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.
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. 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.