Long works: Duplicate scene fields

[E. T.]

Hello and happy new year to everyone making and using yWriter!

I can't believe I'm the only writer who writes (occasionally) scenes that can last longer than 10,000 words; and obviously needs to cut them into several chapters.

Is there a way to copy/paste literally all the previous yWriter scene's data except text (characters/POV, locations, items, status...), especially inside the same chapter?

If not, can anybody interested comment on this so we can see if we can make it happen?

Even duplicating the whole scene would help me immensely compared to entering the  exact same fields 7 times (erasing the text is quicker). My character & location lists are very long!

Just taking this opportunity to mention I created a "None" character for the sole purpose of POV. Not all novels/scenes have narration taking a specific (internal) character's POV: some take none at all (external POV), and others (omniscient ones) switch between several characters present in the same short scene, depending on relevance.

It is currently impossible to leave a blank POV in yWriter's characters for a scene: we can only remove/add characters, and the first one added has to be POV (so either forced POV or scene without characters at all).

Thanks in advance for any hint concerning the duplicate scene data.

Have a great 2025!

Ety

[Peter T.]

On Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 2:52:28 PM UTC+1 E. T. wrote:

Is there a way to copy/paste literally all the previous yWriter scene's data except text (characters/POV, locations, items, status...), especially inside the same chapter?

If not, can anybody interested comment on this so we can see if we can make it happen?

I'm not sure if I've understood your problem correctly. Is it like this: You have a very long scene that you want to split up in order to place the individual parts in different chapters. The usual way would be to insert lines with “***” at the separation points in the scene editor and then split these scenes via the “Edit” menu. You can then move the newly created scenes to the subsequent chapters. However, only the viewpoint character is adopted in the newly created scenes; the remaining relationships must be re-created manually.  

Even duplicating the whole scene would help me immensely compared to entering the  exact same fields 7 times (erasing the text is quicker). My character & location lists are very long!

Does that mean that your 10000-word scenes take place in a lot of locations with a lot of characters? Then perhaps we don't quite have the same understanding of what constitutes a scene. Never mind, if it is easier for you to delete parts of the text than to reassign the metadata, you can also clone your long scene several times and gradually reduce the size. All metadata is retained when cloning. You can find the "Clone selected scene(s)" command by right-clicking on the relevant scene in the scene list. Needless to say, you do not use the split function described above in this case. 

 

Just taking this opportunity to mention I created a "None" character for the sole purpose of POV.

You're doing it right, I too have simply defined a “narrator” in such cases and moved him to the first position in the corresponding scene. 

It is currently impossible to leave a blank POV in yWriter's characters for a scene: we can only remove/add characters, and the first one added has to be POV (so either forced POV or scene without characters at all).

To be precise, it doesn't have to be the first one added; you can change the order later on by moving it.  

Happy New Year, 

Peter

[Christian Bieck]

Peter T. schrieb am Mittwoch, 1. Januar 2025 um 18:11:13 UTC+1:

Does that mean that your 10000-word scenes take place in a lot of locations with a lot of characters? Then perhaps we don't quite have the same understanding of what constitutes a scene.

I don't have anything to add to Peter's advice, but since the above were my thoughts exactly, a curiosity question for OP: I assume you're gaining some benefit, story- or otherwise, by defining your scenes that way, and I'd be interested in what the benefit is. Care to elaborate? (Note: I've never had scenes that are longer than a chapter; usually for me, a chapter has a scene-sequel pair, i.e. an action and a reaction scene in yWriter terminology.)

Happy 2025

Christian

[E. T.]

Problem solved! I never right clicked on the scene list before. "Clone selected scene(s)" already exists there. Doesn't in the Scene menu.

(I should stop giving context as it always misleads and never is relevant; in this case I was 100% sure the option wasn't in yWriter and wanted to elaborate so writers with similar needs would comment!)

Peter:

only the viewpoint character is adopted in the newly created scenes; the remaining relationships must be re-created manually.  

When I tried that option, it did copy the locations as well. What do you mean by "remaining relationships"? Isn't mono-POV the only thing you can do about characters in a scene?

Peter & Christian:

Does that mean that your 10000-word scenes take place in a lot of locations with a lot of characters? Then perhaps we don't quite have the same understanding of what constitutes a scene. 

I think we do! A scene is same place/same characters.

Some discussions need more words than others. That's my benefit, Christian! Words that have a meaning for the story.

To be fair, my latest long scene was technically several scenes, because some random characters appear. However, I don't even mention all my secondary characters in yWriter (scrolling already is long), so I never take time to add a character that will be present for half a chapter out of 200, and add/remove them in scenes of that chapter (multiply the work by all such random NPCs across the novel - I'd rather be writing). Hence me saying it's a single yWriter scene: only 2 characters are constantly registered, so cloning the scene would have been extremely effective.

Many thanks for your help!

[Peter T.]

You've probably already figured this out: if you have a recurring scene setup with lots of characters, locations, etc., you can create an empty “unused” template scene for it and clone it over and over again. 

On Sunday, January 5, 2025 at 12:17:01 AM UTC+1 E. T. wrote:

only the viewpoint character is adopted in the newly created scenes; the remaining relationships must be re-created manually.  

When I tried that option, it did copy the locations as well.

I have version 7.1.5.2 here, where scene splitting behaves as described. yWiter is currently being revised, maybe you are running a different version?

What do you mean by "remaining relationships"? Isn't mono-POV the only thing you can do about characters in a scene?

As you write yourself, you assign many characters to your scenes. The top one is automatically the viewpoint. And this is the only one that is included in the split scene. 

scene is same place/same characters.

Some discussions need more words than others. That's my benefit, Christian! Words that have a meaning for the story.

To be fair, my latest long scene was technically several scenes, because some random characters appear. However, I don't even mention all my secondary characters in yWriter (scrolling already is long), so I never take time to add a character that will be present for half a chapter out of 200, and add/remove them in scenes of that chapter (multiply the work by all such random NPCs across the novel - I'd rather be writing). Hence me saying it's a single yWriter scene: only 2 characters are constantly registered, so cloning the scene would have been extremely effective.

I'm not sure I've understood your point. So it's about very long discussions that have a single topic? 

In the event that you do want to organize the scenes according to dramaturgical aspects (surprising twist, change of topic, etc.) and you just want to avoid the split paragraph with the scene separator: you can select “append to previous” for the scene, then the reader will not see the scene change.

Incidentally, I like to use the term “section” instead of “scene”, because “scene” has a special meaning for me, namely the action in real time. Other sections can contain descriptions, summaries or exposition, and I separate them all organizationally, even if I don't always want to have a scene separator in the manuscript.

Also, if you ever look into the action-reaction scheme (I think there's a link to a more detailed description in the wiki), you won't always want to have the scene separator, so appending to the previous scene is a good idea. 

Cheers, 

Peter