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.
Showing posts with label tools for writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tools for writers. Show all posts
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Tia Nevitt's Tips and Tricks for Your Manuscripts
Tia Nevitt of Tia's Writing Blog has put together some great information to help writers get the most out of Microsoft Word. The principles she's outlined can easily be extended to other word processing tools as well, though you'll need one that supports outlining features to make full use of her suggestions.
This information's great for those of us who want to write our entire manuscripts within single files rather than breaking them into tiny elements the way a lot of the tools for writers expect us to do. The beauty of this approach is that you can define what your final document's going to look like even as you're writing it.
Just go to the blog and look for the links. They're in the upper left corner of the main page.
She covers topics like creating a manuscript template and making use of styles and the document map. She's written the instructions in plain English so you don't need to be a technical type to make sense of them.
Even better, she gives you the information you need in order to tailor the instructions to suit your own preferences.
I use a similar approach to Tia's, though I go back and forth between the Document Map and the Outline views a lot, depending on what I'm doing. It's really easy to move stuff around within the manuscript from the Outline view.
I also take a similar approach for my styles, though I don't name my scenes. Instead, I just separate my scenes with # (since that's the character I want to use in my finished manuscripts to designate scene shifts) and I define an extra style for 'Scene First Paragraph' and apply it to each scene's first paragraph. It's formatted just like other paragraphs in the manuscript, but it's one level up in the document structure so I can see these lines when I look at the Document Map or Outline. It makes for quick scanning to find just the scene you're hunting.
I define an additional style called 'Critical Event', which is at the same level in the structure as 'Scene First Paragraph.' I primarily use this to flag the things I'm going to want to highlight when I go back to write my full synopsis. So my structure, once there's some writing there, looks a lot like this:
Chapter
Scene First Paragraph
Scene Text
Critical Event
Scene Text
Chapter
That structure works for me, but with Tia's help, you can come up with just the right structure for your own work.
Happy writing!
-Originally posted on October October 28, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
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Comments imported from original location:
#1 Tia
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 12:19 am [edit]
Wow; thanks for the link. You have inspired me to continue my series. I’m kind of on the fence about getting Word 2007, but some of my readers already use it and were able to use my instructions anyway.
I also use pound characters to separate scenes. The only reason I name them is so they will appear in the document map. I strip the scene names out when I’m finished with the draft.
I really like your “critical event” idea! And I’ll have to play with using the Outline view. I haven’t used that view since I used to mess around with Master Documents.
#2 Brandilyn Collins
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm [edit]
Dora, thanks for your comment on my blog, Forensics and Faith. I’m glad to hear my own journey to publication story has helped you. Blessings!
~ Brandilyn
This information's great for those of us who want to write our entire manuscripts within single files rather than breaking them into tiny elements the way a lot of the tools for writers expect us to do. The beauty of this approach is that you can define what your final document's going to look like even as you're writing it.
Just go to the blog and look for the links. They're in the upper left corner of the main page.
She covers topics like creating a manuscript template and making use of styles and the document map. She's written the instructions in plain English so you don't need to be a technical type to make sense of them.
Even better, she gives you the information you need in order to tailor the instructions to suit your own preferences.
I use a similar approach to Tia's, though I go back and forth between the Document Map and the Outline views a lot, depending on what I'm doing. It's really easy to move stuff around within the manuscript from the Outline view.
I also take a similar approach for my styles, though I don't name my scenes. Instead, I just separate my scenes with # (since that's the character I want to use in my finished manuscripts to designate scene shifts) and I define an extra style for 'Scene First Paragraph' and apply it to each scene's first paragraph. It's formatted just like other paragraphs in the manuscript, but it's one level up in the document structure so I can see these lines when I look at the Document Map or Outline. It makes for quick scanning to find just the scene you're hunting.
I define an additional style called 'Critical Event', which is at the same level in the structure as 'Scene First Paragraph.' I primarily use this to flag the things I'm going to want to highlight when I go back to write my full synopsis. So my structure, once there's some writing there, looks a lot like this:
Chapter
Scene First Paragraph
Scene Text
Critical Event
Scene Text
Chapter
That structure works for me, but with Tia's help, you can come up with just the right structure for your own work.
Happy writing!
-Originally posted on October October 28, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
-
Comments imported from original location:
#1 Tia
on Oct 30th, 2008 at 12:19 am [edit]
Wow; thanks for the link. You have inspired me to continue my series. I’m kind of on the fence about getting Word 2007, but some of my readers already use it and were able to use my instructions anyway.
I also use pound characters to separate scenes. The only reason I name them is so they will appear in the document map. I strip the scene names out when I’m finished with the draft.
I really like your “critical event” idea! And I’ll have to play with using the Outline view. I haven’t used that view since I used to mess around with Master Documents.
#2 Brandilyn Collins
on Nov 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm [edit]
Dora, thanks for your comment on my blog, Forensics and Faith. I’m glad to hear my own journey to publication story has helped you. Blessings!
~ Brandilyn
Need a Database for Your Characters, Settings, Etc.? Check out Zoho Creator and Zoho DB.
With the free Zoho Creator, setting up a database is as easy as Click & Drag. It literally will take you moments to get up and running.
If you've already got data in Excel spreadsheets, etc., Zoho Creator's easy import functionality will let you add it in seconds.
It's really designed for ease-of-use. Seriously, anybody can do it.
If you get started with Zoho Creator and decide you need a more flexible and robust solution, then you can easily graduate to the free Zoho DB & Reports.
While you're there, check out all the other Zoho offerings at the Zoho Main Page. It might save you from spending money on software to do things you could have done for free with Zoho.
Zoho offers a full line of office capabilities pulled together with one-stop access. And free. Does it get any better than this?
-Originally posted on October 27, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
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Comment imported from original location:
#1 Aravind
on Oct 28th, 2008 at 7:50 am [edit]
Dora : Thanks for writing about Zoho and recommending it to your readers
If you've already got data in Excel spreadsheets, etc., Zoho Creator's easy import functionality will let you add it in seconds.
It's really designed for ease-of-use. Seriously, anybody can do it.
If you get started with Zoho Creator and decide you need a more flexible and robust solution, then you can easily graduate to the free Zoho DB & Reports.
While you're there, check out all the other Zoho offerings at the Zoho Main Page. It might save you from spending money on software to do things you could have done for free with Zoho.
Zoho offers a full line of office capabilities pulled together with one-stop access. And free. Does it get any better than this?
-Originally posted on October 27, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
-
Comment imported from original location:
#1 Aravind
on Oct 28th, 2008 at 7:50 am [edit]
Dora : Thanks for writing about Zoho and recommending it to your readers
KallOut: A Handy Little Search Gadget
KallOut lets you search the web from any web page, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel or Powerpoint) document or Adobe PDF. It's easy to use and extremely helpful. It's free, too!
Basically, when you highlight a word or set of words, KallOut adds a little icon above the highlighting. You click on that and it gives you a menu of available places to search. It comes with a menu of search locations already included but, if you want, you can use KallOut Options to set up your own KallOut and specify the search location you want to add to the menu.
Visit KallOut.com for more details. There's a short product tour that's well worth the time.
Okay, I'm done. Now, go get KallOut!
-Originally posted on October 25, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
Basically, when you highlight a word or set of words, KallOut adds a little icon above the highlighting. You click on that and it gives you a menu of available places to search. It comes with a menu of search locations already included but, if you want, you can use KallOut Options to set up your own KallOut and specify the search location you want to add to the menu.
Visit KallOut.com for more details. There's a short product tour that's well worth the time.
Okay, I'm done. Now, go get KallOut!
-Originally posted on October 25, 2008, at rascaleriter.com.
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