|
You can draw spider diagrams, relationship diagrams and family trees
MyNovel includes a full-featured diagramming system which allows you to draw (and
hence visualize) the relationships between entities in your manuscript, an entity
being an event / happening, a character, a place / setting, or an object / thing.
You can also create as many diagrams as you need, storing of all them inside the
same file as your manuscript. You will find diagrams to be invaluable tool when
planning your novel. This is just one of many benefits
of using our novel writing software instead
of your favourite, vanilla word processor.
There are several ways you can use this feature:
To define chronology
|
This diagram (taken from the Hero's Journey novel
writing template) shows the order of events which happen in a typical Hero's Journey-style
novel.
The diagram is quite simple. Each rectangular area of the diagram is an 'event';
and each arrow between them indicates what happens next.
By adding relationships (see the relationships
online help topic) between events, MyNovel automatically knows how to construct
the diagram for you. All you have to do is drag the entities from the
novel explorer onto it and they are automatically connected together to
form a chronology diagram.
|
|
To visualize relationships
|
You can create much more complex diagrams which automatically show the relationships
between characters, places, objects and the events which take place in your novel.
Similarly you can create family tree diagrams which automatically show the relationships
between the characters in your novel. This is a brilliant way to make sure you write
consistently about your characters, and to build up a rich family life for your
characters. The more detailed background information you input / collect before
writing, the easier it will be to write your novel. In addition, if you pre-plan
as much as you can you will be able to avoid inconsistency when you write, particularly
when you are dealing with a large, rich set of characters and settings.
|
|
To brainstorm / mind-map
|
The diagramming system is quite general purpose. Along with including the entities
from your novel (characters, places and so on) you can also load images onto a diagram,
write any text you like, and draw as many arrows as you need.
As such, you can use it for brainstorming or mind-mapping - i.e. to develop your
thoughts in a visual way, without writing much at all.
For instance, you are thinking of writing about the seaside. Plop the image of the
beach onto a brand new diagram, the image of a cave, the image of a promontory,
of and a castle on top. Annotate your drawing with text. Draw arrows between the
things on the diagram which mean something to you.
The diagram probably won't be something you will ever share with anybody, however
it will enable you to develop ideas without sitting down to write a thousand words
which you may abandon in a future rewrite anyhow.
|
|
Corkboards - places to tack notes and snippets to
This is a much asked-for feature of our novel writing software which emulates the
kind of corkboard you may have up in your kitchen or on the wall above your writing
desk. You can store images (as you may a real-life photo), text (as you may a real-life
post-it note), etc. on the corkboard as tidily or untidily as you like. The corkboard
is a convenient place to put ideas or aides memoires for later use.
|
The advantage of using a corkboard (which is just another type of diagram) within
MyNovel is that all of the information - the notes, snippets, photos, whatever you
want to store there - are saved within the same file as your manuscript. You can
have as many corkboards as you like, containing as much information as you like,
some of which you may not even use. It is a palette upon which you can set out all
of your ideas and flashes of inspiration before (and during) the writing process.
While you are never going to send a virtual corkboard to a literary agent or publisher,
because it is "for your eyes only", a corkboard is a wonderfully intuitive way of
storing information for later use.
Corkboards, chronology, relationship and spider diagrams are all part of the
novel planning / outlining process.
|
|
|