Software for plot building across multiple books
I plan to write a series of books set in the same universe, with a major plot about war, destruction, murder, killing, love, betrayal etc.
But I am having problem getting the big view of my universe plot and each separate book plot. Does any one of you know of a program, tool, anything that can help me get a better picture of the plot as I write the different books?
Most of programs for writers I have seen have only the option for one plotline - the one the specific book is about - but I need one where I can put in the major plotlines and what happens in the universe and then put in each separate bookplot.
Does anybody have an idea for a nice tool or program to use?
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1 answer
Allow me to introduce you to Scrivener.
Scrivener is a word processor which allows you to create unlimited documents within a single project, and organize them into folders.
You can have each book project as a folder, and within a book folder have multiple subfolders.
You can see all your documents in a nice document tree in a side pane. You can drag items around from here to there, link documents within the project, tag documents for easy searching, and even display your documents as note cards on a cork board. You can also have two documents open at once, top/bottom or side by side, so you can look at a reference document while typing in another document.
Scrivener exports as Word and text, so you're not stuck in a proprietary format, and it has a full-screen environment if you need to cut out distractions.
$45 for Mac OSX, $40 for Windows. You can test it full-featured for 30 days.
You can search for other discussions of Scrivener on this SE, including a lot of cheerleading from me. :) In fact, I picked up this answer from another similar question:
What is a good tool for organizing story notes?
I also use Excel to keep track of scene details, and some people use mindmap software (although I find that kind of interface overwhelming).
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