I am so glad Julie! I find that I like using it as a “check in” after a draft is written also. That way if I have stepped away from my intended outline I can still make sure the structure is solid, and if not, it’s easy to spot where I went wrong. 🙂

I love timelines too! Every time I poke around that tool i think of a new way to use it. I am so glad you’re finding it so helpful.

The think with scene mapping is that you can use it as a pantser. Instead of planning every scene, only plan the iconic ones, the scenes you are using as a “target point” in your novel. I know when I used to pants, I would know a few key scenes before starting to write, and that was it–never the whole thing. I’d think heavily about these few scenes in advance, and then when I wrote, I knew I was writing toward that scene but how I got there was a mystery to yet discover. It helped me to have some structure, but not too much, you know?

Also, it can be used as a checklist after the fact to make sure you each scene has all the correct elements. 😉

I hope this gives you some ideas on how it might work for your process. 🙂

Honestly I don’t use Scrivener and so don’t even know what tools they have (this is by design, BTW – I want to make sure the ideas I come up with for new resources at OS is based on what I think writers need most and not avoid building something because someone else has a tool like it elsewhere. Lee of course knows, but he understands our process and never tries to steer us away from something or toward something based on any of is scrivener work.). That said, you can absolutely use this tool (and all our maps) with scrivener as all maps can be exported to Scrivener. Just use the OPML option under Export my Data on your account tab. 🙂