DunneWrite · Tutorial
Your first story
Create a story from a blank page, add your first characters and places by keyboard, and see every save kept in History.
Available15 min· Beginner· DunneWrite 0.22.0
In this tutorial you'll start a story from nothing, add a few characters and a place, change your mind about one of them, and bring the old version back. No AI key is needed, and nothing here costs anything.
You'll need#
- DunneWrite installed and open. See Installing on Windows.
- A name for your story, and a few characters and places to put in it. Anything will do.
Create the story#
- On the Dashboard, under Welcome to DunneWrite, press Create your first story.
- In Display name, type what you want the story called in the app.
- In Book title, type the name of the work itself. When an AI reads your notes later, it uses this title to judge what is relevant, so make it the real title if you have one.
- Create the story. The left-hand menu fills in, and a Getting started list appears on the Dashboard to show where you've got to.
Add characters by keyboard#
- Open Writer's Room from the left-hand menu.
- Press Ctrl+N. A chooser lists every kind of record you can make, each with a letter.
- Press c for Character. An editor opens with the first field ready for typing.
- Type a name and anything else you know, then press Ctrl+S to save.
- Press Ctrl+N, then Enter. Enter repeats the last kind you made, so this opens another new character. Add two or three this way.
- Press Ctrl+N, then l for Location, and add a place.
Your characters and places appear in the panel down the right-hand side of the Writer's Room. Click one to open it again.
Change your mind, then change it back#
- Open one of your characters and change a field, for example their description. Press Ctrl+S.
- Press History, beside Save. You'll see two saves: the first and the one you just made.
- Select the earlier save and choose Compare with now to see what changed.
- Choose Restore this save. Read the preview of what will be restored, and confirm.
- Open History again. The restore is itself a new save at the top of the list, so the version you restored over is still there too.
What you've learned#
- A story has a display name and a book title, and either can be renamed from the Dashboard.
- Ctrl+N makes any kind of record, Enter repeats the last kind, and Ctrl+S saves.
- Every save is kept in History, and a restore never destroys anything.
Next#
- Open a shared story
- Connect an AI provider, if you want to read existing notes in
- Guide: The Writer's Room
Something unclear or out of date? Open a support ticket.