So, in line with my obsession with Nerd-Nerdy-Nerdinson the III gadgetry of the nerdy variety, I want to share my list of gadgets that are neato for writers.
Novel Writing:
Scrivener, a complete Story Crafting Tool (vs. just a word processor) allowing for all of the elements of a novel to be stored together including notes, ideas, pictures/sketches, outlines and notecards. Nifty tool for getting a story done!
Screenplay Writing:
Final Draft. Yeah, everyone knows final draft for screenwriting, I know, but it's worth noting because it has massively powerful features. Notecards view that is separated from the screenplay in that you can go in and make cards first and then write the scenes. Also, Collabowriter aka their chat system which allows for transfer and editing to be done on the fly online. Pretty cool.
Online Writing:
Google Docs (formerly Writely.com). Google's purchase of Writely was a pretty good idea as the site is pretty brilliant. Online Word processor that, aside from being fully featured, allows you to export to .doc, .rtf, .pdf and open office format. It also lets you email a "document" in, taking the body of the email as the document and subject as the filename. I use it constantly, especially for quick notes (the sort I used to email to myself).
Of course, there are also all sorts of gadgets that let you write electronically, anything from trusty old laptops (see: cheesy heart icon superimposed over my mac), writing only devices like the Alphasmart Neo, Portable PC-type devices like the Pepper Pad, portable fold-up bluetooth PDA keyboards and even phone/note devices like the T-Mobile Sidekick and Sony Mylo.
Do any of them actually replace the solid pen and nice notebook? Probably not. Do they increase productivity or creativity or story quality due to their nifty organizational functionality? Maybe... but people have managed to write without them for a long time. I figure, why pick one method. Use everything.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Thought Experiment
"Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist's business is lying." - Ursula K. Le Guin (from the introduction to "The Left Hand of Darkness")
Manufactured Truth: Where does it come from, what is it, and why is it so desirable?
I think a lot about what it is that makes people sit and read, sit and play games or sit and watch. There is something meaningful that happens in the process of entertainment, and I think I agree with the authors of "Rules of Play" when they say it's interaction with others, real or imagined. With games it's easy to disassemble - you input, you receive a response.
With movies and books and things... it's a little harder. What is it that people receive from the experience of riding along with the experience in a manufactured reality? Memories, I think. Memories of these places you've never been, but through the emotions described and subsequently experienced in these locations they become so real and so tangible that it's like a photograph you can go back to and look at.
Readers remember a time when they read a book that completely absorbed them to the point where the words on the page became a liquid mess of symbols representing ideas representing images which are absorbed by the sponge of your mind.
Of course, simplifying the experience to such a mechanical level is as betraying to the core of the enjoyment as is completely dissipating it's meaning into a cloud of existential idealism... (wow that sentence sucks)
Reading is enjoyable because you like the stories. Writing is enjoyable because the stories spark in your mind and exploring them is frequently more fun than reading them, at a deeper level of commitment.
Manufactured Truth: Where does it come from, what is it, and why is it so desirable?
I think a lot about what it is that makes people sit and read, sit and play games or sit and watch. There is something meaningful that happens in the process of entertainment, and I think I agree with the authors of "Rules of Play" when they say it's interaction with others, real or imagined. With games it's easy to disassemble - you input, you receive a response.
With movies and books and things... it's a little harder. What is it that people receive from the experience of riding along with the experience in a manufactured reality? Memories, I think. Memories of these places you've never been, but through the emotions described and subsequently experienced in these locations they become so real and so tangible that it's like a photograph you can go back to and look at.
Readers remember a time when they read a book that completely absorbed them to the point where the words on the page became a liquid mess of symbols representing ideas representing images which are absorbed by the sponge of your mind.
Of course, simplifying the experience to such a mechanical level is as betraying to the core of the enjoyment as is completely dissipating it's meaning into a cloud of existential idealism... (wow that sentence sucks)
Reading is enjoyable because you like the stories. Writing is enjoyable because the stories spark in your mind and exploring them is frequently more fun than reading them, at a deeper level of commitment.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Strange, they are, the things you do when you're not writing.
Let me back up a bit. I write. I "enjoy" writing, which is to say that if no one pays me to write or even acknowledges my writing, I'll continue to do so. As it turns out, no one currently does either, so it stands to reason that I'm not full of whatever it is exaggerators are full of. I assume it's 30% crap and 60% sawdust with the remaining 10% being a sweet cotton/poly blend and unidentifiable "materials". Sort of like a pillow. "Enjoying" writing, I think, says nothing about state in which you perform the task - bitter, frustrated, snippy, aggravated, malicious and unapproachable are all reasonable ways to describe folks who enjoy writing at certain times throughout the process. It is, as they say, all good.
I'm also a student... English, currently. This, of course, provides me with endless hours of things to do. Frequently those things are... reading and writing.
I like making lists, but not of things to do, things to get. I'm a gadget fanatic. I usually write about my gadgets, both ones I want and one's I've acquired.
I enjoy movies, and also writing about them and writing them. I enjoy photographing digitally, video and stills.
I like music, making it, listening to it and writing about it.
Why do I say they're funny, those things you do when you're not writing? I can't really think of anything I don't eventually write about.
I'll try to limit it to the interesting items here.
And that, as they say, is a quick bio.
Stay tuned for sporadic, random and nonsensical postings.
Let me back up a bit. I write. I "enjoy" writing, which is to say that if no one pays me to write or even acknowledges my writing, I'll continue to do so. As it turns out, no one currently does either, so it stands to reason that I'm not full of whatever it is exaggerators are full of. I assume it's 30% crap and 60% sawdust with the remaining 10% being a sweet cotton/poly blend and unidentifiable "materials". Sort of like a pillow. "Enjoying" writing, I think, says nothing about state in which you perform the task - bitter, frustrated, snippy, aggravated, malicious and unapproachable are all reasonable ways to describe folks who enjoy writing at certain times throughout the process. It is, as they say, all good.
I'm also a student... English, currently. This, of course, provides me with endless hours of things to do. Frequently those things are... reading and writing.
I like making lists, but not of things to do, things to get. I'm a gadget fanatic. I usually write about my gadgets, both ones I want and one's I've acquired.
I enjoy movies, and also writing about them and writing them. I enjoy photographing digitally, video and stills.
I like music, making it, listening to it and writing about it.
Why do I say they're funny, those things you do when you're not writing? I can't really think of anything I don't eventually write about.
I'll try to limit it to the interesting items here.
And that, as they say, is a quick bio.
Stay tuned for sporadic, random and nonsensical postings.
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