Why Evernote is Great for Writers

Photo credit: Johan Larsson on Flickr

We live in a world inundated with technology. Laptops, desktops, tablets, e-readers, iPods and smartphones have become a part of our daily lives, and as these various devices become more accessible and economical, the trend will only continue.

Chances are you probably have at least two of the devices I've mentioned above, which brings up an interesting situation for writers who like to use these devices to write on the go—how to sync your work across devices.

There are many different methods and applications—both easy and cumbersome, free and paid—to help people synchronize their work or share documents across their devices, or from a public computer to a personal one. My method of choice, as you could probably guess from the title, is Evernote.

For those of you who don't know, Evernote is a note-taking application with free storage up to 60 MB a month for computers, tablets and smartphones, and it's quickly become one of my favorite note-taking apps.

I know I don't normally talk about technological things here, but with NaNoWriMo less than a month away, I'm willing to bet many of you are preparing for the big event with brainstorming or plotting or whatever it is you like to do in anticipation of a new WIP—and Evernote is a fantastic tool for recording and organizing those preparations. And for the record, I'm not being paid to write about Evernote —I'm just sharing this tool with you guys because I enjoy using it.

So why is Evernote so great for writers? One word: synchronization.

Most writers are not just writers, and even when individuals do write for a living, there are still life things that pull them away from the computer, and thus, from their writing. People often suggest that a writer should always carry a small notebook around so that they can record ideas and inspiration that hits them while they're away from home, and it occurred to me recently that you don't necessarily need to carry around a physical notebook as long as you have a smartphone, tablet, or some other portable device that you carry with you throughout the day.

You see, Evernote can act as that notebook—it's a virtual storage bin accessible anywhere as long as you have a portable device, and even if you don't, the website version is still accessible on any computer with an internet connection, public or otherwise.

So maybe you get up early to get some brainstorming in before you leave for work or school or whatever engagement you have for the day, but you don't finish as much as you would have liked. If you write your brainstorming in Evernote, you can access it later and write more while you're away from the computer. The beauty of it is when you return home, the note will synchronize automatically, so your updates are there to continue off of at home.

It's a wonderful thing, and it's helped me tremendously with completing blog posts, organizing notes and keeping track of various ideas for WIPs and otherwise, all accessible to me away from my computer.

It's simple, it's easy, and I can't recommend it enough to writers. If you haven't already, I hope that you check it out.

What tools and applications do you use for writing tasks, on the go and otherwise? Any recommendations?

Patience: A Virtue

When I wrote about being absolutely positively 100% sure that you were done editing your WIP before submitting to agents or uploading to Smashwords the other day, I noticed a theme cropping up in the comments: patience.

Ohh patience, you tricksy hobbitses you.

Patience does not come naturally to me, and I have a sneaking suspicion (correct me if I’m wrong) it doesn’t come naturally to many of us. Most people aren’t born with a large dose of patience (although some are blessed with more than others); it’s something we learn to embrace over the course of our lives.

Don’t believe me? Look at kids. Kids are about the least patient people on the planet. And it’s understandable; they’re kids. We don’t expect them to be patient. What about the elderly? As a whole, much more patient. Now of course, I’m making broad generalizations. I’m fully aware there are some patient kids out there and I’ve met some rather impatient senior citizens, but in general, patience is something we develop as we get older.

At least it was.

Nowadays we’re becoming accustomed to everything happening now. We have instant streaming online, music we can download in seconds, internet connections that (when working properly) get us from page to page within the blink of an eye, books we can download in minutes, on-demand movies available at our fingertips, now, now, now!

Not only that, but things are getting faster.

Ten years ago if a webpage took a minute or two to load, no one threw a fit about it. If downloads took five or ten minutes, we’d groan a little, but it wasn’t a big deal. Not so much today. Unless you’re downloading something HUGENORMOUS (like, say, Mac OS Lion?) we expect downloads to take a few minutes tops. Anything beyond three minutes is taking too long.

Technology is teaching us it’s ok to be impatient. It’s conditioning us to on-demand, to instant results. And I’m certainly not complaining about it, I like instant streaming and quickly loaded pages and speedy downloads.

The problem arises when people apply the expectation of now to other parts of their lives. Like writing. Writing is not a now industry. Writing takes time, editing takes time, and up until recently, publishing took time.

But once again, technology stepped in and told us it’s ok to be impatient. It gave us e-book publishing and offered us the gleaming red apple of now. You can get published now, it said. See? It’s easy! Just upload and press this button and voila! You’re a published author!

This is where traditional publishers are starting to run into problems. Why wait two years to get published when you could have your e-book up tomorrow?

So it’s true that publishing doesn’t necessarily have to take time anymore, but writing still does.

Repeat after me: writing takes time. Let me add to that, writing takes time and it always will. It doesn’t matter how quickly you can upload to Kindle or Smashwords or wherever you want to e-publish your book. Technology is getting faster, yes, but we aren't.

Here’s an important distinction: speed in technology = productivity; speed in humans = sloppy.

We can only work so quickly before we start to lose quality. We’re not computers guys, we’re only human. We need to take time in our writing, and we need to take more time in our editing.

Here’s a confession: I am currently working on a WIP that I’ve been slaving over for going on two years now. Granted I took a six month break, but that’s 18 months of writing, of editing, of re-writing, of re-writing, of gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair and REWRITING AGAIN.

Is it done yet? Nope. I’ll probably be re-writing it at least one more time. At least.

I know not everyone will take as long as I do, and that’s ok. Everyone is different; some people will take longer, some will whip out a fully polished manuscript or two a year like a machine. And that’s ok, too.

Guys, it’s entirely possible to get a first draft down quickly. But editing. Editing isn’t like that. You need to take time between edits to see your manuscript with fresh eyes. You need to let betas read it, critique partners rip it apart, then you need to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until it glows like the Eiffel tower at night (which, if you've never seen it, is very pretty and glowy).

So does writing require patience? Not always. But good writing does.

And it always will.

Have you struggled with patience in your writing? Tell me about it in the comments below! 

Confessions of a Techie Book Lover

Photo credit: Witer on Flickr

I am very picky with the things I love, namely: writing, reading and technology.

I’ve talked about being picky with my writing. It’s called perfectionism. 

I’ve mentioned that I’m picky with what I read when talking about my epic TBR pile (which I REALLY need to get started on).

Technology…now that I haven’t quite covered. You’re probably thinking, well duh Ava, this is a writing blog, not a geeky technology blog. And that’s true. Except as well as being a reading/writing/movie/CG/X-Men/Harry Potter/Photoshop geek, I also happen to have a love for all things technological and it totally relates to writing/reading, I promise.

Before I buy any new technology, I read the reviews. Actually, that’s a bit misleading; I live and breathe the reviews for at least a day (usually more like a week) before I make any decisions. And if the reviews are bad, guess what? I’m not spending my money on it.

I also have this really bad habit of falling in love with technology I totally can’t afford (can you say MacbookPro?), but that’s another matter entirely.

So what does this have to do with all things literary, you ask? One word: e-reader.

The e-reader combines two things I love the most into one boss item, so you’d think I’d totally jump onto that ASAP, right? Well…

As of right now I don’t buy e-books. It’s not because I thumb my nose at self-publishing (I definitely don’t, I have mondo respect for all you indies out there), it’s not because I think e-books are inferior to actual books (even I will tell you that it’s the writing that matters, not the format), it’s not even that I love the new book smell so much I don’t know what I’d do without it (ok, maybe it’s a LITTLE bit that). The reason I don’t buy e-books, guys, is just that I’m really picky about the way I read.

Technically, I have an e-reader. It’s called an iPod Touch and it’s a little bit frightening how addicted I am to it. I take it everywhere and I don’t even use it to listen to music half the time. And yes, I’m fully aware that I can buy e-books on it, in fact I’ve even downloaded a few free samples to try it out. And although the samples were all fine, I wouldn’t read anything more than quick excerpts on it. Why?

Two reasons:

1. The screen is too tiny. I don’t know how many of you have an iPod Touch or iPhone or have played around with one (I’m willing to bet it’s most of you, though), but that screen is tiny. It’s fine for playing games, for listening to music, even for jotting down little notes. But reading? I don’t know guys, I just don’t buy it.
   
   I have pretty decent eyes, I can deal with the tiny type (and I know I can make it bigger if I want to). What annoys me is only being able to read about a paragraph before I have to flip to the next page. The reading experience goes from flowing through an entire page (or two, depending on which page you’re on) to something like this:
   
   Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl. The girl met the boy and…
   
   …decided she didn’t like him very much but the boy liked the girl very…
   
   …much.
   
   Ok, lame story, I’m feeling a little lazy right now but that’s not the point. The point is that having to “flip” to the next page every few sentences drives me crazy.
   
   
2. The battery life. I don’t know what the official count for iPod Touch battery life is (I don’t have the newest one either, so it’s probably not as much as the newer models), but I do know that if I read on it all the time, it wouldn’t last very long. As it is I often have to charge it part-way through the day because I’ve overused it and it’s 3:00 and my iPod only has 20% battery left and it keeps giving me these little notifications that say I’M RUNNING LOW ON BATTERY and I’m like OK, OK iPOD I’LL CHARGE YOU IN A MINUTE and it’s like CHARGE ME NOW I’M RUNNING LOW, MY BATTERY IS RED, SEE?
   
   Now imagine trying to read while having that (totally normal) argument when your iPod. Maybe you could deal with it, but I can’t.

Now technically I have another e-reader, too. It’s called a laptop. And technically I could download e-books for reading onto it. And I’ve tried.

But guys, six years of reading work that needs editing on my computer has trained my brain to think if I’m reading it on the computer it isn’t finished and I know that’s seriously nitpicky and I’m sorry but that’s what it feels like to me. Not to mention that reading on the laptop screen gets tiring pretty quickly anyway.

Ok, ok, so obviously my solution is to go out and buy an e-reader. And I’ve tried a whole bunch of them out in the stores to see how I like them.

Well guys, I found one I like. Remember that bad habit I mentioned? The one about falling in love with technology you can’t afford?

Yep. I decided that the iPad is the best fit for me. Crap. (I’d go into huge detail about why I think the iPad will suit me best, but this blog post is long enough as it is.)

Seeing how I’m still saving up to replace my laptop, I don’t think I’ll be buying an iPad any time soon. Will I cave in and dish out money for a cheaper e-reader before then? I don’t know, it’s certainly possible. We’ll see how I feel around Christmas, I suppose.

One thing’s for sure though, I have a nice list of e-books in my head that I will most definitely be downloading when I do get one.

So what do you guys think? Am I being too nitpicky? (It’s ok, I know I am). What e-reader do you use if you have one? (I like reviews, remember?)