There are quite a few software packages designed to help writers deal with their text in the form of blocks. Generally, the idea is to give writers a way to create and use notes on the computer in the same way they could do with notecards and stacks of paper in the real world--only better.
The best I've found for Windows is Mindola Software's SuperNotecard. There's also a version for Mac.
SuperNotecard is packed with features and, at only $29, it's a real bargain. Once you're ready, you can export your work to Rich Text Format (RTF) and then refine it in most any word processing program. If screenwriting's your thing, you can get a SuperNotecard version that exports to Final Draft for $34.
Even if you prefer to do your actual writing using a word processor or screenwriting software, you still might want to use SuperNotecard to help you organize all the related information.
You can get either version as a free trial to find out whether it complements your style. If you download it, be sure to open up the sample project because that will give you a good sense of the kinds of things you could do with it.
SuperNotecard can support both fiction and nonfiction writers with features to capture people/characters, locations, bibliographic references, and more.
With SuperNotecard, you can put your text onto cards and use colors, categories and tags to help you organize them. You can add flags to indicate sections of your work that you want to revisit to clean up, expand, etc. You can stack the cards however you want, even forming piles within piles within piles. SuperNotecard supports a rich outlining framework so you can go several layers deep in your organizing, if you want, but still be able to see the project overview at a glance. From that overview, you can quickly drill down to the details.
The developers wisely steered clear of trying to make the software 'too helpful'. It doesn't try to write your document for you.
What it does do is take care of some of the grunt work that's tedious for humans and can be handled efficiently by machines. For example, if you create a character and give SuperNotecard the keywords that relate to that character, SuperNotecard can automatically give you a clickable list of all the places that character appears within your notes.
If you've ever wished you had an assistant to help you keep all your stuff straight while you're writing, you're really going to appreciate SuperNotecard.
-Originally posted on November 6, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
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Comment imported from original location:
#1 Tia
on Dec 19th, 2008 at 2:18 am [edit]
Hey, I just wanted to let you know I’ve put up another installment of my Word for the Writer series. I know–it’s been a while.
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