NaNoE

Posted on Sep 3rd, 2019

NaNoE is the software I started to create in 2018 for NaNoWriMo. It is free, open-source, you can get it pre-compiled right here.

Download: NaNoE v1.5.5

Source: github edg3/NaNoE

How to Use NaNoE

When you first open NaNoE you will see the above window. We will describe how to use the functions, counts, and all that, in their own sections below. First to create your project:

• File > Create New
• Name the sqlite file you want to save it as (e.g. tutorial.sqlite)

We can start using NaNoE for the novel planning first. Selecting Helpers on the right, in the textbox below those options we can write the name of an element we want to add notes for (e.g. Bob) then click the “+” to the right. You will see it added to the list just below.

With Bob selected, you would use the textbox below there to add items to Bob who is a Helper. Literally, just notes for something in the story. Whenever we forget anything about Bob we can go to Helpers and select him and it will show our notes on the UI. You can see that in the image below.

The Plot works in the same way, here you can map the storyline. You can add notes to the sections of the ideas you have for the plot here. I chose it for a little logic, this way we can describe things in Helpers in as much detail we may need, then describe the plot we have to write within Plot to add the story elements we need.

We can now begin the novel. The first step, clicking Chapter Start, this begins the first chapter. Selecting the big textbox to the left we can write there. Pressing enter on the keyboard writes it into our book.

Don’t worry about spelling errors, I left them there to show off the editing helper.

Above is how it will look when using NaNoE to write, it should automatically store everything in the sqlite database file for the novel you created. That is why you can close NaNoE whenever you want to.

To open it again, you would go File > Open and select the sqlite file you named. It will open where you left off. (e.g. the tutorial.sqlite we created above)

When you want to start the editing, first decide where you want to begin. Under the Edit button on the bottom right of the form is a number labeled start, this is for where it begins the editing.

The editing class in NaNoE is taken from ideas other authors shared. It has tense checking, spelling checking, and suggestions to write in better ways. There is more to it, it just mostly suggests ideas that improve what we will read.

It doesn’t look at the first paragraphs to make sure you aren’t using the boring the character wakes up, that falls under things you should choose for yourself under the plot.

Starting from 0 it can be quite a slow process to get through your novel. This is just to let you know, and expect, it could take a bit of time. Rather, when you are writing it every day for NaNoWriMo put an effort to clean the editing suggestions after each writing session, if you can, since that could end up being a shorter editing time daily. It would also remind you of things in the story as you can go through it, then add notes in Helpers and Plot, afterward.

For Accidental Distances, I had to, unfortunately, rewrite the character wakes up the first chapter, and start editing from paragraph start 0. If you want to, you can leave it till the end. I only recommend putting it in the writing schedule as it can take quite a long time. That only makes sure you don’t spend weeks fixing grammar as I did, you can work out how to adjust what you wrote in a quicker fashion.

When you’re finished using NaNoE we just click Export DocX and create the file we want. That moves it, as is, out the sqlite and into a Word document. That means you can take it further and access everything.

If you have questions, suggestions, or find any bugs, be sure to get in touch on the GitHub repo shared above. As you should hopefully be able to tell, this is a very simple tool I set up. For the first time, I went past 5k words in 2018s NaNoWriMo creating, then using NaNoE. I’ve used the other tool in the repo to bring it back into NaNoE v1.5.1, and I am using it to edit Accidental Distances.