Write a story in five days

Today you'll make a book of your own, learn your way around, and write your first scene.

Follow along

1. Open a terminal: Terminal on a Mac, Windows Terminal on Windows, or any terminal on Linux.
2. Make your book. Type this and press Enter (if you share a computer, add your name, like my-story-sam):

   grimoire new ~/Documents/my-story

   On Windows, type grimoire new $HOME\Documents\my-story instead.
3. Open it with the command Grimoire shows you, like grimoire ~/Documents/my-story.
4. Your book opens on a page called Novel Format. Read it: it explains how your book is laid out.
5. Press Tab to move between the panes. Press Esc to open the menu, and Esc again to close it.
6. In the outline, use ↑ ↓ to move and Enter to open Part One › Chapter One › Scene One.
7. Press Tab to move to the page, and start writing.
8. Stop typing for a moment and watch the bottom of the screen: saved. You never have to save.
9. Press Ctrl-Q to quit, then open your book again. You're right where you left off.

Freewrite 10 minutes

In Scene One, write without stopping: someone finds a door that shouldn't be open. Who are they? What's on the other side? Don't fix anything yet.

Scavenger hunt

• Find Quit Grimoire at the bottom of the menu (Esc).
• Open the help with F1 and read one topic.
• Press Ctrl-K, type theme, and see what it finds.
• Find the Trash at the bottom of the outline.
• Pick a theme you like with F9: ↑ ↓ to preview, Enter to keep.

Look back

Exit ticket

Today you'll plan your story in three movements and shape your outline to match it.

Shape your outline

1. Your book starts with three parts. A short story needs one. In the outline, select Part Two, press d, then y. It goes to the Trash. Do the same for Part Three.
2. Changed your mind? Ctrl-Z in the outline brings back whatever you deleted.
3. Your three movements live in Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three. To give one a name, select it and press r. Empty chapters can stay: they're left out of your finished story.
4. Press Ctrl-Q. Open your book's folder and open novel.toml in a plain text editor. Change the title, and set target_words and daily_target to the numbers your teacher gives you. Save, then open Grimoire again.

Fill in the corkboard

1. In the outline, press b. Every scene is a card.
2. On each card, press e and write one sentence about what happens. Press Enter to keep it.
3. Press v to say whose eyes we're behind in that scene (the point of view).
4. Press s until the status says outline.
5. Plan two or three scenes per chapter. Need another? In the outline, select a chapter and press n.
6. Esc or b closes the board.

Look back

Exit ticket

Today you'll write fast. A first draft is allowed to be messy. That's what it's for.

Follow along

1. Open your first scene.
2. Press Esc and choose Start a sprint…. Type your word goal, press Tab, type the minutes, and press Enter.
3. Press Ctrl-D for focus mode: just your words. Ctrl-D again brings everything back.
4. Don't know a detail? Type TK and keep going: she caught the TK train north.
5. Want to remember something? Put it between two pairs of percent signs: %% check the date %%. Notes never reach your story and don't count as words.
6. Watch the sun cross the sky in the Pomodoro, and the sprint count in the status bar.
7. When you finish a scene, open the next one in the outline and keep going.
8. At the end, press Ctrl-T to see every note and TK you left.

Sprint log

Stuck? Borrow a sentence

• Then the phone rang.
• Nobody noticed that the clock had stopped.
• "You weren't supposed to see that," she said.
• The worst possible thing happened next.
• It was the smell that gave it away.

Look back

Exit ticket

Today you'll finish your draft, then make it better: clear your notes, fix spelling and names, and listen to a partner.

Follow along

1. Finish your draft. An ending with a TK or two still counts.
2. Press Ctrl-T and go through every note and TK. Fill in each TK, and fix or delete each note.
3. Spelling: click an underlined word for suggestions, or press F8. For a made-up name, choose Always ignore: this book.
4. Your main character: in the outline, find Characters, press n and name the note after them. Now their name lights up in your story. Put the cursor on it and press Ctrl-O to see every scene they're in.
5. Press Ctrl-K, type names, and choose Check names for near-miss spellings.
6. Press Ctrl-K, type echo, and turn on echo words. Words you've repeated too close together light up. Change a few.
7. Swap seats with your partner. Read one of their scenes and leave notes inside it, with your name: %% Sam: I love this line %%. Notes never reach their story.
8. Back at your seat, Ctrl-T finds your partner's notes.
9. In the outline, press H on a scene to see how it changed. Then on the corkboard (b), press s to mark finished scenes revised.

Revision checklist

• My story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
• My main character wants something, and something gets in the way.
• Something changes by the end.
• No TKs are left.
• My notes are dealt with.
• Names are spelled the same everywhere.
• I changed at least three echo words.
• I read my partner's notes and used at least one.

Partner notes

Exit ticket

Today your story becomes a real manuscript, formatted the way editors expect. Then you read like a reader, and look back on your week.

Follow along

1. Last check: Ctrl-T should show nothing left to do. Look at your word count in the status bar.
2. Press Esc, choose Settings…, then Author details…. Type the name you want on your story. ↑ ↓ move between the boxes, and Esc saves.
3. Keep it private: leave your home address and phone number blank. Your name and class are plenty.
4. Press Esc and choose Export…. Make sure Word manuscript is ticked (Space ticks and unticks), and PDF too if your teacher says so.
5. Press x to export. If Grimoire lists TKs you missed, fill them in, or export again to go ahead.
6. Open your book's folder, then exports. There's your manuscript.
7. Open it and find: the title page with your word count, your name and title at the top of each page, a # between scenes, and END.

Read like a reader

Swap manuscripts with a partner and read theirs start to finish.

Before you celebrate

• My author details are filled in (name only, nothing private).
• I exported a Word manuscript.
• I opened it and checked the title page.
• A partner read it.
• I picked a theme to celebrate (F9).

Look back on your week