Character and setting questionnaires
One of the main things you will do when planning your novel is to think about your
characters, and the places they will visit and things that they shall do. One way
that MyNovel novel writing software will
encourage you to familiarize yourself with your characters and settings is via a
number of totally customizable questionnaires.
Every time you add a character, or place, or object, or event to your novel, in
order to continue the novel planning process you
will follow a series of steps (also called a wizard) which will collect
information about the entity you are adding. For instance, when adding a
character to your novel, by the time you have finished the add character wizard
you will have been able to insert a picture for the character, write a brief
description, and - by completing a questionnaire - generate background
information which you will use later, when writing your novel, to richly
describe your character.
There are similar procedures when adding a place, object, or event / happening to
your novel, but let's use the character creation wizard to show you how MyNovel
will encourage you to build a large amount of background information (almost effortlessly)
while you add a character. Please note: you can change the information later on,
if you think of something else to add. You'll be amazed how create a few relatively
simple questionnaires will make you.
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This wizard can be started by clicking the add character button on the ribbon bar.
Similar buttons (and wizards) exist to add chapters, places, objects and events.
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This wizard takes you through the steps to add a new character. You need to complete
the whole wizard in order to add the character. Once your character has been added
it will appear in your novel explorer.
If you select the character in the novel explorer, the
properties window will contain all of the information you have entered in
this wizard, so that you can amend it later. Your new character will always be appended
to the bottom of the characters section of the novel explorer. You can drag characters
around in the novel explorer to reorder them. If you are using the 'expert
novel explorer' you can also arrange your characters into as many folders
as you wish in order for you to categorize them.
Step 1 : Character name, sex and description / notes
The first stage of the add character wizard allows you to provide a name for your
character. In addition, to choose a sex and to give a brief description of the character.
If you are struggling to invent a name for your character and you are a registered
user, click the get inspiration for a new character
button. This will take you directly to the inspiration section of the MyNovel website.
The notes that you add here can automatically be included in your glossary. For
more information see generating a glossary.
Step 2 : Character role
The next stage of the wizard asks to think of the main role of the character in
your novel. There are four main types of role - protagonist, protagonist
helper, antagonist, and antagonist helper. In addition
there is the opportunity to specify other if the character cannot be characterized
so simply - or if you have not decided yet.
Step 3 : Character observations
In the next stage of the wizard you flesh your character out, by adding observations
relating to his or her physical appearance, demeanour, mentality and so on. There
are categories of questions and questions included with the novel writing template
you have chosen. You can also add your own categories of questions and questions
by clicking the add category / add question buttons respectively. For more information
on this feature take a look at managing observations.
You can change or add to the observations later by selecting the character in the
novel explorer then editing the observations
in the properties window.
Step 4 : Character images
In the next stage of the wizard you can add pictures / images to your new character.
To add an image, simply click the add image button. You can add as many images as
you like.
If you add this character to a diagram the first image will be shown within the
diagram. For more information see the diagram
editor. NB: if you do not have save image thumbnails inside MyNovel files
checked in preferences (it is checked by default)
then MyNovel only links to the images. If you move the novel to another computer
all of your thumbnails / images will be invalidated.
Step 5 : Character research
In the next stage of the wizard you can add links to your new character. These may
include links to web pages relevant to research you have done about this character;
and these may include links to other files on your computer you may wish to refer
to when writing about this character. You may not have any research to begin with,
it is acceptable to skip this stage of the wizard. You can add links later by selecting
the chapter in the novel explorer then
modifying them in the properties window.
Step 6 : Character relationships
You can add relationships between this new character and all of the existing entities
within your novel. These relationships get shown in diagrams if you subsequently
create a diagram which is to include this new character. Even if you do not intend
to create diagrams, it is useful to note the relationship of this character to other
characters; the relationship of this character to the places in your novel; the
relationship of this character to the objects in your novel. For more information
about relating entities take a look at the relationships
topic, and also the diagram editor.
Once you have finished, click the finish button. Your character will be added
to your novel and selected in the novel explorer,
and therefore it's properties will be shown in the
properties window.
Questionnaires help you to plan your novel
Adding a character by completing the questionnaire is just one stage of
planning your novel. You will add lots of characters, lots of settings,
lots of objects they interact with, and lots of events / happenings to your novel
(all through simple questionnaires like this one) before you begin writing.
You may also create diagrams to visualize the relationships between your characters,
their settings, and the things that shall happen to them. MyNovel includes a
powerful yet easy to use diagramming system which you will use for visualization.
Only when you've fully planned your novel, armed with the large amount of background
information you created while planning it, do you being the process of writing.
For more information on writing using MyNovel see the word
processor.
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