My current novel, Dreams of Shaper has been in progress since at least January of 2000. As such, along the way I’ve had time to think about the book that I’ll write after that. Slowly, over time I’ve had the ideas building up, watching the characters and world take shape in the back of my head. In the past, I’ve always managed to keep all this sort of business in my head, but my critique group (indirectly) has led me to see that this might not hold up for the future. The new novel will be more complex than what I’ve written before, and I need to start taking notes if this is going to work.
Anyway, I’ve also been looking to use some wiki software (basically a website that anyone can edit). Although I’m looking at using it at work, I’m not sure how/whether that’s going to work out. Since I’m running a web-server on my local network already, it seemed like the perfect combination of interests.
I’m currently using FlexWiki, and it has been great. Not too hard to set up—actually helped me sort some IIS troubles I was having. I’m also finding that it is a great way to record random information and link different ideas together. As I get further along building my next world in a wiki, I’ll maybe post a bit about the experience.