Welcome to the OpenManuscript project, a data format and a set of command line tools that help you write fiction in a way that works with you to be your most creative and efficient in getting words on the page.

I've been writing long enough to want to solve a few long-term problems:

• Years ago I worked on an awesome story idea, but I was using an old Word version, and I can't open the files anymore.

• Let's face it, lots of text editing software wasn't designed with writing fiction manuscripts in mind. It's tough to change things around (like the order of scenes or chapters), tough to compare versions of things, and tough to maintain multiple versions of things.

• If you're a writer, you have a favorite text editor, and you'd like to use that one, even if you're ultimately going to create a docx file. And, hey - maybe you'd like to use different editors. It shouldn't matter ...

Isn't there a simple way to write manuscripts by just editing text files? Why do I have to tie myself to a specific word processor, workflow, or other tool?

So that's where this project came from ...

This is a specification for OpenManuscript, an ASCII text-based workflow for writing fiction, managing drafts, and creating fiction manuscripts.

The OpenManuscript format separates data from the applications that edit, display or print it, which is a very powerful mechanism for invention.

To dig in, just get started with a simple example. Or, take a look a this example workflow if you're interested in that.

The advantages of the OpenManuscript format are many:

• OpenManuscript is an open standard, using only common text-based file formats.
  • Currenly, only JSON and Markdown files are needed. We use Gruber's specification of markdown.
• The author can use favorite tools for editing text, markdown and JSON files.
• The author can build a manuscript from scenes and chapters, in a way that works for that author.
  • The basic unit of writing in OpenManuscript is the scene, so an author can easily compare different chapter/scene orders, combinations and versions with minimal effort. This is a huge advantage over writing workflows based on, for example, Microsoft Word.

As we said before, to dig in, just get started with a simple example. Or, take a look a this example workflow if you're interested in that.

This repository includes:

• The OpenManuscript specification document,
• A command-line based toolset for creating manuscripts,
• An example of an OpenManuscript database
• Instructions for getting started.
• An example workflow that shows how you can use these tools and data specification in a real write-submit-edit workflow.

The best way to get started is to pull this repository, then explore the instructions in the src directory, where there are examples and instructions about a simple toolset.

For more information about these tools, contact david at dhrogers dot com.

OpenManuscript. Keep it simple.

For more information about these tools, contact david at dhrogers dot com.

Project tweets at @OpenMSProject