Storybook: Novel Resource

OK, so it was an awful pun. I’m sorry.

I don’t remember exactly how I found this application, though I believe it was someone on Twitter who pointed to it. Regardless of the source, it’s something any budding novelist should examine. For that matter, it would work for almost any written project, just by redefining some of the terms in your head.

Storybook is an open source novel-writing app. For the non-technical writers, that means it’s a free download. It works in fourteen languages and will run on both Microsoft and Linux operating systems (specifically XP, Vista, SuSE and Red Hat).

The program itself is basically an organiser. You define your book as the biggest ‘container’, which holds chapters, which hold scenes. Each scene has characters assigned to it and a free-form box to type in notes, ideas or even the actual finished text. By building each scene, placing it in the correct chapter and in order with other scenes, you build up your book piece by piece until it’s finished.

It’ll track characters, link between story strands, spell-check and also allow you to maintain a task list (so it’ll whip you into action!).

I only downloaded it last week myself, so I haven’t had a chance to use it much, but it’s already managed to put a few of my ideas into order much better than I could ever have done on paper. I’ve only touched on some of the basics, too – it has advanced features for exporting, charting (“who’s where, when?” – brilliant idea!)  and even doing one-click backups.

I must say I’m pretty impressed. It’s like having a friendly assistant who prods you to organise yourself a bit better – and thus helps release creativity by taking care of the mundane tasks.

Definitely recommended. You can grab it from the home page. Did I mention it’s free?