Category: novel writing software

Why bibisco is the Best Story Planning Software

Why bibisco is the Best Story Planning Software

A story planning software is a tool designed to help writers plan and organize their stories. It provides a range of features that can be used to map out a story’s plot, characters, setting, and other key elements.

Story planning software can be especially useful for writers who work with complex narratives, as it can help them keep track of all the different components of their story and ensure that they are structured in a coherent and effective way.

By using a story planning software, writers can save time, streamline their writing process, and create more engaging and polished stories.

bibisco is the ultimate story planning software for writers who want to bring their ideas to life. With its intuitive interface and powerful features, it has become the go-to tool for authors, screenwriters, and storytellers all around the world.

In this article, we’ll explore why bibisco is the best choice for anyone who wants to plan their stories in a comprehensive and effective way.

Story Planner Software Feature #1: Timeline

Firstly, let’s talk about the Timeline feature. This is a powerful tool that allows you to organize your story events in a clear and concise manner. With bibisco’s Timeline, you can easily create and manage a chronological sequence of events, add descriptions and notes to each event.

bibisco's timeline Story Planner Software feature
bibisco’s timeline

bibisco’s Timeline automatically populates with the date and time when scenes occur. This allows for a precise timeline and maintains a logical order of events. Additionally, each significant event can be associated with characters, locations, and objects, creating a connection between different parts of the story.

This is especially useful for writers who work with complex plots, multiple characters, and interwoven storylines. By using the Timeline, you can keep track of all your story elements and ensure that they are properly structured and paced.

Story Plot Software Feature #2: Mind Map

Another great feature of bibisco is the Mind Map tool. This is a visual brainstorming tool that allows you to explore your story ideas and plot points in a non-linear way. With Mind Map, you can create a network of interconnected ideas and link related concepts together.

bibisco's mind map Story Plot Software Feature
bibisco’s mind map

Through the Mind Map tool, it is possible to visually design the relationships between characters, locations, and objects in our story. This feature allows writers to easily see how different elements of their story are connected and how they impact each other. This can help writers avoid plot holes and inconsistencies, resulting in a more engaging and satisfying story for readers.

This is an excellent way to develop your story world, flesh out your characters, and explore different possibilities. The Mind Maps can also help you overcome writer’s block and generate new ideas when you’re stuck.

Plot Writing Software Feature #3: Character Development

Finally, let’s talk about the Character Development feature. This is one of the most important aspects of any story, and Bibisco makes it easy to create well-rounded and believable characters.

bibisco's character development Plot Writing Software Feature
bibisco’s character development

With the Character Development tool, you can create detailed profiles for each of your characters, including their personality traits, motivations, backstory, and relationships with other characters. You can also add images, notes, and tags to each character, making it easy to keep track of them as your story progresses.

By using the Character Development tool, you can ensure that your characters are realistic, relatable, and memorable.

Story Plotting Software Feature #4: Analysis

In addition to its Timeline, Mind Maps, and Character Development features, bibisco also offers a powerful Analysis tool that can help writers fine-tune their stories.

bibisco's analysis Story Plotting Software Feature
bibisco’s analysis

With this feature, you can analyze the length of individual chapters to ensure they are consistent with each other. You can also analyze the presence of characters, locations, and objects throughout the story, allowing you to track when they first appeared and validate the overall coherence of your story. Finally, you can monitor the use of different points of view to ensure that they are being used effectively and appropriately.

By leveraging bibisco’s Analysis feature, writers can gain a deep understanding of their stories, identify areas that need improvement, and make data-driven decisions to enhance the overall quality of their work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, bibisco is the best story planning software for writers who want to create compelling and well-structured stories.

Its Timeline, Mind Maps, and Character Development features make it easy to organize your ideas, develop your characters, and plan your plot in a clear and effective way.

Whether you’re a novelist, a screenwriter, or a storyteller, bibisco has everything you need to bring your stories to life. Try it out today and see for yourself why it’s the top choice for writers everywhere!

Are You Struggling Because You Don’t Know How To Turn Your Idea Into A Novel?

Are You Struggling Because You Don’t Know How To Turn Your Idea Into A Novel?

So you’re a writer and have an idea for a story. But now you’re struggling because you don’t know how to turn it into a novel. Do you know this sense of frustration?

It’s perfectly normal. When a writer has an idea for a novel but doesn’t know where to start, they may feel confused and uncertain. They may have a general idea of what they want to write about, but they may not know how to turn that idea into a full-fledged story. They may also struggle with developing their characters, creating a believable plot, and building a coherent world for their story to take place in.

Writer’s block

This uncertainty can be overwhelming and lead to writer’s block and a lack of motivation. You, as a writer, may feel like you don’t have the skills or knowledge to turn your idea into a finished product. They may also feel like they are stuck in a rut and don’t know how to move forward.

In addition to these feelings, you may also experience a sense of fear and doubt. You may be afraid that your idea is not good enough or that you will not be able to execute it correctly. You may also doubt your abilities as a writer and wonder if you are truly capable of writing a novel.

Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

George Orwell

Turn your idea into a finished novel with the right tools and good writing habit

It’s important to note that this feeling of confusion, uncertainty, fear and doubt is normal, and it happens to many writers, even the most successful ones. But with the right tools, such as bibisco, and a good writing habit, you can overcome these obstacles and turn your idea into a finished novel.

bibisco is a powerful and user-friendly software that is designed to help writers of all levels create and organize their novels. With bibisco, you can easily create characters, locations, and scenes, and then organize them in a way that makes sense for your story.

You can also use the software to create an outline, so you can see the structure of your novel before you begin writing. This can be especially helpful for those who have a great idea for a story but are unsure of how to turn it into a full-fledged novel.

Character development

One of the best features of bibisco is its ability to help you with character development. It is a game-changer when it comes to creating believable characters with meaningful relationships. It allows us to develop our characters in a way that readers can connect with, giving them a unique and interesting set of attributes.

With bibisco, you’ll have easy access to all the information you need about each character – from physical features to motivations and goals. Using this feature is incredibly helpful when it comes to writing dialogue and building relationships between characters.

bibisco character's sheet - Are You Struggling Because You Don't Know How To Turn Your Idea Into A Novel?
bibisco character’s sheet

When you know your characters well, it’s easier to come up with lines reflecting their personalities and motivations, making your story more immersive and believable. And by knowing each character’s background, you’ll be able to create meaningful connections and tension between them.

No matter what kind of story you’re trying to tell, character development is key, and bibisco makes it incredibly easy to do. With this powerful tool in your arsenal, you can easily create compelling characters with depth and meaning.

World-building

Another great feature of bibisco is its ability to help you with world-building. bibisco enables you to create vivid and detailed descriptions of the locations in your story, and it also allows you to attach photos for further visualization.

This feature can be incredibly helpful when writing fantasy or science fiction stories, as it helps bring the world you have created to life. It provides an extra level of depth and realism to the narrative that readers will appreciate. With Bibisco, you can ensure that your readers are immersed in the world you have crafted for them.

bibisco location's image - Are You Struggling Because You Don't Know How To Turn Your Idea Into A Novel?
bibisco location’s image

Furthermore, the ability to track locations is an incredibly useful feature of bibisco. You can keep track of where your characters have been, as well as where they’re going next. It’s a great way to stay organized while creating a complex and vibrant story world. With this feature, you don’t need to worry about forgetting any details or missing any important plot points. You can just focus on crafting an engaging narrative with all the pieces in place!

World-building is essential to writing a gripping and believable story, and bibisco makes it easier than ever.

Track your progress

Writing a novel is an incredibly rewarding experience. It requires a lot of focus, dedication, and hard work to create something that you can be proud of. With bibisco, staying focused and motivated while working on your project is easier than ever.

You can set writing goals and track your word count as you make progress. This will help you stay on schedule and measure the success of your work. Additionally, you can set deadlines for yourself so that you have an extra push if needed.

bibisco writing history stats - Are You Struggling Because You Don't Know How To Turn Your Idea Into A Novel?
bibisco writing history stats

Writing goals are incredibly important when it comes to producing a high-quality novel. With bibisco, setting and tracking those goals has never been easier. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to enjoy the process of writing instead of worrying about meeting deadlines or staying motivated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you have an idea for a novel but don’t know where to start, bibisco novel writing software can be a great help. It will help you organize your thoughts, create detailed characters, locations, and scenes, and track your progress as you write.

With bibisco, you will be able to bring your story to life in a way that is both efficient and enjoyable. As Stephen King said, having a clear and structured plan for your novel is essential; bibisco can help you to achieve that in a user-friendly way.

Why bibisco is the Best Choice for Novelists: an Overview of its Features and Benefits

Why bibisco is the Best Choice for Novelists: an Overview of its Features and Benefits

Writing a novel is an arduous task, requiring time, dedication, and the right tools.

Many problems can arise during the writing of your book:

  • you have an idea, but you don’t know how to start
  • you start writing, but then you get stuck
  • your characters are two-dimensional and boring
  • you spend a lot of time trying to organize your book’s data scattered in multiple documents
  • you have difficulty setting your writing goals and tracking your progress
  • the software you are using is overly complex.

To address and solve these issues, you can count on bibisco!

bibisco is a comprehensive novel-writing software designed to help you in all stages of creating your novel: research, planning, designing, and writing.

Overview of bibisco

bibisco is an application that assists writers in the development of their books. It can help them organize their concepts, build the plot of their narrative, and make their stories come alive. With bibisco, you can write more efficiently and improve your creative process.

The distraction-free editor, comprehensive novel analysis, and world-building features make it easy to craft an intriguing story from beginning to end. With bibisco novel writing software, you can arrange your work and complete your novel! It’s the ideal instrument to support you in constructing, designing, and writing with confidence.

bibisco is not an artificial intelligence tool that will write your story. bibisco will help you generate and develop ideas, structure your novel, and edit your work easily, but it’s up to you to create the story with your work and talent.

bibisco is a desktop application compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. bibisco is available in 14 languages: Czech, Dutch, French, German, English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Why bibisco Is The Best Choice for Novelists: An Overview of Its Features and Benefits - bibisco chapters section
bibisco chapters section

Benefits of bibisco

As a powerful novel-writing software, bibisco offers many benefits to authors.

  • All that you need to write. Utilizing bibisco, you can organize chapters and scenes and arrange them with drag ‘n drop. You can manage revisions and export your novel in pdf, docx, and epub. You have at your disposal a fully-featured text editor in distraction-free mode.
  • Organize Your Ideas. The first step in the writing process is to organize your ideas. You can use bibisco to create a novel structure and define the premise, fabula, and plots. You can use mind maps to determine relations between story elements.
  • Bring your characters to life. The integrated character profile tool lets you create detailed character profiles. You can choose your character’s gender, age, place of origin, occupation, and more. Character profiles help you understand your characters more, making your story more realistic and compelling.
  • Timeline. bibisco lets you visualize your story in a timeline, so you can have an overview of how events are connected and how they fit together to form the whole story. This will help you identify any issues with pacing or conflicts within your story.
  • Novel Analysis. Analyzing the chapters’ length, the use of points of view, time, and locations in which characters appear can help you better understand the story and pinpoint any inconsistencies in character development or plot holes.
  • Track Your Progress. The goal-setting and progress-tracking tools are excellent ways to stay motivated and finish your novel. You can set your own goals and track your word count, view the completion percentage of your work, and your remaining writing time.
Why bibisco Is The Best Choice for Novelists: An Overview of Its Features and Benefits - bibisco timeline
bibisco timeline

Character profile tools

When writing a novel, it’s important to get to know your characters as well as you can. The more you know about them, the more realistic and compelling they will be.

The character profile tool lets you create detailed profiles for each of your characters. You can choose their gender, age, place of origin, psychology, occupation, and much more in an innovative and funny way: an interview!

Utilizing bibisco, you can comprehend the multifaceted nature of your characters: their features, flaws, and inconsistencies. Moreover, a credible and compelling character arc, which is the alteration or development a character goes through during the narrative, makes a novel unforgettable.

Why bibisco Is The Best Choice for Novelists: An Overview of Its Features and Benefits - bibisco main character section
bibisco main character section

bibisco is the most user-friendly novel writing software

The production of a novel is a complicated task, so the software used for its writing does not have to be complicated.

When you choose bibisco, you get access to the tools and features a novelist needs without an overwhelming learning curve.

With bibisco, you can bring your characters to life, determine the setting, devise the storyline, set writing objectives, manage chapters, and more with its user-friendly interface.

Instead of worrying about the writing program, you can focus on mastering the structure of your novel.

Why bibisco Is The Best Choice for Novelists: An Overview of Its Features and Benefits - bibisco writing tips
bibisco writing tips

Resources and support offered by bibisco

The best way to learn about bibisco is through the official tutorial. The tutorial is divided into chapters to make it easier to go deeper into the individual topics.

Another source of information is official documentation. You can find answers to the most common questions, such as how to install and update bibisco or upgrade from the Community version to the Supporters version.

In any case, you can contact the bibisco team directly by emailing info@bibisco.com.

Why bibisco is the best choice for novelists

Have you ever considered using a novel-writing platform?

The truth is that writing a novel is not as simple as you think.

It requires great preparation and organization; sometimes, the process can seem overwhelming. But bibisco can make your life easier by providing you with all the tools you need to complete your novel. It can help you create an outline, organize your ideas, write your book, and track your progress.

Furthermore, if you’re worried about the quality of your work, help is at hand! The novel analysis features can highlight inconsistencies and potential plot holes, while the timeline tool can help you visualize your story, so you can identify any inconsistencies.

Finally, the character profile tool can help you better understand your characters, so you can make their stories come alive and make your novel unforgettable.

And remember, even if you feel like you don’t know how to start writing your novel, don’t give up! bibisco can be your writing partner throughout the entire process.

What’s new in bibisco 2.4?

What’s new in bibisco 2.4?

Hello writers! I am very excited to announce the release of the new version of bibisco, the 2.4!

As always, I want to thank all the writers who have given me ideas and suggestions to make bibisco even more beautiful and helpful.

Thank you very much, and please continue to send me your proposals at info@bibisco.com. We will probably not implement all of them, but we will certainly read and evaluate them carefully.

And now let’s take a look at what’s new!

Tree menu

bibisco's vertical tree menu | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s vertical tree menu

This is the biggest innovation of this version. The horizontal menu has been replaced with a vertical tree menu.

The new menu allows you to move between the innermost sections of bibisco with fewer clicks and also provides a general outline of the project.

Setting the font size of the User Interface

bibisco's zoom level | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s zoom level

This is one of the features that writers requested the most: the ability to increase the font size of the entire application, not just the font within the text editor.

Now you can choose whether to work at the standard size or with dimensions enlarged to 115% or 130%.

Additional fonts: Baskerville, Garamond, Georgia, Palatino

bibisco's new fonts | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s new fonts

There are some fonts particularly loved by you writers: Baskerville, Garamond, Georgia, Palatino.

From today you can also use them in your favorite novel writing software (Supporters Edition only).

Setting line spacing e paragraph spacing

Setting line spacing and paragraph spacing | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Setting line spacing and paragraph spacing

The possibilities of formatting the text written with bibisco are enriched.

From this new version it is also possible to set line spacing and paragraph spacing.

Setting the scenes’ separator on export

Setting scenes' separator | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Setting scenes’ separator

Not everyone likes to separate scenes with a white line. From today it is possible to separate the scenes also with three dots (…) or three asterisks (***).

Setting the title format and position on export

bibisco's chapter title format | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s chapter title format

Also for the format of the chapterstitle, from this version there is more choice for writers, who can choose between:

  • Number & Title (example: 4. Andrea meets Valentina)
  • Only number (example: 4.)
  • Only title (example: Andrea meets Valentina)
  • “Chapter” & Number (example: Chapter 4)

Writers can also choose the position of the title: left or center.

Windows Installer

In addition to the portable version (a zip file to unpack) from this version, by popular demand of many users, it is possible to install bibisco with a traditional installer for Windows.

Supporters edition features are available for 30-day trial on Community Edition

30-day Supporters Edition trial included in Community Edition | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
30-day Supporters Edition trial included in Community Edition

I think the Supporters Edition features are so great that I have decided to let Community Edition users try them for 30 days as well.

They will find them irresistible!

Conclusion

Thanks to the suggestions of many writers, here is the new version of bibisco!

I hope you like it and, above all, it can help you write beautiful stories even better.

So, download and try the new version bibisco!

PS: If you need information about the update from a previous version read here.

How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps

How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps

Characters are the engine of every story.

Quite often, indeed, they live longer than the story itself. How many of you happened to remember perfectly the characters of a novel read many years ago and not remember the plot at all?

Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.

Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

For this reason, it is very important to understand how to master character creation: here’s how to do it in 7 easy steps.

Step 1: download bibisco, your character creation program

Since the creation of the characters is essential, it’s necessary to have the right program that will help you in this task.

bibisco is a novel writing software focused on character creation.

Our vision is that characters are the driving force of any novel. So bibisco is packed with tools designed specifically for character creation.

bibisco is a desktop application for Linux, Mac, Windows. It’s available in 14 languages: Czech, Dutch, French, German, English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (for both Brazil and Portugal), Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish.

You can download bibisco from the official website: https://bibisco.com.

Step 2: create your project

Once bibisco is installed, it’s time to create your project.

Choose the title (you can always change it later), register yourself as the author, select the language and you are ready to go!

create a project in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
create a project in bibisco

Step 3: create your first character

It’s time to create your first character!

bibisco divides the characters into two groups: the main characters and the secondary characters.

characters' section in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
characters’ section in bibisco

Each main character has a conflict, the driving force of the story. Secondary characters instead don’t have a conflict, but they are useful for the development of the story.

In this tutorial we focus on the creation of the main characters: let’s create the first one by assigning it a name.

Step 4: get to know the character in depth

This is certainly the most important step.

All the great characters in the stories have one thing in common: they are believable.

Characters who are either completely good or completely bad are stereotypes and therefore not believable.

What makes a positive character interesting and believable is discovering their dark side. What makes us empathetic with an evil character is knowing that before they became who they is, they was a sweet and generous person.

So, how then can we create interesting characters? Knowing them thoroughly, so that it emerges their human nature, with strengths, weaknesses, contradictions.


bibisco offers an innovative, simple and fun way to get to know the characters: by interviewing them!

Character's interview in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Character’s interview in bibisco

Through 138 questions divided into 6 sections (personal data, physical features, behaviors and attitudes, psychology, ideas and passions, sociology) we can know everything about our characters.

Main character's section in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Main character’s section in bibisco

It’s also possible to enrich the knowledge of a character by associating images with it. One of the images can be selected as profile picture.

The associated images and the profile picture can be used as a source of inspiration while building the character or later when writing the story.

Character's images visible while writing in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Character’s images visible while writing in bibisco

Step 5: get to know the story of the character before the story’s beginning

The way of being of each of us, in every moment of our life, is determined by our character and by the experiences we have lived up to that moment.

For this reason, bibisco provides two tools for knowing the character’s life before the story begins.

The first tool is a dedicated section in which to describe the childhood, adolescence, school and professional life of a character up to the moment of the beginning of the story.

The second tool is a section in which to indicate the significant events of the character’s life, with dates and descriptions.

Character's event section in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Character’s event section in bibisco

The events indicated in this section will then be merged into the novel’s general timeline.

Step 6: define the conflict of the character

As we discussed in detail in a previous post: no conflict, no novel!

Every main character has a conflict: a dream to be realized, a reaction to an external event, an inner need.

The conflict leads the character to action and thus to start the story.

bibisco has a dedicated section in which to describe the character’s conflict.

Character's conflict section in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Character’s conflict section in bibisco

Step 7: define the evolution of the characters

Every story is the story of a change in the condition of things and the evolution of the characters during this process.

And the evolution of the characters is the most interesting aspect because it’s what excites, inspires or upsets us. It’s what we’ll remember when we forget the plot.

As discussed in a previous post, every author should always ask himself: can my readers see themselves in my characters?

bibisco has a dedicated section in which to describe the character’s evolution during the story.

Character's evolution section in bibisco
How to Master Character Creation in 7 Simple Steps
Character’s evolution section in bibisco

Conclusion

This is how to master character creation in 7 Simple Steps.

Now it’s your turn! Download bibisco now and start creating characters your readers won’t forget.

What’s new in bibisco 2.3?

What’s new in bibisco 2.3?

A new version of bibisco is here. So, let’s take a look at what’s new in bibisco 2.3!

Before diving into the new features of our favorite novel writing software, I would like to point out two things that are particularly important to me:

  • All the new features come from suggestions and ideas from users. So if you have new ideas for features you would like to see implemented write to info@bibisco.com. I will certainly evaluate them!
  • When the new version was announced, I received many messages of congratulations and affection. This is the greatest satisfaction for me.

OK, let’s get started!

Profile image management

In this version of bibisco (Supporters Edition only), it’s possible to associate a profile picture to characters, places and objects.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?Characters' profile picture
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Characters’ profile picture

The profile picture will always be visible when working on a character, location or object.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Main character's section
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Main character’s section

Events

I think this new feature (Supporters Edition only) is particularly interesting. It allows us to associate events with characters, locations, objects or the setting.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Character's event
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Character’s event

We can trace the important events in a character‘s life; his birth, the beginning of high school, the move to another city. For a location, we can instead trace the events that are important for our novel; the construction of a skyscraper, an earthquake, a riot. The same thing can be done for an object: the date of its invention, the first time it was used. Of course, this feature is very useful when applied to the setting, especially if we are writing a historical novel.

All created events are integrated into the timeline. In this way, it’s possible to have a global vision of all the important events of the novel; both those described in the scenes and those not.

Prologue, epilogue and parts of the project

It’s now possible (Supporters Edition only) to manage prologue and epilogue.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Parts management
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Parts management

And we can divide our novel in parts.

Unlimited notes

This is certainly the most requested feature by users!

From this version of bibisco (Supporters Edition only), you can add unlimited notes in the new Notes section.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Notes section
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Notes section

For each note it is possible to associate, in addition to the text, unlimited notes.

Export selection

Sometimes we want to export just a chapter or a character sheet instead of the whole novel. With version 2.3 (Supporters Edition only) of bibisco it’s now possible.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Export selection
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Export selection

You can export:

  • Novel and project
  • Only novel
  • Only project
  • Chapter
  • Character
  • Location
  • Object
  • Note
  • Architecture
  • Narrative strands
  • Timeline

Objects’ analysis

The analysis section has been expanded (Supporters Edition only) with the objectsanalysis as well.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Objects' analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Objects’ analysis

Timeline: export and day of week

Version 2.3 of bibisco also presents interesting new features for the Timeline.

It’s now possible to export the Timeline to PDF, DOCX and TXT.

Timeline
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Timeline

In addition, the day of the week is also shown in the timeline.

Automatic backup

The new automatic backup function makes backups of the project you are working on at regular intervals and each time you exit the project.

By default, bibisco:

  • makes an automatic backup each time you exit the project, both when you close bibisco and exit the project without closing bibisco.
  • makes an automatic backup if there are any changes in the project and 2 hours have passed since the last backup.
  • keeps a maximum of 10 backup files for a single project in the backup directory. When the maximum number of backups is exceeded, the oldest backup file is deleted.

You can always change these defaults from the settings:

Automatic backup settings
Automatic backup settings

The automatic backup feature increases safety in bibisco project management. To learn more about this topic take a look here.

Direct navigation between scenes and character interview’s sections

Some users have complained that it’s a bit cumbersome to switch from one scene to another. Or from one section of the character interview to another.

Direct navigation between scenes
Direct navigation between scenes

Starting from this version of bibisco, it’s possible the direct navigation between one scene and the next and between the various sections of the character’s interview.

Slovenian translation

Thanks to Tatjana Prelog, bibisco is now available also in Slovenian!

Slovenian translation
Slovenian translation

Minor changes

And finally, here are some minor changes in the new version:

  • In English version introduced the singular they in place of the form he/she.
  • Add words to the dictionary also for Windows and Linux.
  • Increased the scenes’ area in the detail of the chapter

Conclusion

After a year of work, here is the new version of bibisco 2.3.

It has been a long journey but I’m really happy because I think bibisco can help writers even better to write their novel.

So what are you waiting for? Download and try the new version bibisco!

PS: If you need information about the update from a previous version read here.

You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for?

You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for?

The key to successful writing is to understand who you are writing for.

If you are interested in writing, it’s not enough for you to have a vivid imagination and time to put words to paper.

You can start by letting your ideas pool and then create a storyline that you can work with. But, in order to successfully do this, you need to consider who you are writing for.

There’s a big difference between the style of the Harry Potter series and the Da Vinci Code. The difference isn’t in the writer or even defined by the genre, it’s in who the target audience is.

Understanding who will be reading your novel ensures you create a story that they will enjoy reading. This approach ensures you are aware of the most appropriate writing style to keep your reader engaged.

The Message

Once you’ve established your target audience, you need to answer this question: what message are you conveying?

There’s a big difference between creating a factual story and a fictional one. A factual story revolves around the facts, your aim is to tell the story compellingly but stay true to the facts. A fictional story gives you a license to write almost anything. But this is where writers often lose focus.

That’s why you need to establish a core message first.

Are you writing about love? Perhaps you’re looking at your vision of the future, or want to write a classic action hero story.

Your message can even be a feeling that you want to convey, such as awe, or even to make people feel connected.

You must know what your message is before you start writing. This will ensure your writing stays true to your message.

When you know the message you’ll find it easier to write and you’ll know exactly who you are writing to.

It’s more than just a genre of people, knowing your message allows you to visualize your readers, enabling you to write to them as though they are friends.

Choosing The Tone

Once you’ve established your target audience and your message you’re going to need to consider the tone.

In some cases, this is defined by your message.

For example, if you’re looking to write a historical romance then the style of writing is already dictated by the speech patterns of that era.

But, a modern romance has a very different tone, as does a futuristic thriller or love story.

Alongside this, you need to define what point of view you intend to adopt. Are you writing as the main protagonist or as an innocent bystander? You need to define what perspective you’re adopting to ensure you maintain this throughout the novel.

How bibisco can help

bibisco is especially helpful at this stage.

It has a premise tab that enables you to define the purpose of your novel in one sentence. That’s your message.

You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for? - bibisco premise card
bibisco premise card

bibisco also offers the opportunity to define the conflict within your novel. By interviewing the characters, you can get to know them thoroughly and identify the central issues to be resolved in the novel.

You can not please everyone. Who you are writing for? - bibisco character’s interview
bibisco character’s interview

Conclusion

Successfully writing a novel requires you to define who you are writing for.

This creates the definition of the novel and the direction.

These are the two most important elements and it’s worth taking your time working these out.

With them done properly, the art of writing is surprisingly simple, you simply need the right novel writing software to support your ideas.

You can’t please everyone, but you aim to please yourself and your intended audience, bibisco can help you achieve this.

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel?

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel?

Do you know how many times your characters meet each other? Do you know where the main character meets his lover for the first time?

This is the novel analysis and it’s really useful to have a clear vision of how our novel is structured.

So, does your novel writing software helps you to analyze your novel?

Novel analysis with bibisco

When I designed bibisco, I first wanted to include the features for the study of the character and the definition of their conflict.

But then I wanted to insert a feature that I have not found in other novel planning software: the tools to analyze the novel.

Let’s take a look at the analytics features offered by bibisco.

Chapters’ length

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's chapters length analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s chapters’ length analysis

In this analysis, it’s possible to observe the length of each chapter and compare it with the others.

You can analyze if the length of the chapters is homogeneous in the novel and if there are chapters that are much longer or much shorter than the others.

Characters’ distribution

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's characters' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s characters’ distribution analysis

This analysis is particularly appreciated by users of bibisco, because it allows analyzing the presence of the characters within the novel.

It also allows observing the distribution of the presence of the characters between the chapters.

Some characters may be present only at the beginning of the novel, others only at the end. Generally, the protagonists have a constant presence throughout the novel. If a character doesn’t show up for half a novel, that becomes immediately apparent.

Furthermore, through this analysis, it is possible to find out at a glance when two characters are present in the same chapter.

Locations and Narrative Strands’ distribution

In addition to the distribution of the characters, bibisco also allows us to analyze the distribution of locations.

bibisco's locations' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s locations’ distribution analysis

And the distribution of narrative strands.

bibisco's narrative strands' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s narrative strands’ distribution analysis

Characters’ list of appearances

bibisco's characters' list of appearances
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s characters’ list of appearances

This analysis, for each character, provides the list of all their appearances in the novel in chronological order.

For each apparition you can find:

  • date and time of the apparition
  • location
  • scene
  • chapter

This is extremely useful for ensuring consistency (How can this character be in Dublin when he was in Sydney an hour earlier?), especially for very long novels with a lot of characters.

Use of points of view

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's use of points of view
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s use of points of view

In this analysis, the writer can study the use of points of view in the novel.

Was the use consistent? From the point of view of which characters was the story told?

This knowledge is particularly important because every story changes according to the point of view of the teller.

Tag your scene and bibisco do the magic

bibisco automatically generates the analyses illustrated in this article.

The writer simply has to tag each scene with the characters that appear, the location and time in which it takes place, the point of view used, the narrative strand to which it belongs.

bibisco's scene tags
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s scene tags

Conclusion

A good novel writing software must help the writer not only to write the novel but also to analyze it.

bibisco offers deep analysis and at-a-glance infographics detail about chapters’ length and how characters, locations, points of view and narrative strands are distributed chronologically and across chapters.

This means you can easily see where things happen in your novel.

Such information could be invaluable for preventing inconsistencies and, ultimately, understand the structure of your novel.

Are your characters people or stereotypes?

Are your characters people or stereotypes?

Harry Potter, Tom Sawyer, Princess Leia, Romeo and Juliet.

If you are an aspiring writer or an avid reader, you know the abovementioned names aren’t of any ordinary people. They are the protagonists, the main characters of some of the greatest novels of all time.

See, how swiftly you recognized them! As if they were your best companions for a long time. And trust me, they were.

Characters are key to a memorable story

When we read a story or a novel, oftentimes, it’s the characters that we remember the most; not the plot or the conflict. After all, it’s the characters that make a story humane; taking us on a dreamlike journey with their merits, contradictions, flaws, etc.

As a result, if you are writing a novel, the success of it is not going to depend on which novel writing software you are using. But it is certainly going to depend largely on the believability of your characters.

The more humane and real they are with both the perfections and the flaws; the more chance they have got to be genuine and to rise above the generic stereotypes.

Give your characters a unique life of their own

To avoid falling into the trap of stereotypes, the most practical way for writers is to begin with giving characters a life of their own.

Where they were born? How old are they? How do they look like? What relationship do they have with their father? And with the mother? Asking all these questions would gradually give your characters a basic structure.

However, it may also make your characters feel very generic. I mean, you don’t remember Harry Potter just because of how he looked like or where he was born, do you?

Help your characters surprise you

As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we supposed. And we ourselves are, too.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

People are not as simple and straightforward as non-living things. We are a delicate mix of good and bad, novelty and flaws, selfishness and selflessness, sensitivity and insensitivity, and so on at the same time.

So, your characters shouldn’t be all perfect and rigid. Rather, they should be as surprising and multi-dimensional as the real people.

Utilize a novel planning software like bibisco

bibisco – an innovative novel planning software – offers an exciting feature to dive deep into the complexity of human nature, helping you to create your characters as people and not as stereotypes.

With a set of difficult questions, bibisco guides you to find out information about your characters that don’t easily meet the eyes.

Are your characters people or stereotypes? - bibisco character's dashboard
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco character’s dashboard

For example, it’s easy to answer whether your character is brave or not. But it’s certainly not easy to answer how is the relationship with their father? Or how do they react to successes and failures? By asking a series of such questions, bibisco would force you to think elaborately about your characters and go beyond the realm of your novel.

Are your characters people or stereotypes? - bibisco character's interview
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco character’s interview

Eventually, these thoughts and imaginations would shape the ways your characters would be behaving in the particular instances of your story, making them real and not just a stereotype.

Conclusion

While there is no story without conflicts, there is no conflict that the readers would actually care about without real and believable characters. So, make sure your characters represent actual people with all the complexity before giving them challenges to solve.

A novel writing software like bibisco can surely benefit in creating multi-dimensional, humane characters; thanks to its brilliant character development features consisting of a set of difficult questions.

Are you ready to create your characters as people and not as stereotypes? Try out the feature now and let us know how exciting your experience was in the comments!

This is why you need a novel writing software

This is why you need a novel writing software

Andrea, do you think that a writer really needs a novel writing software?

This is the question they ask me at every interview about bibisco.

After all“, they say, “it’s about writing and to write you just need Microsoft Word. Isn’t it?

Writing a novel is like building a house

Someone thinks that a writer can write an entire novel feverishly, guided only by the sacred fire of inspiration.

This idea is quite naive.

Writing a novel, instead, is like building a house. Words are bricks, but it’s not enough to put one brick after another. If you build a house without a blueprint, it’s bound to collapse.

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing is only a part of the entire work

When you write a novel, writing chapters and scenes it’s only a part of the entire work.

The other parts are the research and study of the social and temporal context in which the story takes place, the design of the characters and the plot, the planning of the activities and the control of their progress.

And so, you have to be very organized and disciplined to manage all this mass of documents.

A novel writing software helps you in all stages of novel creation

A novel writing software, like bibisco, can help the writer to organize the work in all its phases in a single integrated novel development environment.

There are no more files scattered in complex directory trees, but all the elements of the novel are well organized and immediately accessible without having to look for them in the file system.

This is why you need a novel writing software - Chapter's detail - bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Chapter’s detail

Moreover, it is always possible to have an eye on all the material produced for the novel while writing.

In bibisco, with the project explorer, you can have all the information about the chapters, architectural elements, characters, locations, objects, and all the notes always available in a sidebar while you are writing.

Do you really need a novel writing software? In bibisco, with the project explorer, you can have all the information about the chapters, architectural elements, characters, locations, objects, and all the notes always available in a sidebar while you are writing.
Project explorer

A novel writing software helps you to analyze your work

A novel writing software can help the writer not only to organize the work but also to analyze it.

For example, in bibisco, you can analyze the length of the chapters to see if it is homogeneous between them.

In bibisco you can analyze the length of the chapters to see if it is homogeneous between them.
Chapters’ length analysis

Or you can study the characters’ distribution to see which ones appear most often, to check when a character appears for the first time, to identify how many times two characters appear in the same chapter.

In bibisco you can study the characters' distribution to see which ones appear most often, to check when a character appears for the first time, to identify how many times two characters appear in the same chapter.
Characters’ distribution analysis

You can also see your novel represented in a timeline.

In bibisco you can see your novel represented in a timeline.
Timeline

A novel writing software helps you keep track of your progress

A good novel writing software also helps you to plan and track the progress of your work.

In bibisco, for example, you can set your words goal, your words per day goal, and your deadline.

Do you really need a novel writing software? In bibisco you can set your words goal, your words per day goal, and your deadline.
Project’s dashboard

And you can check your progress over time.

In bibisco you can check your progress over the time.
Project’s writing history

Furthermore, in bibisco, any element of the novel such as chapters, scenes, characters, places, objects, architectural elements, has its completion badge (red, yellow, green) to have at a glance the status of the work.

This is why you need a novel writing software - Characters' section - bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Characters’ section

Conclusion

A novel is a complex artwork.

A novel planning software, like bibisco, helps you in all the stages of the creation of the novel: research, design, planning, and writing.

And you? Do you think you need a novel writing software?