Heaven, I'm in Heaven

So I googled for a Mac Outline program to help out with NaNoWriMo and this is what I found.

OMFG!

I am in heaven! This outline tool/word processor is fantastic! (Okay, if I'm using that many exclamation points, I MUST be excited because I think the exclamation point is one of the most overused and overrated punctuation there ever existed. And yes, I AM that weird in that I actually have my favorite punctuation - the semi-colon. Versatile and underused.)

Jer's Novel Writer is a word processor/outliner designed specifically for writing AND the programmer is a participant of NaNoWriMo as well so he knows the importance of not having the momentum gummed up. There's a margin for you to jot notes on, there's a database for you to keep your characters, plot developments, etc in track and there's an outline of course.

Anyone who writes, knows the importance of notes and margins and databases. You introduce a throwaway character in Chapter 2, only to find out in Chapter 15 that he/she would make a great drive-by character again. Only, what was the name you gave that char? And where in the 20 odd pages of Chapter 2 did you insert him/her?

I am taking Bratworse's advice and starting on a whole new story instead of working on a previous one. At first, I thought I didn't have a story, but one's been germinating in my brain for the past year and I am just starting to commit the ideas to paper.

The new story is going to be called Escalation or Descent? (Yes, I know it's a fancy way to say Ups or Downs but I'm a writer for goodness sake) This is going to be an Alternate Earth type story - kinda happening in today's world but different enough that you know it's somewhere else. And it'll be a sports analogy to what's happening in the world today - Iraq, U.S., terrorism, our reactions, etc.

Ambitious eh? Yeah, well, writing is the ONLY place I've actually harbored ambitions.