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newnovelist

Even Dickens had to start somewhere.

It is said that everyone has a book inside them. Dubious eating habits aside, most people claim to have an idea for at least one novel but in most cases, that is all it ever becomes. For such people, an extra bit of help to kick-start them in to action is needed. Enter newnovelist.

Simple but Effective

To say newnovelist is simple is putting it mildly. In software terms it doesn’t do much. Most people could knock up such an application in a few days with a copy of Visual Basic. However, that’s not the point, what you are buying here for your £30 is a structured method to get you going and a lot of useful advice.

The program starts by asking you for a title and a one sentence description of the plot such as ‘Top software reviewer battles against aliens and saves the world’. From humble beginnings you then choose to work on a plot, epic or character driven story and the overall type such as chase or love story. Next up is describing the hero, the hero’s helpers, the bad guys, his helpers and so on.

The program has predefined prompts for each of these categories forcing you to consider each option and to flesh out the details. You can add further categories if needed. You can also add overall notes for the whole project. Essentially newnovelist forces you to build a skeleton to mould your story around. This may sound like you would be in danger of writing formulaic tales but this is not so.

Proven Framework

The whole package is based around the established Jarvis five stage method for writing i.e. concept, category, type, components and structure. The program takes you through each stage providing lots of information and help to assist you with the process. Dipping in to the online help is also a must as there is a wealth of detailed information on how to pace the novel, what percentage of the whole to allow for each section and so on. You may even consider the help to be more useful than the program itself such is the level of solid practical advice that it offers.

In use

The first time I tried newnovelist, I was a little confused. The online help mentioned being able to type your notes in to the word processor type interface. I couldn’t find it at all. I spent ages looking and finally stumbled upon it by accident and realised the program had a slight flaw. Using anything other than Windows XP, it was obvious that under each heading such as character or location there was an area for typing in your notes. The heading was grey, the typing area white. Under Windows XP’s default colour scheme it was impossible to spot though with the whole thing being the same colour. Perhaps something for the developers to fix in the next version?

That apart, it was a pleasure to use. The numerous tutorials made it a breeze to use and although simple, it allows a fully structured framework of a novel to be created. At the end you can export a file in RTF (Rich Text Format) ready to load in to your favourite word processor to allow the actual writing in earnest to occur.

Do not feel you are limited to one project though, newnovelist lets you work on multiple ideas at once. You could use this for a multi-book story or a number of separate novels.

Conclusion

 Newnovelist should be considered an essential purchase for anyone who is ready to start on that novel that has been slowly forming in their head. It isn’t going to write your prose and it isn’t going to guarantee you a best seller. What it will do is force you to consider all the important elements of structure, character development and the worlds they will inhabit. Furthermore it will give you plenty of handholding in building an effective plot to produce something that has a better chance of involving the reader and grabbing their attention. 

Iain Laskey

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