A novel writing application using markdown.
- With mdnovel, extensive novels can be broken down into parts, chapters, and sections.
- mdnovel provides a section text editor with an optional distraction-free mode.
- You can store data on characters, locations, and items that are important for the story. This includes the optional definition of a viewpoint character for each section.
- All of this appears as a clear and editable tree structure with listed information.
- Summaries can be entered at all these levels, from which synopses and lists can be generated.
- If you choose a narrative structure, mdnovel can display stages (e.g. acts or steps) in the tree. When plotting, descriptions of these stages can be entered, from which mdnovel can generate its own documentation. Prefabricated structural models can also be imported from templates.
- mdnovel also allows you to create and document an underlying structure of plot lines (e.g. subplots or character arcs) apart from the chapters and sections. This can then be linked to the sections of the novel text.
- mdnovel provides a plot grid with plot line notes for each section. This allows you to see the big picture and keep track of multiple subplots.
- The section relationships to plot lines, characters, locations, and items can also be displayed and edited with a spreadsheet-like matrix.
- To keep track of progress, the word count and the completion status of the sections are displayed. mdnovel dan display a list of daily word count log entries.
- Individual chapters and sections can be flagged as "unused" to exclude them from document export.
- You can add information about the narrative time and duration to each section. If you enter a date, the day of the week is displayed. You can also call up the age of characters that are assigned to a section. The date and time information can be synchronised with the Timeline application.
- For printing, mdnovel exports a neatly designed novel manuscript that can be converted with pandoc into several document and ebook formats.
- mdnovel saves its data in a single, easy-to-understand Markdown/YAML-formatted text file.
- mdnovel is written in Python and should run on several operating systems, like Windows and Linux.
- The application is ready for internationalization with GNU gettext. German translations are provided.
- Windows or Linux. Mac OS support is experimental.
- Python version 3.6+.
- For current Windows versions, use version 3.9.10 or above.
- For Vista and Windows 7, use version 3.7.2.
- Linux users: Make sure you have the python3-tk package installed.
- Users may want to install pandoc for processing the exported documents.
- To have a wider choice of design themes, you can install the ttkthemes package.
- If you want to visualize the course of narrative time, you can optionally install Timeline version 2.4+.
This program is primarily a proof of concept. I do not use it for my own writing. For me, it is now feature complete and I do not intend to develop it further except to fix bugs.
As far as I can tell, the program is stable and reliable. However, the section editor is rather rudimentary; it has neither a search function nor a spell checker.
Also, I don't know any writers who write novels in Markdown and create their manuscripts with the help of Pandoc. But perhaps you are the exception. In any case, I hope you enjoy playing around and experimenting with mdnovel.
Note
The application comes with sample templates which are automatically copied into the templates folder of the mdnovel installation. Existing files are overwritten. So if you customize your templates, better rename them.
Download the latest release mdnovel_v1.0.1.pyzw
- Launch mdnovel_v1.0.1.pyzw by double-clicking (Windows/Linux desktop),
- or execute
python mdnovel_v1.0.1.pyzw(Windows), resp.python3 mdnovel_v1.0.1.pyzw(Linux) on the command line.
Many web browsers recognize the download as an executable file and offer to open it immediately. This starts the installation.
However, depending on your security settings, your browser may initially refuse to download the executable file. In this case, your confirmation or an additional action is required. If this is not possible, you have the option of downloading the zip file.
The package is also available in zip format: mdnovel_v1.0.1.zip
- Extract the mdnovel_v1.0.1 folder from the downloaded zipfile "mdnovel_v1.0.1.zip".
- Move into this new folder and launch setup.pyw by double-clicking (Windows/Linux desktop),
- or execute
python setup.pyw(Windows), resp.python3 setup.pyw(Linux) on the command line.
See the online manual
- mdnov_novx -- Converter between .mdnov and .novx file format.
- mdnov_yw7 -- Converter between .mdnov and .yw7 file format.
- The logo is made using the free Pusab font by Ryoichi Tsunekawa, Flat-it.
- The notes in the Hero's journey sample template are from the Wikipedia page on this topic.
- The notes in the Save The Cat sample template are based on the Wikipedia page on this topic.
This is Open Source software, and mdnovel is licensed under GPLv3. See the GNU General Public License website for more details, or consult the LICENSE file.