Templates / Book manuscript
Book manuscript
A long form frame that splits chapters and scenes and keeps the session quota visible.
How to use it
Long manuscripts break on the days you do not write, not the days you do. That is why polishing sentences from chapter one usually stalls around chapter three. This frame splits the manuscript into chapters and each chapter into scenes. A scene should be small enough to finish in one sitting. Knowing what you finished today is what brings you back tomorrow.
The planning block at the top is scaffolding you will delete later. A one line summary, what the character wants, and where you decided it ends give you somewhere to return to when the middle loses you. Break scenes with a divider rather than a blank line; dividers make it easy to move a whole chunk when you reorder later.
How it opens in the editor
Open the template and this skeleton lands in the editor, with Cite, Paper and File ready in the toolbar.
Working title
Planning notes
- One line: who wants what, and what stands in the way.
- Ending: write the last scene in one sentence, in advance.
- Quota: how long a chapter runs, and how much you write in a day.
Chapter list
- 1. What begins
- 2. What goes wrong
- 3. What gets given up
Chapter 1
Open the first scene with the character already doing something. Explanation can wait.
Below the divider is the next scene. Break whenever time or place shifts.
To fix later
- In the first draft do not stop; note it here and move on.
Editor features that go with it
Word counter
Count words, characters with and without spaces, sentences and pages at once.
Table of contents maker
Build a table of contents from your headings and place it after the cover page.
Assignment due date tracker
See the days left until the due date and how much of your target length is written.
Word to PDF
Open a docx file in the browser, edit it and save it as a PDF.