Using Scrivener to write your non-fiction book

Writing a non-fiction book

I thought I’d share my approach for creating my “How to Write a Travel Guide” in Scrivener, which makes it easy for me to pick up this writing project at a moments notice, and know exactly what needs to be done.

Project Status

I’m keeping this simple for this project, and just have two settings: To Do and Done. This allows me to filter the sections to just show the To Do and hide the Done sections, and I can use Binder Collections to save this view.

Project Label

Here’s how I’m using my Label settings for “How to Write a Travel Guide: Plan it”:

CONCEPT: When I first map out the content and ad placeholder pages for the sections and chapters I want to include, I set them to Concept.
1ST EDIT DONE: When I’ve completed a first version of the content, I update to this label.
2ND EDIT DONE: When I’ve completed a second version of the content, I update to this label. I’ll keep the pages at this setting until I’ve finished tweaking the content. Quite often I’ll dip back into the pages again and again, just to make sure that I’m happy with the content.
READY TO PROOF READ: I’ll update the labels to this setting when I’ve done my edits, and completed my own proofreading process. Any page with this label is ready to be reviewed by my proofreader.
FINAL VERSION: This label setting means that the content has been proofread by me and my proofreader, and is ready to be sent to my beta reading group.

Here’s what my “How to Write your Travel Guide” workspace looks like with this Scrivener Status and Labels structure assigned:

This Group Mode view is the best one to use for updating you label and status settings.

Why use Labels and Status settings?

You may wonder the benefit of messing about with updating your Scrivener labels and status settings, but they are invaluable if you’re juggling lots of projects. I can dip into this writing project at any time and know exactly what needs to be done for each section. If I feel like getting stuck into a rewrite I can delve into a Concept or 1st Edit section, or if I just feel like tinkering with content, I can work on a 2nd Edit section.

Are you using Scrivener to write your non-fiction book? Please share your comments and insights (or questions) below.

1 thought on “Using Scrivener to write your non-fiction book”

This is such a great way to keep your non fiction book organized! I love how Scrivener helps break everything down into manageable stages. Definitely going to borrow this idea for my own projects. Do you find the Corkboard feature helpful for visualizing the flow of your chapters, or do you mostly stick to the Binder?