[ggambetta]

Another happy Pandoc user here :)

I built a pipeline to convert a Markdown file to publishing-ready files for ebooks, Kindle and paperback for my novel; the whole thing is described here: http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_open_source.html

My website itself is static, generated from a bunch of Markdown files, some HTML templates, and a bit of postprocessing. But most of the work is done by Pandoc.

[odiroot]

Hey. Can you give us some more context of your novel writing in Markdown? I'd be interested in your process.

[ggambetta]

Sure. The technical side of things is explained here: http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_open_source.html (same link as above). If you're more interested in the creative aspect, I wrote a bit here: http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_swiss_trains.html. If you're interested in anything not covered there, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to share :)

[bravura]

"Soon the structure underlying The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol was laying bare before my eyes. I could see why the stories worked.

I had reverse-engineered Dan Brown."

Could you talk a little more in depth about what Dan Brown's pattern/structure is?

[ggambetta]

I get that request a lot, so I'll have to write something about it :)

All I can offer right now is my raw notes, which are in Spanish. This is a structural analysis of Angels and Demons, The da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol: https://imgur.com/bX6ByJA

This is an one-page treatment of the three books, with the "blanks" filled appropriately for each: https://imgur.com/LlDVUKn

I doubt any of this is groundbreaking. Story structure is a widely studied topic (and one that I find fascinating). But it seems like Dan Brown uses a very well defined, customised version of this, that makes for engaging, fast-paced books.

I sort of proved (for myself, at least) that this works, by writing a novel whose structure was originally based on this pattern (although it later diverged a bit), and which causes the expected effect - a couple of readers have read it in a single sitting :)

[bambax]

Very interesting! Could you maybe provide those links in text form, so that we may run them through Google Translate? ;-)

[ggambetta]

Sure, good idea - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HdlD_tmmm1D0zX1JgXzF...

[ggambetta]

English translation done!

[odiroot]

Thanks for the second link! This is exactly what I meant.

EDIT One more question. How do you write dialogues in MD?

[ggambetta]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question, but there's nothing special about dialogue in MD. Quotation marks, inner thoughts in italics.

  "It's just some text between quotation marks", Gabriel typed. *Have I completely misunderstood his question?*

[odiroot]

No, that's exactly that. Thank you!