Liquid Story Binder

[rome]

Much appreciated for the quick reply. The Outline section will come in very handy

[maisie]

Laura, how did you get your purple backgrounds?

LSB looks like it's a great resource, and awesome news on the USB, I like to write on my laptop and it'd be great to transfer it all about. I'm glad I saw all this twitter chatter, and went through with it, even if I'm confused beyond belief!

I think if I was actually working on something, I could focus on that, but I only do Millwood at the moment, and that's already set up in flashnote. I'm plum burned out of trying to be creative, so I'm writing casual, and just playing sims when I have the time, and reading, lots of reading. lol But fall is almost here, and I write best with hot chai tea on my desktop, and music in my ears. Plus this year, I'm finishing Nano, I do my best when forced by self-imposed, peer pressure.

[laura]

It's on the main screen > Display... and there are a bunch of preset color schemes, or you can make your own.

Oooh, this should be really useful to you in doing NaNo! I love NaNo month, even if I never actually finish all the words. But I'm hoping to NOT be working on my novel still by November this year, lol! I'll still cheer you on though!

[maisie]

Thanks, I've been looking and looking for Display.. and just realized that I have a different version from the screencaps on here. I missed the sale, and just bought it from the main website. There's no display on mine, and it makes sense why some of the tuts linked didn't match up exactly, though Ive been able to figure them out for the most part. Except the Display.

I love nano month too, it made a great month (thanksgiving, family, friends, cool weather) even better!

[maisie]

Oh man, almost 24 hours with this bad boy, and I'm loving it! So glad I followed all the twitter chatter and went through with this. Actually inspired me to get one of my ideas off my phone's "notepad" and I spent the evening fleshing it out. I think I'll spend the next few months fleshing it out, outlining, and all that good stuff, and use it for Nano.

The only thing I have an issue with is the actual outline, the font is tiny when I keep it bulletted, that I'd have to wear my glasses at the computer, which I never do.

[laura]

See, I told you you'd fall in love with it! It took me about 24 hours too!

The font on the outline is pretty small, isn't it? I couldn't figure out a way to change that either.

[thelunarfox]

Found it! Display> Display preferences, then it's "display font." It'll change once you click finished.

[raquelaroden]

Eeee! I'm still learning how to use this software, but I've been watching tutorials from here:

rosepetals19.wordpress.com/category/writing/writing-software-writing/

It's just making me even more excited about putting my story in it! Since I'm TS3-less for the next week or two, this is the perfect time to learn how to use it. I think the best way for me to learn how to use it (apart from the tutorials) is to put the portions of my story that I've already written into it as an exercise in organization of the old stuff, then start using more of the features for planning the new stuff. I'm really excited about the outline tool, the character dossiers, and the timeline....man.

[raquelaroden]

Ok...I think I've finally figured out how best to use it for my purposes. I have one book, named "Edith Prescott Mystery Series" and now I'm creating 3 separate planners for each story, each of which contains the chapters for the stories.

Awesome.

[simslia]

I'm so so so tempted to get this after reading all the praise!
I have a novel on the go IRL, and two sim stories (one inspired from the novel..some of you read the excerpt in the strength challenge).

We'll see if I can hold out another week till I get paid!

[heredoncove]

So I had to have this and now I'm tempted to move from my mish-mosh in Evernote. Yay!

[lissa]

Damn, I missed the special!! I don't think I can justify paying full price for it right now, but I'm going to look around and find a free one to try. I didn't even know there were programs like this, but I need one now.

EDIT: Wow. I downloaded the trial version, and I love it already. I think I'm going to have to get a full version. Only problem is that the playlist option doesn't want to play songs in MPEG4 format (I have iTunes, and this is the format iTunes uses when you rip songs from CDs).

[gayl]

Aug 19, 2010 23:06:27 GMT -5 lissa said:

Damn, I missed the special!! I don't think I can justify paying full price for it right now, but I'm going to look around and find a free one to try. I didn't even know there were programs like this, but I need one now.

EDIT: Wow. I downloaded the trial version, and I love it already. I think I'm going to have to get a full version. Only problem is that the playlist option doesn't want to play songs in MPEG4 format (I have iTunes, and this is the format iTunes uses when you rip songs from CDs).

iTunes lets you convert your song files to mp3 if you wish. You can right-click and select Create mp3 version. Maybe that will help?

[celebkiriedhel]

I just bought it, and am looking through the example as a way of working out what is happening.

At the moment, I'm trying to work out what the difference between the Planner and the Builder is. I'm getting that the Planner is a sort of clickable Table of Contents (with sub-descriptions), but I'm not sure what the Builder is.

Brain is fudge at the moment, due to cold in nose, throat and chest. I might have to do this later.

[somuchsong]

Well, I'm sure I don't use the Builder to capacity, but what I do is start a builder for each of my rounds. Then I add each update to it as a chapter. That way, I can keep all my updates for one round together and easily switch between them with the Builder's sidebar.

[thelunarfox]

I didn't get the difference either until I saw Laura's post about how she was using the Builder.

The Builder is something you can use to create a "chapter." You can do a break down of a chapter into bits and pieces and later on, when you're done, put everything back together into one "chapter." As far as I've seen, the planner doesn't do the splitting or putting back together that the Builder does.

I've been using the Builder to isolate and work on short stories because I tend to write out scenes as they come to me. So I type them up in Builder and find the right space for them in the story.


The Planner only lets you organize individual pieces. You can actually link to the Builder from the planner.

Most of the time the planner is in chapter mode, but if you go into preferences, you'll be able to change the mode.

Also, another thing about the planner I didn't notice-- there are two blank lines at the very bottom of the planner where you can type in a title and a sub heading. I usually will type in something specific in most cases like "Jimmy asks a favor," and then something underneath if I need clarification (like sometimes something is older or newer or a rewrite). Then, if you double click on it, the planner will create whatever you need for what mode you're in. Like if you're in chapter mode, it'll make a chapter. If you're in builder mode, it'll make a builder for you.

[laura]

Yes, Builders! I LOVE them!

For my novel, I do like Lunar, and write each scene into its own item. I usually have 3-4 items per Builder, and a Builder for each chapter.

Then you build your Builder into a Chapter. And then in your Planner, you add each Chapter to make up your manuscript.

But - for LH, I use my Builders a lot like Carla does. I set up one huge ongoing Builder for my drafted stories, that stretches out from now until eternity (lol!). I also have one Builder set up for each of my seasons, and when a story is finished and published in my blog, I'll move it over from the draft Builder into its actual place in the season Builder.

Then when I'm done, I can build up all of my season's stories (usually about 30 story pieces or so) into a giant chapter. (Seriously, last season was 50,000 words!!! )

[celebkiriedhel]

Ahhh!!! That sounds very cool!

Well 50K words is what I need to do for Nanowrimo, so that sounds like the way to go.

I had a bit of a play with it - although I did head back to my trusty notebook while I was out of the house this afternoon. I got a page full of thinking done! I was shocked!

I've got two mostly-finished novels that have been sitting and wallowing for the last 5 years sitting on my Hard Drive, so I'm thinking I might try setting up a 'Book' for them as a practice for the Nanowrimo.

[thelunarfox]

It's on sale again! Now 50% off on their site, so going for about $22. And it's been updated. I haven't done much messing around yet, but the planner looks a bit different and you can colorize things, plus it looks like you can add a status and synopsis to chapters.


OH! And you can add how far along you are and a meter will show at the bottom of the chapter in the planner. That's pretty cool.

[laura]

Oooh, that sounds cool! Do you have to pay again to update?