Novel short/long synopsis, total goals -- wc, timelines to complete? Wc counters?

[Eugenia]

Possible? Needed?

[Steakpirate]

I'm not sure what you mean by synopsis; but you can store that sort of information in the notebook/on plot/character cards.

 

As for goals, everything (short of graphs) you mentioned is available in the "Inspector," except for a tool for predicting when you'll finish/reach your goal. That might be nice to have, as well as general statistics.

[Eugenia]

Well, I meant the synopsis of a novel. Like a paragraph or so. Also, the category of a novel, daily goals, total word count to be completed, that kind of info?

[Steakpirate]

But where would you ideally want this information to be displayed? There's numerous ways to store that information (in the notebook/plot cards, etc.), and you can arrange that information to be displayed beside your manuscript by creating additional windows/panes (View -> Split) and navigating the pane to the desired page.

 

I'm trying to understand your particular needs (and the necessity of a designated field for this information). Is this a collaborative project? For submission purposes, there's always the cover page. Are you seeking a generic inspector-type page like PDFs have with Authorial/document information (and who would see this)?

 

If you were an editing house looking to begin accepting submissions in the form of Storyist files, I could see the appeal of that—but I think that would best be addressed with the creation of a new kind of Storyist file (a read-only/protected document), rather than with currently existant means.

 

As for daily goals, you can currently set both per session and long-term goal (complete with a start/stop session timer). This is accessible through the "Inspector" button under the Goals tab. Additional wordcount/goal statistics/features would be neat though.

[marguerite]

Eugenia, do you mean that you would like Storyist to create a synopsis for you automatically from your manuscript, in the way that Word can summarize a paragraph by eliminating words considered to be excessive?

 

The problem with this approach is that a submission-ready novel synopsis is not simply a summary of the text but a separate writing project that needs to demonstrate the strengths of the original without getting bogged down in the details (also a major pain in the neck, but shifting the job to a computer program isn't going to make it less of a pain).

 

On the writing goals, what SP said.

 

Congratulations, SP, on your NaNo progress!

Best,

Marguerite

[Eugenia]

Well, all I thought about was that at the very beginning, at the very top of the structure, there will be place to specify the manuscript 'parameters' such as a one-sentence summary of your novel, plus may be a paragraph length synopsis, a category (romance, lit, historical, schi-fi...), expected word count, may be a completion day if you write, let's say, 750 words daily. Or just a general completion date...

[Steve E]

Well, all I thought about was that at the very beginning, at the very top of the structure, there will be place to specify the manuscript 'parameters' such as a one-sentence summary of your novel, plus may be a paragraph length synopsis, a category (romance, lit, historical, schi-fi...), expected word count, may be a completion day if you write, let's say, 750 words daily. Or just a general completion date...

All useful information, but if you're only looking for a place to put it, why not in Notes? Does it really need to be literally "at the very top of the structure"? Notes are very accessible. If you want them to be more visible just name one "PARAMETERS" in all caps. Hope that helps.

 

By the way, Eugenia, welcome to the forums.

-T

[marguerite]

And if it does need to be at the very top, then why not create a manuscript called Parameters, with sections for premise, paragraph synopsis, etc. It won’t print or export when you print or export the main manuscript, only when you are in Parameters.

 

Personally, I keep a note group called Synopses, where I stash individual notes containing my premise, one-page synopsis, two-page synopsis, long synopsis, query letter, and back-of-book blurb. That works fine for me.

Best,

M

[Eugenia]

Thank you very much for the great ideas and your quick assistance! So helpful!

I purchased Storyist (both ipad and Mac) a while ago, but only now am starting to seriously importing my writing into it. Having it on both devices is incredible, but I need to put some time into thoroughly learning the software.

Thank you again for the warm welcome and your answers.

Regards,

E

[Steakpirate]

There's stuff I still haven't figured out.

 

We should bug Steve about putting together some interactive tutorials with a sample document that teaches you how to do things (IE: Now click here to split the manuscript window vertically!" (IMO, much more useful than helpfiles).