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ConnectedText v6 is out
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Posted by Hugh
Oct 3, 2013 at 05:28 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
Hugh wrote:
>>Akin to the ‘Snowflake Method’ for fiction? It’s described here:
>>http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/
>
>Thanks for the link. I’ve heard the term but didn’t realise this is what
>it meant. Yes, it does sound more or less the same as the aforementioned
>“staircase method.”
>
>And I see there is also a Snowflake Pro software that goes with the
>method. Has anyone tried this? There doesn’t seem to be a trial version:
>http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/product/snowflake-pro-software/
>
>It looks like it would be possible to emulate this process with Gingko
>to some extent (a kind of a free-form alternative to Snowflake then).
Yes, I tried it a few years ago.
A similar if slightly more awkward result can also be achieved with MS Excel* (which I seem to remember Randy Ingermanson himself recommended at some point).
*As, of course, can a number of other simple outlining effects - as someone once remarked in the days before products like Gingko emerged, Excel may be more useful to a writer than Word.
Posted by Dr Andus
Oct 3, 2013 at 05:53 PM
@ Franz - thanks for the Scrivener and Word templates. I checked them out, but I still prefer Gingko for the simple reason that you can see at least the top 3 levels of the “snowflake” side-by-side horizontally, and Gingko’s “fruit machine” interface makes it very easy to quickly switch between parts > chapters > sections etc.
Hugh wrote:
>A similar if slightly more awkward result can also be achieved with MS
>Excel* (which I seem to remember Randy Ingermanson himself recommended
>at some point).
Yes, in the end Excel is a large table of index cards. When it comes to single lines of text, I do use it a lot (especially for project planning). But with Gingko one can actually start writing the text. I do have other index card based software (Outline 4D, Story Turbo, Scrivener, even OneNote), but each have some limitations in their use of the cards.
Okay, we’ve gone a bit off-topic re CT v.6 ;)
Posted by Hugh
Oct 4, 2013 at 08:20 AM
Dr Andus wrote:
@ Franz - thanks for the Scrivener and Word templates. I checked them
>out, but I still prefer Gingko for the simple reason that you can see at
>least the top 3 levels of the “snowflake” side-by-side horizontally, and
>Gingko’s “fruit machine” interface makes it very easy to quickly switch
>between parts > chapters > sections etc.
>
>Hugh wrote:
>>A similar if slightly more awkward result can also be achieved with MS
>>Excel* (which I seem to remember Randy Ingermanson himself recommended
>>at some point).
>
>Yes, in the end Excel is a large table of index cards. When it comes to
>single lines of text, I do use it a lot (especially for project
>planning). But with Gingko one can actually start writing the text. I do
>have other index card based software (Outline 4D, Story Turbo,
>Scrivener, even OneNote), but each have some limitations in their use of
>the cards.
>
>Okay, we’ve gone a bit off-topic re CT v.6 ;)
One more bit of off-topickery (because it may be of use to somebody), and then I’ll stop: there was at one time a plug-in/add-on for Excel that helped considerably with the task of writing text in its cells. I used it before I abandoned Windows, and I remember somebody boasting that they’d written a novel with it. But I couldn’t find the software in a quick skim of Google yesterday evening.
Sorry - back to CT v.6.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 4, 2013 at 02:13 PM
Ah… if I may delicately insert another off-topic suggestion here: anybody thinking of using Excel for writing would be much better advised to use LibreOffice Calc or OpenOffice Sheet, which both have the same word-processing functionality built in as LibreOffice Writer (including e.g. proper spell-checking, more or less unlimited text entry in cells - obviating the nasty and apparently arbitrary text losses that so often mar the Excel experience - and proper text formatting). We get a lot of stuff to translate in the form of Excel spreadsheets, usually a convenient intermediate format for CMS administrators, but we always use LibreOffice to process them! It’s easy to forget just how integrated the OpenOffice/LibreOffice heritage actually is (anybody who can remember their much-loved but often unstable ancestor StarOffice will know what I mean).
All translators - without exception, in my experience - cordially loathe Excel…