Putting down text now, connecting it later

Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 17, 2013 at 10:56 AM

shatteredmindofbob wrote:
>Basically, I’m wondering if there’s a tool that lets me just throw in
>unrelated sentences and paragraphs quickly and then move them around
>into something coherent later, with anything having to be tied to a
>particular node in the beginning.
> >I guess what I’m picturing is a mindmap where nothing is connected at
>first, but then connections can be made once I have a bunch of nodes
>down.

OK, this is not a mind map but will allow you to write without a hierarchy first and reorder text fragments later (and is very quick and easy to use, and customisable). In FocusWriter:
1) type your text fragment;
2) hit ## (or set your own preferred divider code in preferences) to create a text item (called “scene” in FW);
3) when you’re finished writing, hover your cursor to the left to reveal the navigation pane, and
4) use Ctrl+Shift+Down or Up to reorder the scenes (or assign your own shortcuts in preferences).

If you want a mind map, in Freeplane you can add free-floating nodes, to which you can add notes, and then you can drag them into a hierarchical mind map (which can be changed into a single-pane outline with one click).

Another option might be Story Lite, an infinite whiteboard, where you can rearrange the notes spatially.

One could also do this in any two-pane outliner, by just adding notes to the top level (i.e. flat list), and order them later. E.g. The Guide.

And of course desktop wikis were pretty much designed for such a non-linear writing process. But I only know ConnectedText, and that would cost you money and learning curve (unless you’re already a user). All of the above are free. FocusWriter is truly amazing in its simplicity.