Calculate Integer Properties Based on Narrative Position

Feature Requests
#1

Integer properties can already calculate parent values from children, it’d be great if there were an option to do something similar based on where the item is located within the narrative.

For example: I have a set of scenes I place within a folder and each scene has an estimated word count property. If I check off the proposed option, the folder should have a calculated estimated word count based on the scene items within.

The reason I suggest this is because I’m already providing a sort of parent/child relationship within the narrative view. Why should I have to manually do it a second time?

This could also be solved by having an option to tell the program to automatically create/update the parent/child nesting when altering the narrative order. Then the current calculation option would work seamlessly. I can see some people not liking that automation though, so it’d probably need to be optional.

Thanks for your consideration!

1 Like
#2

I can certainly see how useful this feature could be.

I had this automated when I was writing my novel in Obsidian (via a plugin) before ultimately choosing to write with Scrivener/Aeon Timeline.

In my case, I sync Aeon Timeline’s narrative to Scrivener. In Scrivener, I can optionally select all my novels, a novel, a chapter, a scene, or a passage – or any combination thereof – whenever I need a word count.

I’m not sure this is helpful, but I thought I’d share my own solution.

#3

In Scrivener you can click on statistics and then options. On the Draft target (which you can set) is option to only count documents set to be included in Compile.
Hovering over the quick search bar will give you current word count of the compile group (which can be your Novel as you are writing) so with a quick mouse hover you have the current word count of your work in progress.

1 Like
#4

Hi @ThunderKnight,

This was a feature request from me way back in the early days of the Alpha of version 3.0. It was shown as a feature request on the Aeon Timeline website when there was a tracked list of these requests. But there seemed little interest from other users, with few votes on the feature request tracker. Mostly because people just tracked their word counts in their writing software.

I still think this is a necessary feature though. I am using AT3 to outline a book. And the argument that this should be done in writing software but not in the outlining software seems weak to me. I could just as easily outline in my writing software and ditch AT3. But I don’t because it helps me visualise my planned novel. And word counts are part of that plan.

Perhaps it will get implemented at some point in the future.

All the best,

Andrew

#5

No disagreement there. I believe that if an author finds a feature helpful, the request stands on its own, and we should not be eager to second-guess something that a fellow author would find helpful (we are not the developers, after all). I hope I wasn’t inadvertently doing so.

That said, I confess that I do wonder how important it is for AT to automate word count calculations in the manner suggested in the feature request, when the values themselves are untethered from the text of the narrative and must be monitored and manually updated. At least with AT synced to Scrivener, word counts in Scrivener do automatically recalculate upon rearrangement of the story narrative. So I guess what I’m wondering is if all that is needed is to denote a target word count, then why wouldn’t an item type “wordcount” in AT suffice?

#6

Hi Steve,

I certainly wasn’t referring to anyone in this current discussion when I talked about dismissing the importance of including an automated word count. My point was more general .And your question is certainly valid. Why should AT3 automate summing the individual scene word counts (I use a property called word count, set as an integer)?

I would argue it should, because a commercially viable novel should, dependent on genre, conform to a maximum word count, split over a number of scenes of varying length. Some scenes will be shorter, some longer, but on average a scene is usually around 2000 words. At least, in my experience. So part of the outlining and planning process is to assess how many scenes are needed, and of what length. The length of a scene will depend on a whole range of factors. All of which I am using AT3 to map out. So when I am considering the overall fabric of the novel, an idea of planned word count is vital.

On top of the above points, it is important to remember that not all authors use Scrivener. Or Ulysses, in my case. Both keep track of word counts by individual sheets or documents. But some writers use Word and would no doubt benefit from having a road map of expected scene length to guide them.

In short, I just think that word count is equally important as any other element associated with outlining a narrative work of significant length. Firstly, as planned, and secondly in actuality, as part of editing a draft.

Andrew

1 Like
#7

Hey @ThunderKnight thanks for the suggestion.

I’ve chatted with the dev team about this one, and it’s something they’re considering adding to a future release, but they want to make sure that it’s implement it in the right way.

I can’t give you any timeframe on when this might happen, but just wanted to let you know that it’s on the list.

1 Like