Open WritingViper
WritingViper is a simple .exe and can work from any directory anywhere on your computer. Put it where you can access it easily. When you open WritingViper and Microsoft 365 Word is not open, you will see a basic app window like this.
Open Microsoft 365 Word
If Microsoft 365 Word is not open yet, you can either open it yourself, or click on the "Connect Word" button in the WritingViper app to have the app open Word for you.
Open Your Manuscripts
Manually open your manuscripts in Word if you do not have them open yet. WritingViper is fairly good at detecting the documents in Word, but if it cannot find the document you want, try clicking on the "Refresh Open Docs" button. For each document it finds, WritingViper will create a tab in the UI for that manuscript. And each manuscript gets its own settings for the beta reader and line editor you choose.
Your Story Details
To help WritingViper (and thus Copilot for Word) understand the type of story you have, and the feedback you desire, click on the button Story Details in the tab for your manuscript. You can revisit Story Details at any time. WritingViper will pop up a separate wizard window with several tabs on it.
Choose your story's main genre, which will then populate the subgenre fields in the second step. You can always click on any of the tabs above, or click on the Next/Back buttons at the bottom of the window to navigate the wizard.
In the third tab, you can select any additional main genres for your work in case your story crosses genres and you need WritingViper (and Copilot for Word) to know.
In the fourth tab, you can select any and all age ranges for your intended audience. If you want your manuscript to reach adults and young adults, for example, then highlight both. The advice that you will receive will try its best to reach both groups.
In the fifth tab, you can select the intended type of reader you want to reach. Want the advice to tell you what a critic would tell you? Another beta reader? A possible agent? Or just a fan of the genre. Click all that apply and WritingViper (and Copilot for Word) will do its best to give you feedback from all of them when possible.
In the sixth tab, you can tell WritingViper which works or entities are very similar to your work. Say that your work is a cross between Fight Club and Pride & Prejudice meet Godzilla. Put these into the fields here. Fight Club in 1, Pride & Prejudice in 2, Godzilla in 3. If you are connected to the Internet while using WritingViper and you fill in a field, leaving the field will have WritingViper check Wikipedia to make sure you get the correct IP. If more than one possible entity is found, another pop up will appear. Select the one that fits what you wanted, and WritingViper will enhance the field to make sure it passes on the correct version to Copilot for Word.
In the seventh tab, WritingViper defaults to a balance between gentle and guiding feedback, to brutally honest and critical feedback. It will point out flaws and try not to hurt anyone's feelings in the process. But you can also change the slider to be more gentle (move it toward 1) or be more critical (move it toward 10). If you get feedback and it's too much in one direction or the other, come back to your story details and change this slider.
In the eighth tab, WritingViper defaults to a balance between time/setting-specific language adherence and modern English language adherence. Do you want your 1730s Frontier Romance story to ensure that the language and such fits that time period and setting, or do you want your story to be a modern day read without any archaic terms and speech? Move the slider toward 1 to make this use more modern English language, and move it toward 10 to make it more time/setting friendly language. If your feedback returns too much toward one or the other, come back to your story details and change this slider.
In the ninth tab, WritingViper defaults to a beta reader approximation balance between someone who is well versed in your genre and subgenre, and someone who is just a casual reader who has never read your genre. If you want the beta reader to point out issues where a casual reader would get confused about terminology, genre tropes or such, move it toward 10. If you want the beta reader to be more like someone who has read nearly everything under the sun in your particular genre, move this slider toward 1. If your feedback returns too much toward one or the other, come back to your story details and change this slider.
In the tenth tab, WritingViper will include up to 1000 characters that you type for Copilot for Word to have a better understanding of your story's setting, including anything about your story you want Copilot for Word to focus on. Is it like Logan's Run in that no one over the age of 30 should be alive? Do you want to make sure that there are no slow beats during action scenes? Put this text in this box.
In the eleventh tab, WritingViper provides a way for you to focus the type of feedback you desire. Do you want it to find where you could use more brevity? Make sure characters are fleshed out properly? Make sure the story is funny? And, as an added function, WritingViper will even tell Copilot for Word that you are not a native speaker of English and you would like notes on any aspects of your writing which may not sound like a native English speaker would use, even if it were grammatically correct. Here, also, you can put in the point-of-view for your story, and your narrator (if told in first-person), so that the line editor can point out where you slip from this point of view.
All of these tabs are optional. If you're done editing your story's details, click "Save". If you want to discard your changes, click "Cancel".
