In the world of writing, organisation is key. And for keeping track of all the essential details of your story, Novelcrafter’s codex is here to save the day.
The codex is a powerful tool that allows you to store and access vital information about your characters, locations, objects, and more.
It is like a treasure trove where you can store all the bits and pieces of information that you have in your head about your story and acts as a central hub for all your essential story elements. From character descriptions to detailed location settings to intricate objects, the Codex has got you covered.
You can find the codex in the left hand menu. If you are mobile, you might only see the codex, and not any other interface - to minimise this, press the symbol of an arrow and line.
Components of a Codex Entry
Entry Type
Organise your codex entries with the following entry types:
Characters
Here, you can create entries for your primary characters or even those one-off individuals who play a small but significant role in your narrative. By keeping track of everyone, you can ensure that your readers won't get confused with multiple characters sharing the same name.
Locations
From rooms or towns, to countries and galaxies, you can include any physical setting that plays a role in your story. This helps you maintain consistency and easily refer back to important locations as your narrative progresses.Objects/Items
Here, you can store information about significant items like King Arthur's sword or magical wands. These objects hold importance and often drive the plot forward, so having them documented in the Codex ensures their seamless integration into your storytelling.Lore
Delve deeper into the world-building aspects of your novel. Whether it's a special magic system, unique species or races, or the intricacies of a religion, this section allows you to explore and document the rich lore that underpins your story.
Subplot
Track your subplot progressions in the matrix view by making codex entries for them. You can then use the progressions/additions feature within the write interface to show the timeline of the subplot.
Other
This is the catch-all section where you can place anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other types. It can include corporations, gangs, clans, or even additional genre information. Get creative and use this entry type to group together elements that don't have a specific type.
Name
The name of the entry. This is the primary name that will organize the entry in your prose. As a tip, fill out their full name (e.g. “Dr. John Smith” instead of just “John” to help define them). By default, codex entries are organised alphabetically.
Tags
For further organisation of your codex, there is the tag functionality. Each section has their own set of pre-set tags (e.g. protagonist/antagonist/secondary character, city/town/continent, or magic/technology/religion), or you can add your own tags (e.g. groupings by family, company). This allows you to organise your entries based on your story's unique elements.
You can use tags to quickly find all entries that have a certain tag. In case you use a tag like their job description (e.g. “CEO of XYZ Corp”), you need to add the information to the description field as well. Otherwise, the AI won’t know what you mean as tags aren’t added to their context.
Aliases/Nicknames
Aliases are alternative names for the entry. These can be just their first name, or a nickname, or even a title. Include any name your character/place/object is known by, so that the AI knows to pick it up.
Please note that if your codex entry is a common noun (for example "Red"), you will end up with every instance of the word, irrespective of capitalisation, highlighted. This currently cannot be changed, so it is worth considering when naming characters.
Description
The description is a place to write any necessary information about the entry that the AI should know about as well. You should be fairly descriptive, while being concise to not overload the AI with too much context.
Guidelines for Descriptions
This is not yet a comprehensive list.
Start simple; cheaper/small context AI models cling to data that you provide. If after a few generations of prose you find that a character's eye colour is always being mentioned, then remove this information and place it in the notes. Likewise, if the way they speak is prominent, add it in.
As a rule of thumb, start out with the smallest codex that gives you what you need, as token counts can quickly add up.
It does not make a huge difference if you write your codex entry as a giant paragraph or under headings, save for your own ease of reading.
Keep additional information in the notes section of the codex. We recommend to also add physical descriptions in here, as the AI likes to pick up things like "green hair" and mentions them every time it can.
Avoid putting spoilers into your codex entry; the AI will use the information it finds in the Codex to enhance its understanding of your story. In the same vein, only include information you actually want including in the prose generated. This might mean you need to change your codex entry as you write. In relation to this, there are additions.
Thumbnails
Visualise your codex entry by adding images as thumbnails. Select the blank icon and your upload menu will appear.
Notes
The codex isn't just for your AI-related content. Use the notes section to include all the additional information that you have brainstormed, but don't want to be considered when generating prose (for example, character appearance if the AI has already mentioned it 20 times).
References
Behind the scenes, Novelcrafter will automatically detect any Codex entries you have created by their name and aliases in your text. Places include scene summaries, notes, snippets, and your prose. Detected entries are usually decorated with a dotted underline.
Once you click on a detected reference, a small preview card pops up to quickly glance at the entry’s details.
Global Entries
When you mark an entry as “global”, the entry’s details will always be included in the AI context. This is helpful for general information you want to be included (e.g. certain linguistic quirks).
To mark an entry as global, select the "Always include this entry in the AI context" checkbox in the "References" tab.
If an entry is global, you will see a small sphere 'globe' figure to the right of the codex entry's name.
Do Not Track
When you mark an entry as “do not track”, the entry’s details will never be looked for in any of your texts. Sometimes it makes sense to combine this with the global option!
Use cases include global entries for story details (e.g. “genre details”).
You can do so by checking the "Don't automatically track this entry by name/alias" checkbox in the "References" tab.
Nested References
These are a grouping feature. Let’s say you have something like “The Council of Five” and want to pull in the character sheets for all five members whenever the council gets mentioned. Or you have two gangs, and want to ensure the AI will always know which family the member belongs to.
You can also use this feature to have a single mention pull in all referenced documents (e.g. “Using World Building” could be a group that pulls in data about the Country, their customs and social structure, dress codes…)
You can view both nested and parents' entries within a codex.
External References
If you are a writer who loves to make huge character bios, or world-building docs, and want to quickly reference them, you can place these in the external references link section. The AI won't pull these links up, but it is often useful to have easy access to your links in one place.
Appearances
Finally, you can track every mention of your codex entry in the appearances tab.
Actions Menu
In the actions menu, you can choose whether to assign a colour to the codex entry, swap the codex entry between the book and series codex (if in the series codex, it is automatically seen within all books in the series), you can delete the thumbnail, or delete the entire codex entry.
