Formatting Finished Novels
planned
G
Graceful Raven
This is a super long term goal, but given you are looking for this to be an interface for writing without AI and with AI, it might be cool to have some kind of export formatting function. I'm thinking some kind of button you press to get a kindle-compatible ebook or the like. I remember seeing lots of things about atticus maybe and I don't see why eventually formatting and the like can't be a part of NC <3
B
Blush Swallow
I guess everyone's needs & coding skills are different. For my part, I would just request a Word export (aside from the existing one) that, instead of being set up for NC reimport format, was following the industry standard for manuscript submissions (granted, this may vary, but if we have something that works in 80% of cases, that would be good enough imo), namely:
- 12-point, serifed font like Times New Roman
- Double-spaced, right margins not justified
- One-inch margins
- Include contact info and an approximate word count at the top of the first page
- Center the title beneath the contact information
- Start the actual MS on the first page
N
Nautical blue Basilisk
Export as a standard manuscript for publishers. Maybe offer it as a text template one can edit.
spaceemotion
Nautical blue Basilisk: How would that look like? Is that a special Word formatted document?
N
Nautical blue Basilisk
spaceemotion: Similar to the AI prompts, picking up "3000" lines. Imagine a template configuration language like "Font = Times New", "ChapterHead=Bold,12px,Center", Scene=Normal,12px,Indent=0.5in", Output="Word or Google Docs or MD". Pass template and scene by scene in to a python script and out put data formatted according to script. The reason I mention Python is it comes with wast libraries to help you do text formatting. Maby even offer a "Plugin Architecture" where one can manage own python scripts. With some setup the python scripts could run on authors own home PC to not load your novelcrafter service. Keep up the fantastic work Spaceemotion.
N
Nautical blue Basilisk
Came to think about splitting formatting the final manuscript and raw text. To shorten your backlog you could offer a download of a novell in a raw XML document. A template could look like this:
<chapter name="">
<scene ="">
{scene}
</scene>
</chapter>
With this available on the user PC all sorts of XML transformation could be done. And it would be off your backlog desk for now. I myself would load the document in a Python script and produce a word document or an html document. (I would make that available to the community)
A
Adequate Reindeer
It would also be useful to have option to have the Word export formatted as a standard manuscript (like you can do in Scrivener) - e.g. double spaced with indented paragraphs except at chapter starts / scene starts, page numbers, etc.
Z
Zucchini green Wildebeest
I use Atticus all the time. It's an amazing, simple, basic word processor, and ebook and print-on-demand publishing formatter for Windows. It is very low cost (one-time payment), much cheaper than Vellum for Mac. The good news here is that you can write your chapters in NC and then copy/paste them into Atticus. Then, with a few selections and clicks your book is formatted for epub, PDF, and Kindle. I am not saying that a "robust epub/PDF export" isn't potentially a good idea, but it could be a LOT of work. My point is: is it worth it to reinvent the wheel? (Scrivener has tried to invent this wheel too. And, in my opinion, what they have come up with is an extremely complicated MESS!) My point: NC is already compatible with Atticus! spaceemotion, perhaps you should contact Atticus. They might agree to affiliate with NC!
spaceemotion
planned
Robust epub/PDF export options for your work are planned, but not soon. It will be a basic exporter first, with advanced formatting options coming later.
T
Toffee Shrimp
This would be an amazing feature!