Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser—or neither—at some point in your writing process, you can probably benefit from a visual overview of your story. Scrivener’s Corkboard feature is here to help.

Pack up your paper index cards and colored sticky notes, and let’s go virtual.

Understanding Index Cards in Scrivener

Every file in Scrivener has an associated index card. That index card shows up in the Synopsis section of the Inspector (visible in all but the Snapshots and Comments panes), and on the Corkboard. You can use the index card to make note of anything you want—for example, the timeline, setting, characters—but for storyboarding purposes, it makes sense to include a brief synopsis of the scene.

Viewing the Corkboard

To view the Corkboard in a Scrivener project, select any folder (or a selection of multiple files). If you don’t see index cards representing the documents in that folder, go to View—>Corkboard.

The Corkboard view only displays the top level within each folder, so if you have your scenes organized into chapter folders, all you’ll see when you select Draft is index cards for the chapter folders. There is a way around it, but this is one reason you might want to delay organizing your scenes into chapter folders until you are done with your first draft. For more on that, see this post about organizing your files.

Building Your Story in the Corkboard

Rather than adding new documents in the Binder, you can add them directly in the Corkboard. This allows you to create placeholder cards for each scene, add a synopsis, and then create another until you have your story plotted out.

You can even move cards around in the Corkboard to play with the order of your scenes. Here’s how to add additional cards.

1. Select any card in the Corkboard. (If you don’t have any index cards/documents in the selected folder yet, this will still work. Selecting an existing index card just lets you control placement of the new card.)

2. In the Corkboard footer, click the Add New Text button (see image below), or click the Add button (green + symbol) in the toolbar. A new card appears after the selected card.

A corresponding new document also appears in the Binder.

3. Type the name of the new scene and press Return.

TIP: You can also select a card (single click) and press Return to add a new card after/below it. (This works the same as selecting a document in the Binder and pressing Return.)

Renaming a Document in the Corkboard

Double-click an index card’s title to change it. This changes the document title in the Binder too.

Adding Text to an Index Card

Double-click in the synopsis text area to add text. While the synopsis text section is active, you can use Tab to move through the cards.

TIP: Mac users, to force a new line within the text of the card, use Option+Return. Windows users can just press Enter.

Viewing the Associated Document

To view the document associated with a card, simply double-click the card’s icon (to the left of the title). Scrivener switches to the Editor to view the selected document.

Viewing the Corkboard in Split Screen [Read more…]