Please welcome Tib Roe, our guest blogger for Campfire. They are a long-time user of the site and completely rewrote this post when the app updated. I'm eternally grateful for their help!
Campfire Writing is currently available for PC and Mac with a mobile app coming later in 2022.
Getting Started:
Create a free account on campfirewriting.com. You can later go ahead and purchase what modules work best for you with a monthly, yearly, or lifetime subscription. The free account allows you to test out all the available modules in a limited capacity (i.e. 25,000 words in the manuscript module, 1 magic system, 5 different species, etc.). The best part is you can buy what works for you and your projects; you don’t have to buy the whole kit and caboodle if you don’t want to.
Starting a new project:
From the Home page, click on the Write tab at the top of the page. This will bring you to your Write page. This is where you can find all your projects in one spot. Click on the New Project tab and your new writing adventure will begin and your project home page will open. You will notice right off the bat that there are some premade tiles on your project home page and they will come in handy once you start working on your project.
On the left side of your project home page is a list of every module available to you. If that seems overwhelming to look at, you can click on the icon that looks like a funnel just under your project title and filter out what you want to see to make it more manageable. At the bottom of this list you will see four tabs: Help, List, Details, and Share. The Help tab brings up a brief description of what you can do in each module and if that isn’t helpful enough, you can click on the Learn More button to bring you to a more detailed tutorial. Some tutorials also have a video that will show you step by step how the module works and the Campfire team is working to update the modules that don’t have video tutorials yet. The List tab is a list of the modules and each module will have a drop down list of everything you have added to your project in each category. The Details tab has a spot to add a photo and an extra description of what you have in each module as well as settings, templates, and a spot to change your theme. The Share tab is where you can export part of your project, create a link to share with a friend or contributor/editor, or add them to the project for comments and suggestions.
Everything you add to your project will link together as you go. Locations on a map will link to the Location descriptions in the Locations module. Character profiles will link in the Timeline and Arcs modules. Best of all, everything with a name will link to the manuscript. When you type a character’s name (it has to be how you’ve written it in your character’s profile otherwise the link doesn’t work), the name will become highlighted and if you click on it, the character’s profile will pop up on the right side of the manuscript with all of their information. No more moving scar placement or constantly changing hair color! This will also happen with the other modules as well.
Customization Galore:
Everything in Campfire Write is super customizable from the tiles in every module to even the color theme to each project. You can add tiles to any module by clicking on the three lines at the bottom right corner of the screen and clicking on the plus button and you can delete a tile you don’t want anymore by clicking on the three dots on the top right of each tile. You can drag and drop each tile to make your space as easy to use and as accessible as possible.
Campfire Learn:
Campfire Learn is a new addition to the Campfire Write website. It is where you can find all the tutorials for the modules in the Write tab, video essays and articles on writing craft, any updates posted on what’s new for the site, articles on world-building, and much more.
Campfire Explore:
Campfire Explore is where Campfire Write users can publish their works for other users to read, much like sites like Wattpad. Users can show however much or little they want of their project. If you want to publish your project to Explore, hover your cursor over the Explore tab and a hidden list will drop down. All you have to do is click on My Projects, and it will bring you to a page that will help you get your work out there for others to read.
Desktop App:
Campfire Write recently launched a desktop app so you can work offline if you want. It’s free to download and will link up with your Campfire Write account after you log in. It’s generally the same layout as the website, but has the capability of working offline. The trick to that is you have to remember to sync your work once you get back online and before you close the app, otherwise your work won’t be saved.
Everything else:
The Campfire team is constantly working to make improvements to the Campfire Write website and now the desktop app, as well as getting the mobile app ready for public use. They are quick to respond and are ready to help with any trouble you might have using their product. They are also very active on their various social media and Discord server and are always asking users for suggestions on making the program as best as it can be.
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