If your manuscript feels more like a pile of spaghetti than a structured story, you are not alone. Many of my writer friends and writers I work with regularly admit that once their first draft is “done,” they have no idea what they’re actually looking at. The good news? You don’t have to have it all figured out. And tools like Scrivener can help you shape that beautiful mess into something coherent—without starting from scratch.
Why Your First Draft Feels Like Mush
Let’s normalize this: most first drafts are messy. They’re full of false starts, underdeveloped characters, scenes that go nowhere, and threads that vanish mid-page. But all of that is data. It’s raw material you can work with.
One of the participants in the Mastermind Sessions I lead every Wednesday recently said, “I just needed to see it all before I could figure out what I was trying to say.”
Sound familiar? You’re not off-track. You’re writing.
So how do you begin shaping that beautiful chaos into something you can actually work with?
Step One: Break It Into Scenes
Scenes are the building blocks of story. Not chapters. Scenes.
A scene is a certain number of people, in a specific place, at a specific time.
If any one of those changes—someone enters or exits, time jumps, or the location shifts—you’re in a new scene. Thinking in scenes makes it easier to:
- Cut unnecessary fillers (“she tied her shoes and drove to the office”)
- Identify where the conflict or emotional stakes are lacking
- Reorganize story flow
One of the reasons I love Scrivener is that you can drop 80,000 words into a file (or write by stream of consciousness) and then split your manuscript into scenes using the “Split at Selection” function. Yes, it takes a little time. Yes, it’s worth it.
(In case you don’t know – I have a library of over 40 short, to the point Scrivener tutorials I recorded for my writing community. You can access it here for $19.99)
Step Two: Get to Know Scrivener Outline Mode
Scrivener’s Outline Mode gives you a bird’s-eye view of your entire manuscript—perfect for overwhelmed writers. But first, you’ll need to create short synopses for each scene.
If you didn’t do that while drafting (most of us don’t), now’s the time. All it takes is a sentence or two so that you can easily recall what the scene is about. One writer in our group used ChatGPT to help: she copied and pasted each scene and asked for a 1-2 sentence summary. Then she pasted those into Scrivener’s synopsis cards.
Once you’ve done that, Outline Mode lets you:
- See the shape of your story at a glance
- Track scenes by character, theme, or timeline
- Spot plot holes, pacing issues, and inconsistencies
Step Three: Color-Code for Clarity
If you’re a visual thinker (and many of us are), color-coding in Scrivener can be a game-changer. You might:
- Assign colors based on point of view
- Highlight key themes (e.g., trauma, healing, betrayal)
- Group scenes by location or time period
One of the writers I work with had scenes about her protagonist’s past, her affair, and her current life. Once she color-coded them, she could instantly see how those threads braided (or didn’t) across the book.
Optional But Useful: Export Your Scrivener Outline
Did you know you can export your Scrivener outline with the scene titles and summaries?
This gives you a printable cheat sheet for revision—a huge help when you’re staring down 80,000+ words and wondering what’s what.
You Don’t Need to Fix It All In a Day
Revision is a process. Step by step, layer by layer. But having a tool like Scrivener—and a strategy for using it – can make the whole thing feel less daunting.
So if you’re staring at a mushy first draft wondering where to start, try this:
- Break it into scenes.
- Summarize each one.
- Step back and look at the whole picture.
You might be surprised by how much you do know once the chaos is mapped out.
Need a little inspiration or guidance? Check out my blog where you’ll find tools, tips, and insights for every step of your writing journey.
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