Why Scrivener Might Be Making Your Novel Worse Instead of Better
An editor’s thoughts on how Scrivener can affect plot cohesion and create confusion in readers
For a lot of writers, Scrivener is the program they wouldn’t be without. Chapter files, character files, research files, a note board for organizing stuff — then when you’re done, just compile it all and — shazam! Your novel.
Except… as an editor who works almost exclusively on fiction, especially on novels in genres such as thriller and historical, I’m seeing a growing number of manuscripts with specific problems. Chapters and sections and ‘bits’ that don’t connect. Characters who jump into a scene and I have no idea who they are, or even where we are in time or setting. Novels where chapters jump around in time, needlessly and confusingly.
The common thing to all of them? Their authors have written using Scrivener.
I’m not dissing Scrivener. For some, I know it’s a huge time saver and a real boon to their writing. But I am seeing more and more that new writers who don’t yet have experience in narrative and character arcs, or why you need to “situate the reader”, or in maintaining cohesion in the plot, are all producing novels that don’t hold together. And they can’t see where the problems lie.
