Writer’s Cafe
Since yesterday, I’ve been testing Writer’s Cafe, developed by Anthemion Software. As far as I know, this is a UK-based distribution, and I’m not sure if it’s available in other languages than English, but this is all well for me, as long as they allow people from other countries to purchase their software, which they do.So what is Writer’s Cafe? A tool (or rather, a series of tools gathered in one piece of software) to be used to organize one’s thoughts, writing ideas, storylines, web resources, etc. The aim is of course to allow the writer to gather everything in the same spot and navigate more easily through their notes; if you’re anything like me, you’ll know that joting down ideas on receipts and train tickets is all nice and well on the moment, but when you start to accumulate tons of these, it becomes a hassle to keep everything organized—or simply not lose it.I haven’t tested it intensively yet, but I must say I quite like their “Storylines” tool integrated within the software. Storylines is available separately for trial purposes; unfortunately, if you wish to register it, you’ll need to buy Writer’s Cafe. Perhaps not terribly convenient, even though the main software itself looks good to me so far. What I plan on doing in any case is to use it to prepare NaNoWriMo (unless I find something better in the meantime, in which case I’ll switch). Two months of use, this should be enough to give me an idea of what to expect, right?
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Nels
I thought you said here that you were using TexNotes? I only ask because I’d used TexNotes before for “information gathering” and didn’t like it that much. I hadn’t thought to use it for my book. So, when you mentioned your were using it, I though, Brilliant!Let me know how Writer’s Cafe works out… Does it have a text editor? It doesn’t seem like it from their website. Let me know how it works out for you!
Yzabel
Indeed, I use TexNotes; it covers my basic “first drafts needs” in terms of word processing, and I can easily navigate through my chapters this way.Writer’s Café is much different, it’s in this case more of an… information gathering software, that’s it. Basically, it lets you work with “scrapbooks” (projects) in which you can add useful weblinks as resources, images of your places/characters, and other little things. It also has an integrated web browser (IE-based, if I’m not mistaken), a journal, a “notebook” system with pages (to note different ideas on different pages), and of course, the Storylines tool, this one to place “cards” of your story’s events on a timeline.The software isn’t perfect (for instance, I’d very much like to see a sorting system for the Notebook, so that I can quickly access my pages and name them), but for the little I’ve worked with it so far, I found it interesting. I can’t compare with others, though, hence why there may very well be something better around here, that I don’t know yet.
Jennifer
See I’ve never used any of these software programs. I’ve always been slightly tempted but never enough to purchase one. I use word and it’s always worked for me. I have my own format and file set up and I try to keep my notes to my notebook that I (almost always) have with me.I don’t know…maybe if I tried one I might like it… but for now I’ll keep with my simple word documents (I am after all the most insanely organized person…books are on m book shelf by categories, my closets…well I could tell you where each sweater is or this show or whatever…maybe that’s the reason behind my interest…but also lack of interest in these writing programs.
Yzabel
I’ve never used any of them myself before this one, but I’m a very messy person, and keeping track of my notes on paper and cards is… well, I’m not very talented in that 😀 So I’m sort of hoping a piece of software would help.
N. Mallory
So? Is it worth the dowload? Inquiring procrastinating minds want to know.
Yzabel
Worth the download, I’d say yes (or at least, the Storyline tool is really nice, in fact; the rest, you may not need it if you already have some kind of “organized system” to keep your ideas and other notes, which is something I only have on paper myself). Worth buying… Dunno. I lack points of comparison, but I keep on thinking that… “something better must exist out there”, sort of.
N. Mallory
Hmmmm…. what’s this “organized system” you talk about? I’ve heard there are such things, but I’ve never really seen one.
Yzabel
“Organized system” for me means “anything on your computer that is better than keeping a stack of notes spread in various notebooks, back of receipts and other weird pieces of paper” 😀 Easy to see that I’m not a very organized person myself.One of the things you can do in Writer’s Café, for instance, is create “text items” for your ideas and organize them in folders (yes, even this I seem to be unable to do with my own text files after a while. Did I say I’m messy?). I’ve been using these so far to jot down notes about my NaNo plot—I keep on having new ideas that won’t necessarily fit completely with the original plot, so I create a new text item to quickly rewrite the synopsis with these ideas integrated. Then I can compare with the preview synopsis (if this makes sense). I’m usually unable to find THE right idea from the start, and only through trial and error (and many, many notes) do I finally come up with a solid plot that really works.This said, it’s indeed nothing one couldn’t do oneself with a regular text editor, provided one is an organized person, that is.