Freemind

Wow! I finished the first draft of Bloody Key around the end of January, and took a couple of weeks off. I let an idea for my next book percolate, and downloaded a great program: Freemind. I love Freemind for a couple of reasons.

The first being that I don't think in a linear order when I'm plotting a novel. I believe wholeheartedly in outlining, but I can't do it. Not in a text document anyway. And I hate writing scenes on index cards and trying to put them in order. It always seemed like too much work, and I avoided it.

What's great about Freemind is that it's set up in a web, which is how I brainstorm anyway. But unlike brainstorming on paper, I can click and drag an idea into a different cluster. Simon Haynes, author of the Hal Spacejock series, has an example of how to effectively use Freemind here.

Which brings me to the second thing I love about using Freemind. I end up with an outline that I can work with, but I also have all the information I need about my characters and setting in the same file. This makes things so much easier for me, because instead of hunting for the color of Character A's eyes through all my pages of character sketches, I just click on Character A's information in the same file that has my outline.

I wrote Bloody Key using MSWord, and sans outline. While writing it was good practice, I'm dreading the rewrite because the book is a mess. Using Freemind and Ywriter 5 (another great program for the non linear minded) I started writing The Best Laid Plans on Saturday, and I'm 13,000 words in. So far it seems like it will be a fairly solid book. The outline isn't so indepth that I feel restricted, but I do have a path to follow to keep me on track.

If you're a non linear writer like me, and the mere thought of outlining curls your toes, give this software a try. Even if it doesn't work for you, you'll have a lot of fun testing it.

Happy writing!