I use lots of tools when I write, though some of them aren’t recognized readily as such.
Many of my contemporaries use Scrivener, and yes, I have a copy of it. But what it does seems to me to be what I already do in my head. And in order to do that it seems to make more work for me in advance.
I know they’re going to argue with me, so I’m just putting up a virtual hand now and telling them I’m happy that it helps them. I am always in favour of anything that helps people get the job done.
I use a word processor. That’s probably my number one tool. It isn’t Scrivener, it isn’t even Word.
And before you start …
No, it isn’t WordPerfect, though I think I could probably use it if I had to.
I use a Word clone called Open Office. It’s stable, supported, and able to read and save many different document formats.
That formats thing is important to me, because I sometimes receive documents from people who write in old word processors that came with their vintage machines. If I can’t open it, I can’t edit it and if I can’t save it in some format they can read I can’t send my edits back to them.
But we’re talking about writing here
Yes, writing, not editing. Another one of my tools is a website called Dogpile. Dogpile is a search aggregator. It uses some of the top search engines to perform searches, and then curates the results. I like this approach to research because I’m not getting results that are biased by my search engine.
Yes, I also use Wikipedia, but I never take it as gospel, though I often find it has a better handle on reality than many other sources online.
Next up?
I rely on my spell checker a fair bit, but I have it set to American spelling for work purposes (I write for Americans). Often when my spell checker is telling me I’ve spelled something wrong I realize that I’ve just used the Canadian or British spelling and in many instances that’s a good thing.
But if I need to go outside my spell checker’s abilities (and those things aren’t infallible, which is why they always have an “add” button on them) then I again use an aggregator, the Free Dictionary by Farlex. It gives me definitions from several well known dictionary sites.
Well defined
Additionally, the Free Dictionary does give me a lot of information and that helps me find just the right word. And sometimes I have it in my head that there’s a word I’m looking for, that is just beyond my grasp. Farlex also accesses and aggregates the thesauruses of all those dictionary sites as well.
And that resource is worth gold to me.
And lastly?
And lastly, because I find it hard to read on my wordprocessor without editing, I’ve discovered that one of my favourite tools is actually one that I was dead set against for a long time. I use my Kindle.
I’ve discovered that I can export my manuscript to a portable document file (PDF) and load it onto my Kindle where I can read it at my leisure without the annoyance of stopping to edit things.
I’m currently reintroducing myself to my characters and getting ready to take a run at the last twenty thousand words of my novel, and I’m thrilled with having the ability to read without being distracted by my keyboard.
So there you have it, I may be doing things in odd ways, but they work for me and I’m good with this. If you think any of my resources can help you, then I’m happy I shared them. If not, I’m still glad I was able to give you some options to ponder.
Now …. go write.
