Liquid Story Binder: Favorite Writers' Software

 I wrote this article about two years ago right after I'd purchased the writers' software, Liquid Story Binder. Back then my netbook ran a dual boot with Linux Mint and Windows XP (I needed both operating systems for various nerdlinging reasons). Now I run a new machine that triple boots two Linux distros and Windows 7, and I’m still faithful at the church of Liquid Story Binder. I'm more familiar with the program now and absolutely still love it, and I'm not a shill like Dr. Phil. If something is good I report that it's good, go get it, tell your writer friends, the adventurous ones who like a little challenge. Some writers like their sticks and stones--a very basic and familiar setup, which is perfectly fine and has its definite uses--and some like a bit of glam. I use Liquid Story Binder enough to offer, hopefully, good advice to others who might appreciate the software as much.

If you buy the program in November, during National Novel Writing Month, it's half-off; at least it was the last couple years in a row. It's always free to try, no forfeiting credit card numbers or information. Just download the trial, give it a go if it looks useful. Some of the freeware I mention in the article below may or may not still be free; that is, they might now require you get the ‘pro’ upgrade. The only one of those programs I do recommend getting the pro upgrade for is WordWeb (see link below). Then you’ll have a very nifty dictionary/thesaurus in your Liquid Story Binder at a single click, and you’ll never miss Microsoft Word’s thesaurus. Irfanview (see link below), which is utilized by LSB to manipulate your images, is optional; you may already have Photoshop, which integrates fine. Or, if you’re using Linux—meaning you’re using Wine to run LSB, and I’ve tested that and it worked better than I expected—then you can use GIMP, which is also free and included with most Linux distros.

Okay, the article.
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Some writers rave about it. Others say it's overkill. Black Obelisk says the key to it is choice.
I believe all those things are true. Liquid Story Binder is, quite frankly, the sh*t. There are drawbacks, though. I admit  it was a complex little piece of software -- at first. I didn't understand its file system. I didn't even know where it put my books after it claimed to save them. I knew immediately it wasn't like any other program I'd ever used: a) it's gorgeous, b) it seems frickin vast, and c) it's only an 8 megabyte download.

For two weeks I played with it a little each day. The only thing I can compare LSB to is an operating system, a small one exclusively for managing and creating stories. Before LSB I wrote as slow as evolution. One of my books, an alternative historical, was such a P in the A. Historicals involve tons of research, cross-referencing, very little actual writing. It gets old. Now I keep all related references, chapters, images, etc in each "book", all neat and tidy and accessible in one click. I can focus on the premise of the book instead of burning out on the research. I can also pick up books or stories I haven’t worked on in a long time without feeling lost; all my notes, models, and all related imagery are there.

Please note: I did not say LSB improved my writing although, inevitably, writing more leads to better writing. Please also note: I am not advertising LSB and have no affiliation with LSB. Good writers' software is hard to find, and if it's good then shout it out I always say, thus this little demo/tutorial.

First, there's a difference between writers' software and word processing software.
Microsoft Word is a word processing program handy for correcting grammar and spelling with Auto-correct and Auto-format. Great for essays, research papers, proposals. Perfect for writers concerned with spelling, grammar, etc.

Liquid Story Binder XE, unlike MS Word, handles various file types. It does not correct your grammar. It facilitates your creativity by allowing extreme leeway to do whatever you like.
Some environmental differences between Word and LSB:

While Word runs on a "ribbon" menu that uses tabs--with such features as the "home" and "insert" buttons--LSB uses windows. Thus LSB feels more like an operating system than a program. This platform allows writers to click between various open documents/files, to link notes and ideas to respective documents/files, bring up references, keep organized lists, edit timelines, etc, etc in easily accessible files that can be edited, viewed, saved, whatever in a single click. 

One more thing. There are already some great tutorials online for LSB. The best source of information I've found is in the Help feature, located in the About menu. This is only a basic demonstration to show how I built my fantasy novel using LSB files. And to show those writers daunted by the program's many features that LSB is, with a little practice, a very sweet and writer-friendly program. At the very least, it's worth giving a shot.
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From the Library menu, choose Create New Book. Name it and, if you already have some in mind, type in any chapter names you want to create. Hit return after each title to create separate files. Then click Create New Book.

Don't worry about the parent folder; your book's fine where LSB wants to put it, which is in your Documents folder. If you change the book's location later on, say, to your Desktop, then the next time you open LSB your books will be missing. This is remedied by choosing View Library from Library and Adding Existing Books back into LSB.

Ok. I've created my fantasy novel, The Godward Sea.

If you like, go to Display on the main menu and select Wallpaper. Select Change Wallpaper. (Desktop wallpaper images are peachy because they fit the entire screen). If you like, tinker a bit with the Color Scheme from the Display menu. Choose from gradients, customize your colors, etc. Save the Scheme, name it after your book.

Here's my galactic Display.


Now I want to import an existing story from MS Word. Importing is different from Copy & Paste in that it will try to preserve the original formatting. From Shortcuts on the main menu I choose New then locate said file and save it as a Shortcut. The Shortcut will open in 'Read-only' mode. However, I can edit it externally (and save the edits at the same in LSB), but right now I am more concerned with transferring the content of this Word file into LSB. Shortcuts are also good for URLs to online books and articles.

Now I need to create a Planner. 'Planner' is LSB's odd name for a table of contents or an index. It's the key to my organization with a 120,000 word fantasy novel, two more behind it, 45 single-spaced pages of notes, 11 hand-drawn maps, 300 images, and even a playlist. If you love your stories that much, then LSB was made for us.

Choose New Planner from Planners to get it started. The first item has already been created and it's automatically named after my book, but I'd like to use my Planner as a table of contents so I'll change that to the name of my first chapter. I'll also put a little description of that chapter in the second textbox. Create more 'items' by hitting the new item button on the left. Save it for good measure.

 Create Chapters from your Planner by double-clicking on any of the new items you've added to it. If you've begun your novel in LSB, it might be a good idea to create a Checklist. It could be used to plot out the events in your chapter or for your entire story.

If it suits you (and it did me), create a Gallery. First, import your images into LSB. Go to Library and select Import Documents, then Import Images. My Gallery for The Godward Sea has several hundred images and photos that inspire characters, events, places, etc. Name your Gallery after your book. If you want to maximize one image at a time, double-click it. Or put all of your images in an animated slideshow if you like.

There are so many options that LSB can seem wildly complex at times, but keep Black Obelisk's motto in mind. LSB is about malleability and personal choice. You don't have to use every feature; they're simply . . . available. It's unnecessary to use all of them. Start off by getting used to the files that work best for you.

For instance, why use Timelines to chart events when you can use a Journal, which allows room for notes, ideas, or scenes? Or use a Journal to write as your character would if he or she kept a journal. Or record your own thought processes and keep little personal notes about your story like Poe did.

Vice versa -- instead of using Journals to chart events, try Timelines. These can be used to plot sagas or events that are extraneous to a main storyline, such as flashbacks that fall in sequential order as your main character remembers his forgotten past.

Next are Associations. Associations aren't as good as Listings (to me), but I will explain them because they do have their use. From your Planner choose File. Pick Associations. A dialogue will pop up showing the various file types LSB has to offer. If you choose Sequence for example, it'll ask do you want to make a new Sequence titled after your book? Yes. Voilá -- an Associated Sequence.

Associations are based on the names of your files. If my book is The Godward Sea and my Gallery is The Godward Sea, LSB will automatically recognize their Association. Open the Association menu at any time after creating a file like a Planner and you'll see that all the file types have already been named after your book. The text is gray to indicate that they haven't been created yet. Click one, and there it is.

 
No two people will use LSB the same way. There's no need to. It's like customizing a character class in an RPG; I don't want to go through the game using the exact same character someone else is using. I wanna play my way. That said, take everything in this "tutorial" with a grain of salt.

So, I have all the basics going for me now.

 
Click New Item (the little white piece of paper icon on the left) to start adding images to a Gallery. The images imported earlier are available for use.

Next are Listings. This is how you keep everything ultra organized. Once you create one and add all your relevant file types—your planners, builders, galleries, etc.—you'll open your book and all its goodies from it each time you start up. Put the files in whatever order you like, arrange it like a tree and have every file associated with your novel including images, songs, chapters, journals, etc., accessible from one neat and tidy menu.

And there you have it, the basics of novel creation in Liquid Story Binder. A few more points:
Formatting is of great concern to writers. Every publisher wants a specific format, each magazine has its own guidelines, your professor at school will only accept essays in Arial font, size 11. Worry not; LSB can do everything MS Office can do in terms of formatting, except more stylishly. However, depending on what kind of writer you are, that may or may not suit your needs.
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There are lots of features I've yet to explore that may be of use to others:

• The Character Generator. Haven't used it. My characters are 100% organic, born from daydreaming, drawing; sometimes they're parodies of people I know (and they are unaware of this). After I investigate the CG feature I might update this post.
• Auto-text and Auto Word Complete are simply luxuries. Much like in MS Office, you can set LSB to turn 'teh' into 'the', and 'htat' into 'that'.
• You can edit your story externally in another program like MS Word. Choose to do so from the main File menu. LSB automatically saves the document you were working on and opens it in Microsoft Word (or whichever secondary word processor you have).
• Download the freeware Irfanview to edit or resize your images for LSB.
• Download WordWeb (also free) and integrate its dictionary so you can right-click any word to access its definition with a full thesaurus and dictionary. WordWeb is also quite useful on its own, as you can, for instance, right-click any word on an Internet page and see definitions, synonyms, and so forth.
• There's a tool to record the revisions you and your critique partner have made on each other's documents -- Revision Marking.
• The Typewriter tool is for Notepad lovers. It mimics Notepad's full screen display to block out distractions. Eventually though you'll give in and customize. Don't knock distractions. They can lead to ideas.
• The Word Count monitor automatically sits at the bottom of every document file. The Timer begins as soon as the window opens. Right-click the Timer to pause it. Double-click it to change your goals or to check your statistics and see how much you've accomplished. I love this simple feature.
• When you're ready to print, page numbers are added. You'll have to adjust and edit your headers/footers in Print Preview. This is a little easier in MS Office, as you can format page numbers and headers/footers from the beginning.
• There’s more, but it all just sounds confusing without navigating the program first! A feature I use frequently is “Transfer Files”, which can be found on the main menu under File. This allows me to transfer files such as galleries, outlines, chapters, whatever into another binder. So essentially, if I’m working on a trilogy and I’m keeping all three books in three different binders but I’ve got all my character galleries in book 1, then it’s easy to transfer those galleries from book one to book two or three as well.