for Brandon - What is your proccess?

[Shuez]

Hello Brandon,

It was very enjoyable to meet you in Seattle, I just wish there had been more people in attendance for you three. Also, I cannot wait to purchase and read Alcatraz!

I have a question that I failed to ask you, what is your writing process? Do you brainstorm on paper or a particular program? Do you outline? What tools do you employ (including any specific software). Thank you for your input in advance.

Sincerely,

R. Schuyler Devin  a.k.a  Shuez  - (I was the guy that had the three panel bookcover page for signing)

[EUOL]

Whew.  What's my process, eh?  That's an in depth one.  How about this.  I'll post some essays I wrote about this.  You can look at them, then ask if you have any specific questions.  Sound good? 

www.brandonsanderson.com/drafts/warbreaker/IdeasArticle.doc

www.brandonsanderson.com/drafts/warbreaker/Outlining.doc

[Shuez]

Awesome. That is 95% what i was looking for! Thank you.

The only specific question I have is what tools you employ for your proccess. Do you exclusively use Word? Do you use any other software for notes or outlines? Do you tend to have alot of scrap-paper and stickie-notes lying around?

I try to keep all of my notations on the computer, but I always seem to have a pile of stickies, napkins, and torn bits of paper with idea's, names, and places. 

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I can't speak for brandon, but i keep all my notes and ideas on my computer.

I've found Keynote (*not* the apple presentation program, this is a much older package, click the link and see) to be indispensible. Tabbed notes with a tree organization helps keep everything organized and establishes relationships visually. I know Mistress of Darkness who used to hang around here, uses it as her only writing tool. I write in Word, but all notes and ideas go in Keynote.
Unfortunately, it's not supported or developed anymore. Fortunately, while there are still a couple features I'd love to see, it's very stable and packed with a lot of things I never even thought I needed before (like customizable icons and clipboard capture). I recommend giving it a try. I run it off my flash drive, since it doesn't need entries in the Windows registry and that makes my notes electronic, accessible, and very, very portable.

[Shuez]

I loved keynote for a long time; too bad it is not supported anymore 

I made the move to a piece of software that does about everything you could want for a tree outliner - it is called TexNotes. You can add annotations to the page you are working on, links to other notes, bookmarks, anchors, and more. It has all the text formating options of Word, gives you word-count and other document information, and so many other things. When you export your project, it creates clean (without annotaions, highlights, embedded-notes) .rtf documents. I am able to write entire books in this software from beginning to end.

I have been playing with Mindjet recently for mindmapping my ideas. I like it so far.

[stacer]

Except I found that when I transferred my files over to my new laptop this last year, when I reinstalled Keynote it wouldn't recognize my Keynote file for Black Bull. So, those notes are all gone, actually, and I should have saved them elsewhere.

[Chimera]

I know CtrlZed has some sort of organizing program that he uses for outlining that he just loves. He raved to me about it one time on the phone. I wrote it on a post it note, then promptly lost it and forgot its name. I'll try to get his attention and have him tell you about it.

*Chimera tries to flag CtrlZed down*

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I loved keynote for a long time; too bad it is not supported anymore

I made the move to a piece of software that does about everything you could want for a tree outliner - it is called TexNotes. You can add annotations to the page you are working on, links to other notes, bookmarks, anchors, and more. It has all the text formating options of Word, gives you word-count and other document information, and so many other things. When you export your project, it creates clean (without annotaions, highlights, embedded-notes) .rtf documents. I am able to write entire books in this software from beginning to end.

I have been playing with Mindjet recently for mindmapping my ideas. I like it so far.

Maybe I'm just stubborn, but the only thing on that list that KeyNote doesn't do, even as an unsupported piece of software, is a few of the higher level formatting options (like multilevel outlines). Because of this (and because I'm lazy), I'm only willing to even look at TexNotes if I'm handed a link.

[CtrlZed]

A vagrant hitchhiker flagged me down and told me Chimera was trying to get a hold of me.  Unfortunately, the information I have is exactly what E has already suggested.  I've found that KeyNote is wonderful for organizing ideas.  Another program I've heard others rave about is yWriter, which can be found at this link:    http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html

Though KeyNote is no longer supported, it's pretty nifty.  Steer away from is TreePad.  I made a ton of notes at WorldCon, and good ol' TreePad lost every single one of them.

[Spriggan]

I'm not a writer but I find using Wiki's is a good way to keep track of things, I coded my own one weekend and use that when needed.

[EUOL]

People keep telling me I should give one of these a chance, but to be honest, I've just gotten used to MS Word with its document map function for my notes program.  I usually keep one file that is notes, and it gets used less and less as I write.  A lot during the first few chapters, almost never by the last few.  As a book takes shape in my head, I find I need fewer reminders of character or plot.

[Shuez]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"


Brandon, it is awesome that you do not need mountains of notes to work from. Why change when it is completely obvious that you do not need another link in the chain. 

--
BTW, here is a link to the product tour for TexNotes. This is what I use for my word processor.

http://www.gemx.com/tour.php?prod=texnotespro&page=1

[Spriggan]

Humm, there have been a flood of authoring/text editors based off of Firefox lately and that one looks like the script writing/organizing software I had to use last semester.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

People keep telling me I should give one of these a chance, but to be honest, I've just gotten used to MS Word with its document map function for my notes program. I usually keep one file that is notes, and it gets used less and less as I write. A lot during the first few chapters, almost never by the last few. As a book takes shape in my head, I find I need fewer reminders of character or plot.

I don't tell people they *should* use something. I usually only recommend it when asked.

[EUOL]

Yeah, but I figure I ought to give one of these things a try some time.  I'll never know if it works for me or not if I don't.