[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

[alexseanchai]

Evernote looks a lot better for my on-the-go writing than whichever Notepad app I have on my phone. (I was looking for something that functions like Notepad for Windows. I failed to find this thing.) Since it's free, I'ma give it a try. Can't possibly be worse—the Notepad app I've got, when the keyboard's visible, does not hide either the filename or the ad, which leaves room for exactly two lines of text—and your rec suggests it's much better. Thanks!

On the computer I only use Scrivener, unless I'm trying to copy something into Scrivener, in which case I copy it to Notepad for Windows first and then cut from there to paste into Scrivener to strip the formatting because otherwise something will go sideways. Except when I have no choice but to work with docx files, in which case I use LibreOffice, which frankly sucks but then Microsoft Word sucks harder (not least because it not only costs a substantial sum, where LibreOffice is free, but is now on a pay-per-period rather than a pay-once-and-have-done). Or when I'm fiddling with HTML, in which case jEdit is my fave. So much better than Notepad for Windows or any Office product, at least when it knows it's working with HTML instead of plaintext. And I do like playing with raw HTML rather than WYSIWYG HTML output; much easier to get what I want that way.

[jazzyjj]

I used the free version of Jarte for a little while in Windows, and found it to be very nice. I also had good luck with Ms Word and, back when I used DOS, WordPerfect. On the Mac side of things, TextEdit has worked great for me thus far. I had a brief look at Pages and was impressed with it. Thanks to Apple's accessibility enhancements to Pages, I might start using that more for writing purposes. There's also a very good guide to Pages on a website I frequent which is dedicated to discussion of Apple's accessibility features for people with low or no vision. In addition, I want to try out MarsEdit once I get an external hard drive for my MacBook. I honestly haven't had time for much pleasure writing lately, but that will hopefully change very soon.

[inkdust]

I'm still keeping up my longhand writing a large percentage of the time, but everything has to end up typed eventually, and editing is done exclusively on the computer.

For official work, I use Scrivener for its scene/chapter organization - haven't managed to make great use of its outlining or research collecting features (yet?), but when I'm scrolling through 80k in Word looking for the right scene, I remember why I do novels in Scrivener.

But also like you, the lack of mobility has become an obstacle. After I set up my Dropbox folder to sync with my documents folder, it was amazing to realize that I could access anything anywhere, on my phone exactly the same as my computer - except any work in Scrivener. I mean, it's there in case of hard drive crashes, but impossible to work with. So I've taken to using Word for everything non-novel. It's also nice to be able to send files to my writing club buddy or anyone else without going through the exporting, or accidentally making edits in the doc and then having to copy them back by hand into Scrivener.

For notes I'd already been using OneNote for a while, ever since they finally launched for Mac and their iOS app came up to par. I always wanted to get into Evernote because it's not Microsoft and all the cool kids are doing it, but I came to hypothesize that everyone's brain must work better with one or the other, and OneNote is the one my brain likes.
[The tabs across the top. I neeeed the tabs - across the top and down the side. It's so orderly. It's so beautiful. Haha.]
And OneNote becomes a go-between in a sense; I can refer to it whether I'm working in Scrivener or in Word. And I use it for everything else in my life, with the same phenomenon as Dropbox - access anywhere. What a crazy time for information.

[tblspoon]

I would love to be able to type the story directly into the word program. Unfortunately, I am much more productive when I handwrite the scenes and ideas. Later, I transcribe the notes into LibreOffice and sync with GoogleDrive. Occasionally, I type in notes with KindleFire w/wireless keyboard, and then sync with GoogleDrive. I like the simplicity of LibreOffice and it's word count tool. Rarely at 2 am or so, I use a Voice Recorder app to make scene notes to transcribe later.

Recently, I started to use a spreadsheet to keep track of word counts, story summaries, and story status(wip/complete/oneshot).

[dhampyresa]

I wrote a fic!

Hypothesis in scarlet (3765 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Wanda Maximoff, James "Bucky" Barnes
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie)
Summary: Don't bring a formerly brainwashed assassin to a mutant fight.

--

I mostly write on my computer, using FocusWriter (free). Until very recently, I used Zenwriter, having somehow gotten over two years worth of free trial (instead of two weeks). Zenwriter's fullscreen was better, but Focuswriter lets me keep several documents open at once and can be resized if needed, which is very useful.

I also sometimes write in Notepad (or similar). I always hardcode my HTML anyway.

On my phone I use Writer (also free), but it hasn't been working so good lately, I think I might have too many files in the folder? Idk.

For editing, I supposedly used yWriter5 (free) and now use yWriter6 (free too), but I am bad at editing and so have not gotten quite so much use out of them yet. I do like being able to say where scenes are and store those locations (+ important objects + what characters are in what scenes etc) outside of notes, though.

I've made extensive use of the "convert to format" option in Calibre (free) to turn projects into epubs with chapter formating so I can read them as "books" and not "that shitty draft I spend a year banging out".

APPARENTLY I AM HELLA CHEAP (also I have four different wordcount tracking spreadsheets, lmao)

[jae]

I love me some Scrivener! I write shorter things in Word, but I'd be lost without the ability to keep all of my research on hand with anything long.

I'm actually one of those weirdos who can't seem to write ANYTHING longhand, anymore--I even take just casual notes into a note on my phone or on my laptop. And with longer things, I'd just be lost without the ability to cut and paste, move things around, all that stuff. People who write fiction longhand baffle and amaze me.

-J

[lizbee]

New subscriber, aiming to become a member!

I use a whole lot of programs and systems, depending on what I'm writing. Fic nearly always goes into Google Docs. Original novels, Word and Word Online. (If I save the file to Dropbox, I can use my Office subscription to edit it in my browser at work when I don't have more pressing duties.)

I've tried several times to use Scrivener, but although I like it a lot, I just can't get my head around it. And it's not as portable as a cloud-based word processor.

All that said, I'm also Team Longhand -- especially when I'm stuck on something, switching to pen and paper forces me to slow down a bit and think about the work differently. Even if I just write a couple of paragraphs by hand before switching back to the digital version, it helps build momentum. (Plus, I just enjoy the act of handwriting.)

[chordatesrock]

Scrivener is so worthless for sharing things it isn't funny, but it's not a bad tool for when I haven't shared any of what I'm working on, and I love the ability to hierarchically organize a story. OTOH, it's such overkill that often I just end up creating projects called "misc[fandom]shorts.scriv" because do I really need a new folder and a new file and all of Scrivener's many incredible features for something like The Lady's Gifts? No, I do not.

...But then sometimes I think "lol, I'll add a 63verse folder to miscpernshorts.scriv and write a couple thousand words of genderbend" and then I. Well. Do not do that. Instead I end up having to move the whole thing to a new project and that is kind of annoying. But I love how it lets me play around with subfolders and stuff. Because sometimes being able to put each chapter together in its own folder is AMAZING and I love being able to see my scene list all laid out like that and it's really the best.

OTOH, every now and then, Scrivener accidentally eats my files or becomes unopenable, to the point where I have had to open my damn fics from the command prompt to figure out what has gone so badly wrong.

But for certain projects, you just can't beat a hand-drawn handwritten tumblr mockup for demifiction in sort of an AUSJesque vein. And of course GDrive is better if you don't have consistent access to one machine or want to share things.

One thing is I actually enjoy Scrivener's ability to open two things side-by-side and compare them without having to open them sequentially or switch back and forth. I've used that twice recently. Once in putting together my notes for something, because I needed both an original work and someone's mondegreen-filled misparsing thereof (and then I needed to consult the mondegreen-filled version while writing the scene it's described). And once to make two scenes hit roughly the same beats and make sure my phrasing was just similar enough to make it sort of echo weirdly, to make it clear to the reader and to a character involved in the situation that these two scenes were meant to be compared to each other.

So yeah, Scrivener for the... something other than win. Scrivener a large fraction of the way! I love Scrivener but now and then it really does irk me quite a lot.

And I love things which autosave. Usually.