Campfire for Authors

 

What can I say about this great app? There are tons of uses for authors. Let’s dive into some big ones.

Character development. Because the app is designed (kinda) for gaming, character development is a key feature. Under the character tab, you can enter info about physical attributes, character traits, and personality traits (not to mention throwing in an image). But you can add more boxes with anything else you want—lists, text boxes, external links, stats, tables. Authors can put in all the minutia we know about our characters and have it ready for reference instantly. With the mobile app, you can edit on the go. Realize your female lead is tending toward no-binary? Make a note on her character page! Find a snap of a super skinny actor and need his image for your hero? Add the link to his character page. It’s easy and convenient to have all this one spot.

So, yes, basically a story bible, but wait, there’s more.

You can do the same thing with the setting. Insert links, an overview, images, and more. Again, you can add any other lists, data, tables, stats, or attributes needed for all setting locations. I had two chief places in my last book, and I tried to keep them different. Stats on each one with images to remind me were so helpful!

Did I mention the map module? If you are writing high fantasy or an adventure, why not create a map through this mod and follow your characters over every hill and dale? Plus, if the map is awesome, you can insert it into the finished product. Everyone loves a map in a book.

I haven’t played with the timeline feature much yet, but, man, it looks much easier than Aeon Timeline. Here’s a spot to ensure you’ve lined up your book events and kept everything smooth. You can even break down the timeline into the main plot and subplots.

For a series, there is a great feature called Relationships. Here you can highlight the connections between characters as the series goes on. Perhaps you want to redeem that villain from Book One. You can follow the flow of your characters and how they interact through this feature.

Now I know all you pantsers out there are calling me out. Yes, this is an app for planners. But is it really? Add the information before you write or after to keep track of the details. You don’t have to plan the whole thing ahead of time. Sum up after. That way, writing Book Two isn’t spent going back over Book One to find the tavern’s name or a side character’s hairstyle. You can put it all in here and keep track.

Last, you can write your book, campaign, article, short story right here in Campfire. You have everything you need all in one place until you are ready to pub/submit/post.

Campfire has something for every writer, well, fiction writer.

Go, enjoy!

Thanks again to Tib Roe for their great How-To post!

 

How To Use Campfire

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Campfire

 

Once again, I’m lucky to have a guest blogger for our How-To post. This time Tib Roe will be joining me to tell us how to Campfire.

Campfire is a project-manager program for writers, gamers, and everyone in between. The app is designed to create and organize information about novels, shorts, nonfiction, campaigns, series, or whatever creative undertaking you begin.

Campfire provides an organized workspace to plan your project. Lists of story elements are available immediately to help push a writer or Dungeon Master to generate characters, maps, plot points, and more. In simple terms, Campfire is a story bible creator (and such a good one).

The app allows users to connect to outside material and import websites and photos as needed. It also has a learning center with articles, videos, and lessons for writers. Through your profile, you can link to social media. (I didn’t add much info for my basic account, and it gave me a handle @red_porpoise and a screen name SwiftWolf. Huh.)

Campfire has a free version that limits use. The app applies a different sales model than most I’ve reviewed so far. Instead of PRO levels, Campfire uses modules to upgrade the sections of the program, like maps, characters, etc. It’s a flexible system but keep on your toes about the money spent! All modules can be monthly, yearly, or lifetime. Here’s a link to the price guidelines.

The app is currently available for both PC and iOS. I’m on the new desktop version, and all the bells and whistles are wonderful.