Some fluffy paragraphs about linear writing.
Fewer fluffy paragraphs about non-linear writing.
Leading question: Can you relate to this?
Convenient link to the author's product, which is, you guessed it, a non-linear writing application.
This is just an advertisement.
There are also tools like https://gingkoapp.com which helps with structured writing and allow to move or "reattach" entire subtrees of a document.
My personal favourite is to use lots of separate text files (.md or .tex) and a top level "main file" which includes the desired sections. I find a single level of includes works best since you can see exactly what is going on in the main file, whereas if you include files that include other files, things get complicated real quick!
Pro tip for working with multiple .tex files: if you start each of the included .tex files with
%!TEX root = mainfile.tex
the multi-file authoring experience becomes much better ;)What I mean is that I somewhat doubt most people fall into either of these two camps. I would bet most work linearly, keeping in mind vague parts and ideas for elsewhere - maybe keeping notes in AN extra document, but also not limiting themselves to working strictly forwards.
Until there is a medium of non-linear consumption, I am skeptical of the need for serious tooling around non-linear documents besides what we already have (mind maps, graphs, etc - all things with products for them but ultimately the biggest thing keeping this from translating well to the computer is the mouse and keyboard, not the software)
Could someone enlighten me?
This is bottom up design instead of top down. An episode is good if it can stand on its own, but there is no need to work on them in any particular order.
Think about it like a process of discovery. You can get an idea for a different part of the whole while working on something completely unrelated. Current note taking tools do not help with this - dumb post it notes are better.
So while eventually every story becomes linear, the thinking required to get there works best with more dimensions.
Did you know writing is literally stone age technology? True story.
The serialized list of symbols we use to exchange thoughts doesn't have enough features for the modern world. It takes too much effort to serialize (write) and deserialize (read) information. The knowledge should be separated from the way it happens to be displayed to each individual person.