Screenshot – “Infection” Meta-Timeline

Once again, I find myself listening to the screams of a short piece demanding to be expanded. Apparently, my next novel is developing from a piece of flash-fiction I wrote last week. [Why won’t these ideas stay little–like I intend?]

Yesterday, I settled into my writing corner to begin sorting and congealing the hand-scribbled notes for “Infection”.  As though I needed yet another tool/distraction, the term “OneNote” rose from the recesses of my mind.

Something about authors using it to structure their notes… From a blog or something… Haven’t I seen OneNote on my laptop somewhere…?

Sure enough, I had. I recently purchased MS Office for the business, and OneNote was included in the suite. So, I stepped through the quick tutorial, and began playing with my new toy. A few hours–and twenty-five pages and subpages–later, the bulk of my notes were organized. I now have separate pages for individual character sketches, settings, major plot points, subplots, backstory, quotes, hyperlinks to research, timelines, etc.

Some of the functions are unwieldy and refuse to do what I need them to, but overall the program is great for the organization process. Now that the basic learning-curve-hurdle has been cleared, I’m ready to push onward to detail Infection to its limits before beginning the actual writing.

Already, I can see the advantages: quick stream-of-consciousness recording, sortable pages, graphics, auto-pasting of a web address when a copied item is inserted. I’m going to keep the organization via OneNote going, and see what I end up with. I’m excited to discover the pros and cons it holds as the project progresses.

There is a major fear creeping around the edges of my thoughts though: what if some other small idea starts stalking me before this one comes to fruition? Thankfully, I can just start up another OneNote Notebook for that.

Wait! That won’t help at all, will it? I’ll just have to keep a big, pointy stick by the laptop, then.