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Quick Start

This is a quick start guide to Hiveword. Detailed information can be found here.

Hiveword is a novel organizer that allows you to do as much organizing as you'd like. For example, you can track just your characters in Hiveword. Or, perhaps you want to track everything about your novel: scenes, characters, plotlines, etc. How you use Hiveword is up to you.

Below, we'll walk through making a story that has a scene with a character in it. While it sounds simple, it sets a solid foundation for how to use Hiveword for organizing your novel.

Create a Story

What's your story? Hiveword isn't much good without one so let's create yours:

  • Click the Hiveword logo at the upper left of the screen (this will always take you to the dashboard which also lists your stories)
  • Click New to create a new story
  • Enter a name for your story and click OK (you can change the name at any time)

You are now on the story's details page where you can enter some high-level information about it if you wish. Be sure to click the Save button if you do.

Create a Character

Characters are one of the components that you can add to a story. The others are scenes, plotlines, settings, and items. Let's add that character:

  • Click the list icon () next to the word "Characters" in the left sidebar. This sidebar lists all of the components in your story. When you click the list icon you will go to the characters list screen.
  • Click New to create a new character in your story
  • Enter a name for your character (Suggestion: This name will appear everywhere the character is used so make it as short as possible yet distinguishable from other characters. For example, "King Michael of Vorbis, First of his Name, Rightful Heir to the Coconut Throne" would not be the best for the name field. The simple "King Michael" would do. The character screen allows you to specify first, middle, and last name if you want to use those.)
  • Click OK to create the character
  • Note that the story component sidebar now indicates that there is one character in the story. If you click "Characters" the list of characters will expand and you'll see the one you just created.

You are now on the character detail page where you can enter as little or as much information you'd like about the character.

Create a Scene

I've heard that you already know how to make a scene but we'll create one in your story this time. The process is exactly the same as it is for characters as well as the other story components:

  • Click the list icon () next to the word "Scenes" in the left sidebar
  • Click the New button and select "Scene" to create a new scene in your story
  • Enter a name for your scene (Suggestion: Like characters, use a name that's just long enough so that you know what the scene is about.)
  • Click OK to create the scene
  • Note that the story component sidebar now indicates that there is one scene in the story. If you click "Scenes" the list of scenes will expand and you'll see the one you just created.

Add a Character to a Scene

Now we want to add the character to the scene you just created. Obviously, from your story's perspective, this means that the character is in the scene.

You should still be on the scene detail screen from the previous section. Notice the scene information sidebar on the left. It's devoid of data right now but you can get an idea of what you can attach to a scene. Let's add the character you created above to this scene:

  • Hover your mouse over "Characters" on the right sidebar. You'll see a pencil icon () appear.
  • Click the pencil icon to edit the list of characters
  • A popup listing your characters appears (you only have one so far, of course)
  • Select your character and click Save
  • Notice that your character's name now appears in the right sidebar

You can attach other things to the scene in the same way.

Summary

It may have taken a lot of words to say it but hopefully you can see how easy it is to create new story components and attach them to scenes. By the way, it's perfectly OK not to attach something to a scene; it all depends on what you are trying to do.

Where to Go from Here

Now that you know how to add data about your story in Hiveword, what should you do next? Some suggestions:

  • Enter the other things you know about your story so far. Meaning, enter your characters, plotline descriptions, scenes, etc.
  • Try playing with the various views to see what you can do. For example, there's a variety of scene list views that make it easy to get a bird's eye view of your story.
  • If you wish that you could add extra fields to the story components or even add new story components to track (e.g., Spells, Religions, etc.) then you'll want to have a look at the Hiveword Plus upgrade that allows you to do that and more like uploading images.

Good luck with your novel!