A while back, I shared a post at WHW about Scene Writing, and why it’s such a valuable tool for writers (especially those like me, whose brains get easily overwhelmed by details). This post also shares my tricks for keeping a story organized even if you have a disorganized brain or process.
A Word About Writing Process…
Adapt everything you learn to your own unique brain
Like underpants, writing process is personal. You’ll find out what fits YOU the best by trying it on for size. At the end of the day, the only writing process you need to embrace is the one that allows you to finish your stories.
It took me a long time to figure out that I couldn’t write linearly like all my friends. I had to find the process that worked for my brain. My brain needed stories to be in tiny pieces.
My old life:
(That’s the life of creating unfinished stories that taunted me.)
Whenever I’d get stuck, I’d stop. I’d stare at the page, clean my kitchen drawers, come back to the page and stare some more. Sometimes there was crying. Almost always, after a few weeks, I’d berate myself for being a hack, give up and start another story.
My new life:
Now I just pick a new scene and write it and the pantser half of my brain works the problems out. Most important, this method lets me keep writing. That immersion is what keeps most writers engaged with their story.
How does “process” work for a new writer?
The problem for most new writers is they don’t know what works for them yet. There’s a lot of trial and error when you’re new.
You’ll have to ask (and answer) questions like:
- Am I a plotter or a pantser?
- A linear writer, or an out-of-order writer?
- Am I more productive in the morning or at night?
- Do I like to use 3-Act Structure or the W-Plot?
A lot of what you try as a new writer won’t work for you. That’s okay – keep trying things out until you are able to produce a finished story. You might not even love the first story or two, but you’ll still be proud you finished it.
A View of My “Scene-Focused” Process
The abbreviated description of my process is that I’m a Plantser and a Story Quilter. That means I plot a little, I free write a bit, and I piece the story together scene-by-scene.
What does that look like in practice?
1. I start by making a list of all the scenes I know.
Like many writers, each book usually starts with an idea or a scene that comes into my head fully formed. I write that scene to get it out of my head and onto the page. I keep writing until all the initial scenes are out of my head.
Usually, there are between 5-10 scenes that come with the initial idea. When I’m lucky, this list includes some key turning points of the story.
2. I make folders for all those scenes in Scrivener.
That folder list is key for me. It means when I sit down to write, I have a list of places I can go in the story. Sometimes something will come to me all Pantser-like and I make a folder for that one too.
3. I try to brainstorm early.
Near the beginning of the process, I bat some ‘what if’s’ around with my writing peeps and decide on the overriding theme for the book and the internal and external conflicts for the main characters. I might be wrong, but it gives me a place to start.
Note: Scrivener has places for characters and research. For me, they’re part of my at-a-glance folder list over in the left sidebar. I can click on them to add, or when I need a refresher on a character for a scene.
4. Sometimes I get lucky.
During #3 above, sometimes the turning points make themselves known. I’ll often share the story with someone I trust, and ask if they see any major logic holes. If I’m lucky, they find one! Finding logic holes early, before I’ve done a ton of work, makes me way less cranky later in the process.
5. I keep writing until I’m out of scenes.
Sometimes that means I’m actually done with the book, and sometimes that means I have to beg some nice writing friends to do a manuscript swap. This step is usually when I begin the Second Draft work, which means using all those cool plotting and polishing tips that Plotters use on their first draft.
My Top 3 Tips for Getting Unstuck
Despite our best intentions, we all get stuck sometimes. OneStop for Writers is a great place to start when you get stuck. These smaller steps help me, too.
1. Change locations.
Typically, the act of moving to a new writing space can jiggle up some writing inspiration. This can be from your desk to the couch, from inside to outside, or from the library to a favorite restaurant or coffeehouse.
2. Use a digital timer.
I tend to use my cooking timer. When I don’t want to write, my deal with myself is I have to do at least 30 minutes of work on my fiction.
We can do anything for half an hour, right?
While it doesn’t sound like a lot, it really makes a difference. If I’m not digging the writing that day, I know “I only have to do this crap for 30 minutes.” If things are going well, I’m likely to go way longer than 30 minutes.
3. I print a list of all the scenes I know in table form.
This trick requires a printer and scissors, and I’m known to do it when I’m getting to the end of a book. Margie Lawson gave me this brilliant idea, and it works when I have difficult scenes that I don’t want to write. You could also handwrite your to-do list and make a game out of it.
- I print the table of all those scene prompts and cut it up until each scene is on its own slip of paper.
- I find a pretty container and I put all the slips of paper into it.
- Every time I sit down to write those final scenes, I randomly choose one from the container until they’re all gone.
Margie is so smart.
Why Scene-Focused Writing Is a Great Organization Method for Me.
The first major advantage is that I rarely get stuck.
Everything is visible to me at a glance. I just pick a scene from my to-be-written list of scenes (aka: my Scrivener folders/documents) and get writing. Eventually all of them will get written.
Here’s an example
A starting scene list for a made-up romance novel:
- Initial Meeting
- Scene in the Coffee Shop
- Job interview at the clinic
- Reunion with Sister
- Fight about parents’ funeral
- First look at sister’s house
- Discovery of parent’s will in the garage
- Flesh out mom’s mental illness
- Confront sister about secrets
The second major advantage (for me) is that I can see the story structure visually, without getting overwhelmed.
As I write those early scenes and begin seeing the bigger picture, I start making more folders. Every so often in the process, I’ll move those folders around, so they feel more logical.
Scenes and turning points will move into a logical three-act structure, which organically shows me plot holes. I can color code scenes (folders or documents) in Scrivener if I want to make unwritten scenes stand out more, which is great for an at-a-glance to-do list.
In a Word document, I can’t see the structure at a glance, and it stresses me out. I feel like I don’t know where to start or where I’m going. I lose scenes. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed, and then the writing isn’t so fun anymore.
An example of my Scrivener folder list further in the process:
Act I
- Amanda and Archer meeting in Coffeehouse
- Amanda’s job interview at clinic
- Amanda chats with Unknown character about Disliking Archer
- Day 1 at Clinic WHERE ARCHER WORKS
Act II
- Need a scene with heroine’s BFF – Topic TBD
- Reunion with Sister
- Fight about parents’ funeral
- First look at sister’s house
- Find excuse for social occasion with sister
- Talk with Archer in Clinic Kitchen
- Discovery of parent’s will in the garage
- Flesh out mom’s mental illness
- Date with Archer at pub
- Confront sister about secrets
- All is Lost Moment
Act III
- Ending
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re innately disorganized like me or a detailed plotter, finishing a book is a big task. There are a lot of moving parts to be organized. Scrivener is my tool of choice, but I have friends who do things differently and stay organized.
I’ve seen great books organized all these ways:
- Using a notebook and writing by hand with Post-its and dividers
- Using Word documents with headings or Master/Sub Documents
- Using software like Plottr and ProWritingAid
- Creating folders on the computer and saving each chapter as a document
- Writing the book in a single Word or GoogleDoc file
Figuring out your writing process and how to keep your stories organized are two of the most important things you will ever learn as a writer. I’m wishing you a smooth journey!

Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for financial services firms. By night, she writes humor, memoirs, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20+ years as a corporate trainer, she loves this sit-down-and-work thing. As a co-founder of Writers In the Storm (WITS), Jenny has supported writers since 2010. WITS, recognized by Writer’s Digest as a top website for writers, offers weekly posts on writing craft and inspiration. Jenny is currently revising a memoir about her cancer journey, with a style described as “get busy laughing, or get busy crying.”
What a lovely article with some nutritious food for thought, as I’ve come to expect from the quality content at WHW. Thanks, Jenny for this great advice.
As a huge plantser myself I think I’ve stumbled upon a method of organising and writing that very much resembles this “scene quilting” method of yours. I write in good old Word, but I’ve been using the tools at OneStopForWriters to do something similar to what you’ve done. I map out a quick 3-Act map using the Story Map tool and I put together a scene list for my latest WIP using the Timeline tool. So each scene is a chunk of time, as the book takes place over a condensed time period.
Now when I sit down to write, I just pick a time (scene) from the timeline that I feel like writing, or at random when I don’t feel like any of them, and I just start writing something for that scene.
I think I’m going to have to spend a good 2nd draft on massaging the story as a whole, because right now it feels exactly like a bunch of scenes plonked next to each other and less like a cohesive story, but that’s manageable in the 2nd pass.
Another unexpected bonus I’ve found with this method is it keeps my wordcount down. As you’ve probably already noticed, I suffer from the keyboard form of verbal diarrhoea. 😅 I find writing scenes from a list keeps me focused on the task at hand, whereas writing linearly I tend to “babble” more and more get to the middle and just lose all momentum and interest. And I have to cut so many words even if I do push through.
Thanks again!
I keep forgetting to try the story maps. Perhaps you’ve given me another way to see the story at a glance, DV. That’s always so very valuable to me…so THANKS BUNCHES! 🙂
I love everything about this. When you find the plotting method that works for you, so many things fall into place. The idea of cutting up a to-do list and pulling out tasks at random is FABULOUS. I’m going to do it right now! Thank you 🙂
Good for you, Michelle! I’d love it if you came back and let me know how that worked for you.
Will do!
Thanks so much for this helpful post, Jenny! I’m a huge fan of timed writing or brainstorming sprints. And since I’m competitive, I also love jotting down what I believe will happen next, then having a timed Word War with friends. After it’s over, we compare how many words we wrote. It’s so much fun, and really pushes me to silence my bossy internal editor and write, write, write.
What a wonderful way to team up and game-ify! That is VERY cool. Is Word War a site? (Because if not, it should be!)
Word War should be a site!
I started having Word Wars years ago during NaNoWriMo. They usually ran half an hour or a full hour. My favorite way was to all meet up online somewhere, then start at the same time and come back and cheer and compare stats after. It can also be done individually…but then you share your results when you’re done sometime that same day.
One time, we had a Word War weekend…with a prize. The winner’s name had to be incorporated into each of our manuscripts. It gave all of us a huge push!
Let me know when you have another Word War. I am so there!
Okay, I also love this. I’m in for the next word war!
I love this so much, Jenny. As a die-hard Plotter, I’m fascinated with other people’s processes, and this is super interesting to see. It’s important for each writer to find what works for them, so I like that you’ve encouraged people to keep trying different methods until you find a good fit. Thanks for sharing!
I bow to you detailed plotters! I don’t know how to keep my interest sustained without that, “what’s going to happen” pushing me forward.