Come down if you can and see what else I have to say about writing software.
If you live in Iowa or anywhere nearby, check out Icon. It’s deceptively simple and easy to use, but a powerful way to improve your writing.
SCAPPLE ON THE WEST COAST SOFTWARE
If you struggle with outlines, if you spend too much time trying to figure out what to write or have trouble organizing your thoughts around a central concept, Scapple is a great piece of software to check out.
This example took me a matter of minutes in Scapple, whereas I could have spent a half an hour or more trying to do the same brainstorming with other software. But many of us would have spent hours banging our heads in frustration because outlines don’t fit the way we think. You also learn at write ins that Nano writers come from all walks of life, they write in all kinds of genres and many don’t even write novels, they use the month to write their memoirs or nonfiction.Ĭould I have done this in Word or another word processor as an outline? Sure. This is also a great place to mention the website where more support can be found. Write ins have several subpoints, there is camaraderie, and support. Reasons for doing Nano include getting that first novel written, learning to write fast, learning to turn off the internal editor, and going to write ins. This is a just a bunch of randomness, but now I can click and drag stuff to make some sense of it all.īy clicking and dragging I’ve organized all of these random statements around two main points, reasons for doing Nanowrimo and things I wish I knew before I started. Start by writing a bunch of random things about Nanowrimo on a new Scapple board.Here is an empty board. You want to write a blog post about this for October but you have no idea what to write. Every year writers around the world join a month long challenge to write a fifty thousand word novel in a month.
SCAPPLE ON THE WEST COAST FREE
You can later attach them to other notes, stack them together or move them free form around the board.įor example, November is just around the corner and for many writers that’s Nanowrimo, National Novel Writers Month. Scapple allows you to create notes wherever you want on the page. However, as writers this is exactly where we most often struggle. Your first note is the key concept and other notes radiate out from that. That’s great if you already understand the central concept of what you are trying to do. The biggest downside to most mind mapping software I have looked at so far is that new notes come attached to older notes. Here is a mind map of my upcoming speech. Which is why mind mapping has such potential for the average writers. Mind mapping is not only a great tool for learning ( studies show mind mappers have better retention than other forms of note taking) it’s also great for brainstorming. On a mind map new ideas and concept spread out from a central core.
Mind mapping is a visual way of organizing information around a chart. So I was already a little biased in Scapple’s favor. They are the creators of Scrivener, my favorite piece of writing software and my current go to program for ninety percent of my writing tasks. Scapple is a piece of software put out by Literature and Latte. I decided this upcoming class was a great time to really sit down and learn about mind mapping. Lately, I have been branching out and learning about new programs that can help organize your writing, help you come up with ideas or help research them. I have used over a half dozen different pieces of writing software to plan novels and have played around with more than a dozen. I can’t resist downloading and testing new software. What I do well, is playing around with technology. This is why I don’t teach the mechanic of writing
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