Workflow
According to IBM, a workflow is ‘a system for managing repetitive processes and tasks which occur in a particular order.’ Each step in a workflow is a simple series of individual tasks, and focusing on just one step at a time divides the larger job (outlining your novel, for instance) into a series of smaller jobs.
StoryCAD divides your outline into ‘story elements’, such as characters, problems (the conflicts that drive the story), scenes (your plot structure), and settings.
Story elements are the building blocks of fiction. They’re taught in classes and writer’s workshops, distilled in a story summary or synopsis, and they’re what readers describe when discussing a story. In StoryCAD, you’ll mostly be working with the big four: Problem, Character, Setting, and Scene. These story elements are created from templates- forms which organize and assist in thinking about that particular aspect of your story. Story Elements can be readily changed, moved around, or even thrown out and replaced with something better.
Each story element is a tangible object; its template describes it, breaks it down into smaller elements, and provides a you in its creation. A series of tabs organizes your work on that story element and focuses on one aspect of it. You can fill in as much or little of a story element as you like or need. A Scene might contain only a sketch of what happens to start with, but be fleshed out with a setting, cast, cause, consequence, meaning, conflict, and its effect on the plot, depending on your needs. If you can write the scene from just the sketch, do so; if it’s not working for you, try expanding on it.
Many template elements are pull-down lists of choices. StoryCAD contains thousands of suggestions for these parts, although you’re generally not required to stick to them. They (the suggestions) aren’t there to limit your imagination, but to encourage it, to eliminate writer’s block. Think of them as examples. The trick to using StoryCAD’s suggestions is specificity. This can’t be emphasized enough. Be specific. Instead of a Protagonist Goal of ‘Relief from danger’, try ‘Santiago must fight off the sharks to protect his catch’.
Once you understand story elements this way, you can think of them as parts in your story factory, designing them and fitting them together, or modifying them to better fit your design. You can even copy characters and settings from one story to another or into shared story worlds.
IBM’s definition of workflow mentions ‘in a particular order’. With StoryCAD, this translates into creating certain story elements in a particular sequence. Your individual workflow may and probably will be different from other writers (or even different from one project to the next), but the general sequence is fairly constant and be thought of as Phases of Development, which are:
Story Idea, Concept, and Premise
Problem and Character Development
Plotting
Ordering the Narrative
Each of these will be described in detail. These outlining or planning phases are followed by:
Drafting Revision
These workflow phases are outside of StoryCAD’s scope and depend on other tools. We recommend Scrivener, which StoryCAD has an interface to, but you can of course use the word processor of your choice.
Saying that drafting and revising your story is outside of StoryCAD’s scope is not quite accurate; outlining can be useful during both phases, and we discuss that in Other Uses of StoryCAD.
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