[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.

[ljwrites]

One thing I like about Evernote is that it can be as simple or fully-fleshed as you like; there are functions like notebooks, tags, sharing etc. but you don't have to use anything you don't need. It can be as simple as a notebook app if you so desire. I've found the default notebook apps underwhelming on whichever mobile device I've had, and Evernote is one of the first apps I download to a new device. Transcribing to a computer is easy as well, since it has well-functioning desktop and web versions.

Does Shift+Ctrl+V work for pasting without formatting? I think I used it for Scrivener when my home computer was a Windows machine, but YMMV. I hate how hard it is to get this option to work on a Mac.

The pricing policy for MS Office sucks, yeah. :( I found LibreOffice to be a decent alternative but lacking in compatibility for delicate mission-critical formatting. (Which doesn't matter in most fictional works, of course.) I also got MS Office 2013 free through my school, though it's not my go-to for fiction writing.

I love text editors geared toward coders, with the syntax coloring and especially the ability to work with regular expressions. I've used EditPad and NotePad++ on Windows. It's been a while since I've done HTML or other coding work, especially since FanFiction.Net now accepts the .odt or .doc files that I can export from Scrivener projects. When I do have coding work to do again I'll definitely watch out for JEdit.

[alexseanchai]

Yeah, I was messing with Evernote a bit last night and I like it. Rec most definitely appreciated.

Shift-Ctrl-V? Never heard of. Shall have to try! Thank you!