Windows 1
Ten things you should do withyour P
March 2020 | |^17
T
Write and publish a story
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hey say everyone has a
novel in them, but
starting with a blank
Word document is as
off-putting as it gets.
What you need is a tool
that’s geared towards helping you write
your story – fiction or non-fiction – and
that tool is yWriter (www.spacejock.
com/yWriter6.html). It’s a full-blown
project management tool aimed at
budding novelists, providing everything
you need to plot, structure and – of
course – actually write your story. You’ll
find options to set up and manage
characters, locations and objects, plus
jot down notes when you need them.
yWriter structures your story into
sections, chapters and scenes – start by
choosing ‘Project > New Project Wizard’
to create a bare-bones project with title
and author name. Then create your first
chapter from the Chapter menu
followed by its opening scene.
Chapters and scenes come with
descriptions – short synopses of their
content – and once you’ve got your first
scene up and running you’ll see a
Viewpoint dropdown menu above its
title – this allows you to choose the
scene’s main protagonist. First, you
need to create one or more characters- click Add followed by Add New. Give
your character a short name, indicate if
they’re a major or minor character, then
complete the rest of the Name tab.
You’ll see other tabs – Bio, Notes, Goals
and Picture – for recording additional
information if needed.Start writing
Use the scene’s Content tab’s text
window to write your story. It has similar
options to a word processor, but don’t
forget to save regularly! You’ll also see a
range of tabs allowing you to record as
much or as little detail you need to help
plan each scene, from which characters
are in it (along with their motivation) to
a list of items and locations. These work
in a similar way to characters – right-click under ‘Present in Scene’ and
choose New to set them up.
When you’re ready to move on to the
next scene in your story – you don’t
need to have finished a scene first
– simply select Scene > Add Scene (after
current) to do so. The main screen
provides a handy summary of chapters
and scenes, which you can rearrange
from here, plus access as many or as few
of yWriter’s rich tools as you need. Once
your story is complete, choose Project >
Export Project to save a copy in formats
including text, eBook, RTF and HTML.Self-publish your work
<ou’ve written your story, and now you’d like to share it with
a wider audience. These days, an increasing number of authors
are self-published, selling their stories directly through stores
like Amazon.
One of the best tools for formatting your book and then
publishing it – either as a paper product or a digital eBook- is Blurb BookWright (www.blurb.co.uk/bookwright). It steps
you through the entire process – choose your book type (the
cheapest option is a standard 13x20 paperback under Trade),
bring your book’s elements (text and optionally pictures)
together, select a basic layout and watch your book come to
life before your eyes.
Once the basic building blocks are in place, you can add
images, edit the layouts (and indeed the text itself – including
its font and style), add a cover – choose softcover to save
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to your Blurb account from where you’ll be able to add an
ISBN number and publish it electronically through various
online merchants or order physical paper copies for yourself,
friends and to sell.
Let your inner novelist come out with yWriter – it
helps you plan your story as well as write it.Blurb offers all the tools you need to produce your book,
publish it electronically or in print, and even sell it.