Getting Started with Liquid Story Binder
The post below was originally written in December 2010. I *loved* Liquid Story Binder. But sadly, the developers made the difficult decision to no longer develop it.
I’ve switched to using World Anvil now, but I still host the support Wiki for LSB here. There is some great information there.
For those looking for an alternative to Liquid Story Binder, check out my posts on World Anvil.
I’m also teaching classes on how to write a novel – and build a website – using World Anvil!
Wow. A lot of my friends bought Liquid Story Binder during November! Thank you! One brave soul asked if I would consider posting the notes from my talk in Seattle, and that got me thinking.
You’ve got your bright shiny new software. You’ve heard that this is the key to real productivity as a writer! So you open the software and you are confronted with either a demo book or a lovely, intimidating blank screen.
Wait? Where is the time-line like you saw on the website? Where are the visual cues? The Planners? The manuscripts?
Well, the problem is…you haven’t written the story, yet.
Like all writing projects, you have just found yourself confronted with the dreaded blank piece of paper in the typewriter. The cursor is swearing at you, demanding that you do…something.
But where do you start?
I love LSB, because where you start is here: you sit at your desk and you look at your writing goals. Where are you in your project? What are you trying to accomplish? Are you a poet? Do you journal? Are you writing inspirational shorts or epic fantasy?
Who are you, and what do you want to accomplish?
Next question: how do you work? Do you need a quiet, focused environment? Music? Inspirational pictures?
When I was learning to homeschool my children, I realized that each person has a unique learning style. Oh, you can group them into categories, but each person learns in their own way. Each person is most productive working in their own type of environment. I had to study each of my children in order to help them create their own best learning space. With Liquid Story Binder, you’re going to do the same thing.
So — to start: where are you in your project? Are you ready to edit? Just finished Nano? Wrestling the idea that may be the next best thing to Harry Potter? Or are you trapped, staring at a blank screen, desperate for inspiration and horribly disappointed that this software isn’t going to write the novel for you?
Wherever you are, there’s a place to start. Post me a comment on Facebook or Twitter, tweet to the general hashtag of #LSBXE if you want, join the Yahoo group…or even use the contact form or comment on my website. But let’s see where you are and over the next few weeks I’ll give you some help getting going in the right direction.
Before you know it, your work space will be full of all of those fresh, growing words.
