📘Books & Chapters

Books

Are you working on not one but several books, all set in the same universe? You can create multiple books inside Fortelling. This way, you can share your story elements between the separate stories.

Check out our explanation of the outline tool for more info on how to plot a book with Fortelling.

Create a book

Web

1. Press the yellow add button in the books section.

2. Fill in the details and press save.

Re-order books

You can re-order books by long-pressing them. The books will go into jiggle mode, after which they can be long-pressed again and dragged to the right place. Press the checkmark button to save your changes and leave jiggle mode.

Synopsis

Write a short synopsis for your book. This allows you to fall back on what your story is about. Keep it to the point. Try to summarize your story as short as possible.

Chapters

Your chapters are the foundation of your story. We have added features to make writing them as easy as possible.

Chapter status

You can use the chapter status to track your progress of a chapter. The status reflects the stage of writing the chapter is currently in. Every chapter starts as 'Not started yet'. Once you create a scene for this chapter, it will automatically update to 'outlining'. If you start writing in the editor, the chapter will move to the 'writing' stage.

For the remaining stages, you need to mark them as done or finished yourself. You can manually update the chapter status by selecting the stage.

You can update your chapter status by creating a new chapter version.

Chapter statistics

Fortelling tracks some statistics of your chapter.

• Character count

• Word count

• Paragraphs

• Read time

• Speaking time

Re-order chapters

You can re-order chapters by entering 'shuffle' mode.

1. Tap the icon with the two crossing arrows to enable item reordering. At the end of the item, two lines will appear, one above the other; this is the drag indicator.

2. Long-press or click this, and the tile will follow your finger or cursor while you move it.

3. Release the drag indicator to put the chapter at that position in the list.

4. Tap the checkmark button to exit the 'shuffle' mode and save everything.

Version history

Keeping your content safe is one of Fortelling's top priorities. Having different versions of your chapter available in the background is one way to have something to fall back on. You can manually create a new snapshot of your current writing in the version history by tapping the plus button. The app will automatically create a new version periodically.

If you open the version history tab, you can select a version from the list to restore and overwrite the latest version. Always create a new version before switching to an older one. This way, you always have a backup of your current writing. Use the chapter status to organize the progress of your chapter.

Import & export

Tap the link below to learn more about the import and export options.

Editor

The editor is where all the magic will happen. Unleash your creativity and come up with the most amazing stories. This is your place to shine. We strive to support you in the best possible ways, but ultimately, it's up to you. ;)

Formatting options

The editor offers a basic set of styling options to format your writing.

• Bold: mark your text in bold.

• Italic: mark your text in italic to emphasize specific words or phrases.

• Underline: add a line underneath your text.

• Colors: give your text color.

• Clear formatting: remove all styling from the text.

• Left, center & right align: set the alignment of the current paragraph.

Additional tools

In the editor, using the side menu, you can access multiple tools that will help you with your writing journey.

Scenes

Planning is critical for efficient writing. Create a quick overview of the events that will happen in your chapter with the scenes tool. These are the same scenes that appear in the outline tool. You can long-press to reorder items. Swipe an item to the left to reveal the delete button. Tap on a scene to open the keyboard and describe your scene. Try to keep the description as short as possible for a better overview.

To learn more about scenes, please click the link below.

Quick Explore

The most optimal writing setup with Fortelling is to have your phone and desktop side by side. This way, you can type with a real keyboard on your desktop and browse background information with your phone. But this is not always possible to achieve. That's why we created the Quick Explore tab. Easily swipe between your chapter editor and your story elements. Write some text... Take a glance at your character... Write some more...

All your favorite tools are always close. You can even tap the edit button at the top right to modify the information of the selected story element.

Links

You can read more about Fortelling's link options on the page below.

Tips & tricks (web)

• Add a new chapter between other chapters by hovering between them. A plus button will appear. No longer dragging chapters all the way to the top from the bottom!

• Collapse the side menu with the arrow on the web.

• Focus mode on the web: While your editor is open, you can enable focus mode to hide all UI elements. The icon looks like a little square, like this:

Good luck with your writing, we're sure you can do it!