The Novelist · Knowledge Base
Everything you need to get started, organize your stories, and make the most of The Novelist.
Guides for The Novelist v0.1.22
Your first book, the essentials, and Free or Pro.
4 guidesChapters, formatting, manuscript import, and comments.
7 guidesDevelop your characters, places, and story connections.
5 guidesNotes, reference material, media, and other writing.
4 guidesProviders, writing context, memory, and thoughtful review.
4 guidesPreview your book and choose the right export format.
6 guidesFind your library, protect your work, and move safely.
2 guidesWriting progress, Author’s Journey, themes, and language.
2 guidesUnderstand preferences, optional analytics, and your data.
1 guideInstall, update, and activate Pro on your platform.
3 guidesResolve common problems and send a useful bug report.
1 guideExplore connected story elements without rewriting prose.
1 guide40 articles
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Getting Started
The Novelist is a privacy-focused and local-first desktop application built for writers who want to bring their stories to life without distractions or sacrificing control over their work. From writing your first chapter to building entire fictional worlds, The Novelist brings your books, characters, locations, timelines, research, and creative ideas together in one beautifully organized workspace.
Getting Started
Free includes books, chapters, Story Bible, Items, Notes, Research, Media, Reference Library, comments, Book Previewer, DOCX and Markdown exports. You can write and organize a book without buying Pro. Plugins may need enabling even when a feature is Free.
Installation & Updates
Installation is a little different on each operating system. Choose your platform below and follow the steps in order.
Installation & Updates
First create a backup in Settings → Backup & Restore and export a copy to another safe location. Check your installed version in About or the update area in Settings. Save your work before installing an update. You normally keep the same compatible license; do not buy or reissue a key just to update.
Getting Started
Choose your language during first launch and continue Free, or enter your existing Pro token. Create a book with a recognizable title. In Books, open it and use Structure to add a chapter. Click the chapter to write; the editor saves changes automatically. Allow saving to finish before closing or switching your workspace.
Writing Your Novel
Open Books and select the book whose details you want to change. Use its details/edit controls for title, description, book type and other available metadata. Select the cover through the existing image/media controls. Check the book title before saving so that edits apply to the intended book.
Writing Your Novel
In book Structure, add Parts to group chapters, or keep chapters at manuscript root. Use chapter/Part controls to rename and drag to reorder. Drop a chapter onto a Part to place it inside; use the offered root insertion positions to move it outside. Moving structure keeps the chapter identity and text.
Writing Your Novel
Select text and use the editor toolbar for bold, italic, headings, lists, quotes, links and alignment. At smaller widths, some controls move into More. Click an image to use its available size/wrapping controls. The Media Library keeps reusable assets; do not assume an exported image replaces your original.
Writing Your Novel
Open a chapter and use its metadata/goal controls to set a word target or writing stage. A target helps you plan, but does not limit how much you can write. Distinguish the chapter’s stage from a blog post’s status or your entire book’s progress.
Writing Your Novel
Select the relevant manuscript text and use the comment action, then manage comments from the right rail. A comment is distinct from a chapter Note. Undo/Redo apply to editor changes; check the chapter after a change before leaving. Do not use comments as your only backup of important research.
Story Bible
Open Books → Characters, choose the intended book filter and add a Character with the creation dialog. Record a name, role, description, portrait and the other fields you need. Open an existing Character and use the edit controls offered by your installed version. Sparse profiles are fine: you need not fill every field.
Story Bible
Open Books → Locations and choose the correct book. Add a Location with name, type and description; choose a parent when the place belongs inside another place, for example Greece → Athens → Plaka. The supported type/custom label controls allow different scales of fictional places without making a map.
Story Bible
Use Events for story happenings, descriptions, participants and places. Dates are free text; event order is not an automatic chronological calendar. Organizations hold groups and their purpose; Secrets hold concealed story information. Enable the applicable sections in Plugins if they are not visible.
Story Bible
Use Items for meaningful story objects: record identity, description and supported properties, then connect them to relevant entities or writing. Item mentions can open contextual Quick View. Keep book scope specific when two books contain similarly named objects.
Story Bible
In a chapter, type @ and search for an existing supported entity, then select the intended result. Available quick-create actions can add and link a missing entity. Review the book shown in the picker. Linked entities open contextual information, and Book Overview summarizes the book’s story context.
Planning & Research
Use Notes for ideas and supporting writing, and select the correct book/project scope. Chapter Notes stay in the writing right rail; broader Notes also have their normal editor. Open the Notes panel beside a chapter to keep reminders visible without inserting them into the manuscript.
Planning & Research
Use Media Library to collect images, rename them and inspect the larger viewer. Existing image pickers can reuse these assets for book imagery or entity portraits. Check image dimensions and licensing before including artwork in an export; the library is not an online image search.
Planning & Research
Enable the Blog Posts or Newsletter tools in Plugins when you write alongside your novel. Create a post/issue, edit its content and use available status/view controls to organize progress. These tools prepare writing locally; they do not automatically publish to your website or email subscribers.
Exporting & Previewing
Open a book and its Preview controls to inspect Front Matter, manuscript and Back Matter in order. Choose the available print, iPhone, iPad or Kindle reading preset. These presets help inspect readable width and flow; they are not separate export formats or an exact emulator of every device.
Exporting & Previewing
Choose DOCX in the book Export dialog for an editable Word-compatible document. Review headings, images and page breaks in Word or your preferred compatible editor; appearance can vary between applications.
Exporting & Previewing
Choose Markdown for portable text with supported markup. It does not preserve all visual typography; Page Break uses a marker rather than guaranteeing pagination. Check images and any referenced files when moving the export.
Exporting & Previewing
Choose HTML for a browser-readable book. Open the result in Safari/Chrome or another browser and test the table of contents. Browser screen flow differs from Print Preview; print settings and fonts can affect output.
Exporting & Previewing
Choose PDF for a fixed-layout file and review available page settings before exporting. Open the saved PDF and inspect page breaks, margins, alignment and images. It is not automatically certified print-ready or KDP-ready.
Exporting & Previewing
Choose EPUB for a reflowable ebook. Open it in an EPUB reader and test navigation, cover and images; reader font/size preferences change pagination. Kindle is a Preview preset, not a separate export button.
AI Features
Enable the applicable AI plugin, configure a provider in Settings and open Assist or the relevant review tool. Ask a specific question and inspect the scope/provider information. Chapter scope differs from Book context, which uses structure and selected excerpts rather than guaranteeing the entire manuscript. Check the response against your own canon.
AI Features
Install Ollama from https://ollama.com/ and download a model suitable for your computer. Start Ollama, then enable Local AI in Plugins and open AI provider settings. Select the local connection, confirm the usual endpoint http://localhost:11434 and choose an installed model. Test the connection before asking about your writing.
AI Features
In LM Studio, load a compatible model and start its local OpenAI-compatible server. In The Novelist’s provider settings choose LM Studio, verify the endpoint (normally http://localhost:1234), and use the model identifier offered by the server. The local preset does not normally require an API key.
AI Features
Grammar & Clarity is a Pro review tool; inspect suggestions rather than treating them as corrections that must be accepted. AI Manuscript Analysis also requires Pro and a configured generative provider. Review scope and privacy before analysing a chapter/book, and expect selected context rather than an omniscient reading.
Progress & Personalization
Open Stats & Journey with Pro to inspect writing history and Author Journey. Writing-word credit accumulates through the existing writing rules; a chapter word count is not the same as earned XP. Free progress is retained even when the full progress surface is locked.
Progress & Personalization
In Settings → Appearance choose System, Midnight, Daylight, Atlantic or Aegean without Pro. Additional earned themes require both their displayed unlock condition and Pro. Theme selection does not change your writing language. Choose English or Greek through the language setting.
Graph & Connections
Enable Graph View and open it from the left navigation with Pro. It visualizes the existing workspace records and connections, including supported documents, Characters, Locations, Events, Organizations, Secrets, Items and References. It does not infer every narrative relationship or replace your manuscript.
Workspaces & Backups
A workspace is a folder containing your library database and associated files. Books/projects are records inside it; a workspace is not the installed app. Settings lists active/recent workspaces and lets you locate or reconnect a folder. Older installations may use a different location from newer ones.
Workspaces & Backups
In Settings → Backup & Restore create a backup, then use the existing Export backup action to keep an independent copy away from the same disk. Check the file exists. Backups beside the workspace are useful, but do not protect against losing the whole disk. Save active writing before copying files.
Installation & Updates
Buy Pro through the official Gumroad store, then enter the complete issued license token in first-run onboarding or Settings. Do not post it publicly. Settings shows current entitlement and the Check license online action. Early Access keys resolve to Pro; donations do not automatically issue a license.
Settings & Privacy
Open Settings → Privacy to choose usage analytics. They are off by default. Enabling takes effect on the next launch; disabling stops new app-originated events. What is shared explains event categories and SDK metadata. It does not send your writing as analytics.
Troubleshooting
If the app will not open, confirm architecture and official download; note any warning rather than disabling security globally. If books appear missing, check workspace/filter first and preserve all data folders. For AI errors, test the configured service/model; for exports, check entitlement, destination permissions and a small fictional book.
Writing Your Novel
Open the intended book and its manuscript import action. Choose a DOCX or Markdown file, then wait for the structure preview. Review the detected Parts, chapters, front/back pages and warnings before confirming. For example, headings in a document can help identify chapters; poorly structured headings may need cleanup in the original file.
Getting Started
Open Plugins to enable the tools useful to your current workspace. Author & Worldbuilder provides book/story tools; Blog and Newsletter provide posts or issues; Serial Fiction uses series/episode terminology. These are organization choices, not online publishing accounts. Enable the relevant section before assuming an absent sidebar entry means your data is gone.
Planning & Research
Open Library to browse imported documents alongside the available chapters, posts and research groups. Use its Import action or drop a supported .md, .txt, .docx or .pdf file onto the page. Choose a document to inspect the imported text. PDF extraction depends on the source file: scanned page images are not a guarantee of usable text.
Writing Your Novel
Use the top search control to find supported writing and entities in the current workspace. Type a distinctive name, inspect the result type and book, then open the intended result. Local section search and filters narrow that section, while Graph search focuses graph records. None is a web search or an instruction to send your manuscript to AI.
