Quick update from the last post, because part of building this in public is showing you the parts that didn’t go the way I expected.
I opened Novelcrafter, ready to dive in, and got hit with what a lot of first-time users hit: the interface has a lot going on. Codex over here, planning over there, scenes, beats, chapters, outline views. It’s powerful, which also means it’s not the kind of tool you sit down at and start typing into cold. So I did what you’re supposed to do. Watched some tutorials, poked around, clicked things to see what they did. After a bit of that I felt oriented enough to start.
Then I didn’t start. At least not in Novelcrafter.
The dictation detour
I knew going in that I did not want to sit and type this whole thing. I’d heard people talk about Whisper Flow for dictation and figured that was worth a shot. So I grabbed it and got it running.
Here’s the thing though. The technical side worked perfectly. I could have dictated straight into Novelcrafter, no problem. But it didn’t sit right. I’d get into a scene box or an outline field and my brain would freeze up. I was trying to talk in the shape of the tool before I had anything to actually put in it.
That was on me, not the tool. I was walking in unorganized, and Novelcrafter is built for people who have something to organize.
So I backed up. I used the notes app on my Samsung tablet, super basic native app, nothing fancy. I started dictating on my morning walks instead.
Quick logistics because I know someone will ask: I do a 1.5 mile walk every weekday (nearly), about 25 minutes on the treadmill. Indoor, which matters, because I am not out on the sidewalk narrating a fictional world at seven in the morning like the neighborhood weirdo. Just me, the treadmill, and the tablet. Six walks in, I had a document.
What that document actually was
Let me be honest about what I had at the end of those two week. It was a wall of text. A total word-vomit of everything in my head about this book. Not organized, not chaptered, just thought following thought following thought.
And that was exactly what I needed.
Here’s where I show my age. I printed the whole thing out, double-sided, sat down with a pencil, and went through it by hand. Marked chapter breaks. Circled details that mattered. Made notes in the margins about what belonged where. I know I could have done all of that on screen. I don’t care. Something about a pencil and paper made my brain sort the pile in a way scrolling never does. If that works for you too, don’t apologize for it.
By the time I was done with the pencil pass, I had structure. Real structure. Chapter flows I could see.
Then Novelcrafter clicked
Now I opened Novelcrafter, and the whole tool made sense.
The chapter flows I’d marked up on paper dropped straight into the plan and outline views. The details I’d circled went into the Codex. Every chapter got a start, an end, and a general idea of what happens in it. In one sitting I went from a marked-up printout to eleven chapters defined and ready to grow, with a target of about fifteen total once the back third comes together.
And here’s the kicker on the dictation piece. Now that the structure exists, dictating directly into Novelcrafter works great. I can pull up a specific chapter, see where it is and where it’s lacking, and talk right into that chapter’s notes. Whisper Flow into a scene box was frustrating a week ago. This week it’s the fastest way to work. Same tools, completely different experience, because now I know what I’m putting where.
Still on the $4 Scribe plan too. No AI at all. Just my ideas, my research from the books I’ve got on the shelf, and the tool doing what the tool does. I’ll get to the AI tier eventually, but I want to feel this base layer first.
What I actually learned
If I’d stopped and forced myself to write inside Novelcrafter’s structure from day one, I would have quit by day three. The tool wasn’t the problem. My unorganized brain was the problem and no writing app, no matter how well-designed, is going to organize thoughts you haven’t gotten out of your head yet.
So the real lesson, and this is the one I want you to take from this post if you take anything:
Get the thoughts out first. Shape them second.
A blank notes app and a walk. A voice memo. A legal pad. Whatever gets the raw material into the world where you can look at it. Then, and only then, bring it into the tool that’s built to organize it. Trying to do both steps at once inside the same interface is what makes new writers feel like they’re broken. They’re not broken. They’re just skipping a step. At least I was skipping a step.
Novelcrafter is a fantastic place to shape a book. It is not the right place to figure out what your book is. Those are two different jobs and they want two different tools.
Where I go from here
Next update will be somewhere around the fifteen-chapter mark, once I’ve got the whole shape of it drafted. At some point I’ll jump to the $8 tier and connect a model, and I’ll write about what that actually adds versus what I’m doing now. I want a real before-and-after on that, not a hype post.
If you’re staring at Novelcrafter feeling overwhelmed, or staring at any writing tool feeling overwhelmed, try the detour. Get messy somewhere else first. The tool will still be there when you’re ready for it.
Christopher Randall, building The Waypoint Press in public.
