Two of the most popular apps used in fiction writing are Scrivener and Plottr. Scrivener is incredibly powerful and wide-ranging having so many features most authors don’t even use half of them. Plottr is more simple but getting broader in scope all the time.
The thing is, no matter which program you use, you’ll need to organize your work somehow. That’s where templates come in.
Other authors have created templates that mimic different types of story structure: the three act, four act, W graph, hero’s journey, snowflake method, Blady Snyder’s Save The Cat, and even Michael Hauge’s Six-Stage Structure (for more on these, read my blog on story structure). And there are genre specific templates for romance and for mystery novels.
Some templates are simple just providing you with the outline, a folder for characters, one for setting. MG Herron’s template is one example. It includes the Six Core Competencies as laid out by Larry Brooks in Story Engineering and a nine-point outline with a short paragraph explaining in very general terms what could happen in each section.
Others templates are much more intense—practically an entire writing course laid out for you. K.M. Weiland’s template is like that going through, step-by-step, how to write and organize your book. Another similar template is the Story Grid Template by Shawn Coyne (who has written a book called Story Grid). This template is basically his book explained through the notes and some documents in the template.
To find templates, you can just do a google search for “Scrivener Templates”, or you can check out a basic list on Kindlepreneur or on the Literature and Latte Community Forum.
There are two ways to open a template in Scrivener. If you are downloading a folder (K.M. Weiland’s template comes in one), you need to open the zip file and copy the folder within it onto your computer. From there, within the folder is a Scrivener document which you click on to open it. You then just save the document as a template so that it will show up in your list of templates the next time you start a new project. MG Herron’s template is the same way.
Alternatively, you might just be given a file with a .scrivtemplate at the end of the name. For that, you need to go into Scrivener, under File create a new project. In the window that opens, click on Options in the lower left-hand corner, and then choose “Import Template” from the dropdown menu. You’ll need to know where you saved the file. But then every time you create a new project that template will be an option for you to choose from.
For authors who use Plottr, there aren’t nearly as many templates, but hopefully that will change. Plottr is becoming better and better with each update, so much so that you could probably even write your entire book in the software and then export it to Microsoft Word to clean up and edit (it even counts how many words you’ve written).
While Scrivener templates are scattered across the web, all of the Plottr templates have to go through review with the developers of the software. They, then, post the template on their “Community Templates” page. Alternatively, if you go to the Plottr Dashboard and click “Create from Template” you’ll be given a lot of options! The nice thing about doing it that way is that you can see what the template looks like before you choose it.
Like the more simple Scrivener templates, the Plottr templates merely provide you with the outline for you to follow, but there are different templates for different types of structures and some specific to different genres. The other thing that’s fun about Plottr templates is that you can choose one template for your structure but then are not tied into whatever that author created for their Character template. When you go to add characters to your book, you’re presented with another long list of possible templates to choose from—everything from a basic character arc (goal, flaw, a-ha moment, development) to a D&D Character Sheet to Freudian Personality Theory (Id, Ego, Superego). The possibilities are incredible (and, in my opinion, loads of fun!).
So, with all of these templates already created for you, why would you want to create your own, starting from scratch? Well, if you have a particular way you prefer to organize your book, then there are easy ways to simply create your own template.
In Scrivener, create the documents you’ll want to fill in—including character sheets, setting worksheets, whatever you like. Then, under the File menu, just click “Save as template”. It’s that easy!
In Plottr create the structure you’d like to keep, then click the three vertical buttons in the menu bar. A drop-down menu will open and give you the option to save it as a template.
So, there you have it—templates! Use them and write well!