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There are known knowns… known unknowns… also unknown unknowns.

Donald Rumsfeld

That’s the most butchering of a quote I’ve ever done, but all the unnecessary bits between the main points were just that – unnecessary. No matter what you think of the guy, I’ve always thought this was both an obvious and fantastic point, and what better time for me to use it than on an outlining article?

Anyone who’s dabbled in writing knows those three points all too well. There’s that spark of inspiration that sets an idea brewing. The spark lights a flame that reveals the obvious details of the story. We find our characters in that light. We find the world, some core principles that govern that world and those characters, and a handful of events that will push things forward. Those are our known knowns.

Those revealed pillars cast shadows. We see the character but do not yet know how she will interact with the others, what her past is or what will change about her as she grows. We see the world but are uncertain how it arrived in its current start or what the protagonists and antagonists of our story want it to become. We see the principles but can’t quite pick out how those will be challenged as time goes on. Known unknowns.

But the light does fade. Darkness grows deeper until we can no longer distinguish the pillars’ shadows from the emptiness beyond the flame’s reach. What’s left, that place of seemingly impenetrable dark, is the unknown unknown.

Sooner or later, we have to go exploring there. The story can’t go on without doing so. Good luck finding an author who gets his initial idea, sits down and starts typing, and has a finished manuscript without any stumbling in that darkness. None of us know everything in that initial burst of inspiration. Hell, most of us don’t know everything by the time the first draft is done.

I mentioned Plotters and Pantsers in my A New Approach post. The experience with that Great Outer Darkness is vastly different for the types. For Pantsers like Stephen King, he either has a vastly brighter initial flame and less darkness, or he’s incredibly adept at taking his flame and bringing it out to find what he needs on the fly. Given his mastery, I’d say it’s a bit of both. Me, on the other hand, all it gave me were plot holes and headaches. It’s fun discovering the story as you write it, but hell does it do a number to you on the back end. It takes an incredible talent to pull it off. Unfortunately, that ain’t me.

Which is why I’ve turned toward the Plotter side and have been trying my hand there, which led me to Scrivener. I’ll get this out of the way – I love it. I figured I would, and while some of the complaints I’ve seen are perfectly valid, it’s been an exceptional resource to pull me into a new style of creation.

Turns out – shock of shocks – when you force yourself to sit down and understand something, it works. Outlining has felt like walking out into the woods to gather brush and build a series of fires around every pillar. It’s dispelled so many known unknowns and pushed back that Great Outer Darkness. I have hundred-plus question character interviews that I’m working through with each of my protagonists. It’s amazing how much you learn about a person when you take the time to ask questions, isn’t it? I have notes about the world, about the antagonists, about the faiths and kingdoms and factions. The more I ask myself questions, the more the fires I set and the more I reveal. I thought the process would be tedious and stifling, but it’s completely the opposite. It’s all discovery all the time, and it feels incredible. If only I’d started this earlier.

Now, okay, great, I like outlining. Isn’t this supposed to be about Scrivener?

What would you want in a writing software? The ability to automatically convert sections based on rules into various styles of manuscript? That’s certainly nice. Scrivener’s got that. Internalized, on-demand creation of folders to organize notes, interviews, chapters, etc.? It’s got that, too. The ability to create summaries of every file and view them as notecards on a corkboard and reorganize as you see fit? Yep. Customizable labels and tags to mark each and every location where certain characters, locations, ideas, etc., are used in the story? Mmmmhm. Bookmarks? Ingrained notes per file? Templates? Composition mode, which removes all the frills and full-screens your current file? Honestly, this thing has so many bells and whistles it’s incredible.

All of that is contained within a single “project.” My new book, for instance, is a project. Opening that project gives me a navigation panel which has all my character interviews neatly tucked away in the character file, information on the church and some nations in the places folder, and one lonely chapter hanging out in the Manuscript folder. One click here and I can see one of my character’s interviews, their picture (Which I’ve put in their summary so that it’s always viewable) and some of the uncategorized notes I’ve got for them.

I was so pleased with the way Scrivener functions I went ahead and copied everything from my current novel into it. While I’m working through my edit I’ll be making summaries for my chapter corkboard, applying tags for character and location references, making quick notes, and generally making use of everything else I’ve mentioned.

Now, what were the complaints that I mentioned? One that I don’t particularly care about is that it’s not free. My trial is ending and I have no qualms about buying it. It’s about $50, but in the modern age any time I can pay once for a thing and own it, that feels like a win. Sad commentary, but it is what it is. Otherwise, the majority of peoples’ issue with the program is that it’s complicated. I can’t deny that. Yes, you can hop on and use it as a basic word processor, but you can do that with a myriad of free software. If you’re not taking advantage of the other features it isn’t worth the cost, and being a little complicated to use sort of comes with the territory when you’re getting access to so much customization. That’s the value. If you’re an organization freak like me, you’ll love it. There’s a very good tutorial that comes with it which covers most of its features. I highly recommend you take that if you give this a shot.

Hopefully, if you’ve been needing something to help get your writing organized and streamlined, this will help. Definitely give it a try. It’s made a convert out of me.