You’re starting fresh in Draft Bench - no existing Scrivener bundle to import. By the end of this you’ll have a structured project with chapters and scenes, ready to open a scene and start writing.
What you’ll need#
- Draft Bench enabled (Settings -> Community plugins -> Draft Bench).
- A project title in mind. Working titles are fine; you can rename later.
Steps#
1. Create the project#
From the command palette, run Draft Bench: Create project. The new-project modal opens with three fields:
- Title. The project name. Used as the filename for the project note. (“Salt Road” in this walkthrough.)
- Shape. Pick Folder. Folder-shape projects hold multiple scenes (and optionally chapters). The other option, Single scene, is for flash fiction or poems where the project is a single note.
- Location. Where the project folder lives. Defaults to your Projects folder setting (typically
Draft Bench/{project}/). Leave the default unless you want this project somewhere specific.
Click Create. Draft Bench writes the project note (Salt Road.md) plus a folder for the project’s scenes.
2. Add chapters#
If you’re writing chapter-aware fiction (most novels), add chapters before scenes so Draft Bench can nest scenes under the right chapter automatically.
From the command palette, run Draft Bench: New chapter in project. The new-chapter modal asks for a chapter title. Enter the title (e.g., “Chapter 1: The road north”) and confirm. The chapter note lands inside the project folder.
Repeat for as many chapters as you have to start. You don’t need them all up front - new chapters can be added later via the same command.
3. Add scenes#
Run Draft Bench: New scene in project. The modal asks which chapter the scene belongs to (if you skipped step 2 and the project has no chapters yet, the scene attaches to the project directly). Enter a scene title and confirm.
The scene note is created inside the chapter’s folder, with the chapter and project links already in frontmatter. Repeat per scene.
4. Open a scene and start writing#
Open any scene note. The body is empty; the frontmatter has been pre-stamped with dbench-type: scene, dbench-chapter, dbench-project, plus a generated dbench-id. Write below the frontmatter as you would in any markdown note.
Draft Bench tracks word counts, draft revision history, and reverse-link arrays automatically as you save and link.
Variations#
If you’re writing chapter-less fiction (short story collections where each piece is a single scene; novellas without chapter structure): skip step 2 and add scenes directly to the project. The scenes attach to the project node instead of nesting under a chapter.
If you want sub-scene granularity (a long scene that breaks into beats or POV switches): create the parent scene first, then run Draft Bench: New sub-scene in scene. Sub-scenes nest under their parent scene’s folder. Sub-scenes also have their own draft history.
If the default project location doesn’t fit your vault: change the Location field in the new-project modal, or update the Projects folder setting under Settings -> Draft Bench to change the default for future projects.
If you’re doing flash fiction or poems: set Shape to Single scene in step 1. The project becomes a single note (no folder, no chapters). Skip steps 2-3 entirely.
Related guides#
- I want to import a Scrivener project - if you have an existing
.scrivbundle, the importer is the faster path. - I want to work with drafts of a scene - once you’ve started writing, this is the revision loop.
- I want to compile my manuscript - what to do once you have content to share.
Reference#
- Wiki: Getting started - broader plugin orientation including settings and commands.
- Wiki: Frontmatter reference - what
dbench-*properties get stamped on each note type.
Found something wrong or unclear? Suggest an edit - opens a pre-filled issue with the guides label.