Series management

[marguerite]

Problem: You're beginning a trilogy, and you don't want to have to reenter tons of overlapping information about characters and settings. You can't (yet!) import sheet information from another Storyist file except through cut-and-paste, which is almost as onerous as typing when it comes to recreating the dramatis personae for a novel or screenplay, and while you could set up one gigantic file to hold all three books, performance would suffer and keeping track of so much information could become difficult.

 

One solution is to create a template from your original file and then use it to kick off later books in the series. To do this is simple.

 

(1) Set up your first novel as completely as possible. If you've already written large parts of the manuscript, save the file under a new name (File > Save As), then delete the chapters for book 1.

 

(2) Make whatever alterations or additions you already know you will need in every book. Set up a new character group called "Unused Characters" and a new settings group called—you guessed it—"Unused Settings." These groups are places where you will stash characters or settings that don't appear in one book but are still needed (or may be needed) in others. Once you delete a character or setting, it's gone forever, so the groups provide insurance.

 

(3) Go through your Notebook and prune it of any notes specific to the first book in the series. Keep the notes (Title page, for example) that you know you'll reuse, as well as any Note Groups that may act as useful memory joggers—say, "Character Problems," with individual notes for Hero, Heroine, Secondary Characters, etc. This is also the place to create a group called something like "Series Notes," where you maintain, say, the rules you've developed for your magical world.

 

(4) When you've made the file as generic but as complete as possible, choose File > Save as Template and give your new template a name (the name of the series, perhaps). Storyist will store the file in ~/Library/Application Support/Storyist/Templates, where ~ is your user name. If the folder doesn't exist, Storyist will create it. From then on, when you open Storyist, your customized series template will appear in the Chooser window, ready for use. You can also go hunt it down in the Finder and copy it somewhere else, so you have a backup: it's just a regular .story file housed in a specific location.

 

This is not a perfect solution, because if you change a character's attributes, you either have to correct the template or go through the whole process again. But it sure beats redefining 20 characters and as many settings, and it may save your bacon on that horrible day when you accidentally delete your antagonist and need to revive him/her/it. (File > Backup also helps with this.)

Best regards,

Marguerite

[Steve]

Problem: You're beginning a trilogy, and you don't want to have to reenter tons of overlapping information about characters and settings. You can't (yet!) import sheet information from another Storyist file...

 

For the archives: Storyist 2 supports multiple manuscripts per file, so you can keep the manuscripts for your series in the same project if you want.

 

-Steve

[marguerite]

For the archives: Storyist 2 supports multiple manuscripts per file, so you can keep the manuscripts for your series in the same project if you want.

 

-Steve

Yes, indeed. Three cheers for Steve!

M

[Joolissa]

Hip Hip Horray! Hip Hip Horray! Hip Hip Horray!

 

3 Cheers!

- J