I’m currently writing a wild insane novel, I’m surprised I didn’t quit halfway through, has anyone tried to write a novel, or at least a story in LibreOffice?
TL;DR: Don’t forget to be awesome
Several people asked here, so your answer is : Yes.
Yes, but worse, I’m making/made a TTRPG book with custom layouts.
I use Writer for work, which is editing and writing my own academic papers. For that it works quite well, even faster than the alternatives in some cases.
When you start editing and formatting is when the headache sets in. I’m not sure what it is, but the software starts getting strange glitches once the document gets large enough, specifically with custom layouts, tables and images. You really need to wrestle it to do what you want. It gets better once you gain a bit of experience with it, but not by much.
The issue is that most people that use Writer are those that use it for their 9/5 jobs, which is fine, but design and formatting issues get little coverage unless you ask directly.
Or one could press “more” at LibreOffice.org GetHelp->documentation to find “Designing with LibreOffice” as a first step…
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The single feature(s) I’m missing is not on writing, but on direct export to some professional print-services: Support for PDF/X together with cmyk-colour separation, wich would need colour profiles first.
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Another point would be a baseline-grid for pages side-by-side, but it may even be implemented, without me noticing, as I’m not using Writer now for publishing.
https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation-ii/
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Maybe what was called Register True in previous versions but is now page line spacing? Printing with Page line-spacing (register-true)
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Probably because you don’t use styles extensively. M$ Word conditioned us into thinking that only paragraph styles existed and made us direct format all the rest. Character, page, frame and list styles are here to cover the rest. When a document is fully consistently styled, i.e. with focus on semantics, not on appearance, you can dramatically change the look (e.g. from stern academic paper to flashy comic-book genre) only by playing with the styles, not needing any retroaction on text contents. I already did it, it’s real fun and very quick.
But if you want to create a desktop-oriented (DTP) document where pages are of primary importance (text is not necessarily flowing from one page to the next because contents must be constrained to page), Writer is not the right tool.
PS: what is a 9/5 job?
Colloquial term for a job working regular office hours, e.g. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Yes…not a novel but a nonfiction. Suggestion, After you finish your manuscript be careful of any corrections that you make, especially if they change formatting or styles. MAKE A BACKUP! Although my book is published without issues, my main working file (the manuscript) now has index issues that I am trying to untangle!
What do you mean?
Text corrections target contents. With a properly styled document, everything is automatically reflown according to your layout implemented in your styles. Formatting must not be a problem.
If you play with styles, e.g. to tune formatting and layout, this should have again no retroaction on contents because styling goal is to separate contents from look. Playing with styles is indeed intended to change formatting and layout. But, once again, with properly configured styles, mainly in their Text Flow properties, this should be no problem.
Direct formatting (DF) will prevent you from benefiting from this separation because every instance of DF is unique. Consequently, every instance must be handled separately and manually.
Be aware that something as innocuous as vertically spacing with empty paragraph is direct formatting and is the major cause of unexpected page flush or breaks.
I helped Guy Rolands to tidy up his Boring but Essential Writer cookbook. It is not THE ulimate book about Writer but an excellent primer. It covers more than novel or non-fiction and leaves aside more specialised aspects. It targets authors and does not require to be versed in computer usage. It is pragmatic and, from this point of view, very useful for people not inclined to invest in knowing all technical details in Writer.
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What I was meaning was that if someone (such as myself) is not fully familiar with LO and how to use styles and other functions they can easily mess up their document, and this can be done so simple if a person is unaware of what they are exactly doing…as I have done.
I will checkout Mr. Rolands book. I want to learn the technical aspects of Writer. It is frustrating when issues happen and I can not seem to fix them. This really take time away from other tasks. They styles that you helped me with a couple years ago made a huge difference while writing my book.
Yes, that’s it.
I do use styles extensively. Although, admittedly, I learned a lot of it through trial and error.
My issue was with images and the way they would interact with pages that have several columns of text. It’s possible, but I encountered a fair few glitches where the position would shift ever so slightly when I opened the document. Mind you, I did most of my work on the old version of Writer, the latest update that rolled around fixed a lot of it.
The stability of image position is one of the most crucial issues in sophisticated documents. This is a difficult problem because we’re tempted to fix it with the mouse (manual positioning). This creates an insidious form of direct formatting which is hard to detect and harder to remove.
Images should be handled with frame styles EXCLUSIVELY. Unfortunately, frames react immediately to any, even seemingly innocuous, direct formatting. And frame styles are reluctant to being mastered and tamed. The only way is to experiment with many use cases. I know of no other method than trial and error because documentation is not detailed enough about frame styles. I wrote memos for my personal use but even with my experience I still meet difficulties.
A key factor is the chose of the “right” anchor mode. As a general rule, don’t choose To page. This is a common mistake of confusing anchor with position. To page is intended for desktop publishing-oriented (DTP) jobs (where pages have an objective signification). Having several columns of text is not a problem (provided these columns are not created with a table or multiple frames).
real world involvement is welcome 
https://community.documentfoundation.org/t/draw-guide-24-2/11974/47
I have written an published seven complete novels in Libreoffice and in my opinion it is far superior to using MS Word. I have also published a book on how to best use Libreoffice to take advantage of its many usefull features, called Boring but Essential a handbook for authors.
https://guyrolands.com/?page_id=223
That’s nice, no really, I never expected someone who published seven complete novels in this thread.
Addition: My novel’s complicated
TLD;R: e
TL;DR: Yes
Long answer: Your main difficulty is probably you’re new to Writer. Writer allows to separate formatting from contents. As an author, your certainly prefer to focus on contents and don’t want to be bothered with formatting.
You must understand and accept the Writer workflow model: styles.
Styles are a kind of semantic markup of your text where you tell Writer the significance nature of your typographical objects, paragraph, words and pages. Since you’re writing a novel, I’ll let aside frames (for images) and lists.
In a novel, I see 4 main kinds of paragraphs: title (on the cover page), headings (of chapters, sub-chapters, …), narrative and dialogues. These will be “instantiated” as paragraph styles. I suggest you stick first with the built-in ones: Title, Heading n family, Body Text and some “Dialogue” style to create. You can also use First Line Indent instead of Body Text, or Hanging Indent for dialogues.
Some of your words may translate mood of characters or some semantic nuance. Use character styles for this. The most frequent styles are Emphasis and Strong Emphasis. But if you have other semantic values, you can create ad hoc styles.
And your pages may have some specific “geometry”: the cover page, TOC and running contents. Page styles are your friends. Built-in First Page is intended for the cover page and Default Page Style for the main narrative. Create an ad hoc style for the table of contents (TOC). Usually it is numbered separately from the narrative.
Don’t use keyboard shortcuts for bold, italic, … This is called direct formatting and will always play nasty tricks on your back.
Also when creating styles, don’t name them “Left large margin with red text”. This is not a “semantic” name but a visual effect description. What does this name mean if your formatting changes for green and right margin? A better name could be “Important Caveat”.
While you write your novel, configure the styles just enough to clearly see they are different. When you’re done, tune your styles for the desired look. If you applied absolutely no direct formatting, your text won’t need any revision. The magic of styles will operate and this will be very comfortable for you.
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