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Thursday, May 01, 2008

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Good Tips for Keeping a Writers Notebook

- Rob Bushway

Any aspiring writers out there in GottaBeMobile land? DailyWritingTips, a blog I thoroughly enjoy, has some really good tips for keeping a writers notebook, which is an essential tool for collecting thoughts on that budding article, story, or novel. Of course, we highly recommend using Tablet PC tools like InkSeine, OneNote, Evernote, and others for keeping the notebook. Any way you choose to do it, though, is up to you. The important thing is that you write - frequently. Personally speaking, I always try to carry a small Moleskine with me for those times when an idea suddenly comes to mind and I don't have my Tablet PC handy or fumbling around with stand-by and starting the app would be too slow.

Writing every day

One of the best uses for your notebook is to get into the habit of writing every single day. There are lots of different ways to approach this; some which have worked for me (not all at once) are:

  • Write first thing in the morning
  • Spend five minutes writing at some point in the morning, and five minutes in the afternoon
  • Write just before going to bed
  • Jot down some notes before starting on your “proper” writing session of the day

Of course there’ll be days when you feel uninspired, when you have nothing you want to write about, or when you’re hectically busy. But if you’re going to stick with writing fiction long-term, it needs to become part of your daily life.


5/1/2008 12:29 PM MST  

Good Tips for Keeping a Writers Notebook     Comments [3]  |  Digg This |  del.icio.us |  Citations 
Thursday, May 01, 2008 2:09:53 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
Regarding Tablet PC fumbling, one of the reasons I stick with Windows Journal is that it launches quickly. It's a great "staging area", and entries can be exported to more powerful apps if need be.
Thursday, May 01, 2008 6:19:26 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
I highly recommend "Note2Self" from, I think, WebIS software (Pocket Informant folks). I have it set to a hot key on my phone, and whenever I get a quick script idea or similar, I just punch the hotkey and dictate a memo, and it goes to my inbox, where I can transcribe it at leisure.
Jeff_R
Friday, May 02, 2008 12:07:14 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)
I also usually have a Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook with me for the same reason. I love my tablet, but it's not going to be up and ready in <1 second from a cold start any time soon. Paper is just really good for some things!

My old advisor, Randy Pausch, used to sometimes make fun of students with their palm pilots a bit. He always carried a little organizer with a pad of paper in it. Someone would mention a phone number or address, and a student would pull out a palm pilot. "I'll race you!" Randy would say, and pull out his notepad. He would scribble down the number and have it put away before the student had even managed to pull the stylus out of the palm pilot... and that turned on pretty fast.

So, as much as I love tablets, they still have a long way to go. The slow turn on / start up time is the single greatest impediment they have to getting wider use, in my opinion.
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