Writers Notebook
This tool was designed to help writers gather their thoughts and develop the world, plots, characters, and everything else necessary to bring their creative vision to the page.
This tool, like many stories, is a retelling of several other such tools but mostly inspired by Manuskript.
I found Manuskript and used it for a number of months but there were a number of UX issues and crashes that led me to look into contributing but while looking into the issues, the maintainer suggested they would want to rebuild with a different framework which led me to think if I built this from the ground up, what could I do differently? And thus, Writers Notebook was created.
Check out Getting Started if you want to jump in and start creating your world!
Project Structure
Overview
A project in Writers Notebook is a collection of all of the collected information and content that you want to keep track of while writing your work.
The structure of a project has several high-level structures:
Outlines
Outlines are the top-level container that helps you define the structure of your project content. A project may have one or more outlines depending on how extensive you want your project to be.
Outlines are a collection of "Outline Nodes" which have their own hierarchy which gives you the ability to structure your content and writing process however you want though there is a clear convention that the application is designed to follow, if not enforce.
For example, a project may have a single "Outline" with a single node under it and the node would have the content like a single page short story.
If you were developing a Novel on the other hand, you might have a single "Outline", but, you could have many Chapter top-level nodes. Maybe you want even more separation within your Chapter so you can create multiple "Scene" nodes under the Chapters so you can move around scenes based on your own wishes without having to copy/paste large chunks of text and potentially losing, or, having duplicate blocks.
But that is not all, what if you wanted to make a trilogy, or are crafting an epic universe to challenge Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson? Writers Notebook is here to help. With the ability to create multiple outlines in a project, you can do all of your world building in one place and draft all of the volumes in the single project.
Each outline would be a separate book and if you edit the properties of an outline it has additional values like "subtitle", "series", and "volume" to help you further define the outline.
If all you want to do is write, you can forgoe any of the other structures available, but, if you'd like to make use of the cross-reference abilities of the application or if you find it easier to keep track of your world by breaking it down instead of random scratch sheets or Google doc files I encourage you to dive into the next few concetps.
Characters
The Character view allows you to create as many characters as you'd like and the definition of their role is freeform allowing you to decide how you want to classify them. This is a powerful tool if you want it to be as you can define relationships and how the characters view each other and easily see those relationships at a glance.
Why is that important? What happens if you have a character who views another as "annoying" or loathes them but the other character is the personification of a Labrador and loves everyone, you would be able to see this easily regardless of which of their sheets you are a looking at and not have to switch between characters to cross-reference how they might treat one another in a situation.
Character entries and aliases will automatically populate in the Glossary and will be added to the Spell Check dictionary.
See more about character design
Plots
The Plot feature allows you to optionally write out your plot concepts and develop them separately from the content that is realizing them. Instead of using a scratch pad somewhere for your random thoughts or "this scene would be funny" or "This is the main idea of the story", put them into the Plots section to help visualize and contain the path your story may follow.
World
The "World" section, or, "World Building", is a way for you to go through define anything within the universe your story may include outside of Characters. Places / Locations? Yep. Technology ? Yes that too. Religions ? Absolutely! Factions or Organizations? Hierarchy abound! The World entries can have many different levels to help you visualize the structure of whatever you want to craft and remember.
World entries and aliases will automatically populate in the Glossary and will be added to the Spell Check dictionary.
Glossary
The Glossary allows you to define words that may not exist in the dictionary which will help drive the spell check feature to auto-ignore your custom made-up words like "Farfa" or "gigglegibbit". You can provide a definition for the words and have it for handy reference for future use.
If you design your own language or slang, the Glossary is a great tool for you.
But wait, there's more! The Glossary is primarily a reference tool and automatically gets entries from your Character and World building entries! Isn't that handy?!
Features
Writers Notebook provides an increasing number of features to help authors map out their thoughts and create their works in a way that suits them. While there are some things driven by convention, this utility tries to give enough flexibility to allow for creativity in process.
Everything you create lives in plain, human-readable files (YAML and Markdown) inside a single data directory on your own machine. There is no cloud account, no lock-in, and you can back it all up or move it whenever you like. Writers Notebook runs the same way whether you use the native Desktop app or the Server (web) mode described in Installation.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Projects & the Workshop | Create, switch between, and configure your writing projects; set your author details for the title page. |
| Getting Started | The first-run wizard: pick a data folder, create your first project, and choose a structure template. |
| Outlines | Build a hierarchical tree of Books, Parts, Chapters, Sections, and Scenes with per-scene word-count goals, live progress, and a configurable status per node. |
| The Editor | A distraction-free rich-text / Markdown editor with word counts, spell check, grammar check, autosave, a table-of-contents panel, and a full-screen focus mode. Scales to very large single nodes via automatic pagination. |
| Characters | Keep character sheets with roles, aliases, summaries, background prose, and cross-referenced relationships. |
| Plots | Track main, secondary, and minor plot threads, the characters involved, and how each one resolves. |
| World Building | Catalog locations, factions, items, and concepts in a nestable, taggable world reference. |
| Glossary | A searchable term list that auto-populates from your characters and world elements and feeds the spell checker. |
| Reference Panel | Search your Characters, World, Plots, and Glossary from anywhere and jump back to writing without losing your place. |
| Find & Replace | Search the current node or the whole outline and replace matches one at a time or all at once. |
| Comments | Attach notes to selected passages as you revise, then resolve them when addressed. |
| Review Mode | Read a chapter and all of its scenes as one seamless, read-only document. |
| Readability Analysis | Live Flesch-Kincaid grade level and reading-ease scoring for the passage you're working on. |
| Outline Analysis | A whole-manuscript report: pacing, per-node complexity, word frequency, and a grammar rollup. |
| Importing Manuscripts | Turn an existing EPUB, PDF, Word (.docx), or text/Markdown file into a fully structured new project. |
| Publishing & Export | Export your manuscript to EPUB, PDF, HTML, or plain text with an optional table of contents. |
| Settings | App-wide preferences (theme, fonts, spell/grammar check, status colors) and per-project details, in one place. |
| Extensions | Install add-on packages that contribute new Settings actions, Workshop screens, or editor panel buttons. |
| Backup & Restore | Bundle projects and settings into a single archive and restore them anywhere. |
| Updates | Check for new releases and download them from inside the app. |
Accessibility
This application has bundled the OpenDyslexic to help those with Dyslexia enjoy the creative writing process and you may change font family and sizes separately between your editor/review area and the rest of the application.
Additional accessibility features will be added over time. Please contact me if you'd like a specific feature set added.
Appearance
Theme, fonts (including installing your own), and other display preferences live in Settings.
Collapsible UI
The left-hand navigation panel is collapsible to give you more space to focus on writing. Just click the button at the bottom of the nav panel to collapse or open the navigation panel.
Where your work is stored
By default your projects live in ~/Documents/WritersNotebook (you choose the location during Getting Started). Each project is its own folder of YAML and Markdown files, so you always have direct, portable access to your writing outside the app.