Curio and Curio-ser
So I meant to work on Zelda, I really did, but I was working with the Curio software, trying to get some images together so I could figure out who she is and get her motivations, flipping through tons of photos from the Daily Kos post I blogged about a couple of months ago, and I kept finding images and thinking, That’s not You Again, but it is Always Kiss Me Goodnight, better save that for later when I finally have the skills to write that one. So I started to save a file of Always images. And then I got obsessed with those images, and since Curio will let you keep making the board bigger and bigger and I lost my grip.
Curio is really organizational software, a place where you can keep project plans and notes and many other things. Or as the site says, “Curio is the ultimate brainstorming and project management application — a flexible and powerful environment which promotes visual thinking for gathering and shaping your ideas, while managing all the notes and documents associated with your project.” But what I love about it is that it gives you idea boards–like a white board in your computer that’s also a bulletin board–that you can put images and text on and move around easily and quickly. Which means I can now collage in my computer. (You can download Curio here but it’s going to cost you after your fifteen day free trial.)
And now I have to go back to work on Zelda, but I feel like I’ve made real progress on a book that’s been sitting on my shoulder for years. Maybe that will be the next one, I don’t know. What I do know is that collaging in the computer just inspired and nailed down a lot of things about that book, and I am jazzed. And a Curio fanatic now. (And a big thank you to Heidi Cullinan for finding this software and showing me her gorgeous story boards so that I wanted to do it, too. I owe it all to her.)
Crap. Ya’ll are making me reeeealllly want a Mac.
Because what you and Heidi are doing is too cool for words!!
Now, how do I justify this and still get the write-off….:-)!
Chelle
Get a Mac mini, Chelle. It’s $600 and you hook it up to your existing monitor and keyboard. And then you can get Scrivener and Think and CoolIris, too. Not to mention iTunes and iPhoto and . . .
Macs. They’re not a computer, they’re a religion.
Oh Wow! - what a cool collage. And we’re hearing about a new book idea. Always Kiss Me Goodnight looks a bit eerie and chock full of characters. Can’t help it, but I’m already projecting some of my “James Spader off of center” characterstics into the images.
Zelda will be amazing also. Can’t wait to see her Curio collage.
This blog sure has me thinking about the world of Mac also.
Oh, man. I was looking at this thinking, “Oh, man, just what I need, more software,” and then I looked at Curio and went “hey, this looks a lot like Inspiration, which I already own. I wonder…?”
And it works. Probably not as well as Curio, but very well (and it is available for Windows, for those of you in the Dark Ages who still wanna play.) Cool! I get to waste time cheaply for once!
Oohh, looks like you’ve got pictures from that naughty movie The Secretary. I like James Spader–very charismatic and delightfully deviant.
The images have a gothic feel. I miss gothic novels.
And I want that house on the lake.
What an awesome collage - shapes and symmetry in the way the images are arranged - and lots of Eerie Trees. But definitely darker atmospherics, between the ETs and Burning Bushes…
Jenny, it’s wonderful! I absolutely love the colors and the MOOD. Wow.
And EVERYBODY should be on the Mac. And definitely buy Curio.
Wonderful collage. I adore it. It reminds me of my collage for Beyond the Shadows, which is a contemporary Gothic. (Unfortunately mine is photos cut from magazines, etc. not nearly as gorgeous as this.) But it’s got the house, the trees, a citrus grove, and storms, and a dead witch who won’t cross over. Heh.
Love the gorgeous hunky guy, all that kissing and stuff, and then more stuff, which of course you can’t show us because it would be x-rated …
Ooooooh, a mini. Now, there’s something to think about!
Great idea, thanks!
chelle
I love the title, Jenny. And is that Maggie Gylenhall (? spelling). I realy like her. Just saw Stranger than Fiction and she’s delightful in that.
It’s an impressive coallge. Very atmospheric.
That is amazing. I think it’s cool how you do all that visual stuff, but it’s visual overload for me. I think. I don’t know, maybe if I did with my own stuff…maybe.
It sounds like we’ve been living parallel lives, at least as far as the work goes. I’ve spent a lot of time collecting pics, trying to pin down some characters, in the last couple days. Only I just use Fireworks to do what you’re doing.
What do Curio or Inspiration do that I can’t do in a graphics program? Ooh, or Visio (or whatever it’s called these days)? Not lobbying for them instead, just wondering if folks, like me, who already have those would gain any benefit from adding either of these two.
Anyone have any have knowledge of both kinds of programs?
Great title, BTW. ;+)
Which version of Curio? I went there and I had choices! Argh indeed.
My neighbor is the computer/tech person at our local junior college. They use all Dells, but at home she has Mac. She swears by it, and has almost convinced me that maybe I should get one. After looking at your collage–wow. But what is a “mini” Mac? Never heard of that. Could I hook it up to my Dell laptop, perhaps? Slave it in? Or just buy a cheap monitor? I already have an extra keyboard.
Love the images for Always. Different sort of book for you. Looking forward to hearing more about it.
Kat–thanks for the link. I checked out Inspiration and realized it would be awesome for my girls and their reports for school also, so I could justify spending the $$$. (Found one on E-Bay a little cheaper…) gotta love the Cherries and Jenny–always learning something new.
Gina, I got the professional version because it had a presentation feature and I do a lot of teaching. But the regular version does pretty much everything I’ve done here, I think. Heidi knows Curio better than I do and there’s an entire thread about it over at CherryForums.com under the Writing Life Topic.
Sheri, the Macs all come as one piece now, monitor and processor, except for the mini, which is this little white box that has everything except the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so if you want to switch over from a PC processor, you can. And there’s software that will allow it to easily run PC programs, too, so you get it all. Go to http://www.apple.com. The info is all there.
I am a Mac evangelist since 1987. Sorry.
Thanks, Jenny. I’ll head over to the CherryForums.