Hey everyone, I've been working on a continually evolving story for about the past eleven years off and on. I have several images, excel sheets, and word documents pertaining to various aspects of my story/world and I've finally reached a point in the story's progression where I'd like to organize events, characters, lore, back history, location information, etc. I was hoping that some suggestions could be offered regarding what writing software would be best suited for organizing a very deep and complex linear story. I did a search in the forums for writing software and didn't discover anything that adequately satisfied what I was looking for. I realize the post just below this one addressed a similar issue, but I'm not looking for freeware or shareware unless their is an application of sufficient quality in those categories. I don't mind spending a couple hundred dollars for a professional writing application as long as it accomplishes my writing objectives. I'm primarily looking for a writing application that can address the following issues: - Keep individualized records of story entities such as characters, technologies, locations, artifacts, etc. - Cross referencing via links that will allow me to check the relationships of story elements when particular elements are updated. - The ability to insert images, charts, spreadsheets, and even mov or avi files if possible. - Ideally, I would prefer an application with a master file or interface that allows me to access any aspect of the story/world without having to manually hunt down individual files. - An application that allows the quick addition of new entries. These are the basics, but I'm sure any additional features could be beneficial as well. I had considered organizing all of my documents with a website, but adding new sections, events, charachters, locations, etc. would take much longer than desired. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Matt

No software suggestions/recommendations?

Has anyone here used a professional writing program that they thought worked well?

There is a suggestion. It's right below your original post. A wiki would fulfill all the requirements that you set out in your original request:

• Keep individualized records of story entities such as characters, technologies, locations, artifacts, etc.
  Each one could have its own page in a wiki.
• Cross referencing via links that will allow me to check the relationships of story elements when particular elements are updated.
  That too is one of the features of a wiki.
• The ability to insert images, charts, spreadsheets, and even mov or avi files if possible.
  Anything you can put on the web you could put into a wiki.
• Ideally, I would prefer an application with a master file or interface that allows me to access any aspect of the story/world without having to manually hunt down individual files.
  Wikis do this too.
• An application that allows the quick addition of new entries.
  Surprise, surprise. They do this too.

Sorry if this came across as a little harsh, but it seems to me that you've ignored a very good idea, not even dignifying it with a 'thanks for the suggestion'. If you're going to ask for help, at least be polite to those who offer it. A wiki may not be exactly what you want, but all we've got to go on is the things you've said you need it to do, and a wiki does those.

Thanks guys. I'll check using a WIKI out. I've used them in the past for research and other tasks, but haven't ever actually created my own from scratch. I want implementation to be as simple as possible though so I can spend more time writing and compiling than setting up the technical aspects of the organizational structure. Maybe creating WIKI's is a lot more simple than I imagine though so I'll give it a try.

Have you considered The Literary Machine or Treepad? Both allow cross referencing via links and support almost any file you might have on your local system.

Wikis are not the best way for a single person to organise documents, even though they can be useful for teams.