Category Archives: Software

Software, StoryBox

StoryBox Will Become Even More Free!

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There’s a new era for StoryBox on the horizon. Surprisingly, it’s something I thought I’d never do, on multiple fronts, yet here we are.

What the hell are you talking about?

I switched to using Linux about two months back. I got fed up with all the crap that Microsoft is shoveling these days – bad updates, shoving ai in places where it doesn’t belong, ads in your operating system that you PAID for, tracking you across the internet, no matter what services and settings you change (yes – this is a new one – search out Windows GDID).

So I switched, and I’m never going back. My experience with Linux, so far, has been pretty much better in every way. It boots faster, apps start up faster, it doesn’t force updates on me, ever (I’ve had my windows machine reboot on me when I’m in the middle of working on something to do an update – no way to stop it).

You might ask, “Why not Apple?” The answer is simple. I don’t want to afford Apple products. They’re not expandable or upgradeable, and they sunset them far too early. I had a Macbook Pro once, that suddenly couldn’t get new OS versions, and it was only four years old. They just decided, “Nope. We want you to shell out more money.” I’m also not a fan of the OS. And have you seen the latest UI changes in the latest version of the OS? Those huge rounded corners are so space wasting and fugly, it’s impressive.

And that is why I chose Linux.

But what in the name of word count does that have to do with StoryBox?

I’ve been asked in the past if there would ever be a Mac version of StoryBox, and I always had to answer with a big “No”. It’s written in C#, and uses a UI library that is not available on the Mac. So, essentially, it was impossible.

Until I decided to switch to Linux, and discovered that the writing app landscape on Linux is in dire need of better software. You *can* get Scrivener working on Linux under Wine (which is this software that can make Windows apps work on Linux – but not all of them), but native options are few and far between, and none of them are what I would call first rate pieces of software.

I’m not talking about office style writing software – the word processor that comes with Libre Office, for instance, works great for general writing tasks, but for writing a novel in the way that StoryBox does? There are apps. They aren’t for me.

So I decided on taking a stab at porting StoryBox to Linux. However, I kind of hate straight porting, and I wanted a challenge, so I decided to not only port it to Linux, but also have versions for Apple and Windows. In addition, I chose to do it the hard way: I switched languages.

One of the things that always bugged me about StoryBox, and it’s C# underpinnings, was how long it would take to open. On my super fast machine (fastest I could get last September before the ram apocalypse ruined everything), it still takes multiple seconds even for the splash screen to show up (at least, on first load). You could also see it chug loading some of the UI, which I always kind of thought was terrible. I don’t want to see those things. It had lots of features, but it didn’t feel as zippy as I’d have liked.

Which led me to this: I’m rebuilding StoryBox in C++. From the ground up. And from the start, it runs on all Windows, Linux, and macOS. The best part? So far, startup is instant. It takes practically no time between clicking the icon to start it and the moment it appears on your screen. It’s amazing. Splash screen to hide the loading? Who needs it? Project loading? It’s near instant. It just feels so responsive in a way that the original never did. I put a million words into a single document (not how I envision anyone using StoryBox, to be honest), started typing, and did not feel any lag to speak of, despite counting the words with every keystroke. At 1.6m words, though, yeah, a little laggy.

This version of StoryBox will be backward compatible with the most recent version of StoryBox 2. All of your old files will open in the new version of StoryBox. If you don’t have the latest version of the older software, you will need to get it, just long enough to open your projects in it. It’s also currently available free on StoryBoxSoftware.com.

You won’t be able to switch a project back, though due to the internal format of the text changing. Previously, it was rtf, but the new editor component doesn’t support rtf, so it will be the version of html that it supports, which, of course, the old StoryBox won’t understand. So, back up your projects if you make the switch.

And now, the most important part of this post. The explanation of the title of this whole thing.

StoryBox, the new StoryBox, will just be called StoryBox.

Wait. That’s not it. What is it?

Oh.

Oh yeah.

StoryBox will be free. Free to use. Free to copy the source and build it yourself. Free and open source, and as liberally licensed as I am able to make it. I don’t think most writers care about the open source part, but, the price? It’ll be priced just right.

Why, though? Why make it free?

I just DON’T want to run it as a business, anymore. I don’t want to deal with having a store front. I don’t want to deal with having to do tech support on a basis where I feel obligated. I never made enough money on StoryBox to support a living. Not even close.

I’m doing this, because I want to see StoryBox out there, and I want to see it used, because I think it’s better than any of the other pieces of novel writing software I’ve tried, even Scrivener.

There’s no date set, yet. But I do have a screenshot:

StoryBox

StoryBox is Now Free

StoryBox started back in 2009 as a “how hard would it be to do this?” kind of project. It didn’t take as long as I thought, but at the same time, it took far longer than I imagined.

StoryBox 2, though, was where it really became the piece of software that I really was kind of proud of. It did a lot of things that other pieces of well known writing software did, but it did some things differently.

I never added as you type spell checking, as I believe it breaks the writing flow. I also limited how flexible the formatting should be, as the app was about writing, not about making things pretty.

I moved the menu/toolbar to the bottom of the screen, for two reasons. The first was to put it close to you when you were on a laptop and were using a touch screen, but also to put it in an area of the screen we’re all used to ignoring.

It failed, though, in other ways. The first of which is that it really kind of failed to gain traction like I hoped. The week I released it, those Scrivener guys announced they were bringing Scrivener to the Windows platform. It was written in C#, which required a download of a .Net runtime for many people, at the time, which also kind of put a damper on things, I suspect. It also made it nearly impossible to port to other platforms due to the UI library I chose to use.

And, so it sat since 2016 without another update. In 2022, I took down the sales page. It still works, and you can still download it, but you could only use it for 45 non-consecutive days, and then it’s over.

Wow, I just did the math. it’s been 10 years since I released an update. Crazy. I DID make some changes that never got released. Things got in the way, new features didn’t get completed, that sort of thing. One of the changes was to the full screen mode. I wanted it to have a faster switch between modes, but I never quite got it to where it wasn’t a little buggy. Usable, but was missing features the previous version had.

So. Why am I going back through all this?

I’ve put a key on the website. You can now download the last version of StoryBox, use that key to register it, and use StoryBox for free, for as long as you want, or until Windows breaks it.

It is just, I hope, a first step. I want to release it as open source, but that UI library I mentioned makes that impossible.

Stay tuned to this space for more information coming later this summer (probably), and I’d love to tell you what it is right now, but this is not the space for that. Not yet.

Until that time, enjoy StoryBox 2 on me!

TrackerBox, Writing

Where I’m At!

Today, I finished up porting over all the importers for TrackerBox Mac. I start on the interface on Monday. There were a lot more of them than I remembered (Amazon KDP has 9 importers all by itself), and a few of them required some very specific support code.

In my afternoons (after busting away at TrackerBox in the mornings), I’ve slowly been working on getting a new novella ready for publication. Making Up Lost Time is the first of what I hope to be multiple stories published this year. I know I’ve teased this shit in the past, over and over, but I really have some hope that I’m coming out of this long slow period. I won’t be spoiling what I’m planning to work on, or how much I hope to get done, but I can assure you, it’ll be more than I got done last year (at least when it comes to writing).

StoryBox, TrackerBox

In-App Problem Reporting Tool May Be Going Away (And Kickstarter News)

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As I write this, there are 72 hours left in the TrackerBox Mac Kickstarter, and it’s just shy of $9500 in total funding. I am continually amazed and humbled at all of your help. Please keep helping spread the word, though. This is the last time you’ll be able to get TrackerBox for $75, and it’s also your only opportunity to get in on the beta for the Mac version.

Now, on to the meat of this post.

I learned today that FogBugz is getting rebranded as something called Manuscript. I also learned that the free tier I’ve been using to have the form in the app you can fill out when you have a problem will be going away. There’s no information about it on their new site, and the pricing doesn’t make sense for me. It’s not expensive, exactly, but as the only user of the system, it doesn’t bring me enough value at that price point.

So I’ll be trying a few other things to see how they work while I wait to get definitive word on whether the solution I already have is actually going away. At the moment, I’m hoping that it sticks around long enough that I can finish TrackerBox Mac before having to tackle the problem directly.

TrackerBox

TrackerBox Mac Kickstarter Reached the Goal

TrackerBox Mac - Track Your Book Sales on OSX -- Kicktraq Mini

 

I pretty much said everything in this update on Kickstarter, but I’ll repeat some of it here:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

There are still nine days to go, and while we reached the goal, the goal was basically the minimum necessary to make the product. Additional funds will help me get some additional features I have planned for BOTH versions done sooner than they would be done, otherwise.

Why else should you back it now?

The discount! $14.99 off the regular price (more if you back the combined package).

Also, Beta! Only Kickstarter backers will have access to beta versions. There may be a pre-order (I have to figure out if this is possible with my shopping cart provider), but it will not be discounted, and there will not be a public beta.

Again, my thanks go out to everyone that’s backed the campaign, or that has told their friends about it, or have posted or shared on social media. It wouldn’t have happened without you!

Grim Repo Files, TrackerBox, Writing

TrackerBox Mac Kickstarter: 15 Days To Go, Writing Challenge, & Patreon

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TrackerBox Mac - Track Your Book Sales on OSX -- Kicktraq Mini

The title says it all, really. This is pretty amazing. Just having a real opportunity to make TrackerBox Mac a reality is something I’ve been working toward for a long time. As a Windows user, myself, I don’t have a good reason to make TrackerBox for Mac, other than the regular inquiries I get, and a desire to be able to tell them, “Yes!” TrackerBox basically makes enough money to cover its costs, and I don’t see that changing, much. It isn’t a big money play for me. It’s about being able to help people, and I know it helps people.

Writing Challenge

I’ve taken on a challenge with a writer friend of mine, Michael Warren Lucas, to write three novels in three months. Writing a novel in a month isn’t exactly something new to me. The vast majority of Shattered was written in a month, and the same is true for a couple other books. The trick will be doing it three times in a row.

I’ll be attempting to write three new Grim Repo books, with the goal of getting them released in the first half of next year. It’ll be fun, it’ll be nerve-wracking, and I can’t wait to see what happens to Grimm and his crew.

You can follow along on twitter by searching the hash-tag #idiotwriterchallenge. If you’re crazy like us, you can join in!

Patreon

In line with the challenge, I’ve started a Patreon page. If you don’t know what Patreon is, it’s a place where you can support me directly for a couple bucks a month, and get some nifty rewards while doing it. Among the rewards, I’m giving patrons early access to drafts, copies of books, access to a monthly Google Hangout Q&A, and other potentially nifty things.

This month, you’ll get my new novella Making Up Lost Time. No, there’s no link, because it’s not available yet! But here’s the cover!

If you like my books, if you like what I’m doing, Patreon is a way you can directly help me do more of it!

Become a Patron!