I write for a living, and docs is amazing, especially for collaborative documents. That said, constructing and navigating an extended document that has it's own internal workflow and has frequent structural changes will not be fun at all. I'd seriously recommend looking into one of the many online tools;
Whatever you choose, make and keep lots of external backups! You feel much happier, and you can always move your work to another system if you find one that fits you better.
There's a chrome app called Gingko that lets you write in a sort of "card structure". It's much easier to understand when you see it in action . I'm considering using it.
EDIT: I've just found out there's a NaNoWriMo template for this app: https://gingkoapp.com/nanowrimo-template
Via HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8270759
A couple of comments from the top of the discussion:
>>God this is hard. I've been trying to get at a solution to this exact problem for a very long time as well. It needs to be there when I'm walking down the street, sitting in a busy meeting, or at home in bed. A hybrid of mind-mapping, notes, and a document database. I'd also like to be able to publish and organize documents for others to view. >> >>I wish I had a solution. > >FWIW - I’ve always thought these guys were close to something (but not there yet) - https://gingkoapp.com/p/future-of-text - the idea of a quick dive-down/up through knowledge with potentially tagging/linking thrown in would seem pretty stellar from a knowledge management system.
Hmmm... there's the app Gingko which deals in long-form writing projects.
Full disclosure: I, myself, haven't used it, but I've seen it primarily used for dissertations/outlines of books/screenplays. I'm not certain if it's a viable replacement for a
book narrative structure. It may be a good try, especially considering how sprawling video game scripts can be.
For a straight-up screenwriting word processor, Amazon Storyteller is relatively good, though I don't think as robust as Gingko.
Hopefully that helps!
For organization there are a couple of nice free alternatives:
For working piecemeal on large projects, I highly recommend Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview)
>If there are other ways than Roll20 obvious to y'all...
Well, someone made a schema on gingkoapp. I've never had the chance to try it so I'm not sure how good it is.
Whoa - I just looked up "snowflake method" and got this great site! https://gingkoapp.com/snowflake-method
Thanks a lot man. And yes, I do try to analyse movies that I love/hate. But that's unofficial stuff - stuff I do in my head, without a pen and paper. You reckon I should go full-hog and jot it all down?
I'm only correcting the spelling because I was unfamiliar with it and went looking. Looks interesting! I may give it a try. I am barely into Scrivener for the first time - it's a bit... intimidating (?).
Edit to add - I plan to give this a try over lunch break today. Thanks for the idea!
Have you looked at Gingko? https://gingkoapp.com I wouldn't call it screenwriting-specific, it's an outline-based writer that uses a notecard paradigm. It isn't a standalone app yet, but I was helping Adriano test offline mode yesterday and it's working great, so it's getting close. I'm very impressed by attention to detail he's put into this... you can work the entire thing without ever touching a mouse once you get used to it. I am planning to make a review of it, but I am waiting to hear back from Adriano regarding an "export to google docs" option.
Edit: I forgot to mention, one of the 6 templates when starting a new doc is Screenplay, so apparently it does get some use for that.
Focus + Self-Discipline. I use a variation of this goal tree template to tie the long-term goals to the day-to-day tasks. I limit my "must-do" to 3 for this year, this quarter, this month, this week and today.
I used to agree with you. 😉 I like https://gingkoapp.com/ so much now. It all depends on your process and everyone's process is different. Obsidian was too much for me to handle.
We've used https://gingkoapp.com/ in the past and that worked well. Trello is a similar option that might work okay. Takes a bit of adapting compared to the way it's described in the rules but it worked well for us.
Roam is a novel product. I was hoping you'd consider a novel pricing scheme as well. Please take a look at how Gingko handles it: https://gingkoapp.com/p/pricing/
Pay what you want, from $2-$21 per month. Roam could go bigger to say $5-$30. I have a lot of respect for the Gingko dev going this route. It is the most inclusive scheme I've come across while allowing those who can pay more or value the product more to reflect that with their support.
Nah - .docx is fine I just couldn't remember whether it had that or not. As you say, from there you can go anywhere. I just thought it was limited to an outline of the map structure but obviously not.
Not sure if you're aware of it or whether you see similarities to Ginko (https://gingkoapp.com/). I bought a licence to that some time back as I was generally finding mapping solutions good at offering the ability to split ideas out convergently but many struggled when it came to forming something more solid (I wrote a prior thesis in Ulysses for that reason. It's not a 'map' but re-arranging ideas was great while it also offered fantastic export options.) I see similarities between their (Ginko) app and yours while obviously you have a much stronger visual application.
I think one thing that would benefit your app is the ability to switch to an outline view which might be of benefit for a more strategic view of the content. Might already be there so I really will have another look.
Sure thing! Although I can't promise they'll make any sense, now that I look back on them...
https://gingkoapp.com/ you won't go back. it's completely platform agnostic. you can lay out your story structure on chrome and voice type on your phone, seeing the typed sentences appear back on the Chromebook. slickest app ever.
I've started using this program. it's a tree-based wordprocessor it's really good. https://gingkoapp.com ive split my world bible into ages and then int regens and wats in those regens of the world in the given age. :)
I include everything! :)
I've heard of a few, but I don't know how actively they're being developed.
Looks like someone also tried to make an OpenOffice plugin
Finally, I've heard that Emacs Org Mode can do this and more, but learning it will require a lot of effort if you don't already know it
I've also had really good success with gingko ( https://gingkoapp.com/ ) which is kind of like trello but with infinitely nested hierarchies. I especially liked the feature that lets you split a note into two when it gets too long.
Unfortunately I think you only get 100 notes a month for free, and there's a subscription if you need more. Personally, I never got close to hitting that limit though.
I use gingkoapp when outlining for myself or playing microscope with friends. I don't have the time right now to commit to a game, but would be open to it in the future.
Example Microscope game:
> Maybe I have been foolish but I don't see any sort of trial period.
Not a "trial period" so much, but there is a free subscription plan.
https://gingkoapp.com/p/pricing/
>I am always online at this point and you can export at any point as well.
For me, I'm online most of the time, but there are times and areas where I'm not. My local laundromats do not offer wifi, for example, and there are times that my internet connection goes out at home, (bad weather knocks it out more than anything).
Exporting looks handy, but I don't know how practical it will be in the long run. It doesn't appear to have an import function, which means anything that I export essentially ceases to be editable in this form.
I can't seem to get it working on Firefox(Ubuntu).
Have you taken a look at Gingko App. I actually use it to manage my business, organize ideas and keep them acessible anywhere. And the design makes working a lot less stressful. Which is surprisingly important.
If I would compare them I would say your version is more free form, and I could definitely see it useful for doing brainstorming. I'm going to try it and see how the workflow is and if it helps be creative, or relax.