: Re: Organizing your Universe? When writing, I always have tons of ideas about the universe I'm creating as a whole: People, Places, Timelines. I'm just struggling to organize it. I'd like to avoid

@Samaraweera193

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I'm a huge fan of emacs org-mode, but it's not for everyone.

Pros:

Can be used locally, without internet access.
If you don't have emacs org-mode available, the files are still very human-readable in a plain text editor.
Very revision control friendly, so you can easily track changes using git, mercurial, or your favorite revision control system, and/or coordinate collaboration with others.
If you need to access your org-mode notes from multiple locations, it is extremely easy to sync them to any remote storage system to/from your various machines (or, if you are using revision control, just throw them on your github/gitorious/bitbucket account).
Because (like all of emacs) org-mode is heavily keybound, it is very fast to use. You don't have to constantly
stop typing to mouse around so that you can move something to a different place in your notes/outline or add/change tags, etc.
Incredible feature set -- off the top of my head:

Hierarchical outlining of notes
Tagging (free tagging or user defined sets)
Customizeable templates (
i.e. you can decide what a character entry, a setting entry, etc. should look like)
Attributes (you can give all characters ages, for example, and conditionally include/exclude this data when you export or print).
Archiving
Easy re-organization
Hyperlinks (internal and external)
Mark "TODO" items and track how many are done (by x/y or % complete)
Section folding (hide things under headlines when you don't need it.
Easily keep writing, character notes, wold-building notes, etc. in the same place
Agenda mode can collect todos from separate files so you can easily see an overview
Export to plain text (UTF-8 or ASCII), HTML, LaTeX, DocBook, PDF, TaskJuggler, Freemind, and more.
Many other things I'm not thinking of.
Mobile app lets you use your org-mode notes easily from Android Devices or iThings

Cons:

Learning org-mode is non-trivial, especially if you aren't already an emacs user. Expect to spend a couple of weeks with a cheat sheet next to your computer before you are using it quickly and fluidly.
You will probably want to turn your Caps Lock into an extra Ctrl key to avoid sore pinky finger from all that Ctrl-something hotkey use.
You may eventually begin to mutter Emacs lisp in your sleep.

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