External Folder Organization

I’ve used Scrivener on and off since about 2010, but haven’t, at least that I remember, made much use of the external folder sync. I prefer to write in markdown, often in a TTY using either micro or vim/neovim, but for longer projects like a novel I want to be able to use Scrivener’s organization so I thought I’d try it again and use the external folder sync for my draft files and important notes.

Problem is I have my draft set up so that each chapter is a folder and each scene is a file so that I can easily move scenes around, that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to use Scrivener again, but in the external folder the scene files all just end up in one “Draft” folder. I turned on “Prefix file names with numbers” thinking that would at least keep the files in the same order they’re in in the binder, but the numbers are in no discernible order. For example my first scene file in the Chapter 1 folder starts with C and is number 16 and scene below it in the Chapter 9 folder starts with a P and is number 4. With or without the numbers, it’s already very difficult to find the file I need without being forced to use a GUI file explorer, and that’s only going to get worse as I add more scenes. I do most of my drafting on a Raspberry Pi 400 with a 1.5” screen, so using a GUI file explorer is out of the question and even TUI file explorers either don’t work at all or don’t display enough of the file name for me to tell what it is when I have 30+ and counting scene files that mostly all start with one of two character names.

I’ve considered numbering my scene files similar to the numbering in Scrivener’s outline view, but then I end up having to change a whole bunch of file names manually just to be able to move one scene. It’s the same messy system that made me not want to use Obsidian for a novel-length project. Plus, that would mean needing to make my binder a lot wider in scrivener just to be able to see any of the actual scene name, and my laptop screen isn’t big enough for that to be practical. I’ve also considered using a collection to sync only a few scene files at a time, but that doesn’t fit my workflow at all.

Has anyone found a way to make the external sync folder more organized & actually manageable to use with a significant number of scenes?