# Idea to Novel Superstructure: Emacs for Writing
Bala Ramadurai
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[View transcript](#transcript-questions)
You want to write a novel, but you don't know how to create an
outline. You have a seed idea for a novel, and you intend to expand
it into a complete story. You have many ideas for a novel, and you
are wondering how to proceed. You started writing your heart out, and
you now feel the need to create a framework for a novel.
Worry not, Emacs is here to the rescue.
Listen to this talk to find out how to develop your story idea into a
framework for a novel, all within your favourite text editor, Emacs.
What you will learn during the session:
- How to write a single-line plot for a novel
- How to write the backbone of the novel, the main character arc
- How to create characters and write their arcs
- How to create a story design
- How to create the scenes design
- How to plan your novel writing project
- How to track your project
The modified Emacs template has all the ingredients and flow to start
from a basic idea to a full fledged thrashed out novel superstructure.
Once you are done with the superstructure, you can use the planning
and clocking infrastructure to finish scene after scene, thus
finishing your masterpiece.
We will use:
- The snowflake method -
- The seven-point story structure -
- The original emacs writing template -
- Some spices from the speaker's kitchen
# Links
- Screenplay in Fountain format -
- Actual start and end time (EST): 9:40-9:58
# Questions
## Do you have occasions to use Emacs for multilingual text composition? How do you deal with spell-checking etc?
- Wrote in English with spell-check but wasn't able to find anything for the local script
- ^ thank you. I find using multiple languages in one document is a hard problem, not made easier in Emacs
## Is it possible to align the columns in headings and subheading?
- Thanks for the beautiful demo.
## Maybe there should be an emacs-for-writing mailing list and online Writers Workshop (?)
- This is a good idea, perhaps an online Writers Workshop indeed makes a lot of sense.
- Has conducted online WW in India, used Notion (Emacs Org Mode was scary for other attendees)
## How do you share drafts of your novel? If you use pandoc to export to word (etc), how do you incorporate feedback on the document back into org? (Thank you for the talk)
- Exported to Word (via pandoc). There were some inconvenient parts for the editor, and Ramadurai copied and pasted the feedback/changes from Word into Emacs.
- For collaborators: paste it into Google Docs. See the question below.
- Not an answer by the speaker, but here's the workflow of Mickey Petersen: (Mastering Emacs)
- From my bookmarks:
## Can you show exported pdf of any of your novel?
- Will make a "demo" and have a link somewhere accessible to the community (probably on talk page at )
## How do you collaborate with others while writing your Novel ? Like sharing your file and getting feedbacks.
- working on ebook sustainability, long org mode file, pasted into google docs so collaborator and editor can see it
- like to see python
- paste to google docs
## Can you text-wrap in the columns?
- Community: possibly ftable.el
- you specify column mode in org mode in prsentation
- THANKS
## How to enable column mode in org mode
- M-x org-columns (C-c C-x C-c)
- Or use speed selection in Org-mode.
- Thanks
# Notes
- Write a novel about a Scrabble-obsessed grandmother
- Novel is still not published
- Snowflake method + Tony Ballantyne (sp?) —
- The talk was made by org-re-reveal
- Column-view and plotpoints per story arc, 2ndary characters augment the main character
-
- Uses pandoc to export from org
- Author of Karmic Design Thinking ()
- Uses Spacemacs
# Transcript (questions)
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:00.000" text="I have the pad open. So, I can start."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:05.333" text="Do you have occasions to use Emacs for multilingual text composition?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:11.333" text="How do you deal with spell-checking?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:15.333" text="I have written only in English. For English, Emacs works great."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:15.333" text="Spell-check works great."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:23.767" text="I have not used it for any other languages."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:29.300" text="I have indeed tried local South Indian language, but only the script"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:40.333" text="I could get, but not the spell-checker, really. I've not really figured it out."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:47.567" text="So that was my trial to answer the first question."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:51.067" text="The second question is: \"is it possible to align the subcolumns"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:57.031" text="and headings and subheadings?\""]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:00:59.967" text="Oh boy. That's a good one. I actually felt the lack of having the..."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:04.967" text="The theme I had was great for... It looked like a novel"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:11.100" text="when I'm typing on the novel itself,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:14.533" text="but when I expand into the subtrees,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:19.800" text="it sort of goes haywire. It's a bit hacky."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:22.233" text="You can probably switch to a monospace font,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:24.900" text="and that works better than"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:27.133" text="the font that I have demoed it."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:30.967" text="You can perhaps try monospace font"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:36.033" text="and it should work, I think,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:37.700" text="as far as I know."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:39.600" text="So, that's the second question."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:42.667" text="The third question is maybe there should be an Emacs for Writing"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:47.600" text="mailing list, an online writer's workshop?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:50.433" text="This is a great one."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:51.300" text="I have conducted an online writer's workshop"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:54.433" text="here in India. Of course, it wasn't"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:01:58.000" text="an Emacs-focused workshop. We used Notion as the tool. It worked pretty good."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:05.467" text="for people who are not aware of Emacs and how to use Emacs, the keystrokes,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:12.633" text="the fact that I wasn't using the mouse unnerved them."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:16.200" text="It was a scary experience for most people."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:19.267" text="I had to switch to Notion."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:22.333" text="People used that as a template"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:23.567" text="and then they could type it out."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:28.233" text="It wasn't my perfect experience. I liked the Emacs Org Mode experience much better."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:33.633" text="The next question is, \"How do you share drafts of your novel?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:41.300" text="If you use pandoc to export to Word, etc., how do you incorporate feedback"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:44.867" text="on the document back into Org?\""]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:46.867" text="Thank you for the kind words."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:50.767" text="Yes, it is a problem."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:02:53.100" text="This is my ??, and I have a dedication to Spacemacs also and the Emacs Org Mode"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:02.033" text="community in there. I don't know if you can see it."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:04.433" text="Probably not."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:05.467" text="I did export it to Word."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:10.600" text="My editor did complain that there were a whole bunch of things,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:13.333" text="that it wasn't convenient for her."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:16.633" text="So I tried having the raw Org Mode itself in a DOC embedded,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:20.933" text="and I will do a copy and paste."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:26.067" text="Didn't work so well either."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:27.867" text="So I'm still on the edge on how do I do this."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:31.267" text="Should I train my editor to use Org Mode"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:34.933" text="in Gitlab or one of those"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:37.167" text="other tools, which is not a great experience?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:39.833" text="But... I don't know. It could be tricky for working with people"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:47.633" text="who are not well-versed with Emacs."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:03:50.867" text="Pandoc is very, very useful in converting it to PDF"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:02.000" text="and integrating it with LaTeX, the styling, formatting into e-reader,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:02.000" text="EPUB format. For all that, Pandoc works great. You can customize it"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:13.133" text="and of course there's a lot of support in the community"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:16.233" text="for any style changes that you want to make, any images that you want to add."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:20.133" text="It works great."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:22.967" text="That was my trial to answer the pandoc question."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:28.367" text="\"Can you show exported PDF of any of your novels?\""]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:35.100" text="Unfortunately, it's still not published, so I'm..."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:38.600" text="I will put it and share it on the community,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:42.067" text="or part of this in the schedule itself. Thank you for the question."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:48.067" text="Unfortunately, it's not yet published, so I'm unable to publish the exported PDF."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:04:55.000" text="But I'll make a test of an open-source novel that I'm working on"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:01.300" text="I will definitely publish that so that you can see"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:05.767" text="how it works also."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:10.433" text="Can you text-wrap in the columns?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:13.167" text="I have not found a way to do text-wrap in the columns."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:19.667" text="That only shows my limitation in config setup,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:23.633" text="but I'm sure people can figure this out"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:27.033" text="That's a good one. I would have loved to have it."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:29.900" text="Every time I want to write more on the headline,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:34.000" text="I would get out of the column-view mode and I would do the typing and expand it,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:42.467" text="and then come back into the column view when I want to set the other meta parameters."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:46.700" text="So that's how I manage without the text-wrapping feature built into column."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:54.133" text="But I think it's a great idea to have text wrap."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:05:58.000" text="Did I leave out any questions? I don't think so."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:05.333" text="[Amin]: I think there's at least one question on IRC,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:10.600" text="which I shall read to you."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:14.500" text="[Bala]: Please, can you do that? Thank you."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:17.300" text="[Amin]: So they asked, \"How do you collaborate with others while writing your novel?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:21.278" text="For example, sharing your file and getting feedback.\""]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:28.100" text="Okay. Good question. So far, I have used... Let's see..."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:37.100" text="What did I use... This is a crazy hack."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:40.833" text="But it's a long-winded way of..."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:44.667" text="Right now we're working on an e-book for sustainability"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:50.300" text="and kids contribute their stories into this long Org Mode file"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:06:57.767" text="and I want my editors to see it"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:00.233" text="so what we have done, actually, is with the tags and all that, I have actually"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:05.333" text="pasted it into Google Docs"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:08.167" text="so that my collaborators and"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:11.833" text="editors can see it."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:14.000" text="That's my current solution. It's not elegant."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:16.667" text="I'm trying to see if I can use Python code to make the copy and paste work,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:23.900" text="but it's not so elegant for now."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:26.900" text="I don't know how to work this out,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:28.933" text="but this is my hack. That is,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:31.100" text="the entire Org Mode text, I would paste it into"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:34.300" text="Google Docs"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:35.433" text="so that my collaborators and editors"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:37.700" text="can see it. Whenever they edit it, I ask them not to make any changes"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:41.667" text="to the Org Mode tags."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:43.500" text="So just copy the entire text"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:45.633" text="and put it back into my Org Mode file"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:51.167" text="and export it using Pandoc into a PDF"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:53.300" text="and since it's synced to Google Drive"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:56.000" text="it shows up in the Google Drive"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:07:58.600" text="and then the collaborators can see the PDF/EPUB"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:03.633" text="if they want to open it up"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:05.333" text="in their own space."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:06.200" text="It's very very hacky and I think primitive, Stone Age sort of solution."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:11.467" text="I did see a Python solution."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:15.567" text="to at least help me with the copying and paste."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:18.967" text="I'm still working on how do I convert this."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:21.574" text="Interconvertability is driving me nuts."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:24.300" text="I think most of the questions"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:26.533" text="are around interconvertability."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:29.333" text="This is sort of what I have right now."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:34.767" text="Any other questions, Amin,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:37.567" text="on IRC or not?"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:40.233" text="[Amin]: Let's see. I think that's about it."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:46.433" text="[Bala]: Okay. Cool. That was fun."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:50.033" text="Thank you so much to"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:51.833" text="the organizers of Emacs conference,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:54.577" text="and the community at large,"]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:08:57.100" text="the Org Mode community and the Emacs community for helping me out."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:09:01.303" text="Thank you so much."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:09:02.900" text="Thanks for the opportunity as well."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:09:05.233" text="[Amin]: And thank you, Bala, for your awesome talk."]]
[[!subtitle video="#qnaVideo" start="00:09:07.300" text="[Bala]: Thanks. Thanks a lot, Amin."]]