Gingko Writer

Writing software that gets you to first draft, fast

15 followers

Writing software that gets you to first draft, fast

15 followers

Visit website

Productivity

•

Note and writing apps

•

Writing assistants

Try an entirely new approach to writing. Move seamlessly from writing big-picture summaries down to detailed prose. Focus better by working in small "chunks" called cards. Work fluidly by rearranging your writing as you go.

Free Options

Launch tags:Writing•Text Editors

Launch Team

CloudflareStill paying to deploy your apps? Try Cloudflare Workers for free

Promoted

I've been using it for years since it was just a web app and I really like using it for structured writing projects. I used it in my MA and PhD. I also use it for marketing email and website content. I highly recommend using it for anyone. It's easy to use and super logical.

Report

4yr ago

Gingko Writer

Maker

Thanks @daniel_boles , for sharing your use-cases! I'm always surprised at how many uses people find for Gingko :)

Report

4yr ago

Consultant and researcher... Have always liked the 'snowball' type approach... increasing levels of detail. Just how I like to write, it allows me to jump up and down the length of the piece - and at any level of depth, to add a new note for the detail or flesh out that detail.

Report

4yr ago

Gingko Writer

Maker

Thanks @tim_bushell ! Great description of the benefits, and how it feels to write with it.

Report

4yr ago

Gingko Writer is a kind of combination outliner and corkboard (not visually but functionally). It’s a little hard to convey how it works because I’m not sure there’s anything else quite like it. Maybe “horizontal outliner” is a better description. You can expand an idea from left to right by adding blocks of text at deeper levels, and those blocks can be easily rearranged by dragging and dropping. It’s the only writing tool I’ve found that works the same way my mind does.

Report

4yr ago

Gingko Writer

Maker

Thanks @tad_davis2 ! That's a great description of how Gingko works, actually. I myself struggle to find the words to describe it (ha!), because I'm too familiar with it :)

Report

4yr ago

I am not using this for academic or non-fiction work. It's all fiction with me, baby. The trouble with fiction is the landscape of ideas which move your plot forward change as characters develop. The plot evolves as the story unfolds on the page. Plotting in advance will only get you so far. I was 3/4 of the way through my mystery novel and was stuck big time. I mean BIG TIME. I had a huge character development reveal (building from the previous book in the series) I had the mystery beginning to unwind and needing to be solved. Yes, this all sounds very mundane... a mystery novel. Yawn. Not so. I write these ghastly to plot screwball things. I had to figure out the order of events for: one of the main characters discovering the other already knew their big 'secret.' I had a Karaoke bar, a missing boyfriend, a bank robbery, a murderer, an ex-wife bent on revenge, and the impossible job my crime solving duo had taken for a client: find a missing ham. Yes. Ham. Oh, and the song "Mac the Knife" plays a significant role in it all. I am not kidding about the ham. I had no idea how to unwind all these plot points, what order was best? What sequence could possibly make these ridiculous things fit together an a way that seemed natural? Do I find the ham first or reveal the murderer? Where is the boyfriend? Why did he take the ham anyway? Ginko Writer allowed me to play with options like nothing else I found. It allowed me to explore where, in this gigantic mess I'd created, was the place with the highest dramatic payoff to reveal each of the plot points. Does the Mac the Kinfe thing go before or after they realize the ex-wife is setting them up with the bus tour for the elderly --did I mention the bus tour that arrives at the karaoke bar? Hmm forgot about that. When should my heroes learn there is a bomb? Etc. Etc. Etc. Oh I forgot to mention the bomb... See? I need Ginko Writer just to figure out how to write about this stupid mess I'd written myself into! Ginko writer allowed me to lay out possible orders of events and sketch them out for several scenes allowing me judge dramatic and comedic impact of each element. It allowed me to explore how characters would respond to that particular sequence. The flow of the Ginko Writer system allowed me to find gaps where other pieces could logically fit, and then play it all out to see if everything made its own, crazy kind of sense. Six months of hair pulling. Three days with Ginko writer. It was magic. Freakin' magic. In case you are thinking "why not Trello?" Trello doesn't have the same idea flow ability. With Ginko Writer I could create several storyboard type "trees" and choose which one worked best. It allowed me to explore many forks in the road and see them all at once. Ginko just made sense, and I'm not even sure I used it right! It is truly amazing.

Report

4yr ago

This seems like a virtual softboard to me where I can literally frame my content like a jigsaw puzzle. I was just wondering- is there any limit to the branching of these cards?

Report

4yr ago

I've been using Gingko Writer since...sometime in 2016-ish? It's one of the few tools that I still keep upfront, just about every day. I organize my course lessons, client-work, books I'm chaptering out, scrappy one-time stuff on the fly.....I've even got a tree in there called, "My GrandMaster Plan" - ha! - It's a joy to use and has managed to stay lean, and bloat-free all this time. Markdown is quick to learn and everything in there just feeeeeeeels good.

Report

4yr ago

I've been using this since I think 2014? For a long time, anyhow. I have ADHD and severe anxiety, and being able to work right in my outline while also focusing on just one idea at a time with no word counter or blank page to stress me out saved me more times than Adriano knows. I'm now trying to write my dissertation in between two side jobs and wouldn't be able to jump right back in for a few minutes at a time after a few days (or weeks) away from the project if it weren't in Gingko, and I honestly don't think I'd have made it through this much school in the first place without it.

Report

4yr ago

1 2 3

•••

Reviews