Plot outlining and organizing

[Malkiz]

Hi,

I'm not sure where to post this thread, but I guess the mods will correct me if necessary.

A few months ago when working on the plot of a story of mine, I got to a point where a big group of characters split up to several smaller groups. I suddenly realized it's very hard for my puny little brain to keep track of all of them at once while I try to think of what happens next.

So naturally I went online to search for a tool that will help me organize my thoughts.
After about a week of searching, I found several computerized tools which weren't really aiming at this goal to begin with, and seemed rather uncomfortable for my needs.
The best advice I found was to stick cards on my wall, each representing a scene or plot point, and lay them out in a way that outlines the plot.

Now, I thought to myself, how many people could benefit from a computerized tool that does exactly that? Helps you layout your scenes and plot points in a way that you can see all of your characters, locations, events, time frames, and the relationships between them?

Do any of you know of an existing tool that does something similar? Because I searched a lot and couldn't find one. So I decided to develop one.
I'm just one guy working on this, but after thinking about it I believe it's possible for me to develop such a tool.
It will be aimed at organizing anything that has a plot - from books to screenplays to TV shows to movies to comic books etc. I'm trying to define the tool to include any possible scenario, including multiple and splitting timelines, including the ability to define your own time system (e.g. for plots about aliens), and time travelling characters/locations/events/objects. Also, once you build your plot inside the tool, you'll be given several different views at your plot. For example automatically re-organize the timeline to see how it looks like from the POV of a certain character.

Any ideas to add/improve on the tool are welcome. I figure I'd better ask sooner than later.

Thanks, M.

 

[Menion]

Ah the same happened to me, what I set up was a large polystyrene board (wraped in a blue cloth to match my walls, and pinned the map I made on it , with nails in it with a thread leading fro mthe nail to a small page of paper with the general outline of what happens in that area, and have them numberd so that you know in what order they are in.
I couldn't find a virtual one wither, aslong as you have the story writen in you pc, if you take my idea about the board, you can easily keep track of the plot.

Hope that helps.

 

[The Judge]

Can't advise you myself -- even if there were such software, I wouldn't use it, since I rely on multiple bits of paper and my own time charts. But I think this is more Writing Resources than GWD, so I'm moving it there, and with luck you'll find someone who is more helpful.

 

[Mouse]

Sounds like Scrivener, possibly. And there's another that I looked at recently but for the life of me I can't remember the name. I was going to try it, then realised I wouldn't use any of the fancy pants stuff!

Lord Google gave me this: http://www.masterfreelancer.com/software-for-writers.php