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considering purchase; general questions


greenery

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In the example project files there are two character sheets: antagonist and protagonist. Someplace (and now I can't find it again) I saw a link to sample templates and sheets. I'm thinking there must be examples of more than antagonist and protagonist character sheets, no?

 

The novel I have coming out in September (my tenth) has twenty major recurring characters and at least fifty minor characters. I write big, fat historical novels and keeping track of characters is always a major headache.

 

 

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Hi, Greenery, and welcome to the forums!

The protagonist and antagonist sheets are just examples. Most of the templates include a couple of sample sheets, but not detailed examples. There are certain basic fields (height, build, age, etc.) predefined in the raw character sheet, but you can add custom fields and as much additional information as you want. The fields contain text, so you can write longer descriptions if you like. For example, my Russian novels have fields for patronymics as well as story-related fields like emotional makeup, internal/external goals, motivation, lessons learned, etc.

 

You can also arrange the character sheets in folders. I write big fat historical novels too, so each one has a folder for primary characters, secondary characters, and characters who are part of the series but not present in the given book. And yes, Storyist is invaluable for keeping track of the crowds! I usually keep split the screen side-by-side, with a big text window in the middle for writing and a small window at the right displaying my character photos. Then, if I need to know whether this minor character's eyes were blue or brown, I can click on his/her photo, change the mode to text, read the answer, and get right back to what I was doing.

 

Storyist is also useful for tracking settings and, although it doesn't have an integrated time line, I have used the plot point index cards to lay out the plot month by month (week by week, day by day) to get a quick rundown of where everyone is and what s/he is doing at a given moment.

Best,

Marguerite

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Thank you for getting back to me and for the welcome, Marguerite.

 

I'm torn, really, about Storyist. I used Scrivener for a long time and then gave up because the compile process was so crazy, and it ended up costing rather than saving me time. Storyist looks like it would handle all the bits and pieces that I have trouble keeping organized, but it's also a potential procrastination vehicle. And dog knows I need no more encouragement on that front.

 

Also, in response to the other thread I started: I understand that the two programs are very different, and I don't expect either of them to be free. But I would think that there should be some kind of package that makes it possible to get both of them for something less than $120. That's a lot of money for software that I'm not sure about, even after a fifteen day trial. And a big part of the attraction, for me at least, is the ability to move back and forth from iPad to MacBook Pro. Right now I'm using Libre Office (which I love; I'll never go back to Word) for everything, but it's got one big problem: there's no IOS version, unless you go through a very awkward third party. And of course it doesn't have any of the features that make Storyist appealing..

 

So I'll continue to explore and put off the purchase for the time being. Your help is very much appreciated. Thanks again.

 

best

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Hi greenery,

Also, in response to the other thread I started: I understand that the two programs are very different, and I don't expect either of them to be free. But I would think that there should be some kind of package that makes it possible to get both of them for something less than $120.

 

Actually, the Mac version is $59 and the iOS version is $15.

 

Good luck with the exploration. If you have other questions as you put the software through it's paces, feel free to ask.

 

-Steve

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