Plan and write a novel with Storybook's help

Structure is key
Now you have the basic ideas for your book, putting them together and keeping the plot consistent may seem like a huge task. However, a program called Storybook, which is free to download, can help you manage chapters, characters and scenes with ease.

Download Storybook for Windows XP or Vista. You will be prompted to Save the download. If you use Linux, go here and click the download link. Move down the web page and click on the download for Linux. When the Windows download is complete double-click the downloaded file. Follow the installation wizard, after which Storybook will start automatically.

To start a new project, click Create New Project and you will prompted to name your book. This can be changed later (click File, then Manage Projects). For this example, we’ll call the project Peter Rabbit.

A screen will now appear, split into three sections. The main window will contain details of the scenes in chronological order. The area at the top right of the screen displays details of all the elements of your book, from characters to scenes. The Quick Info section displays details depending on the part of the object tree that you have selected.

Referring back to the original thoughts created in the Word Outline View, we can now start adding details about the characters. In this example, Peter Rabbit and Farmer McGregor will be the only main characters. To create a new character, go to the Character dropdown menu and select New Character. Fill in the relevant details and choose whether they are a major or minor character.

Repeat this process until all your characters are added. Expand the Character section in the Object Tree to see the structure take shape. To edit a character’s details, double-click on the character’s icon in the Object Tree and make the changes. Save your project by clicking File, Save Project.

The next stage is to add locations. Click on the Locations menu and select New Location. Type in the details of the first location from your Word document, click OK and repeat for the rest of the locations (you will see the Object Tree grow in the Location section).

We are now ready to add the scenes of our book, which will eventually be added to the relevant chapter. In the main section of the Storybook window you will see an icon with a green plus (+). Click this button to add a scene and fill in the Title and Summary sections in the Common tab.

Next, click on the Characters and Locations tab. You can now link the relevant characters and locations you created earlier to this scene of your book. Click on a character and press the Add icon to include them in this scene (the major characters are displayed with an asterisk). Select the location for your scene and press the Add icon.

At this point you should have a rather disjointed list of scenes. To start putting them in order, we will create chapters and assign scenes. Click on the Chapters dropdown menu and select New Chapter. If you have decided the name of each chapter, add this detail and press OK, repeating the process for all the chapters.

Go to View and select Manage Chapters and Scenes. The main window will display a list of your scenes in the Unassigned Scenes area and a list of all the chapters you have created. To assign a scene to a chapter, click on the scene in the Unassigned Scenes section and drag and drop it into the relevant chapter box.

To get an overview of your book, go to View in the menu bar and select Book View to display the scenes in order. This will help you decide whether any parts need extra work. If you feel that sub-plots are beginning to emerge, try using strands to organise your characters and scenes further ­ – visit the Storybook site to find out how to use this feature.

When the structure of your book is done, click on Tools, Export and select a file format to create a summary of your work. We have chosen to export the whole book as a PDF (through the ‘Please choose the Report’ dropdown menu).

If, after exporting your book, you feel there is room for improvement (find some useful proofreading tips from About.com and BBC Skillwise) everything you have added in Storybook can be edited, so go back to the section to be amended, make your changes, save and export again.

You should now have a book that has a consistent plot and character structure. As Storybook is a program to help plan and put together your book in sections, it is not a suitable format for a publisher or the avid reader. However, transferring your Storybook work to a Word document is simple.

Create a Word document, open your Storybook project and ensure that Chronological view is selected. Then copy each scene from Storybook into your Word document. Save your document, select Outline view and you can now manage your book using the styles we introduced at the start of the article, using Heading 1 for for main section titles, Heading 2 for chapter titles and so forth.

Author Marina Oliver's website includes information about submitting your work to a publisher. Click the Preparing your disk link for details.

Get published
Now the book is written, you could consider using an online book publisher to produce a hard copy or ebook. Websites such as Lulu let you customise and promote your book. To use Lulu, click the ‘Start your book’ button. Click here for an online guide to using Lulu. There you have it, your book is published and you can relax knowing it has been planned to perfection.

Writing a book is not a fast process and you may find you spend a lot of time editing and shuffling scenes and chapters. With a little brainstorming using Word’s Outline View and planning software such as Storybook you should find that writing your first piece of fiction will focus more on the creativity of the content and less on being bogged down in structure. So, put your pen and paper aside and discover how easy it is to create your first book electronically.

Back it up
Once your book starts to take shape, the last thing you want to happen is to lose all that hard work to gremlins or hard disk failure. Making regular backups is essential to ensure your work is safe and can be retrieved in the event of disaster.

Backing up is a quick process but one we often forget about. Copying work on to a USB memory key is an easy way to make a backup or you could upload the document to an online storage facility. Humyo offers 10GB of online storage free of charge while Google Docs lets you upload files and work on them online. Even emailing a document to a Hotmail or Google Mail account is a reasonably safe way to back up your book.

Another option is to copy your files to an external hard disk - read our feature for more help.

Whichever method you choose, backing up your work should be a regular part of your computing routine.

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