5 ms·

Novlify is a writers tool for outlining, drafting, and visualizing your novels.

3 points by novlify 14y ago

olivier1664 14y ago
Seem nice. I love the efficient design. (But I'm not in the target audience, so...) There is a bug on Internet Explorer 9: when I click anywhere on the page, the Sign-Up pop up appears (not just on the button).
- novlify 14y ago
  Thanks! I will get that fixed ASAP
anigbrowl 14y ago
It looks like a to-do list for writers. To show what makes it different, you really need to show how it makes it easier to visualize a complex story. You chose the example of Robin Hood and his buddies stealing from the rich and running off into Sherwood forest, with the wicked sheriff in hot pursuit. From a writer's standpoint, this isn't a story, this is an episode - something happens, then something else happens. It's no more dramatic than a weather report. Dramatic tension arises from the differing outcomes that result from characters' choices - for example, Robin's friend is captured, so now Robin has to decide between fleeing or risking capture. A whole story involves a sequence of branching events, with various inputs and outputs such as characters, places, items and so on. I wish your video had taken the time to show a complex story made up of multiple episodes; as it is, I am not sure what makes it different from a stack of index cards. You might want to look At Adobe Story, which is more geared towards film scripts but has a fairly slick interface for managing these 'fictional assets'. Final Draft is the market leader in that area, and while it's ugly and unintuitive in many ways, it does have a lot of valuable functionality because every noun or verb mentioned in a film script is eventually going to end up as as a line item in a very detailed budget and schedule. Imagination is free for novelists, but the cost of organizing and structuring a complex story is in the editing and rewrite time, so try to show how your product can help authors manage complexity rather than how easy it is to get something into it.
- novlify 14y ago
  Wow, thanks for all the info! I will definitely put that new-found knowledge to use. Do you have any thoughts or examples on managing complexity?
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    Hmmm...syntax highlighting for characters, locations and other tag categories (items, plot coupons...whatever the writer wants to add); Dynamic DAGs from tags (see every scene where they appear in a tag cloud or force-based network layout; metapages for tag items; relationship builder between scenes using nodal sequencing concepts. This paper describes some music software I find interesting and presents some innovative UI concepts for representing procedural rules for constrained linear outputs: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/nodal/downloads/Nodal.pdf http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/nodal/downloads/Nodal.pd...

3 points by novlify 14y ago

Seem nice. I love the efficient design. (But I'm not in the target audience, so...) There is a bug on Internet Explorer 9: when I click anywhere on the page, the Sign-Up pop up appears (not just on the button).

novlify 14y ago
Thanks! I will get that fixed ASAP

anigbrowl 14y ago

It looks like a to-do list for writers. To show what makes it different, you really need to show how it makes it easier to visualize a complex story. You chose the example of Robin Hood and his buddies stealing from the rich and running off into Sherwood forest, with the wicked sheriff in hot pursuit. From a writer's standpoint, this isn't a story, this is an episode - something happens, then something else happens. It's no more dramatic than a weather report. Dramatic tension arises from the differing outcomes that result from characters' choices - for example, Robin's friend is captured, so now Robin has to decide between fleeing or risking capture. A whole story involves a sequence of branching events, with various inputs and outputs such as characters, places, items and so on. I wish your video had taken the time to show a complex story made up of multiple episodes; as it is, I am not sure what makes it different from a stack of index cards. You might want to look At Adobe Story, which is more geared towards film scripts but has a fairly slick interface for managing these 'fictional assets'. Final Draft is the market leader in that area, and while it's ugly and unintuitive in many ways, it does have a lot of valuable functionality because every noun or verb mentioned in a film script is eventually going to end up as as a line item in a very detailed budget and schedule. Imagination is free for novelists, but the cost of organizing and structuring a complex story is in the editing and rewrite time, so try to show how your product can help authors manage complexity rather than how easy it is to get something into it.

novlify 14y ago
Wow, thanks for all the info! I will definitely put that new-found knowledge to use. Do you have any thoughts or examples on managing complexity?
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  Hmmm...syntax highlighting for characters, locations and other tag categories (items, plot coupons...whatever the writer wants to add); Dynamic DAGs from tags (see every scene where they appear in a tag cloud or force-based network layout; metapages for tag items; relationship builder between scenes using nodal sequencing concepts. This paper describes some music software I find interesting and presents some innovative UI concepts for representing procedural rules for constrained linear outputs: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/nodal/downloads/Nodal.pdf http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/nodal/downloads/Nodal.pd...