Getting started
Your first book in Author: make a book, add parts and scenes, write, add an event for a character, ask for their state and run the continuity checks.
This walk-through takes about thirty minutes. You will make a book, write a scene, add two events and run the checks.
Before you begin#
Author is invite-only in early access. You need an account, which you get by requesting access and signing in once your place is ready. If you use Geenius OS you can sign in with that account.
1. Make a book#
Open Books and create one. Give it a title and choose a form (short story, novella, novel, series book, screenplay or other), a language and a calendar: Gregorian if your story has real dates, relative if it does not ("Day 3, 14:05").
2. Add the shape#
A book is a tree of parts, chapters and scenes. Add a chapter and two scenes. Each node has a title, a synopsis and a status (idea, outline, draft, revised, final). For a scene you can also set when it happens, where, whose point of view it is told from, and who is present. A scene is present, a flashback, a dream or a memory.
3. Write a scene#
Open Write and write the scene in Markdown. The editor autosaves, and switching to another scene in the middle of a sentence keeps your text. Mention a character with @[Name](profile:id) once you have a cast.
4. Add your cast#
Open Bible. Make a character, place, object, weather or organisation in Author, or link a profile from Geenius OS. Add two characters and two places for now.
5. Add two events#
Open Story. Add a strand (the main plot). Then add events on it that change people. For example: "Ilse travels to the island" with the effect location = the island, and "Ilse learns who wrote the letter" with the effect knows + who wrote it. Anchor each event to a scene or give it a time. Read Events and state.
6. Ask for a state#
Pick a character and a scene or a time. Author shows their state then: where they are, what they know, what has happened to them, and for each change the event that caused it.
7. Run the checks#
Run the continuity checks. If your two scenes put a character in different places at the same time, or an event has them learn something after a scene that uses it, you will see an issue with the rule and a scene to jump to. See Continuity checks.
8. Save a version#
Open Share and save a version. It is the whole book at this moment, and you can go back to it. See Versions and diffs.