Since writing is becoming so much more important to me, more important even than the rhetoric I had applied to it for so many years of not writing, I thought I would start by simply sharing and thanking some of the folk who make some of the tools I use in the writing process.
This will not cover everything. For now just the main reference and software. Later I will include more obscure resources I turn to regularly. I simply wanted to make available my thoughts and some links for others who might be struggling to get started like me and could use some peer advice and a few links to help them on their quest.
Reference
Wikipedia.org
By far my single most visited and used website (besides CoTradeCo ;). Whether it's research for articles at CoTradeCo, my novel, or just answering odd trivia that continually comes up in the personal lives and my friends and I the wiki has the answer or at least a primer on every subject I've had need to look up.
Dictionary.com
This includes their thesaurus which I use frequently. The dictionary is my friend on every level. I value effective AND colorful communications. Apart from simply communicating more effectively and being a better writer, the dictionary and thesaurus are also used professionally to name both the public and internal workings of the various web and multimedia projects we work as [ i ] motion or CoTradeCo. I'm not sure if this would be a favorite resource if I didn't have an adblocker though. When I use these sites on a foriegn computer I am always shocked at how numerous and gaudy the ads are.
RhymeZone
While not as regularly used in my daily writing I am using it more and more, especially as my fiction writing expands. With the ability to find rhymes, synonyms AND related words, words that contain the exact letter, and more it is pretty amazing. I just wish it weren't such an ugly site.
Software
NOTE: The software recommended below is all PC Windows based. While I find this disconcerting as I am currently in the slow process of eliminating Windows from my life, these are nonetheless the best tools that I use regularly for the platform I am on. I hope that equivalents can be found before I make the switch to MAC. We'll see. If not I'll just make do. It took years to find/get this current set of useful software tools into my toolset and I will get by. If you have any MAC software suggestions I would greatly appreciate it, since I am still 6 months to a year out from getting my first MAC workstation I have not started researching yet.
Natara Bonsai
This outlining software is amazing. Simple and straight forward, it allows for rapid brainstorming and manipulation. Each line item can contain it's own notes to allow for hidden depths of information behind each point in the list. Windows only unfortunately. If it weren't for this program I don't think I would have been capable of really starting to attempt my novel with it's complex relationships, plots, and real world historical connections and influence.
I found this program originally as a means of having my notes with me on the go when I was between laptops and determined to somehow use my Palm Pilot to work on my novel. Bonsai is equally functional both on your desktop and on your Palm. Amazing stuff and useful. Since getting my tablet PC the Palm has vanished onto the junk gadget shelf, but I have been considering reviving it's use again for those times now when I just don't want to have a laptop with me. Even with my Pelican laptop case, after an intense ride the other day with the tablet PC strapped to the back, while not concerned about any external damage, it occurred to me that even the internal padding couldn't remove all the insane shocks and jolts I was giving it and maybe bringing that kind of expensive technology on a serious ride isn't the best idea.
Great outlining software for the PC.
Microsoft One Note
For all my badmouthing Microsoft, and Windows in particular I have to say One Note is a superior program and I regret that they have yet to release a version for the MAC.
I have always been fond of notebooks and sketch books. From childish daily scribblings to fiction writing, to developing work projects one of my favorite things to do is plunking down with a notebook at a coffee shop and scratching into a notebook. With my tablet PC and One Note, I get instant digitization of the same activity while satisfying the same basic desire.
The newest version of One Note let's me do anything I would have in a plain paper notebook with the convenience of being able to move the pages around, create sections, and section groups (like folders), and still better, edit without the insane mess of scratching bits out (I prefer a fine point uniball over pencil for notetaking and writing) and recopying things by hand.
And if you have a pen input sketching out simple drawings or layouts is not so different than on paper. The texture problem of writing with a pen on a slick surface with no real resistance is the only drawback detracting from complete satisfaction.
With One Note I get the similar convenience of Bonsai for rapid brainstorming and research. I had attempted originally to quit using Bonsai altogether as I am a sucker for the single perfect tool over many tools when it comes to working with information. Using two program where one could suffice seems madness, but like a real trades person will tell you, use the right tool for the job. And While you can type lists all day in One Note, and using the tabbed sections to organize countless pages of information is a real joy, the devoted outline interface of Bonsai with it's hidden note field for each line item is perfect sometimes.
I attempted to take an outline of hundreds of events in a time line for my novel in Bonsai and recreate it in One Note and it quickly become cumbersome and less effective for quick reference.
So I finally relented and am currently working both into a unfied collection of notes and reference for my novel. I still don't like the idea of saving this information in two places and two formats but it seems the best answer. Without these two programs I don't think I would be capable of even attempting my current project.
YWriter
This is about the ugliest and klunkiest program I could imagine using on a daily basis. I am a big fan of clean and beautified interfaces, and intutive ease of use is generally a requisite. But I'm not such a fashion snob to overlook that the core functionality is more important than the appearance, and in this case even the usage.
YWriter is a freeware project by Simon and his Spacejock Software.
Originally I was going to simply write my novel in Word. But as I've already mentioned I am trying to get away from Microsoft products as much as possible (except One Note which is great). I have since switched to Google Docs. Even still it seemed crazy to me that there wasn't a devoted word processor for the professional writer, and even as specific as the fiction writer.
When I was considering writing screen plays I didn't hesitate to purchase Final Draft. But I searched and searched in the past years and found so few options for writers. I found a few evaluated the free trials, but in the end they seemed ridiculous or bloated. I finally found a two program tool called Power Structure and Power Writer. It seemed I had found the tool of my dreams.
I have never been a power researcher. My notes quickly become a garbled mess. It was easier in school because my topics were more limited by the assignment, but somehow my personal writing projects constantly want to explode and turn into a history of the world. Honing down a complex project to it's most vital elements seemed impossible. Eventually it reached a point where I couldn't readily navigate my notes much less track the story arc and sub plots. Well point in fact this still remains to be seen, but the Power Writer software was like magic.
Power Structure was the ultimate note taker and story planner. Assemble all your notes into a personal encyclopedia, but more than that, you are attaching it to scenes and events in the literature you are creating. Everything is connected by character, setting, scene, chapter, plot. Chart the tension level, the motivations, character scene purpose/goals. It was amazing.
That is until I attempted to start using that structure in Power Writer where you do the actual writing. At first it too was amazing. Now at my fingertips while writing I had the entire backstory of every character, could see what characters were in each scene, important goals that might be forgotton. But this is where the trouble started. First I found a bunch of annoying bugs. Even that I could work around. The real problem is that all of your data is imported from Power Tracker not shared with Power Tracker. You can continue to edit your research and story data in Power Writer, but through a much more limiting interface more designed for viewing the data, but in some cases you couldn't even edit certain things. I didn't discover this limitation until I was far enough in and realized I wanted to go back to Power Structure and make some more seroius revisions. There was no way to send the data I had edited and added in Power Writer back to Power Structure. It was a one way street. Needless to say I was pissed off. To me the very structure of the two programs was ridiculous. Fine that they were two programs for ease of use and maximum functionality but they absolutely needed to work together.
I was so heartbroken. At that time not only did I find what seemed the perfect tool, well thought and executed, but actually seemed like the single toolset I would need to overcome my mental limitiations at pulling together a novel length work.
My problem is I can write (how well is questionable, but I can write). But I tend to digress and become sidetracked easily, killing any hope for a large cohesive work. I understand this limitation and needed a solution.
That was when I found Bonsai. This got me closer than before to organizing my research and story outline. But work and life overtook my writing and it seemed like the novel was gone for the time being. Then when I found some time a year or so ago to start again, I now had the tablet PC and discovered One Note. Now between these two programs I can recreate some of the conveniences that the Power Writer series was giving me.
I had resigned myself to simply using Google Docs as my word processor and that was that. But one day on a whim I thought I would look one more time to find some writer-centric software. That was when I found YWriter.
YWriter is the poor mans version of Power Writer. It is ugly and clumsy. It is lacking many in-depth features that I would like to see in software devoted to writers. However, it offered the perfect basic toolset.
Chapters. Scenes, Character lists and tracking, Location lists and tracking, simple storyboarding, scene index cards, word count total/chapter, track viewpoint, basic goal tracking by scene, time tracking for chronology.
And Simon from Spacejock software continues to add features. So with YWriter and my other research tools I have a more fluid version of what Power Structure/Writer was claiming to give me, but without the expectation of seamless integration. Indeed with the Power series the integration was to me mandatory, because the data is locked into their formats. YWriter doesn't store your prose in it's database, instead using plain RTF files meaning you can write in any word processor whenever you like and return to YWriter for the organization if you like.
And I appreciate flexibility and options.
Final Draft
I am only including this because I think it is a superior tool, despite the fact that I am not working on any projects currently where this would be that useful. Amazing screen writing software. It made whipping out professional "looking" screenplays easy. The only useful thing I used it for however, was writing a script for a play we were producing in the studio (e.g. the garage) at my house.
So now, with renewed vigor and this basic tool set at hand I am slowly diving back into the depths of my novel. I'm giving myself until Halloween for my first deadline to show some serious results. I feel like I need at least a month to rethink and restructure what I had before resuming serious prose writing. That leaves a month and a half to start challenging myself to ascertain where I am at as a writer really, and whether a novel is even with my grasp at this point in my writing career.
I am extremely excited and still feel completely bound and attracted to the purpose, themes, and reasons I wanted to write this novel in the first place. Now the hard work begins. Writing everyday.
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