Creating Novel Templates
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Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews
Feb 16, 2012, 3:12:20 AM2/16/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
I'm using Ywriter to create novel templates so I
know how many chapters are going to be in the first draft. Should I vreate
revised coppies for subsequent drafts, or just add our subtract chapters, and
add a version number?
Nicole Andrews
Pen name Mellissa Green
Budding novelist
Tweet me
Budding novelist
Tweet me
@greenNovelist
Henry Boleszny
Feb 16, 2012, 11:55:48 AM2/16/12
to Simon
Hi Nicole,
It sounds like you're thinking in terms of MS Word or similar. Simon didn't create yWriter with that kind of 'save as' facility.
Version control in yWriter works very differently. It relies on scene backups and uses a timestamp to differentiate between 'versions'. You can view previous versions of scenes in the Tools/Backups/View Autobackups sub-menu.
However, only scenes modified on a given day will appear there.
As for creating novel templates, I've found no settings to handle that. In part, I think it's related to how each project is established at the start. I think it's also related to each chapter being blank on purpose. You need to add a scene before you write to it--or you need to drag a scene to it from another chapter. Since that will change based on each new project you develop, a template can become clunky and unworkable sooner than you think.
When you create your project, you identify it with a unique name. yWriter then creates unique folders linked to the yw5 data file. Then you add chapters to the blank project. As far as I know, there's no limit to how many a project can contain.
I know that I'll need at least 100 chapters when I start a new project. Most of these will contain active scenes. Some are set to 'other' and act as place holders for content I know I have to write. One is a marked unused and serves as a 'dump' for rejected content that I might need later (130 scenes and growing). I recently added another 25 chapters to a draft when I ran out of 'space' to work out which option of various plot threads worked best for the story.
Other users may have different ideas, but I use what I know to set up the project when I write.
If I need to create a new 'version' of the story (thanks to a flawed concept that doesn't raise its head until 2/3 of the way through the plot), I create a new project and import those scenes that are relevant. So far, I've done that eight times to the draft of my first novel... the bane of creating a new species on a new world from scratch, with limited Earth scientific knowledge to provide the framework and natural laws.
I know this isn't what you hoped to hear, but I hope this (long) email does give you some answers.
Henry
From: goldy...@gmail.com
To: ywr...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [yWriter] Creating Novel Templates
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:12:20 -0500
It sounds like you're thinking in terms of MS Word or similar. Simon didn't create yWriter with that kind of 'save as' facility.
Version control in yWriter works very differently. It relies on scene backups and uses a timestamp to differentiate between 'versions'. You can view previous versions of scenes in the Tools/Backups/View Autobackups sub-menu.
However, only scenes modified on a given day will appear there.
As for creating novel templates, I've found no settings to handle that. In part, I think it's related to how each project is established at the start. I think it's also related to each chapter being blank on purpose. You need to add a scene before you write to it--or you need to drag a scene to it from another chapter. Since that will change based on each new project you develop, a template can become clunky and unworkable sooner than you think.
When you create your project, you identify it with a unique name. yWriter then creates unique folders linked to the yw5 data file. Then you add chapters to the blank project. As far as I know, there's no limit to how many a project can contain.
I know that I'll need at least 100 chapters when I start a new project. Most of these will contain active scenes. Some are set to 'other' and act as place holders for content I know I have to write. One is a marked unused and serves as a 'dump' for rejected content that I might need later (130 scenes and growing). I recently added another 25 chapters to a draft when I ran out of 'space' to work out which option of various plot threads worked best for the story.
Other users may have different ideas, but I use what I know to set up the project when I write.
If I need to create a new 'version' of the story (thanks to a flawed concept that doesn't raise its head until 2/3 of the way through the plot), I create a new project and import those scenes that are relevant. So far, I've done that eight times to the draft of my first novel... the bane of creating a new species on a new world from scratch, with limited Earth scientific knowledge to provide the framework and natural laws.
I know this isn't what you hoped to hear, but I hope this (long) email does give you some answers.
Henry
From: goldy...@gmail.com
To: ywr...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [yWriter] Creating Novel Templates
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:12:20 -0500
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Kirvee
Feb 18, 2012, 2:53:24 AM2/18/12
to yWriter
Nicole,
It sounds to me like what you mean is an outline, of sorts?
I'm not sure about your process, but for me, personally, what I am
doing with one of my novels is that I wrote out a basic, bare-bones
outline in Word. Nothing fancy or detailed, just a simple list with
chapter numbers and a simple breakdown of general events that needed
to happen in each chapter in the order they needed to happen in.
When I got yWriter I went about transferring what I'd put down in that
one Word document to yWriter via just making all the chapters in that
program and then organizing the event list into scenes for each
chapter.
That's sorta how I go about a novel template....hope that helped you
some?
~ Mary
On Feb 16, 3:12 am, "Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews"
It sounds to me like what you mean is an outline, of sorts?
I'm not sure about your process, but for me, personally, what I am
doing with one of my novels is that I wrote out a basic, bare-bones
outline in Word. Nothing fancy or detailed, just a simple list with
chapter numbers and a simple breakdown of general events that needed
to happen in each chapter in the order they needed to happen in.
When I got yWriter I went about transferring what I'd put down in that
one Word document to yWriter via just making all the chapters in that
program and then organizing the event list into scenes for each
chapter.
That's sorta how I go about a novel template....hope that helped you
some?
~ Mary
On Feb 16, 3:12 am, "Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews"
Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews
Feb 18, 2012, 2:59:38 AM2/18/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
It's a chapter palan, so when I open it in word, I can fill it in with the
chapters.
Nicole Andrews
chapters.
Nicole Andrews
Pen name Mellissa Green
Budding novelist
Tweet me
@greenNovelist
Nicole,
~ Mary
--
belphebe
Feb 18, 2012, 11:16:48 AM2/18/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 12:12 AM, Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews <goldy...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm using Ywriter to create novel templates so I know how many chapters are going to be in the first draft.
This comment prompted one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments for me. I have participated in a Novel-writing challenge for a number of years now, but have never set up a novel template/novel project that I can use for it. I just set the outline up every November. I'll go create my template pretty soon so that I'll be ready this year!
I can create a template for this particular writing project because I always use 30 chapters, one per day for the month of November. If I don't write on a particular day, I just mark the chapter unused. Eventually, I might delete the unused chapters.
Back to the question at hand.
Should I vreate revised coppies for subsequent drafts, or just add our subtract chapters, and add a version number?
If you want to do the actual writing and layout in Word - as a later reply seems to indicate - maybe you want to see about investing in Microsoft Publisher. I haven't used Publisher yet, so I don't know if it will be what you need.
You could create your own Word template or templates. Just use the Styles in Word and set up your own Chapter style and Scene style and whatever other options you want. There may even be Word templates available already for a novel format. Do an online search to find out if anything is available that would suit what you are looking for.
As someone else pointed out, you can't add version numbers for different drafts in yWriter, but rather you need to make a copy of the project and work from the copy (if you don't want to lose the original information).
You can do all the writing in yWriter and then export to RTF format when it comes time to get ready to submit your manuscript. Or export to RTF if you want to see your novel in a single document printout format at any point during the writing process.
Inez
Michelle Norton
Feb 18, 2012, 3:20:59 PM2/18/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
Ms publisher is desktop publishing software, that is it is for the
layout of printed materials such as books, flyers, brochures
etc....which, though may people do this, Word is not for.
layout of printed materials such as books, flyers, brochures
etc....which, though may people do this, Word is not for.
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Michelle
Writer / Web Designer
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http://denverfictionwriters.com
http://about.me/michellejnorton
Henry Boleszny
Feb 18, 2012, 3:54:53 PM2/18/12
to Simon
Point.
I don't know what the current version of Publisher is like, but older versions worked best for booklets, flyers and posters. Since every pixel became a graphic, early Publisher files were incredibly large. Try using it to create a website and you'll see what I mean. (Okay, that was a rookie mistake with Pub 95 before I discovered Allaire HomeSite and Macromedia Dreamweaver...)
Word, on the other hand, is a dedicated word processing application with DTP functions. It's designed to handle large documents more efficiently than Publisher. For a start, you don't have the problem of having to create a text box, link it to a previous or next text box, type your text, format text, add extra pages because your document isn't big enough, then...
Adobe InDesign handles that type of document layout more efficiently and, unlike Microsoft's offerings, was designed from the first line of code to be used as a tool for creating books, magazines and related documents. Of course, it comes with a professional DTP price tag and a steeper learning curve.
The advantage yWriter has over Word is its ability to handle large volumes of text by breaking it down into smaller files. In that, it emulates the Master Document/sub-document process that Microsoft developed years ago in Word for large, complex publications such as theses, books and the like. It also does it more efficiently and with more flexibility.
I used the MS Word Master/sub-document to handle a twenty-chapter book about a decade ago. Each chapter was a sub-document and it avoided the problem of losing custom style sheets that a single very large Word document can encounter. Then I needed to add extra sub-documents when my story grew beyond the outline I'd created.
The Master Document is little more than a TOC with hyperlinks to the sub-documents. Moving or deleting a sub-document without updating the Master proved to be a very bad idea. It also required having all associated files accessible whenever I worked with one part of the Master Document. The same applied with adding extra sub-documents. Miss a step in the procedure and headaches follow.
Personally, I wouldn't use Publisher for anything more than promotional material but that might be a prejudice based on Publisher 95, 98 and 2000. Nor would I use anything but yWriter to author a book. On the other hand, Word is my first choice for letters, memos and short business reports.
It's all about using the right tool for the job.
This isn't meant to be a flame, just a comment based on my experience over the last two decades (more or less--I still fondly remember using MS Word 2 and Word 6 back in the days of DOS...).
H
I don't know what the current version of Publisher is like, but older versions worked best for booklets, flyers and posters. Since every pixel became a graphic, early Publisher files were incredibly large. Try using it to create a website and you'll see what I mean. (Okay, that was a rookie mistake with Pub 95 before I discovered Allaire HomeSite and Macromedia Dreamweaver...)
Word, on the other hand, is a dedicated word processing application with DTP functions. It's designed to handle large documents more efficiently than Publisher. For a start, you don't have the problem of having to create a text box, link it to a previous or next text box, type your text, format text, add extra pages because your document isn't big enough, then...
Adobe InDesign handles that type of document layout more efficiently and, unlike Microsoft's offerings, was designed from the first line of code to be used as a tool for creating books, magazines and related documents. Of course, it comes with a professional DTP price tag and a steeper learning curve.
The advantage yWriter has over Word is its ability to handle large volumes of text by breaking it down into smaller files. In that, it emulates the Master Document/sub-document process that Microsoft developed years ago in Word for large, complex publications such as theses, books and the like. It also does it more efficiently and with more flexibility.
I used the MS Word Master/sub-document to handle a twenty-chapter book about a decade ago. Each chapter was a sub-document and it avoided the problem of losing custom style sheets that a single very large Word document can encounter. Then I needed to add extra sub-documents when my story grew beyond the outline I'd created.
The Master Document is little more than a TOC with hyperlinks to the sub-documents. Moving or deleting a sub-document without updating the Master proved to be a very bad idea. It also required having all associated files accessible whenever I worked with one part of the Master Document. The same applied with adding extra sub-documents. Miss a step in the procedure and headaches follow.
Personally, I wouldn't use Publisher for anything more than promotional material but that might be a prejudice based on Publisher 95, 98 and 2000. Nor would I use anything but yWriter to author a book. On the other hand, Word is my first choice for letters, memos and short business reports.
It's all about using the right tool for the job.
This isn't meant to be a flame, just a comment based on my experience over the last two decades (more or less--I still fondly remember using MS Word 2 and Word 6 back in the days of DOS...).
H
> Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:20:59 -0700
> Subject: Re: [yWriter] Creating Novel Templates
> From: tirj...@gmail.com
> To: ywr...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [yWriter] Creating Novel Templates
> From: tirj...@gmail.com
> To: ywr...@googlegroups.com
Michelle Norton
Feb 18, 2012, 4:06:47 PM2/18/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
As graphic designer, I know publisher is a poorman's choice for
desktop publishing ...text boxes are not a problem it's what you do in
desktop publishing software such as indesign, and quark. All three
have large files but that's because they hold text, images, fonts,
color settings etc...however once you have a template going you can
just let the text flow in and it makes print projects go way faster.
desktop publishing ...text boxes are not a problem it's what you do in
desktop publishing software such as indesign, and quark. All three
have large files but that's because they hold text, images, fonts,
color settings etc...however once you have a template going you can
just let the text flow in and it makes print projects go way faster.
Word does not handle large files well. Once you hit 100,000 words
things start to happen. When I was a secretary we used to call this
THE END. A good clue is when Word starts shutting off spell check.
That's when you had to start breaking and linking files instead of
sending one big document...word is the most misused software in
business imo right after excel (databases ::shiver::)
In short, I agree. Right tool for the right job.
Henry Boleszny
Feb 18, 2012, 4:33:56 PM2/18/12
to Simon
LOL
I agree with you about Excel. It's amazing what we come up against in our RTO both from a standards and student's expectations!
I agree with you about Excel. It's amazing what we come up against in our RTO both from a standards and student's expectations!
> Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:06:47 -0700
Nicole Valicia Thompson-Andrews
Feb 19, 2012, 10:33:58 AM2/19/12
to ywr...@googlegroups.com
I'll probably just do my templates in Ywriter,
export to .rtf, and add a version number that way since it will open up in word
anyway.
Nicole Andrews
Pen name Mellissa Green
Budding novelist
Tweet me
Budding novelist
Tweet me
@greenNovelist
----- Original Message -----From: belphebeSent: Saturday, February 18, 2012 11:16 AMSubject: Re: [yWriter] Creating Novel Templates
--
Brian Monroe
Feb 25, 2012, 12:14:59 AM2/25/12
to yWriter
Actually Adobe has a neat option where you can RENT inDesign at pretty
reasonable rates (I use it only when I have the final ready to go).
Also - you don't have to use the "30 days" at once. You could use it
15 days one month and 15 th next. That's a lot easier to deal with
than paying out your life savings.
reasonable rates (I use it only when I have the final ready to go).
Also - you don't have to use the "30 days" at once. You could use it
15 days one month and 15 th next. That's a lot easier to deal with
than paying out your life savings.
Pedro
Feb 27, 2012, 8:11:51 AM2/27/12
to yWriter
There's also a free alternative to InDesign: Scribus.
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