Plan Your Novel with Scrivener's Corkboard

You bought Scrivener because you wanted more than a word processor. You wanted a tool that could handle the sprawling mess of a novel in progress. But if you're still writing in the main editor and ignoring the corkboard, you're using about twenty percent of what you paid for.

The corkboard transforms Scrivener from "fancy Word" into actual novel-planning software. It lets you see your entire story structure at once, rearrange scenes by dragging cards around, and spot problems before you've written yourself into a corner. Writers who use the corkboard report spending less time rewriting because they catch structural issues earlier.

This guide covers everything from basic setup to advanced workflows. By the end, you'll have a corkboard configuration that matches how you actually think about story.

What the Corkboard Actually Does

The corkboard displays your binder items as virtual index cards. Each document in your manuscript becomes a card. Each card shows the document's title and synopsis. You can see dozens of scenes at once instead of scrolling through pages of text.

The power comes from manipulation. Drag a card to a new position and you've just moved that scene in your manuscript. No cutting, no pasting, no accidentally deleting half a chapter. The visual overview lets you spot patterns: too many scenes from one POV bunched together, a sagging middle with no conflict, three consecutive chapters set in the same location.

Writers like Hilary Mantel describe this as "growing a book rather than writing one." You're not just typing from beginning to end. You're building a structure, rearranging pieces, testing different configurations before committing.

Opening the Corkboard

Select any folder in your binder (like your Manuscript or Draft folder) and press the corkboard icon in the toolbar. It looks like a grid of four squares. You can also use View > Corkboard or the keyboard shortcut (Cmd+2 on Mac, Ctrl+2 on Windows).

The corkboard shows the immediate children of whatever you've selected. If you select your Manuscript folder, you'll see your chapter folders as cards. Click on a chapter folder, and the corkboard switches to show that chapter's scenes.

This hierarchical display matters. You can plan at the act level (showing parts or sections), the chapter level (showing scenes within a chapter), or both. Many writers work top-down: sketch the major movements first, then dive into each section to plan individual scenes.

Grid Mode vs. Freeform Mode

Scrivener offers two corkboard modes, and they serve different purposes.

Grid Mode for Sequential Planning

Grid mode arranges cards in neat rows. The order of cards matches the order in your binder, which matches the order in your compiled manuscript. Move a card and you're moving the actual scene.

Use grid mode when you know your story's sequence and want to see how it flows. This is your default working mode for most outlining and revision work. You can adjust how many cards appear per row using the controls in the footer bar. Some writers set this to match their plotting method: four cards per row for four-act structure, or eight cards to represent a two-row beat sheet.

Freeform Mode for Brainstorming

Freeform mode lets you drag cards anywhere. They can overlap, cluster, float in white space. The position doesn't affect your binder order. This mode replicates spreading physical cards across a table.

Access freeform mode through View > Corkboard Options > Freeform, or click the stacked-cards button in the footer bar.

Use freeform when you're brainstorming. You've created twenty scene ideas but have no idea what order they go in. Spread them out. Group related scenes together. Stack the ones you're not sure about. Move things around until patterns emerge.

The key feature: freeform arrangement doesn't change your binder until you tell it to. When you've found an arrangement you like, click the "Commit" button in the footer. Scrivener reads the cards left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and reorders your binder to match. Until you commit, you're just playing with possibilities.

Writing Effective Synopses

The synopsis is the text that appears on each card. It lives in the Inspector panel (the blue "i" icon, top-right corner) and displays automatically on your corkboard cards.

A blank corkboard is just a grid of titles. Titles alone don't tell you enough to plan. Synopses turn your corkboard into an actual storyboard.

What to Put in a Synopsis

The synopsis should answer: what happens in this scene that matters? Not every detail. Not the prose. The story beat.

Bad synopsis: "Sarah goes to the coffee shop and thinks about things."

Good synopsis: "Sarah spots her ex with someone new. Decides to text Marcus even though she promised herself she wouldn't."

The good version tells you what's at stake, what changes, what moves the story forward. When you're scanning forty cards, you need to know at a glance whether this scene is doing work.

When to Write Synopses

Plotters write synopses before drafting. The corkboard becomes the outline. Each card represents a scene you intend to write. You're planning the structure before committing to prose.

Discovery writers often write synopses after drafting. Once a scene exists, summarize it. Now you can see your actual structure, spot the gaps, identify the scenes that don't earn their place.

Either approach works. The point is having synopses that let you think about structure visually.

Keeping Synopses Current

Synopses drift out of date. You wrote a synopsis, then changed the scene, and now the card describes something that no longer happens. This creates confusion during revision.

Build a habit: when you finish revising a scene, update its synopsis. Five seconds of maintenance saves minutes of confusion later. Your corkboard should reflect your actual manuscript, not your original plan.

Using Labels and Colors

Labels assign categories to your documents. Each label gets a color. The corkboard can display these colors, turning your visual overview into a color-coded map of your story.

Access label settings through Project > Project Settings > Labels. Create labels that match how you think about your story.

Common Label Systems

Point of View: Assign a color to each POV character. Your corkboard instantly shows whose head you're in throughout the story. You'll spot when one character dominates for too long or when POV switches come too rapidly.

Timeline: Mark scenes as present-day, flashback, or flash-forward. See at a glance how your story moves through time. Identify sections where readers might get lost in the chronology.

Subplot: Color-code your A-plot, B-plot, and C-plot scenes. Check whether subplots are woven throughout or bunched together. Ensure your romantic subplot doesn't disappear for a hundred pages.

Scene Type: Action, dialogue, introspection, transition. See whether your story has variety or falls into repetitive patterns. Catch a string of five introspective scenes that will read as slow.

To display colors on the corkboard, enable View > Corkboard Options > Show Label Color. Cards will display their label color, making patterns visible instantly.

The Corkboard and Outliner Together

Scrivener's binder, corkboard, and outliner are three views of the same data. Changes in one appear in the others. This means you can switch between them based on what you're trying to do.

The corkboard excels at visual overview and drag-and-drop reorganization. The outliner excels at metadata: word counts, status tracking, custom columns with scene-level information. The binder excels at navigation and quick reference.

A typical workflow: use the corkboard to plan act structure, switch to the outliner to track word count targets per scene, work in the binder when you're deep in drafting mode and need to jump between scenes quickly.

The three views complement each other. Writers who use all three report better control over their projects than those who rely on just one.

Corkboard Workflows That Work

The Planning Workflow

Start with your manuscript folder selected. Create cards for your major story movements: beginning, middle, end. Or use a structure you know: three acts, four acts, the Save the Cat beats. Each card is a folder that will contain scenes.

Click into each section and create scene cards. Don't write prose yet. Just cards with synopses. "Protagonist discovers the problem." "Mentor refuses to help." "First confrontation with antagonist fails."

Now look at your corkboard. Does the structure feel right? Does the middle sag? Is the climax earned by what comes before? Rearrange cards. Delete scenes that don't carry weight. Add scenes where gaps appear.

Only when the corkboard tells a complete story do you start drafting. You've outlined with visual feedback, not just a list of bullet points.

The Revision Workflow

You've drafted your novel. Now you need to see what you actually wrote, not what you planned to write.

Go through each scene and write or update its synopsis. Be honest about what the scene contains, not what you intended. Then look at your corkboard.

Apply labels based on POV or subplot. Are there structural problems? Does one POV disappear for too long? Does the romantic subplot resolve too early? Do you have four consecutive scenes of the protagonist alone and thinking?

The corkboard reveals patterns invisible when you're reading linearly. You're not in the weeds of prose anymore. You're seeing shape.

Mark scenes that need work with a status label. Rearrange scenes that belong elsewhere. Identify scenes that can be cut entirely. The corkboard becomes your revision map.

The Multiple-POV Workflow

Multi-POV novels benefit enormously from corkboard planning. Assign each POV character a label color. Now you can see your POV distribution across the entire novel.

Check for balance. Is your secondary POV getting enough screen time? Are there stretches where readers might forget a character exists? Are POV switches happening at dramatically appropriate moments?

Some writers create a separate folder for each POV's scenes during drafting, then use the corkboard to weave them together. Drag a scene from Character A's folder into the main manuscript. Drag a scene from Character B. The corkboard makes interleaving visual.

The Save the Cat Workflow

Save the Cat's beat sheet has 15 specific beats. You can configure your corkboard to match.

Set your cards per row to 5. Create 15 scene cards with beat names: Opening Image, Theme Stated, Setup, Catalyst, Debate, Break into Two, B Story, Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In, All Is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul, Break into Three, Finale, Final Image.

Your corkboard now displays the beat sheet as a three-row grid. Glance at it and see whether your story hits the structural beats. This works for any plotting method with a defined number of elements.

Customizing Your Corkboard

The footer bar contains buttons that adjust your corkboard display. Experiment with these settings to find what works for your visual style.

Card size: Larger cards show more synopsis text but fewer cards on screen. Smaller cards let you see more of your story at once but with less detail per card. During planning, you might want larger cards to read synopses. During revision, smaller cards show the overall shape.

Card ratio: Standard index card dimensions work for most people, but you can adjust this if you want taller or wider cards.

Card spacing: Tighter spacing fits more cards on screen. Looser spacing is easier on the eyes for long planning sessions.

Cards per row: Match this to your plotting method or leave it on auto to fill available space.

Your preferences will change based on what you're doing. Save different presets in your head: small cards for big-picture overview, large cards for detail work.

Printing Your Corkboard

Sometimes you need physical cards. Scrivener can print your index cards for spreading across an actual table or pinning to an actual corkboard.

Go to File > Print Current Document with the corkboard view active. Scrivener prints the cards as they appear on screen. You can also use File > Compile and select an outline format to export your synopses as a document.

Physical cards work well for collaboration. Spread them on a table with a writing partner or editor. Shuffle them around. The tactile experience triggers different thinking than digital manipulation.

Common Mistakes

Empty synopses. A corkboard of blank cards helps no one. If writing synopses feels tedious, you're writing them too long. A synopsis can be one sentence. "Character learns the truth about their father." That's enough to make the card useful.

Ignoring freeform mode. Many writers never discover freeform mode. They struggle to figure out story order while cards snap to grid positions. Switch to freeform when you're brainstorming. Spread things out. The commit button exists for when you're ready to lock in your arrangement.

Not using labels. A monochrome corkboard shows structure but not texture. Labels add a second dimension of information. Even one label set (POV, subplot, or timeline) dramatically increases what you can see at a glance.

Working at the wrong level. If your corkboard shows only three cards, you're looking at too high a level to plan scenes. If it shows a hundred cards, you're looking at too low a level to see structure. Navigate to the folder that gives you the right granularity for what you're trying to do.

The Corkboard Test

Open Scrivener. Navigate to your manuscript folder. Switch to corkboard view. Look at your cards.

Can you see your story's shape? Do you know what happens in each scene? Can you spot the structural problems without reading a word of prose?

If the answer is yes, your corkboard is working. If the answer is no, you know what to fix: write synopses, apply labels, adjust your view settings.

The corkboard is Scrivener's most visual tool. Use it to see what you're building. The shape of your story should be visible before your reader ever encounters your first sentence.