Planning software?

yamikuronue — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:31:40 -0700

Looking forward, I'd like to begin planning my next novel. I've been having a look at Scrivener and it looks great for planning; the only problem is, my primary computer runs Linux, and my secondary writing solution is a netbook which I doubt meets the minimum requirements. So to that end, what planning solutions do you like to use? Preferably cross-platform or cloud-based; I'm loving Yarny for writing but it offers almost nothing for the outlining and research portion. I don't mind paying if it's reasonably priced (under $50 or so). I'm counting the days until I move into a bigger apartment so I can have my own office and cover a wall in post-its; by the time that happens, though, I'd like to have most of this next novel planned, so unfortunately, that type of solution won't work for the moment.

Re: Planning software?

pointytilly — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:16:00 -0700

I love Tomboy for notes, and with the Table of Contents/HTML export plugins, you can make simple outlines with it. You don't have to export them to HTML, they just look pretty that way. The HTML export will also export the first level of linked notes, so if you had little branchoff notes (describing, say, characters), it'd make them links to copies of those at the bottom of the file. It doesn't export two steps in, though, so if you have a giant sub-note with lots of links, export it separately. (if I'm making no sense, poke me and I'll upload/screenshot some examples!) I'd advise being careful to keep backups/exports of key notes, juuuust in case, though. Every so often something goes odd, usually with the sync. If it does and you've lost a note, check in the backup folder in your notes directory, it may be there.

Re: Planning software?

Dragle — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:51:45 -0700

Well, there is a Linux Beta version of Scrivener if you want to try it. I've just started trying it out myself. Here's a link to the Scrivener Linux forum. Generally I have used Notecase on Linux for planning as well as keeping track of things while writing. It's a typical outliner where you have nodes in the left pane and text for each node in the right pane. Of course there are other outliners for Linux as well. Another popular Linux program in this vein is Basket (for KDE, so if you are not already using KDE be prepared for it to install a bunch of dependencies). Another, cross-platform program for novel-planning is Storybook. I've installed it on Ubuntu Lucid and it seems to work well.