[PUBLIC POST] Tools of the trade

[ljwrites]

What do you write with? What's your workflow like? Is there particular software that you like to use for certain purposes, or do you prefer writing in longhand and transcribing to a computer later on? Has technology affected your writing process in any way?

I have a mix of processes. Generally I like Scrivener for its ability to organize snippets of writing and to keep all my research in the same place, but its lack of mobile options means I use Evernote a lot when I'm away from my computers. I'm also fond of longhand writing when I'm in libraries and on public transport. This means I have a lot of scattered notes and bits in different places, all of which I swear I'm going to transcribe to my Scrivener project someday.

A major boon for research purposes is Zotero, a citations database program where I can organize my citations and take extensive notes, with search and tag functions available for later reference. Like Scrivener via Dropbox and Evernote it's all synchronized online, meaning it's automatically backed up and available on whatever machine I log into.

The availability of cloud and synchronization technology like Dropbox, Evernote, and Zotero made things easier in some ways and gave me peace of mind in the form of automatic backup, but I also have a lot of paper notes that are one careless placement or a house fire away from getting lost forever. Better get to it, I guess.

Comments

[ljwrites]

Yay fic!!!

You may be cheap, but you sure are effective at it lol. I don't use minimal or note apps anymore except to save snippets of writing, but I did use plaintext editors for years to write fics and those all look like neat options.

I think you might be right about the problem with Writer, lightweight text editors could get overburdened if you have too many files. Or maybe your phone's performance in general is compromised, or maybe it's a memory problem.

yWriter looks really interesting, if I used Windows at home I would totally give it a test drive. *sadface*

I used Calibre for my own e-book reading and conversion needs, it never occurred to me to use it for my own projects! Awesome idea!

[dhampyresa]

I know me, and there's a risk that the more fancy the writing program, the more time I'll lose messing with all the fancy functions.

yWriter pretty useful in that the import function is super easy to sue and if you follow the conventions, it will even divide your text into scenes and chpaters on its own! And when you export it, it's got every new chapter beginning on a new page. Then off to calibre I go and zoom, here I have a an ebook version of my project!

Having it be a "book" is super helpful to see things different, with the format switch.

[ljwrites]

I love messing with fancy functions, too. It's a weakness of mine. The more I look at it the more yWriter seems like a lighter version of Scrivener, and it has some neat story tracking tools too. I plan to glance through it when I have a little more time.

I'm also getting an ebook reader once I've put this thesis to bed (knock on wood), and it'll be an absolute pleasure to load my own manuscript to it for reading! #goals

[dhampyresa]

I think it got recced to me as a non-Mac alternative for Scrivener, actually. It's got some nifty stuff -- for ex you can store descriptions of characters in separate files and look those up as needed.

EREADERS ARE AMAZING. And having your own novel on it really helps it feel like AN ACTUAL BOOK OMG.