Monday, June 3, 2013

Which Tool is More Productive?


I was thinking about this earlier today and thought I'd list which writing tools I've used over the years and which were the most effective:



  1. Receipts - At most these tiny scraps of paper are good for writing titles, character names, plot points and premises. I doubt you could write a full book on them. (10 - 50 words)
  2. Moleskin Notebook - I've only owned a few of these. They work pretty well when you have an entire scene you want to block out or some snappy, yes, I just said 'snappy', dialogue that you want to get out. (50 - 100 words)
  3. Blank White Paper - 8x11 white printing paper has become the bane of my existence. Yes, you can carry out a scene on one, even several. But, damn are they easy to misplace. I won't write on these unless I absolutely have to. I use them to make lists of ideas. (100 words)
  4. Electric Typewriter - Used one once and nearly threw it at the wall. Typed only three pages and gave up because the damn thing was out of whack and kept erasing my stuff. (0 words)
  5. Legal Pads - If they are the small, spiral ones, I can get a lot of work done. I don't enjoy writing longhand but lately I've been able to attack my stories (10,000 words) at a time with these things.
  6. Laptop - So far, on laptops I've had quite a bit of luck. I pounded out one novel.  (90,000 words)
  7. Desktop Computer - First novel was written on an Acer Desktop that was very slow. (87,000 words)
  8. Tape Recorder - I was able to block out a few scenes from my first novel onto this thing. It helped with dialogue. (10,000 words)
  9. Blackberry Phone - Lately, I've been having a great time typing story ideas as well as whole chapter on my blackberry phone. Recently I had to discontinue my service on the phone to get a cheaper plan but I still keep the phone in order to write more books. Its great. It's portable, simple, and I can transfer all the files via USB port. Just like a compact typewriter in your pocket. (30,000 words.)

So what is your most productive writing tool?






1 comment:

markmccluretoday said...

TaskPaper has some potential as an outliner.
See Elizabeth's post:
http://www.elizabethshack.com/blog/2013/01/16/using-taskpaper-as-an-outliner/

I use ByWord on the iPhone to write snippets and ideas (but not yet stories). Really useful on the trains here.