Writers in the Storm

By Gwen Hernandez

Many Scrivener users aren’t familiar with the split screen feature, and if they are, they don’t realize its potential.

Introducing Split Screen

The Split Screen feature allows you to, well, split your screen. You can divide the single Editor pane into two panes, either horizontally or vertically.

Here are a few ways to use it:

• View the end of the previous scene while working on the opening of the next one.
• View another part of the current document while working on it.
• Compare two versions of a scene, either in Snapshots (Mac only for now), or if you saved the previous version in a separate document.
• Copy text from the same or another document without losing your place.
• Refer to research files or photos while you write.
• View your manuscript's structure in the Corkboard or Outliner in one pane, while you write in the other.

In my experience, the main source of confusion with Split Screen is that, initially, both panes display the same document (see images below). That can be handy for referring back to an earlier point.

But if you don’t want to view two locations in the same document, you can easily choose to view something else in one of the panes.

Splitting the Editor

To split the Editor, select a document in the Binder, and then do one of the following: Mac: Click the Toggle Split button in the upper right corner of the Editor (see image below). Hold the Option key on your keyboard to switch the split button between horizontal and vertical. Scrivener will remember your most recent orientation choice until you change it again.

Windows: Click either the Horizontal Split or Vertical Split button in the upper right corner of the Editor (see image below).

The Editor splits into two panes with the selected document displayed in both.

NOTE: Each pane can have separate settings, such as Zoom level, ruler display, Page view (Scrivener 3), and Focus (Scrivener 3).

Working with Split Screen

Each pane has its own header (see image below). The active pane’s header is blue. This is the pane that will be affected when you select a document or adjust menu settings. The inactive pane’s header is gray.

Choosing the Active Pane

To designate the active pane, click anywhere in that pane’s editor. If it wasn’t already the active pane, the header will turn blue.

Assigning a Document to the Active Pane

Once you’ve designated the active pane, click any document in the Binder to view it in the active pane.

Viewing a Group in the Active Pane

To view a group of files in the active pane, select the desired folder (or multiple-selection of files). By default, you’ll see the Corkboard view for that folder, as shown below. You can choose the Outliner or Scrivenings (multiple document) view from the toolbar or the View menu.

Adjusting the Split

To adjust the relative split of the panes, drag the bar between them.

Locking the Contents of a Pane

To prevent yourself from accidentally changing what’s viewed in a pane (by clicking something in the Binder while that pane is active), you can lock it. Here’s how:

1. Mac v3: Right-click the header of the pane you want to lock, or go to Navigate>Editor. Windows, and Mac v2: Click the icon in the header of the pane you want to lock, or go to View>Editor.

• 2. Choose Lock in Place. The header turns pink/salmon to denote that the pane is locked.

3. Repeat for the other pane, if desired.

4. Unlock by repeating Step 1 for each locked pane.

Exiting Split Screen

Choose No Split button for whichever pane you want to keep viewing.

That’s split screen! Is it more useful than you thought? Can you think of how you might use it? What Scrivener questions do you have for me?

By Tex Thompson

Striving scriveners. Intrepid introverts. Fellow fearless fictioneers. I am so honored to write for Writers in the Storm today. I’ve recently enjoyed a ridiculous near-death experience that I think may help you make a serious, profound change (in your life or in your work) … and funnily enough, it involves actual writers in an actual storm.

The event we call Writers in the Field came from a simple idea: a thirteen-acre, mostly-outdoor annual weekend experience where writers can actually make, use, handle, and DO the things they’re writing about. We shoot bows and arrows, work mock crime scenes, handle horses, study ballistics and poisons, try on period garments and armor – the whole nine yards.

It was fantastically successful during its first year in 2017, and we were so excited to bring out even more experts and hands-on sessions in 2018. We worked hard on it all year long, promoted and planned it for months on end, and… well, you know how announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh?

Yeah – He busted a gut all over us. We got over a foot of rain in 24 hours. Rivers of mud. Flooded roads. Just an absolutely Biblical deluge.

Y’all, I was sure we were sunk (especially after the food truck fell in a ditch and blocked the entrance). I was SURE we would have to cancel, refund, and go bankrupt.

And then the most amazing thing happened.

A writer wandered up to the ticket booth and said “is this where we check in?”

And then another two. And then a group of three. A dozen more. A hundred more. They were streaming in, y’all – parking out on the main road and hiking a quarter-mile in the mud and the pouring rain. And they were READY.

We couldn’t believe it. It was the most incredible thing. And even as we frantically cancelled, swapped, postponed, and slapdash-surgeried our Saturday schedule around every new contingency, the writers joyfully took in everything we offered – and started engineering novel experiences of their own.

‘Foot selfies’ became a hot thing. So did full-body mud-shots. And as our grounds crew tamped down straw-and-branch walkways and ditch-witched cars out of the muck, the last thing they expected was an eager note-taking audience.

And then the tornado hit… but that’s another story.

And that’s when the light bulb came on, y’all. That’s when the big idea hit. I realized that my job was never to control or dictate what kind of experience writers would have at our event. My job was to offer them a place where they COULD have a new experience.

I’ve come to all sorts of conclusions since then. About what a joy it is to discover your own resilience, and how deeply our under-brains are stimulated by the raw and natural world, and (paradoxically) how much less fragile we feel whenever we escape the rut of our daily lives. More than anything, though, I believe one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves or someone we love is a place where new experiences are possible.

After all, that is literally the core of the Hero’s Journey, isn’t it? Powerful, transformational change only happens once we leave our ordinary world behind… even if only for a few hours. And you don’t need a capital-E event in order to treat yourself to a singular, electrifying, inertia-smashing change of scenery. They’re literally all around us.

Three thoughts, then:

1. When you need to think new thoughts, put yourself in a new place.
2. Radical changes in behavior happen with radical changes in environment.
3. As a storyteller, you are already more powerful and resilient than most. But you will never discover your true strength from comfort and safety of your own cozy hobbit-hole.

That’s the thought I’d like to leave you with. You have already weathered every storm that’s come your way – but even more wonderful things can happen when you willingly venture out to meet them.

So What do you think? Have you ever survived an experience to take something very different away from it than you planned?

 

About Tex

 

Arianne "Tex" Thompson was once described as "an explosion of 52 enthusiastic kittens latching onto everything at once." In addition to writing the 'Children of the Drought' epic fantasy Western series, Tex is the founder and 'chief instigator' for WORD - Writers Organizations 'Round Dallas. When she's not leading the charge at home in Dallas, Tex brings her particular brand of 'red-penthusiasm' to conferences, conventions, and workshops all over the country - as an egregiously enthusiastic, endlessly energetic one-woman stampede. Find her online at The Tex Files!

Christina Delay

How many of you meditate?

It’s a practice we’ve started building into our family evenings each night, and something I hope to one day be good at. Meditation is good for managing anxiety, depression, stress. It’s also good for learning to be open to new ideas and people who may be threatening to our own ideals.

And really, that’s what being a creative is all about. Being open.

I recently did a virtual creativity retreat with Creative Wellness Retreats, and our creativity coach, Kerry Schafer, led us through a guided meditation, but at the end, she did something I wasn’t used to.

She geared the meditation toward our creative projects.

I started the meditation not feeling excited about my project because I’d hit a bit of a wall, and by the end of the meditation I’d not only found renewed energy for the story, but for the entire creative process.

That particular meditation was two days ago, as of this writing, and I’m still feeling the positive effects. And it took less than 5 minutes.

What is meditation?

I feel like a lot of people think meditation is some new-age, woo-woo thing that only hippies and hipsters do.

Not so.

Meditation is an ancient practice to transform the mind. That sounds woo-woo. Let me try again.

Meditation is a thing that’s been around since forever and is a way to train your brain to be aware of your own thoughts and emotions.

Not zone out or go to your nothing box. But to learn how to observe your thoughts, reactions, and emotions, and begin to understand them and yourself better.

See? Not woo-woo.

Writing is a form of meditation.

I think that’s why so many of us first turned to writing. We had a need to understand some deep emotion or reaction or thought we didn’t have the words for. And our stories were a way to help us dig down into that feeling or reaction or thought until we found the center of truth.

When you meditate, you turn off your worry, anxiety, negativity, and when you’re on the other side of it, you have a new perspective. It’s a little like sunlight pouring through a window. After meditation, the light reaches that angle where the window turns it into a rainbow.

Could meditating speed up your writing process?

Think of how much deeper you could go with your writing if you started your writing session by first meditating for five minutes. Even better? Present yourself with the next scene or story problem at the start of your meditation, then, through the practice of meditation, let it go. Let it flow. Then let it come back and present itself to you in a new light.

Other forms of meditation...

Meditation isn’t a rigid practice. Sometimes, meditation can be a simple as listening to the wind blow through the trees, or breathing while watching the ocean. Even reading can be a form of meditation, when it takes you away from your worry and allows you to reflect on your own reactions and thoughts to the story, and your life.

Before your next writing session, try five minutes of meditation and invite your creative project to join you. I think you’ll be surprised at the renewed energy you’ll find.

About Christina Delay

Christina Delay is the hostess of Cruising Writers and the brand new Creative Wellness Retreats as well as an award-winning author represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. She may also have a new series out with Jules Lynn under a pen name. When she's not cruising the Caribbean, she's dreaming up new writing retreats to take talented authors on or giving into the demands of imaginary people to tell their stories.

About Cruising Writers

Cruising Writers brings writers together with bestselling authors, an agent, and a world-renowned writing craft instructor writing retreats around the world. Cruise with us to the Bahamas this November with Alexandra Sokoloff of the internationally-renowned Screenwriting Tricks for Fiction Authors, Kerry Anne King - Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author, and Michelle Grajkowski of 3 Seas Literary.