‘status’ feature, except to mark final drafts in multi-section projects where I have a lot of drafts around.
So, my set-up is far from minimalist, but it works brilliantly for me, and helped make this really quite complex essay a joy to compose as well as to research. I personally enjoy the colour and the sense that everything is where it should be yet right at my fingertips - the whole environment of Scrivener feels very ‘natural’ and comfortable to me, both for fiction work and essays. Since this project was completed I have come up with a couple of extra ideas as to how I can make use of the keyword and collections features even better to help me use my sources, which I hope to test out sometime (the design course I’ve been doing hasn’t called for this type of working, though Scrivener has still played a key role).
Anyway, I hope no one minds me sharing this after all this time, and thank you Keith for making it possible! I dread to think how I would have handled this essay in any other piece of software!
Two observations:
(1) Thank goodness it’s about Roman baths. Reading some of the titles of your collections was making me nervous.
(2) So that’s how collections are used. I’ve seen them there, but never actually worked out how I could use them effectively. Now I know at least one way. Thanks. 8)
Yeah, sorry about that, I didn’t think! If it isn’t ok, can someone please delete it? I don’t want to offend anyone.
I like collections very much, and have ideas about a slightly more sophisticated way to use them in the future to almost mimic those programmes that allow text analysis. I have only tried it on samples, but it works quite well in theory - something like:
Read article in Skim, highlighting key points
Export annotations from Skim
Copy and paste each individual annotation into a separate document in Scrivener, named by author, title, page number
Assign one or more keywords to quote
Make a collection for each keyword through the smart feature
When I want to explore individual quotes for a topic, as represented by a keyword, call them all together into one document through the scrivenings feature
It’s an extra step or two, but since I already use Skim in this way and export annotations to a single file, it’s not much more, especially if I combine iClipboard and Typeit4me or something similar to save as much effort as possible, and I have a feeling it’ll pay dividends sometimes, especially in articles that have lots of key quotes on different topics so that a single summary for the whole article is unhelpful.
Don’t worry about it, we aren’t uptight about that kind of stuff on this forum.
Regarding importing annotations from Skim, the [b]File/Import/Import and Split...[/b] menu command might save you a lot of manual labour. Using “• Anchored Note, ” to split by might work, if that is the type of annotation you use. That will result in line one stating the page number, with the note title on the following line and then the text of the note.
Ioa, thank you! That’s awesome! I love how amazing the support is for Scrivener; it’s nothing I’ve come across before. Not only can the software be flexible enough to do almost any text-based task, but there are amazing experts to help us know how! So yeah, thank you!
And honestly this has to be one reason Scrivener is such great software - when I first bought it I was up and running in a few minutes, using the basic features of documents, binder and synopsis cards. Project targets quickly got added to the workflow, then keywords, then collections and scrivenings… it’s so easy to use, but it just grows with you - brilliant!
And thanks for not being cross about the photo content - I apologise for not thinking in advance
Just to be clear: I love the image. I was joking when I said “thank goodness” and can assure you that no offence was taken. In truth I was intrigued to know what type of essay could include the various topics suggested by the collections. It was fascinating and well-worth posting.
Thanks nom - yeah, it was quite the topic to research and very interesting I have to say! I’m glad if the image and workflow was worth posting. I love reading other people’s uses and ideas, so it’s only fair to share mine
Yeah, we’re more likely to be titillated than offended here.
“Naked bathing” huh? I’m in favor of both.
“Sex”? Now yer talkin’!
“Mixed bathing”? What is that? Like mixing your bath with your sex? Ooh, la la!
“Slaves!?” I got nothin to say 'bout that. nudges ‘toys’ back under the bed
“Violence?” Isn’t that a bit judgmental now? I prefer the term “forceful”. Rrrrower!
See what you’ve gotten yourself into by boarding with this motley crew?
It’s all right Scylax, this is called “fun” in these parts. It’s all in good spirits (preferably, at least from vic-k’s persecutive, Jameson’s) and posted with joy.
As a matter of fact, we often invoke the name of Mr. K in an effort to lure him into the open. Thereby unleashing all his pent up funniness on the rest of us.
Are you kidding? That’s the best bunch of Collections titles we’ve ever seen - I wondered what sort of novel you were writing until I saw the Roman connection, but I’m pretty sure it would have been a bestseller had it been a novel.
I’m embarrassed but I should be, looking at that! It honestly wasn’t anywhere near as bad or salacious as it looks, though the baths don’t seem to have been somewhere for the faint-hearted! Even after a couple of years I remember the tales of people being punched because they were mistaken for a slave when they merely bumped someone’s elbow, for example!
Lose the Slaves and Violence (well, we did shoot a tree, for reasons we won’t go into here), and those collections sounds like my first date with my wife of 43 years and counting. Though, technically, Invite Fishing should come before Naked Bathing and Sex.
Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed geyser with a wrinkled prow and a crooked flutter; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed spouter, with three holes punctured in his plastic bottle—look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white spew, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys.
I got nothin to say 'bout that. nudges ‘toys’ back under the bed
Keep in coming…yeah!!..how about some S&M 8) 