by Eshwar Nag
Do you write? Then, you must be familiar with the problem of organizing your thoughts and ideas while writing. There are times when we are so involved in writing that we either miss the flow or overlook the context. Everyone has the constant need to visualize the outline of the entire piece being written, keep track of the flow of information and write sub-pieces that interconnect well to make the final draft. So how do we make writing easy and manage all these tasks well?
Everyone has their own way of solving this problem. Many manage it mentally, others use sticky notes and papers and so on. Most writers keep away from Writing Softwares that help make the writing process easy and just use a simple word editor. A famous example would be the author of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series; George R.R. Martin who till date writes everything in WordStar 4.0 on a DOS machine as he feels that most writing softwares are distracting.
I had started my quest long back on finding a good tool that can help me write better. It was a tough journey especially as I am a stickler for design and I found that writing softwares are bad. Poorly designed and really didn’t help me write any better. But yes, you guessed it right, I did find a good tool finally, called Gingko App. Its one of the good tools you can find and really use in the writing process. It has few quirks here and there, but mostly succeeds at achieving the goal.
Gingko is an online word processor that lets you work on structure & content at the same time. Whether you’re an artist, scholar or even a blogger, this new medium lets you write better, faster. You can get started by visiting the website – ‘gingkoapp.com’. Yes, it’s an online text editor, so you will be working on a browser the whole time.
Writing well requires you to focus on the details of your work. You need to pick the right words, the right argument, the right line of dialogue. But that’s only half of the picture. To write well, the overall plot, structure, and flow is just as important. Gingko is the only word processor where you can work on both structure and content at the same time I feel.
The ‘writing page’ (the page where you write!) as I call it, is uniquely designed. It’s unlike any editor I have seen before. The page is divided into three columns to maintain the structure and hierarchy of the article. You can create cards on each column. Each card carries information and they can be arranged as you want.
I had started my quest long back on finding a good tool that can help me write better. It was a tough journey especially as I am a stickler for design and I found that writing softwares are bad. Poorly designed and really didn’t help me write any better. But yes, you guessed it right, I did find a good tool finally, called Gingko App. Its one of the good tools you can find and really use in the writing process. It has few quirks here and there, but mostly succeeds at achieving the goal.
Gingko is an online word processor that lets you work on structure & content at the same time. Whether you’re an artist, scholar or even a blogger, this new medium lets you write better, faster. You can get started by visiting the website – ‘gingkoapp.com’. Yes, it’s an online text editor, so you will be working on a browser the whole time.
Writing well requires you to focus on the details of your work. You need to pick the right words, the right argument, the right line of dialogue. But that’s only half of the picture. To write well, the overall plot, structure, and flow is just as important. Gingko is the only word processor where you can work on both structure and content at the same time I feel.
The ‘writing page’ (the page where you write!) as I call it, is uniquely designed. It’s unlike any editor I have seen before. The page is divided into three columns to maintain the structure and hierarchy of the article. You can create cards on each column. Each card carries information and they can be arranged as you want.
At the first it might look counter-intuitive, but the concept here is simple. Create a card for a thought that comes to your mind. If you get a new idea, create a new card below it. If you want to expand the idea then create a card to the right side of it, think of it like creating a branch. You can create another child card (sub-branch) for this card to go in depth about the idea. It is easy to understand the flow and works surprisingly well!
Gingko’s interface is minimal and mostly gets out of your way. It doesn’t have a hundred buttons and large menus to distract you. It is built with a “keyboard-first” mindset. You can use the mouse to work, but the keyboard shortcuts are fast, simple, and intuitive and help to move between the cards and create cards too.
Gingko’s interface is minimal and mostly gets out of your way. It doesn’t have a hundred buttons and large menus to distract you. It is built with a “keyboard-first” mindset. You can use the mouse to work, but the keyboard shortcuts are fast, simple, and intuitive and help to move between the cards and create cards too.
At any moment, you are always aware of where you are in the overall scheme of things and what the outline of the article is like. All changes to the overall structure are clearly visible. Ideally each card represents one point. So, It also helps you make every point short and crisp. The final outcome is very modular too. Just as every other editor out there, Gingko allows you to co-ordinate documents online with other people which is super helpful.
Gingko is fast & lightweight. Loading the workbook is quick, even your large documents, in seconds. Switching between trees is nearly instantaneous. Navigation is also fast & smooth. All your data is secured, backed up regularly, encrypted with SSL and private by default. After you are done writing your masterpiece, you can export the content in multiples ways which is really handy. Overall they have done a brilliant job at creating a tool to help writers that actually works and is useful!
But the biggest problem here is that, it is a website after all. You need internet connection to do any of your work. (Yes, I know. Such a pain! ) But other than that you will get used to the fact that it is a website within days and you can get your work done!
You need to try it to understand how it really helps in the writing process. Gingko is free for using three trees (projects) but if you want unlimited workbooks you would need to pay. It has a subscription model that costs $5/month or $39/year. I don’t see this as a deal breaker as most of us don’t work on more than 3 projects at a time, but if you are really a busy writer, you will be well off by paying. Of course this article was written on Gingko! Now go on and give it a try.
This is Gingko App -
But the biggest problem here is that, it is a website after all. You need internet connection to do any of your work. (Yes, I know. Such a pain! ) But other than that you will get used to the fact that it is a website within days and you can get your work done!
You need to try it to understand how it really helps in the writing process. Gingko is free for using three trees (projects) but if you want unlimited workbooks you would need to pay. It has a subscription model that costs $5/month or $39/year. I don’t see this as a deal breaker as most of us don’t work on more than 3 projects at a time, but if you are really a busy writer, you will be well off by paying. Of course this article was written on Gingko! Now go on and give it a try.
This is Gingko App -