Write and publish a story
Take that idea for a novel that’s been bouncing around and get it down on (digital) paper.
They say everyone has a novel in them, but starting with a blank Word document is as off-putting as it gets. What you need is a tool that’s geared towards helping you write your story – fiction or non-fiction – and that tool is yWriter (www.spacejock.com/ yWriter6.html). It’s a full-blown project management tool aimed at budding novelists, providing everything you need to plot, structure and – of course – actually write your story. You’ll find options to set up and manage characters, locations and objects, plus jot down notes.
yWriter structures your story into sections, chapters and scenes – start by choosing ‘Project > New Project Wizard’ to create a bare-bones project with title and author name. Then create your first chapter from the Chapter menu followed by its opening scene.
Chapters and scenes come with descriptions – short synopses of their content – and once you’ve got your first scene up and running you’ll see a Viewpoint dropdown menu above its title – this allows you to choose the scene’s main protagonist. First, you need to create one or more characters – click Add followed by Add New. Give your character a short name, indicate if they’re a major or minor character, then complete the rest of the Name tab. You’ll see other tabs – Bio, Notes, Goals and Picture – for recording additional information if needed.
START WRITING
Use the scene’s Content tab’s text window to write your story. It has similar options to a word processor, but don’t forget to save regularly! You’ll also see a range of tabs allowing you to record as much or as little detail you need to help plan each scene, from which characters are in it (along with their motivation) to a list of items and locations. These work in a similar way to characters – right-click under ‘Present in Scene’ and choose New to set them up.
When you’re ready to move on to the next scene in your story – you don’t need to have finished a scene first – simply select Scene > Add Scene (after current) to do so. The main screen provides a handy summary of chapters and scenes, which you can rearrange from here, plus access as many or as few of yWriter’s rich tools as you need. Once your story is complete, choose Project > Export Project to save a copy in formats including text, eBook, RTF and HTML.