Stories

Writer's Toolbox is made to give you the power to put your main story ideas in a central place. From here, you can edit and add to your ideas.

   After you have at least one piece of story  information saved, you can move on to creating Scenes for the story.

    Additionally, you can create Characters for your stories.

The first thing you need to do to create a story is to hit the Add Story button on the toolbar. This button creates space for a new Story. As you would probably imagine, hitting the Delete button on the toolbar removes the current Story.

   Here's a full screen picture of the Story screen.

   The first thing you probably want to do is to give your story a name. You do this on the Title section on the upper left hand corner of the Story Screen.

At your convenience you may want to print out your story/stories. If you'd like to print your story/stories simply press the Print button on the toolbar. This sets you up to print all your currently selected stories.

If you would like to select one particular story, press the Find button. This will take you to a lookup screen. Here, double click, or select the story you'd like to see alone then press the OK button. This will set the program to have only the selected story displayed. If you'd like to go back to seeing all your stories, repeat the above process but instead of selecting a story, hit the 'Select All' checkbox then hit OK.

This program is put together so you rarely need to hit the Save button. Usually, after you enter information into a section and move into another section, your work is saved. Also, if you find things aren't staying like you expect, feel free to hit the Save button at your convenience.

To go to Characters, hit the Character button, or select it from the menu under 'View', then under that at 'Character'.

To go to Scenes, hit the Scene button, or select it from the menu under 'View', then under that at 'Scene'.

To get through your entries use the following buttons: . If you'd like to see the first story in the system, depending on which ones you have curently selected, hit the First button. If you'd like to see back one story hit the Back button. If you'd like to see the next story in the system hit the Forward button. And, if you'd like to see the last story hit the Last button.

Remember, the title of your story is about the only arguably necessary information. Anything you put in after this is your choice and is hoped to help you write your story.

Below is an explanation of most of the available story items the system can keep track of for you. Only the most nonobvious ones are listed and explained here.

Story Piece	Description
Story Concept	The Story Concept is simply a quick statement as to what the story is about.
Lead Character Problem	This is a statmement as to what the lead character's main goal is throughout the story.
Lead Character Resolution	The lead character resolution is simply a statement as to how the hero ends up in their pursuit of their goal. Do they succeed? Fail? You be the judge.
Inception	What date did you start work on this story?
Theme	What is the overriding moral message of the story, if any?
Sympathy	How do we feel sorry for the lead character?
Jeopardy	How is the lead character in danger?
Superior Position	What do we know through the course of the story the lead character doesn't? This narrative trick is used to create anticipation.
Likeable	How or why do we like the lead character?
Act One	This is where you might normally introduce the main characters, villian, the characters goals, and the story situation. This could take up the first quarter of your story.
Act Two	Build conflict, suspense, character development. This could take up the next half of your story.
Act Three	This is where all your story's conflicts are resolved. Act Three could take the last quarter of your story.
The Beginning	Give a quick shot at what happens in the start of your story.
The Ending	Give a quick shot at what happens in the end of your story.
Notes/Story Outline	This is where you put in your notes, and or an outline of what you would like to happen in your story.

These are simply recommendations. Use the system to your best rewards.

Copyright 1999 by C Solutions, Inc

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