Linux Application for Outlining a Story

So, I’m trying to write a story. On my quest of proper Linux software for writing I already found NovelWriter. That is a very nice application, but there’s one problem: it’s meant for the actual writing process.

Now, I’m not a pantser. I figured as much as I am struggling getting my story from my mind into a document without something to hold on to.

So, I started looking for other software to help me. Freeplane (yes, that’s their actual website) (mind mapping software) seemed quite helpful at first, but things quickly got quite messy quickly.

Then I started looking at kanban software. I quite liked Taiga, but that seemed like overkill for my purposes.

I also need something to work on a timeline of events.

So, I ended up with the following requirements for the software:

  • A means to easily manage the chapters/scenes with quick notes attached to them.

  • A means to connect various story items (characters, locations, objects, etc.) to the scenes/chapters.

  • A means to manage a timeline of events and, again, be able to attach items to those events.

Anybody got a clue where I might look?

Hi @xahodo ,
There is a Linux Magazine article

which reviews writing tools that support some degree of outlinining before writing begins

If you have graphics objects, have a look at Scribus
https://www.scribus.net

If you are really keen and prepared to setup your own writing system use Latex

Regards
Neville

1 Like

Over ten years ago I was “mind mapping” for a potential science fiction universe / world building…

To cross reference everything I used Tomboy Notes (sort of like cards - with cross references and links)… Stored it on my Dropbox - sync’d across Windows and Linux devices… worked quite well…

I think Tomboy was discontinued… Some Ubuntu / Gnome distros forked it and it was called GNote I believe…

Certainly - there’s no Tomboy in Pop!_OS 22 default repos… I should fire up again one of these days, but I’ve kinda abandoned that world building attempt which involved a fair bit of speculative evolution and xenobiology…

– update –

Still recent updates to the fork called “tomboy-ng” :

1 Like