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Posted by Hugh
Aug 13, 2018 at 01:56 PM
Hugh wrote:
>This may be because to
>date, as far as I know, Aeon is the only timeline software to have been
>developed first for use with fictional projects, and only later for
>real-world use, rather than the other way about.
>
The only timeline software for use in writing fiction - apart, of course, from Causality!
Posted by Lothar Scholz
Aug 13, 2018 at 02:50 PM
Anyone with an idea/explaination if and how this could help non-fiction and textbook writers ?
Posted by Hugh
Aug 14, 2018 at 08:50 AM
Lothar Scholz wrote:
Anyone with an idea/explaination if and how this could help non-fiction
>and textbook writers ?
I don’t think that one can be prescriptive. I can only outline my own experience. Years ago, when writing scripts for factual TV programmes, I and others tried very hard to order and structure what we wrote in ways that obeyed what we believed were the guidelines for audience expectations of fiction: inciting incident, narrative arcs, turning-points, climax etc etc. We tried to tell stories. Generally, the material was amenable to this approach, if lightly done. More importantly, it seemed to help in making quite complex factual subjects more palatable to general audiences.
Later, when giving presentations and making speeches to business and educational audiences, I tried to follow similar guidelines, with acceptable results. Since then, I’ve noticed that some very successful teachers, presenters, speech-makers and speech-writers use similar approaches. In a general sense, they too try to tell a story.
Recently, the Hollywood guru and author Robert McKee has attempted to widen his audiences from screenwriters and novelists to business people by persuading them that they too can benefit from using story-telling skills. I don’t know how successful he has been in this attempt, but I can certainly see the relevance.
In all these cases, I imagine that a tool such as Causality could prove helpful. After all, successful story-telling is an ancient and proven tool of human communication.
Text-book writing is outside my experience. But I suspect that in many cases at that level the material “writes its own rules” of order and structure.
Posted by Dr Dog
Aug 14, 2018 at 09:29 AM
Hugh wrote:
>
>Lothar Scholz wrote:
>Anyone with an idea/explaination if and how this could help non-fiction
>>and textbook writers ?
>
>I don’t think that one can be prescriptive. I can only outline my own
>experience. Years ago, when writing scripts for factual TV programmes, I
>and others tried very hard to order and structure what we wrote in ways
>that obeyed what we believed were the guidelines for audience
>expectations of fiction: inciting incident, narrative arcs,
>turning-points, climax etc etc. We tried to tell stories. Generally, the
>material was amenable to this approach, if lightly done. More
>importantly, it seemed to help in making quite complex factual subjects
>more palatable to general audiences.
>
>Later, when giving presentations and making speeches to business and
>educational audiences, I tried to follow similar guidelines, with
>acceptable results. Since then, I’ve noticed that some very successful
>teachers, presenters, speech-makers and speech-writers use similar
>approaches. In a general sense, they too try to tell a story.
>
>Recently, the Hollywood guru and author Robert McKee has attempted to
>widen his audiences from screenwriters and novelists to business people
>by persuading them that they too can benefit from using story-telling
>skills. I don’t know how successful he has been in this attempt, but I
>can certainly see the relevance.
>
>In all these cases, I imagine that a tool such as Causality could prove
>helpful. After all, successful story-telling is an ancient and proven
>tool of human communication.
>
>Text-book writing is outside my experience. But I suspect that in many
>cases at that level the material “writes its own rules” of order and
>structure.
>
Hello Hugh - I wrote my first post to this forum after reading your opening comment, but as it was delayed by the mods (as anew account) it might not have shown up. But in that post I mention my own narrative approach to complex non-fiction and how I hoped Causality might help as a replacement/adjunct to my current Tinderbox/Aeon timeline set up.
After a long week-end of exploring I now think it will be useful to me, but only as an adjunct for specific portions of the work. The graphic representation of the higher level structuring abilities (basically a narrative of synopses) is excellent - very flexible - but need to corral (and control) a mass of detail, some of it recurring, leaves Tinderbox as the obvious tool of choice.
Oddly enough, I’ve looked at using Tinderbox a little differently this morning after 3 days with Causality ...
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 14, 2018 at 07:56 PM
Another card-based outlining story builder is Story O. I’m not endorsing it, just pointing it out for those who like to explore all options. Here’s the website:
http://www.junglesoftware.com/products/storyo_home.php
Sadly, they do a horrible job of selling this app. Honestly, the iOS version looks more sophisticated than the Mac version.
Steve Z.