Video Tutorials

[poeticplenties]

Hello,

I am brand new to Storyist and have been trying to work on my 85,000 word manuscript in this new program for three days. In the past I have taught myself to navigate and master the most complex software...from Sibelius to Photoshop etc...I have always done this via video tutorials.

I cannot believe Storyist does not have any video tutorials to get beginners started. It makes no sense.

Most upset and frustrated as I just cannot work this software out and am considering going with another program which does have such tools

Troubled

PP

[marguerite]

Hi, PP:

Storyist does have video tutorials--quite a few. You can find them at http://storyist.com/support/howto/. The one for screenwriters is a particularly good introduction to the program as a whole, and you can apply most of the information to novel writing as well.

 

If you click around the support pages for Mac or iPad, you can also find downloadable manuals and lots of helpful screen shots. And at this point there is tons of information on the forums (which are searchable), especially the Troubleshooting and Using Storyist threads.

 

Hang in there. It's really not that hard to figure out. And it's a great program once you get past the initial hump.

And welcome to the forums,

Marguerite

[poeticplenties]

Hi Marguerite, Thank you so much for your reply. Afraid I am still struggling. I have poured over the forums and most of the topics I put into the search do not come up. My list of questions is growing huge. I have watched the screenplay video twice now and it has helped a little but not with everything.

 

In find it impossible to work Storyist out from the text manuals. Believe me, I have been trying for three full days now!

 

Thank you for your warm welcome. I hope I figure this out soon

PP

[poeticplenties]

There are two very important things which are not cutting and pasting from my Word document.

1. is FOOTNOTES....of which there are so far, about 40 so I wd rather not enter them all again manuallys. I notice your footnote reply is from 2010 and I am really hoping that the latest version of Storyist has updated their footnote options? I do not want to enter the numbering manually because I am continuously editing the text and I need it to do it for me. Also, I wish to have the footnotes at the bottom of the page. Only the one Forum discussion from 2010 comes up for this one

 

2. is a little sun SYMBOL which I use in word to BREAK within a chapter between numerous moment

Can you help me here please? Nothing comes up in Forum for this one

 

Please let me know if there is another way you would prefer I forum this

 

Thank you

PP

[Steve]

Hi Poeticplenties,

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

There is one question which is really troubling me particularly. I am importing chapter by chapter, my 60 chapter novel (I could not work out how to import the whole document and keep all the page breaks between my chapters

 

 

There are several options for importing your work from Word, but the easiest is probably this:

1. Export your manuscript from Word as an RTF file.
   
2. Create a new Storyist project. You can use any template, but let's say you choose the Novel template.
   
3. Drag the RTF file to the Storyist Project view.
   
4. When the "Copy items to project" dialog appears, choose "Novel Manuscript" from the Type popup.
   

When you do this, your entire manuscript, included headers footers and style sheets, are imported into your project.

 

One difference between Storyist and Word is that Storyist uses the page break attribute of styles to introduce page breaks. Word also offers the option of using control characters to force page breaks. If you've been using control characters (that is, Insert > Break > Page Break), you'll want to edit the style you use for chapter titles in Storyist to make sure the "Paragraph starts on a new page" checkbox is checked.

 

 

so I am trying to do it manually but everytime I do so, I lose my own font and formatting for that header and I can't work out how to change the template style. Does that make sense.

 

There are several ways to edit a style. The easiest is this:

1. Place the cursor in some text having the style you want to edit.
   
2. Choose Format > Style > Edit Current Style.
   

If you bring up the Storyist Help menu and type "edit style" in the search field, you'll find a list of help topics on editing styles. You can also find more information in the Creating and Editing Styles section of the manual.

 

The Creating Custom Templates screencast has some useful information.

 

 

Do footnotes cut and paste from Word?

 

Storyist doesn't support footnotes. However, if you want to transfer the information, you can paste footnote text into comments.

 

Hang in there. From your questions, it sounds like you're almost there.

 

-Steve

[Steve]

Hi Poeticplenties,

 

There are two very important things which are not cutting and pasting from my Word document. 1. is FOOTNOTES....of which there are so far, about 40 so I wd rather not enter them all again manuallys. I notice your footnote reply is from 2010 and I am really hoping that the latest version of Storyist has updated their footnote options? I do not want to enter the numbering manually because I am continuously editing the text and I need it to do it for me. Also, I wish to have the footnotes at the bottom of the page. Only the one Forum discussion from 2010 comes up for this one

 

The current version of Storyist does not support footnotes.

 

2. is a little sun SYMBOL which I use in word to BREAK within a chapter between numerous moment Can you help me here please? Nothing comes up in Forum for this one Please let me know if there is another way you would prefer I forum this Thank you PP

 

It looks like I was answering your previous question when you posted this.

 

From above:

 

One difference between Storyist and Word is that Storyist uses the page break attribute of styles to introduce page breaks. Word also offers the option of using control characters to force page breaks. If you've been using control characters (that is, Insert > Break > Page Break), you'll want to edit the style you use for chapter titles in Storyist to make sure the "Paragraph starts on a new page" checkbox is checked.

 

-Steve

[poeticplenties]

Thank you so much Steve,

I will try what you suggest above.

Re: footnotes. They are such an intergral part of my huge novel and they are there for the reader, not for me, so comments is not really relevant a place to put them

Is Storyist working on including footnotes in an updated version? I do hope so, because they are something which are becoming more and more popular in novel writing these days

Yes, nearly there on some fronts but certainly no idea how to use storyboard or collage yet, nor how to see the overall sweep of my plot. No idea!

Yet

PP

[poeticplenties]

Thank you for your second reply too. Yes we must have been typing at the same time!

 

Regarding the 'sun' symbol

Are there any such symbols/icon I can use in Storyist? It is simply ignoring that I have a symbol/icon there at all, when I cut and paste chapters which means I have to go through all 250 pages and re-insert all the symbols...?

Cheers

PP

ps. it is a monotype symbol from word

[marguerite]

Are you using the sun symbol to indicate scene/section breaks, PP? If so, Storyist uses # on a line by itself as its section separator. When it "sees" that, it automatically starts a new section. The easiest thing to do if you're still working in import mode is to run the change in Word and apply a new tag called Section Separator at the same time before you export to RTF.

 

Before printing (say to an e-book) you can create a copy of your project and replace all those # with another character of your choice. I use * because it is unobtrusive and available in every e-book font, or just a blank space. But while you are working in Storyist you need to keep # (and include it even at the end of each chapter), so that Storyist can recognize your sections and will allow you to drag them, say, into a new order as your plans change.

 

I have a long post pinned at the top of Using Storyist that gives best practices for Word export/Storyist import. You may want to check it out before going further.

 

On the footnotes, how about keeping them in a note or separate manuscript as text for now and using comments to indicate their placement? You could list them by chapter and not number them until you are sure where you want them to go. It's a workaround, and a rough one at that, but it at least cuts down on the renumbering drudgery.

 

FWIW, as a reader I detest footnotes in novels, but that's just me.

[poeticplenties]

Hiya

Thank you for this. No, I definitely need footnotes at the bottom of the page, since I am dealing with a lot of French tidbits, hard to explain but it is a novel tour guide book of Paris as well...in a way. It is a fundamental part of my book.

As for the sun - I am not using it to just indicate section breaks, not at all. I am using it for very infrequent and specific jumps in time within some chapters. The sun sign because the story is about a voyaging mermaid.

Are there truly no more imaginative and visually poetic/ appealing symbols than #?

If there are no monotype symbols then does that mean that I have no latin accents either? (there is a fair amount of French in my novel) I will have have a good look at this

I love footnotes! It makes me feel like I am reading something which is perhaps bordering on non-fiction, which is exactly the effect I wish to get across!

[marguerite]

Hi, PP:

Yes, we have Latin accents. Just enter them the usual way (Option-Symbol, letter on the Mac; hold down key on the iPad).

 

The suggestion about storing footnotes elsewhere was in response to your complaint about the lack of automatic numbering. I didn't mean it as a permanent solution for printing. But you can't have footnotes in an e-book: you can only create cross-references and hyperlinks. Does that mean you don't plan to produce your book for e-publication but only for print?

 

Yes, footnotes in fiction make me feel like I'm reading nonfiction, too, which is why I hate them. But chacun à son gout, as they say.

Best,

M

[poeticplenties]

Thank you for this, Marguerite!

I am hoping to get published by someone who will take care of the ebook for me, I have already released 4 albums independently and do not wish to go the same road with my writing! At this stage I just wish to be able to print the manuscript out every month, as it will appear on a page, not an e book for the purposes of 1. my agent submissions 2. my monthly writers groups 3. various masterclasses in which the author/ speaker requests the first three chapters etc

 

One more question for today (famous last words). And this is a fundamental one which is the main problem I have been trying to get my head around. I do not understand the difference between entering OUTLINER notes in chapters in your MANUSCRIPT, where each scene is summarised, as the guy enters (in the script demo video) first and entering OUTLINER notes into PLOT POINTS and how to INTEGRATE the two.

Does one drag plot points to the outline?

 

Really would love more video demos. Hope they come soon. Hope too that footnotes are integrated in the next version and that this comes out before I finish my book!

 

Cheers

PP

[Steve]

Hi Poeticplenties,

 

One more question for today (famous last words). And this is a fundamental one which is the main problem I have been trying to get my head around. I do not understand the difference between entering OUTLINER notes in chapters in your MANUSCRIPT, where each scene is summarised, as the guy enters (in the script demo video) first and entering OUTLINER notes into PLOT POINTS and how to INTEGRATE the two.

 

The main thing to understand is that Storyist gives you the option of seeing three different views of a file. The first is the text view (View > as Text), which shows you the text of your file. The second is the outline view (View > as Outline), which shows you the outline of the file along with the summary associated with each outline element. The third is the storyboard view (View > as Storyboard), which for chapters shows the outline as index cards, and for sections shows the section summary as an index card along with any project items that are attached to the section.

 

You can see both your manuscript and your story sheets in each of these three views.

 

As noted in the Getting Started Guide (Help > Show Getting Started Guide), story sheets are customizable forms for recording notes on the elements of your story--plot, character, setting--as well as on the individual sections of your manuscript. Plot point sheets, for example, can be used to describe the key dramatic scenes in your novel, and are often used in the planning stages (before you start writing) to map out the structure of your story. If you choose to use them, you can attach them to sections of your manuscript later by dragging them from the Project view to the storyboard for the intended section.

 

-Steve

[poeticplenties]

Not quite in love with the program yet....

Is it possible to automatically title Untitled Sections? ie. after every hashtag that the title is automatically set up to use the first line of the section as a title? That would be all I need to know what each section is. The thought of having to go through the entire manuscript and name each section