Liquid Story Binder XE (LSBXE) is a fine piece of software for writers. It allows you to organize your thoughts and notes, helps you create your story whether an instructional manual or novel, and then compile it all when you’re done.

Recently, I’ve shifted gears. After finishing about 98% of my novel, I’m taking a breather so I can let my mind recuperate. During that time, I’m focused more on writing short stories and I’ve discovered one great feature of LSBXE that helps me churn them out: Builders.

Before we delve into Builders, we must go back a little and review how I organize my work. (The need for this slight deviation should become clear as we progress.)

1: The Setup

LSBXE allows you to create Books. I’ve created a Book aptly titled ‘Short Stories’. This allows me to keep my short story writing separate from any items I happen to be working on.

If you’re already lost, I recommend reading the following tutorials before continuing: Library Tutorial and How to Create a Planner or read my previous tutorial How to Use LSBXE for Your NaNoWriMo Novel which covers the basics.

2: The Organizing

Once upon a time, I created a new Planner for each short story, but I’ve revised this thinking. Instead, I now see my short stories as part of an anthology. Thus, I create an umbrella Planner for each body of stories.

For example ‘Fantasy’. All my fantasy short stories will go in that Planner.

My only exception now is when I’m certain I’m planning an entire series of short stories with the same characters.

Then, for each new story I plan to write, I create a new Planner Item. This is simple enough to do by selecting “Create -> New Item” from the Planner window.

3: The Building

With my Short Stories book and my anthological Planner, it’s time to start building each story.

Builders are very much like Planners on a smaller scale, for fine tuning scenes within chapters. At least, that’s how I see them.

Using one of my recent short stories, I created the new Planner Item and named it after my short story: For the Sake of Love. Then, from the Planner window, I selected “Create -> New Builder“.

When the Builder opened, I was then able to separate the overall story into four parts. (I asked myself, what’s happening in this story and where does it happen? From my answer, I realized there were going to be four scenes.)

I was then able to write the story in its individual parts: Bus Ride, Arrival, Beach, and Suicide. When each of the scenes were complete, I allowed LSBXE to compile them into the whole story for me (as a Chapter in the Planner). That was accomplished by selecting “Builder -> Build All Items“.

Of course, some stories don’t need a Builder because they happen in one area and this is only one use for the Builder. You can use them to help you build the more involved chapters of your novel. But I hope I helped to get the creative cogs turning in your mind.