Veronica Berglyd Olsen
128 lines
5.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
128 lines
5.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_struct:
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***************
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Novel Structure
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***************
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This chapter covers the structure of a novel project.
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There are two different types of documents in a project, :guilabel:`Novel Documents` and
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:guilabel:`Project Notes`. Active novel documents can only live in a :guilabel:`Novel` type root
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folder. You can also move them to :guilabel:`Archive` and :guilabel:`Trash` of course, where they
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become inactive.
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The :guilabel:`Project Tree` can distinguish between the different heading levels of the novel
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documents using coloured icons, and optionally add emphasis on the label, set in
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:guilabel:`Preferences`.
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.. _a_struct_heads:
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Importance of Headings
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======================
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Subfolders under root folders have no impact on the structure of the novel itself. The structure is
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instead dictated by the heading level of the headings within the documents.
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Four levels of headings are supported, signified by the number of hashes (``#``) preceding the
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title. See also the :ref:`a_fmt` section for more details about the markup syntax.
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.. note::
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The heading levels are not only important when generating the manuscript, they are also used by
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the indexer when building the outline tree in the :guilabel:`Outline View` as well as in the
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:guilabel:`Novel Tree`. Each heading also starts a new region where new Tags and References
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can be defined. See :ref:`a_references` for more details.
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The syntax for the four basic heading types, and the two special types, is listed in section
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:ref:`a_fmt_head`. The meaning of the four levels for the structure of your novel is as follows:
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**Heading Level 1: Partition**
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This heading level signifies that the text refers to a top level partition. This is useful when
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you want to split the manuscript up into books, parts, or acts. These headings are not required.
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The novel title itself should use the special heading level ``#!`` covered in :ref:`a_fmt_head`.
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**Heading Level 2: Chapter**
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This heading level signifies a chapter level partition. Each time you want to start a new
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chapter, you must add such a heading. If you choose to split your manuscript up into one
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document per scene, you need a single chapter document with just the heading. You can of course
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also add a synopsis and reference keywords to the chapter document. If you want to open the
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chapter with a quote or other introductory text that isn't part of a scene, this is also where
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you'd put that text.
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**Heading Level 3: Scene**
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This heading level signifies a scene level partition. You must provide a title text, but the
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title text can be replaced with a scene separator or just skipped entirely when you build your
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manuscript.
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**Heading Level 4: Section**
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This heading level signifies a sub-scene level partition, usually called a "section" in the
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documentation and the user interface. These can be useful if you want to change references
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mid-scene, like if you change the point-of-view character. You are free to use sections as you
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wish, and you can filter them out of the final manuscript just like with scene titles.
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Page breaks are automatically added before partition and chapter headings when you build your
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project to a format that supports page breaks. If you want page breaks in other places, you have to
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specify them manually. See :ref:`a_fmt_break`.
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.. tip::
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There are multiple options of how to process novel headings when building the manuscript. For
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instance, chapter numbers can be applied automatically, and so can scene numbers if you want
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them in a draft manuscript. You can also insert point-of-view character names in chapter titles.
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See the :ref:`a_manuscript` page for more details.
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.. _a_struct_heads_title:
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Novel Title and Front Matter
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----------------------------
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It is recommended that you add a document at the very top of each Novel root folder with the novel
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title as the first line. You should modify the level 1 heading format code with an ``!`` in order
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to render it as a document title that is excluded from any automatic Table of Content in a
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manuscript build document, like so:
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.. code-block:: md
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#! My Novel
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>> _by Jane Doe_ <<
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The title is by default centred on the page. You can add more text to the page as you wish, like
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for instance the author's name and details.
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If you want an additional page of text after the title page, starting on a fresh page, you can add
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``[new page]`` on a line by itself, and continue the text after it. This will insert a page break
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before the text. See also :ref:`a_fmt_break`.
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.. _a_struct_heads_unnum:
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Unnumbered Chapter Headings
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---------------------------
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If you use the automatic numbering feature for your chapters, but you want to keep some special
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chapters separate from this, you can add an ``!`` to the level 2 heading formatting code to tell
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the build tool to skip these chapters.
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.. code-block:: md
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##! Unnumbered Chapter Title
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Chapter Text
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There is a separate formatting feature for such chapter titles in the :guilabel:`Manuscript Build`
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tool as well. See the :ref:`a_manuscript` page for more details. When building a document of a
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format that supports page breaks, also unnumbered chapters will have a page break added just like
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for normal chapters.
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.. Note::
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Previously, you could also disable the automatic numbering of a chapter by adding an ``*`` as
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the first character of the chapter title itself. This feature has been dropped in favour of the
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current format in order to keep level 1 and 2 headers consistent. Please update your chapter
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headings if you've used this syntax.
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.. _a_struct_heads_scenes:
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Hard and Soft Scene Breaks
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--------------------------
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