Using ZimWiki to Write Your Masterpiece

Or soon to be great literary work, that is. ; ) Some of us might be aspiring to become writers of best selling novels or maybe screenplays or 1 act plays, etc. For that we need some tools that help us get our masterpiece out of our heads and somewhere online.

It so happens that in this case I will suggest a tool which could be easily available to you without proprietary licenses and agreements that might surprise you. Why? This is something that is most likely to be available in the repository of the Linux distro you’re using. I am talking about Zim Wiki.

Zim Wiki is, well, a wiki. You could easily create new pages as well as manage your tasks. There are also formatting options you could choose from in terms of content. Well, if you really need other kinds of formatting like italics, etc., then there are basic options available for you.

So how do I suggest for you to use Zim Wiki as your tool in managing your masterpiece’s files?

1. Install Zim Wiki. But of course!
2. Create a directory that you intend to use for the files which are related to your masterpiece. You will use this information later.
3. Run Zim Wiki. Create a new notebook. If you want this to be the default notebook (in case you want to be truly focused on this) then select it to be such. Otherwise, don’t select it and don’t set it to be the default.
4. Define your main page or starting point. I find it easier when there’s one.
5. On your starting page, write down an outline of the sections you’d need for your masterpiece. In my case, if ever I’d make a novel, I’d list down what I need in an outline. Then make a section in your starting page that would contain chapters.
6. In your outline, make those list items as links. Why make them links? So that they become pages that you could edit later on. You could make them into links as you decide to create their pages.
7. Start writing! Fill out those pages!

Zim Wiki has a spellcheck plugin and if you select it to be on, it will check for your spelling mistakes as you write your story. Another good thing with Zim Wiki is that you could export it later as HTML files, in case you want them to be published. How nifty is that?

If you’ve got some things you want to try out with Zim Wiki, go ahead and have fun! : )