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Last Updated on September 24, 2024 by Alaina Bullock
Looking to balance writing and mom life? Story planning software for writers helps busy moms stay organized, creative, and productive, even with a full schedule!
If you’re a mom, then you already know the following, but if not, let’s just state the obvious. Being a mom (often) comes with a very long list of responsibilities. These usually involve taking care of the kids, running the household, and on top of all that, there’s even the possibility of juggling a career, as well.
While all of this is doable, there are two problems: the number of hours in a day is fixed, and your energy reserves are limited.
Because of this, there is very little room for anything else. So, what can one do if you’re, for example, looking to be a writer or an author? Is that an unrealistic, or even impossible endeavor? Well, no, not really.
In today’s digital world, tools exist that can help us plan and organize that little time that we have effectively and efficiently so that an aspiring mom author can do some real work/progress.
Let’s see what this is all about!
What is Story Planning Software for Writers and How Does it Work?
In short, story planning software is a tool that writers use to help organize their thoughts, outline stories, and manage and keep track of complex storylines and plots.
While new writers will almost certainly struggle with these aspects of writing, even seasoned writers still often do, as well. This is why such tools exist in the first place. A commonly occurring issue has been identified in writing, and this tool is the solution (it’s that simple).
For example, many story planning software for writers will offer templates for different genres (e.g., mystery, fantasy, romance, etc.). With such hassles being taken care of, you can put much more of your focus and creativity into the actual story without having to worry about creating plot holes, mixing up characters’ motivation/personality, and similar critical aspects of the actual story.
When it comes to busy moms, one of the most obvious benefits is the ability to store your ideas/progress quickly and retrieve them on the go when the opportunity presents itself. As a busy mom, you can rarely plan out/or precisely organize your day, so you’re grabbing all and any available opportunity (for work) as it presents itself.
Basically, having story planning software is much like having a personal assistant.
4 Ways Story Planning Software Helps You Stay Organized & Creative
Moms who juggle multiple responsibilities have to constantly manage their time and organize their time. And when you’re doing creativity-intensive work (like writing), these two are essential.
Story planning software offers many features that are designed to streamline the writing process. Below, you’ll find four of the main benefits that these types of tools offer for busy parents.
1. Structure Your Ideas Without Losing Track
Writing is (usually) not a write-as-you-go kind of work. Usually, before you lay down your first words, you’d want to write down some main ideas of what the story will look like. An outline, characters, motivations, plots, and twists.
Story planning tools provide writers with an easy-to-use user interface (UI) where you can store your ideas in an organized manner. You can effortlessly break down the narrative into chapters, scenes, and sections just so that you can ensure a logical flow of the story.
This way, by having a clear plan in place, you’ll have an easier time focusing, managing your workload, and meeting deadlines without being overwhelmed. And you’ll also be able to jump in and out of writing depending on how your day goes.
2. Easier Time Management
Time management is probably the biggest challenge writers face (especially parents!). After all, there are only 24 hours in a day, and each month has a set number of days. It is hard to have a clear timeframe in your head at the stage where the story is just developing in your head.
There are so many situations yet to come where the story might be changed, parts of the story scraped, characters rewritten, etc. And all those (un)expected developments will add to the total amount of time required to complete a project.
With story planning software, you can more easily set deadlines, create writing schedules, and keep track of your progress (which is critical when you’re not working at a fixed/continuous pace).
Break down your work into manageable/digestible realistic goals (e.g., daily word counts, chapter completion dates, etc.).
3. Story Visualization
Visualizing a story is often the start of a writing project. And most story planning tools offer ways for you (the writer) to visualize timelines, story maps, and even things such as character relationship charts.
All of this can sometimes make the writer feel like a detective observing and analyzing a board full of evidence, trying to piece it all together and find the culprit.
Storytelling is much easier when you can place yourself into such an position. This way, even while you’re not writing, but are doing house-related chores, or are perhaps busy with the kids, you have the opportunity to brainstorm and spark new ideas, spot plot gaps, and develop/enrich your story even further.
4. Conquer Writer’s Block
The bane of every writer. The blank screen of doom. The void inside a creative mind. Sometimes seemingly unmovable, and unbreakable. Luckily, story planning software has got you covered with this issue, as well.
This (unfortunately common) frustration can be forced into submission via the many brainstorming features that these tools offer (e.g., writing prompts, idea generation, etc.).
Even if you’re stuck at a current place in your story, that doesn’t prevent you from skipping this part and coming back to it later. Because the whole story is already organized and structured inside the software, you can easily jump to different sections/scenes.
This flexibility allows you to keep writing, even if you’re currently feeling uninspired in one particular part of the story. And that is great for writer moms since the time you get for writing is often limited, so it would be a shame to waste it on something such as ‘writer’s block’.
Conclusion
Writing as a busy parent doesn’t have to feel as if it will never reach the end goal, or as if it is a futile project with no end in sight.
Story planning tools offer to take some of the workloads of the writers, so that they can focus more on writing instead of management and organization. These types of platforms will also offer creative solutions to get you back on track if you get stuck.
If you’re not a writer, then these benefits might not seem that impactful. On the other hand, if you are, then you’ve already realized how impactful it is to have such benefits at the palm of your hand, especially if your writing time is very limited and obscured by other things, like when you’re a busy mother!
With story planning software for writers, you can leave logistics for tools while you focus on shaping words!