Pre-existing conditions.

I mentioned a month or so ago that I’d set up my own Wiki to keep track of all the changes I’m making to imagiNATION. Well, as I’d sadly expected of myself, I fell out of the habit of updating it. I took a look at it today and realized just how much work I’ve created for myself.

Since I lack the luxury of a Mac and access to what is possibly the greatest piece of writing software ever created, I have to make do somehow. While I’ve tried Windows programs such as Darkroom and Q10, they don’t really do anything for me. After using Word for so many years and being reliant on the ability to format anything on the fly, I find them rather useless. Don’t get me wrong, though—blocking out everything except for the writing space is great and all, but I can do the same thing in Word, and keep my customizing features available at the same time. However, Word lacks built-in flow chart functionality, as well as a general place to keep names, dates, facts and other details in their own place and interconnected in the right ways.

Enter the Personal Wiki. I read about this on lifehacker, which is one of my daily obsessions. I’ve discovered I’m a bit of a DIY kind of person, and the site is a godsend for all sorts of things. The Wiki is one of them. I think part of the reason I stopped using the Wiki is because I can only access it from my machine at the moment, which is all thanks to my wonderful hosting company since they don’t use the latest version of PHP for some ungodly reason. That’s all going to change in a week or so, but for now, I have to make due. Anyway, I checked out my listing of characters, locations and terminology:

The stuff in blue links to their own articles that contain summaries, how they tie in to the rest of the world in the story, their significance to the book, and so on. The stuff in red has yet to be created. When clicked on, they go to a blank page that can be edited. As you can see, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but that’s a good thing. For the few of you who’ve read the first draft, you might see some familiar names on this list. Most of it is new or renamed.

Many thanks to the folks who responded to my last post. I’ve been out of it these last few days, and it was nice to hear from friends. It was a much-needed kick in the ass. I do appreciate it.

For now, I’m off. Have a good evening, folks.