Scrivener - Making Order Out of Chaos

I've written about Scrivener before. You can get it at Literature and Latte a UK site for writers and this marvelous software.

 Scrivener isn't just a word processor. It's a document database - an organizer for the flotsam and jetsam of the mind. I've got 30 odd years of flotsam, all over the place.

We're talking 5 or 6 copies of different directories and umpteen copies of some things I'll never use again, in software that couldn't be translated by a modern computer.

I bought Scrivener just to put my fragmented story files into some kind of order.

It works!

A week ago, I started over with some my mother's short stories. As I loaded in previously published stories, I realized that a few small changes would make publishing easier.

If I made a folder for each story, I could mark that story "To Do," "First Draft," "Revised," or even "Finished."

Since the bio and back matter would all be the same, I put those in their own folder, instead of in every story. That way I could use it over and over.

It now looks like this:

Irene's Volumn One
    Story Folder
       Story 1
          Copyright Page
          Short Story 1
   Back Matter Folder
       Author Bio
       Editor Bio
       Other Works

This has tamed the nightmare of files on my hard drive AND I can compile to an epub file and load it all directly on to the vendor sites. The investment of setup time has paid off in frustration.

Each volumn of short stories will have it's own folder - and I can update the backmatter of all of them in just a few minutes, not running through 20 stories. One update and compile - upload - done.

Wow! This is more like it.

Now, if I could just get 358 e-book covers!