yWriter Comprehensive Help File

This document was recovered from the lost yWriter google sites page, and is still a work in progress

PLOTTING. How do I ?

? get a summary overview of my novel. How do I do this?

Please see the REPORTS section below. Reports can be viewed as well as printed.

?keep track of, and view, subplots

One way would be to use tags: Subplot1; subplot 2. To see how to view Tags go to the TAGS section below.

? outline using yWriter?

Step 1: Open a new project by opening Project>NewProjectWizard
Step 2: Click Chapter>CreateMultipleChapers. Accept defaults (25 chapters). They are originally by default called CH Chapter 1, CH Chapter 2, CH Chapter 3 etc.
Step 3: Change this chapter title to give a story event by double-clicking on the Chapter Title.
Example:
CH Jack Goes Shopping
CH A Surprise at the Video Store
CH A Missing Shoe
Continue in this way moving chapters around, deleting, inserting new chapters at will.
When you double click the chapter it allows you to enter (a) a chapter description (what happens in this chapter?) and (b) a list of scenes in the chapter. Do this. You can print out this outline. How? Reports>Synopsis. This report will list your chapter names and short chapter descriptions.
Step 4 Create your second outline level. How? Highlight Chapter 1. Select Scene. Click CreateMultipleScenes and accept the default. This will create 5 scenes in Chapter 1 (or whatever else you?ve named it). By default these are named New Scene 1, New Scene 2. But like the chapters you can rename them any way you please.
[NOTE: You have to add scenes to chapters individually. You cannot say 'add five scenes to all chapters. Your outline could now look like this:
CH Jack goes shopping
Sc Meets estranged wife and has violent argument
Sc Hears on the phone that estranged wife is pregnant
CH The hospital
Sc Jack hunts high and low to find out where the baby is
Sc Meets up with Snoopy, the private detective.
You can print out this next level of detailed outline. How?
Reports>Synopsis>Full Synopsis.
Step 5: Flesh out your outline. How? Click on your first chapter. Click on first scene in scene list. Below the list of scenes you will find a list of tabs [Content, Descriptions, Characters etc] and below this a textbox in which to write stuff. By default the Content tab is selected and the textbox will be empty unless you have begun writing a scene. Click the Descriptions Tab, Click anywhere inside the empty text box to make it active. Type in an outline or synopsis of the scene ? use present tense. Do this for all the scenes and chapters.
When you are done with this process print out a detailed outline.
(Reports>Synopsis>Full Synopsis) and there is the complete outline of your novel
The outline is roughly like this:
CH Heading
Short scene descriptions
Step 6: Write your novel
How: With your printout beside you begin writing the actual novel by
creating each scene.
You can do this in three ways
a) Use yWriter's inbuilt text editor (double click the scene and it
will open)
b) Use your default RTF writer ? mine is Ms Word How? Right click on
the scene select 'Open content with default RTF editor?. When you?ve
finished and saved the RTF file into your project right click the
scene again and select 'Finished with external Editor or
c) use any other text editing app, save as txt or rtf and import into
yWriter How? Select the Chapter/outline node into which you wish to import the scene. Select Project.ImportIntoCurrentProject. Scenes select the txt or rtf and
enter.
Step 7: Housekeeping.
As you write your scenes update your chapter titles, short chapter descriptions scene names and scene descriptions. This way you continue to integrate outline development and writing progress. Also keep your characters, locations items up to date as you proceed through the outlining and writing processes. You end up with a completed novel and current synopsis.

? plot ? the Simon Haynes method?

Go to http://www.spacejock.com.au/PlottingANovel.html

? show a progression of political themes (e.g., pollution, corruption, global warming,))

Possibilities: Go to Project>Project Settings> Rating names, currently humour/quality/etc and set increasing values between 1-10 for each chapter
Colour code background of edit scene window of increasing hues, each hue (colour) representing one of your dimensions, viz politics?

? use colour coding when plotting in yWriter?

What are your ideas?
Many plays have Act 1, Act II and Act III. You can use Chapter>Mark chapter as middle and Chapter>Mark chapter as end to set these divisions with a number of scenes in each section for beginning, middle and end.
Highlight the end chapters in the chapter list by holding down the shift key and cling with the left mouse button, then select [Chapter>Mark start of end section] and the word count numerals turn red.
Highlight your middle chapters in the same way and selected [Chapter>Mark start of Middle section] and their numbers turn orange.
The beginning will remain green.

? use reminders to keep me on track?

Open a chapter by double clicking on the chapter list. This opens a dialogue box. In the bottom left corner of this box is a tick box which says, ?This chapter begins a new section?. You can obviously have a number of bolded chapters in your story perhaps to represent:
(1)Set-up and inciting incident and beginning of quest
(2) Development of story until reversal and change of direction
(3) Moving forward until major crisis strikes
(4) Overcoming difficulties and complexities
(5) A shattering major setback just when your protagonist was winning
(6) The denouement, climax and aftermath.
Code chapters in the title PP1, PP2 (Plot point 1) to remind you of where you are.

? use the Storyboard?

You can shuffle scenes quickly forward and back.

? use the button 'Plot? or 'subplot? in Scene Editor under Details?. What does this button do and how can it help in the writing process??

Answer. Where does it show up that a scene is a subplot?

? use the functionality of yWriter to help me plot?

(1) For each scene, indicate how that scene has changed the character in some way. (See Story by Robert McKee) You could colour code backgrounds in the content box to express an emotion.
(2) You could open say a dozen chapters with titles of geographic places where events take place: Hotel, airport. Then put the various events that take place here into scenes. For more details see http://sites.google.com/site/yWritersj/faq/chapters---another-way