My Latest Discoveries – Writing Excuses and WikidPad

I’ve listened to Mur Lafferty on I Should Be Writing for years, so I’m not new to podcasts aimed at writers.  I had checked out a few others before, too.  So after meeting Brandon Sanderson at LibertyCon, I had to check out his podcast Writing Excuses. 

It’s not just Sanderson.  He casts with Dan Wells, cartoonist Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal (apparently the latest addition).  I’ve been wearing out back episodes.  The chemistry among the podcasters is great, the advice is great, and the short length (fifteen minutes because…naw, I won’t steal their tagline.)  It’s been great fun to listen to and has me revved up to write, something I’ve been having trouble finding the focus to do of late.  If you haven’t listened to Writing Excuses, give it a try.  It’s worth it.

One of the Writing Excuses topics was Story Bibles.  It’s something I’m bad at organizing, so I gave it a listen and discovered…WikidPad.  Let the world building addiction begin! 

Ooh, this is a sweet little program.  Not that it’s anything fancy.  It’s a notepad program that automatically links sub-documents together if you type a mix of caps and lowercase (MixCaps) or put the word in [brackets].  Very easy learning curve and you can feel the world growing every time you create a new link.  I pulled out my notes on an IP some friends and I had tried to start up and it really put some perspective on what we had and what we didn’t.  I’m loving it.  Thank you, Writing Excuses.

New podcast, new world building toy…I just need to remember that these are not prizes in and of themselves; they are supposed to get me writing again.  That said, here I go…