Now, don’t get me wrong. I croon over elegant pens and smooth Moleskine notebooks. I could easily be buried in Post-in notes and pencil crayons. I have art books and notebooks of all shapes and sized for all purposes. When they play the Staples ad, you know the one, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year?”
Yeah, that’s me.
But the bulk of my writing is done on computer. Even when it’s not, when I dally with pen and paper and write longhand for a while, it still has to get into the computer somehow. And as particular as I am with my pens and notebooks, I am just as particular with my computer programs.
The Big Daddy of my writing life is Scrivener. As I’ve bragged elseweb, I bought a MacBook to get Scrivener. Until then, I’d tried all the PC alternatives I could find, in particular Liquid Story Binder and PageFour. I still get hits on my blog for these two programs even though it’s been over two years since I’ve used either one. (You can find my old computer program page listed above under, “Back In The Old Days.”)
And that’s the thing. I can’t honestly recommend them anymore because it’s been years since I’ve used them. Try them out; they both have a free trail period. Honestly, any program besides a regular word processor will make your life easier. Trying to manage the amount of data generated from writing a novel was near-impossible for me. While I might have had my quibbles with this or that feature in the program, they were a greater help to me than ever a hindrance. (That said, Scrivener will be beta-testing a PC version this fall/winter, with a projected release in February of 2011!)
Anyways, back to Scrivener. It is my one-stop drafting, assembling and storage utility. It can handle huge documents, multiple chapters, PDFs and image files, and offers outlining and cork board tools. In short, it’s frickin’ awesome and with the imminent release of Scrivener 2.0, it will be doubly so. Especially drool-worthy is the ability to sync Scrivener with other programs on other platforms.
Like, the iPad.
Second only in my heart to my MacBook, the iPad has been a wondrous surprise. And as much as I use it to surf the web, keep up with emails, manage my Twitter and Facebook feeds, sort through my RSS items, and more, I also like using it to write.
The virtual keyboard has not been difficult to master. If you have any experience with a touch-device like an iPhone or Android device, you know what to expect. While I can manage 60-75 words per minute on my physical keyboard, I can routinely get 40 words per minute on the virtual keyboard (so long as I am sitting up straight). It is a fraction of the size of my laptop, making it much more portable. So portable, that I take it to writing group meetings now instead of my laptop.
The only chink in the armor was getting words off of it and into my computer. There were several great programs to use (and to find out more, I heartily recommend IpadGirl’s webpage and her Twitter feed for the latest on writing- and art-related applications) but they each were limited. No formatting available and the only way to get it out of the application was to email it to myself and then copy and paste it into Scrivener.
Well, no more. Scrivener 2.0 offers file and folder syncing between a selection of programs, notably Notebooks for iPad and SimpleNote. Incessant squeeing and seal-like delight followed. (Can I use ‘notably’ there? Hee.)
Other tools that have become part of my creative stable on the Mac are MacJournal, something I fell in love with early on, Notebook by Circus Ponies and Evernote.
MacJournal is my electronic filing cabinet. All the items I find on the web worth saving, be they articles on writing advice, interviews with my favorite authors, information on the publishing industry or weird news clippings that spark story ideas, go in here. Every file is tagged and sorted, offering a plentitude of advice or inspiration at the drop of a hat.
Notebook by Circus Ponies is a program that does the best impersonation of a physical notebook that I’ve ever seen. You can write your files on lined pages, can scribble real writing with your tablet accessory, and even use Post-its, highlighters and stickers. I use it for all my own writing, things like ideas of mine that I’ve fleshed out to some degree, snippets of random writing, and writing exercises that I try. The interface is personal, so I keep the files in it personal, with a different notebook for each different purpose.
Evernote is my mobile Swiss Army Knife. I keep files that I need on the go, part of my attempt at the Getting Things Done philosophy (yes, I drank the Kool-Aid), but it is also the dumping ground for ideas I have — whether they are stray thoughts, cool dialogue, an idea for the current WIP or an idea for a short story or novel — when I can’t write them down. I used to, and still do, carry a small hard-backed Moleskine for my ideas, but I don’t always have it with me. I always have my phone. And since I have Evernote on my iPhone, iPad and my computer, that information is always accessible. I’ve had Evernote pretty much since the get-go, but it wasn’t until GTD that I started using it effectively.
So, there you have it! These are the programs that I use, that I love, that I couldn’t imagine being without. It’s also a giant love-letter to Apple and all fellow Macheads.
Once you go Mac … 
