Via Literature and Latte, a website for discussing Scrivener: Scapple Beta.
I bought Scrivener a year or two ago and after a few experiments I stopped using it. Now I think I should return for a more serious look. The people who created it have just released a new tool called Scapple, designed for getting ideas out of your head and onto the screen where you can see the connections.
This follows a technique I taught for years in my writing classes, which is to write stuff down on paper (or a blackboard, whatever) so you can look at your possible topics and subtopics and decide how they fit together and how they don't.
The technique works really well; I could have my students spring an article topic on me and within a few minutes I could cover a blackboard with ideas, aggregate them, and sequence them into an article outline. The same thing applies in fiction: If you don't know where you're going in your next story or chapter, this kind of brainstorming can save you a lot of time and effort.
So I downloaded the beta, clicked on the icon, and within a very few minutes had some key topics organized for an article I want to write. If you have an Intel Mac running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or above, try out Scapple and see what you think. It's free and will last until December 30. You can read more about it by James Fallows at The Atlantic.com
I have a PC and I sometimes use a program called FreeMind which helps you generate idea webs. Gotta love these programs!
Posted by: Words from Stranger Worlds | November 30, 2012 at 05:59 PM