I’ve started a new project. The aim is to produce commercial software that professional fantasy (and sci-fi) authors will want to use to help them with world design, plot design and note management. Its really geared towards epic series, where the same world is used over several books or several series. I hope/expect that other autors will have used for it but we’ll have to see.
One key point is that I want to target professionals. I dont want it to be a tool for aspiring authors, or to claim that it will convert a bad writer into a good writer. I think there are enough programs peddling that particular brand of snake-oil. I recognise that this probably reduces my immediate target market - but I believe if the product is good then aspiring authors will want to use the same tools that the professionals love to use.
It needs to be something that an author of several books can pick up and go “I wish I’d had this 5 years ago - my life would have been so much easier.”
However as with all indie development - there’s the other side of the coin. It needs to be produced quickly so that I don’t need to go looking for other work. This is a project I want to spend my time on, and any additional distractions beyond the usual day-to-day chaos (like another job) will not leave me with much time to make it happen.
So the question is, “can I do it?” And I think the answer is yes. I’ve got prototype code that does a lot of what I want, and a great many ideas on how to make it better. And I have helped develop good tools for professionals before - CineSync, CineSpace (direct link seems dead) and RoarEngine.
The next quetsion is “what is AuthorsNotebook?”. Thats what the next post will try to answer.