What Tools do YOU use? How? Why?

Simone.Garick · Dec 21, 2016

Just a quick question for everyone else. What are your writing tools. No need to men tion coffee. That's pretty much standard for all of us.

Myself:
Plotting phase:
A 4ft x 6ft foam board.
* Assorted colourd stick note pads.
* Assorted coulour sharpies
* Binders.
* Ruled Paper
* Glue Sticks
* Assorted coloured Pens
* Sketch Pad
* No 2 Pencils

Writing Phase:
* Scrivener

Reviuewing Phase:
* Ipad
* Kindle

Yeah as you might guess from that. A lot of work goes into the story boarding and research stages of my writing. Why? I find that by making all my mistakes here, I spend less time back tracking when I start writing.

I know there's storyboarding software out there, but honestly. They're all too slow and clunky. There's nothing faster than scribbling on a sticky not and tacking it up, or ripping down a sticky note and replacing it At least for me. I use various coloured notes to indicate various arcs and various sharpies to indicate timelines The useage varies as required by the story, but at the end of the day I can step back and just by looking at the distribution of ocolour on the board I can determine if I need to rework the beats.

Scrivener is my current software of choice despite how they seem to treat their windows/linux users as second class customers, I haven't found a piece of software that makes non-linear writing so easy. A close second is yWriter but so far as I know you can't split sections on the fly like you can with Scrivener. Free though Quollwriter is an upcoming one that I am keeping an eye on.

AGain tried others but m,ost of the other features really don't make sense to me. The notes and character bios that they track are something that has always made me wonder. If you as the author can't keep the characters straight ine your head, then chances are your readers are going to have it worse. But that's just me and I honestly have yet to write a full length novel. My current longest piece is 35K words.

I find using a physical biunder to be much better at keeping tabs on these things. I can look that up while typing without changing my gui or iunterface.

when done I export things to the ipad and kindle and read them. I find this more than anything gives me an idea of how the text will shape up on the page. great for avouiding ye old Wall o text scenario or too much whitespace.

So That's me.

How do you writer?

jjdebenedictis · Dec 21, 2016

Notebook and pen.

Computer with MS Word on it.

dpaterso · Dec 21, 2016

Brain v1.0 running Seat Of Your Pants, the choice of pro pilots.

I always start off in Notepad2, plain text editor, no fancy distractions, and slap that stupid idea down fast before it gets trampled by all the other stupid ideas.

When the story blooms and things get more complicated and better formatting's needed, copy to old faithful MS Word 2000 and continue writing there.

Once the draft is done, I make an epub file using Calibre and read this, making note of any blips, correct and repeat until final draft.

-Derek

Cindyt · Dec 21, 2016

Computer, keyboard, MS WORKS, google docs, Internet, printer, computer paper, sticky notes, black pen, a honking round-ring notebook, filler paper, & dividers.

neandermagnon · Dec 21, 2016

Tea here, not coffee :greenie

black, no sugar. Usually PG tips (I'm not rich) but I have various posh teas like Twining's Assam, English Breakfast and Earl Grey for special occasions.

Scrivener, dictionary dot com, thesaurus dot com, hard copy of OED (for when I don't trust dictionary dot com's British English section, but usually it's good so the OED's usually just sitting on the shelf), the internet for research, a very comfy armchair and a small Ikea coffee table that cost about £9 and is just the right size for putting a laptop on in front of said very comfy armchair and my book nook, which is basically my armchair and coffee table in a corner of my living room next to my bookshelves and my guitar. The guitar isn't strictly necessary for writing but my book nook would feel empty without it.

And my brain. Mustn't forget my brain. It's the latest model: Homo sapiens sapiens. Upgraded from Homo ergaster with greater language capacity and enhanced creativity and problem solving.

SinceIWas7 · Dec 22, 2016

Pen and paper for me to scribble on. And atm using an free word doc app on my IPad. Just recently got MS Word but no plans to use it until I get my rough draft done anyways.

And visualization would be another one I guess. It helps me think when I'm stuck on a particular scene.

Bacchus · Dec 22, 2016

MS Word user here, 2010. I also use Calibre for converting anything from a single chapter to a whole draft to read on Kindle, it seems to give a much better "feel" on Kindle.

I also use a mind-mapping tool called XMind (freebie v6) for plotting and scribbling notes and Dropbox so I always have access to notes and drafts even on someone else's PC.

Celtx for writing scripts - the shortcuts and formatting options make it a lot of fun

Albedo · Dec 22, 2016

Laptop, sketchpad, mechanical pencil. I mainly use the latter to draw characters and maps and the like. Occasionally I've written a chapter so complicated I have to diagram where the viewpoint characters are at any one time, but not often. Most of my story notes are in my head.

davidh219 · Dec 22, 2016

Scrivener, Wikidpad, a fat journal and pen.

ChopinsMuse · Dec 22, 2016

During planning stages, I usually use a notebook and pen. I like starting stories on paper, then transfer them onto Microsoft Word (latest version). And then I backup, I backup ceaselessly. This is done on Google Docs and a USB.

Sometimes I use loose sheets. Again, to plan the story or merely draw characters and list their traits and interviews. To keep this all in place, I use a purple binder folder.

And music! Never forget the muse, or the music.

MarkW · Dec 22, 2016

MS Word 2010
Yellow Legal Pad – Pen
Thesaurus
Imagination
Read Read Read
Write Write Write
Oh, and read read read, write write write

Marlys · Dec 22, 2016

Primary: Head, Google Docs, Chomebook.

As needed: OED Online, CMoS, research books, Google Sheets (for scene mapping), pen & paper (useful for plotting out who is sitting where, otherwise notes are in a Google Docs file), calendar printed out from sunrisesunset. com and/or timeanddate. com to keep chronology, length of day, and moon phases straight.

Albedo · Dec 22, 2016

A lot of sketch pads, writing implements, and the like here! It seems like drawing is an important part of the writing process for a lot of us.

Taylor Harbin · Dec 22, 2016

One of several manual typewriters, a Pilot ink pen, a spiral notebook, two dictionaries. That's for first drafts.
To finish up, I always scan and save my work before converting it to a Pages/Word file and then edit.

AW Admin · Dec 22, 2016

I'm moving this thread from Basic Writing to Roundtable, where I think it's likely to catch more eyes.

KTC · Dec 22, 2016

MSWord

LJD · Dec 22, 2016

jjdebenedictis said:
Notebook and pen.

Computer with MS Word on it.

Yep, me too.

technoglobe · Dec 22, 2016

Word, Scrviner, my pinterest inspiration boards, and a notebook.

Dennis E. Taylor · Dec 22, 2016

Microsoft OneNote, Word, phone for recording quick ideas throughout the day, and the google.

For quick technical questions, AW Story Research forum, or physicsforums.com for the really abstruse stuff.

Carrie in PA · Dec 22, 2016

Oh goodness, I'm kind of afraid to list it all out.

No coffee here. Tea. Pepsi. Water.

Non-electronic:

I use Blue Sky Smart Notes notebooks. They're 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. Perfect size to carry, plus I like the sturdy plastic covers. I don't like floppy notebooks. And, of course, since I love them, they're getting harder and harder to find.

Pilot Frixion gel pens. Erasable. For reals. I ♥ them.

3x3 post it notes

Those little post it flags.

1 1/2" D-ring binders. I print out my first drafts and read the hard copy & make notes.

Big (2' x 3') dry erase board & rainbow of dry erase markers

-----------------------

Electronic:

I use my iPhone to text myself notes.

MS Word

Scrivener

Google docs

Google

Hemingway App

I have two laptops. My main laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad workhorse. My second is an HP Stream that I use when I write outside the house. I got it because it was cheap, so if it gets lost/stolen/damaged, I'm not out much money. I write in Google docs in it, so I'm also not out much work if it gets lost/stolen/damaged.

About 10 years ago, I invested in a laser printer that prints duplex for printing out manuscripts.

-----------------------------------

Of the above, what do I *need*?? Pen, paper, laptop & Word. And Google. And Pepsi.

The rest are niceties that make things a little easier and more fun.

WriterBN · Dec 22, 2016

Scrivener, and assorted beverages. A music source.

That's pretty much it.

DrDoc · Dec 22, 2016

I use MSWord, Excel, and later, a physical story board. Though I didn't use that for my last script. I found Excel works just as good. I view a story as finding all the stepping stones going across a creek. For me, the story has to follow a logical sequence; the stepping stones (which I list in Excel) is a great help. Once I find all the stones, then I start paving a road from one stepping stone to the next. Then I look back and, if satisfied, ask myself where I can add detours and twists. But that part is all in my head.

I saw a poster once, it said: WRITE, WRITE, WRITE! Not necessarily in that order.

Regards,

DrDoc

Layla Nahar · Dec 22, 2016

Notebooks, loose-leaf paper, textedit, MS Word.

Bacchus · Dec 22, 2016

Carrie in PA said:
...I have two laptops...

Oh, yes, forgot the laptop which is actually an essential piece of kit! I bough a "ruggedised" Dell when I started the first novel which is an amazing piece of kit. It has a mechanical keyboard so plenty of feedback for typing (don't get on with the modern scrabble-letter type stuff), it has a (touch) screen which is daylight-readable (can read it even in direct sunshine), it is water (beer, tea, coffee...) resistant so any spillages can be rinsed off, and in theory it can be dropped from up to 2m without damage so can be lugged around on my little boat or in my little camper-van; I just love heading off with the lappy and writing a few chapters in the middle of nowhere!

jjdebenedictis · Dec 22, 2016

Hot Take: Chocolate is the best way of ingesting caffeine. I will fight all nay-sayers.

But I will lose because I have eaten too much chocolate recently. **rolls around menacingly**

What Tools do YOU use? How? Why?

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