This is OpenManuscript, a text-based data format specification for writing fiction in an organized, hassle-free way that frees you up to be your most creative!
For more information about this specification, contact david@dhrogers.com.
Project tweets at @OpenMSProject
This is a specification for OpenManuscript v1.0, a database for an ASCII text-based workflow for creating manuscripts.
By using OpenManuscript-based workflows, the writer can create a workflow that best supports a personal, intuitive and specific way of crafting novels. Using the OpenManuscript format separates the data from the applications that edit, display or print it, which is a very powerful mechanism for invention. With this format, a writer can use a variety of tools instead of being locked into using a specific one. Software developers can create new tools, and writers can adopt them without any data conversion, or loss of work.
The advantages of the OpenManuscript format are many:
- OpenManuscript is an open standard, and we are developing a community of support around it. Over time, this community will grow to support and include many tools and workflows.
- OpenManuscript invites innovation and expansion, because it is an open standard. Developers across the world are encouraged to add extensions, applications and editors of all types to this community.
- The OpenManuscript standard instantly integrates with any backup system you have. Nothing special is needed to use Dropbox, Google drive, or any other backup system.
- The author can use favorite tools for editing. Any tool written to comply with the OpenManuscript format - even the latest, greatest web-enabled, iphone-capable editor - can be used with this data.
The bigger the community, the better it is for all of us!
As shown in the above diagram, the OpenManuscript format is used by any compliant editing tool in the day to day work, and when it's time to look at a final manuscript, share it as a specific document type (Word, PDF, etc.) or publish it as a final product (ebook, etc.), the writer uses another tool to create that product, which is then used as appropriate.
The vision for this data format is to provide a text-based, flexible way of capturing, organizing and promoting the sometimes chaotic progression of ideas that go into making a novel. The OpenManuscript format is text-based, so it isn't locked behind the firewall of a particular application. Rather, it is a format that can be edited by simple tools, compiled into any format, and returned to again and again over time. Using a text-based standard means the author needn't worry that the format will be unreadable down the road because the software you used outdated, no longer reads that version of the output, or is simply gone.
At the most basic level, a manuscript is a pairing of an author and a sequence of chapters, and this is represented in the basic structure of the OpenManuscript format. The format assumes you'll write lots of scenes, trying them out in different sequences of chapters. It's easy to have different arrangements of different scenes so that you can quickly compare them. Meta data tags throughout the specification capture additional data that can be included to enrich a properly formatted manuscript.
This repository includes a specification document, simple tools, and an example of the file format.
Keep it simple.