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Monday, April 23, 2012

T is for Tools

My beloved Mac Book Air is going into the shop today - and I won't have her for at least five days. I don't have a 'back up' computer, though I'm trying to borrow an iPad. I digress. The thought of not having my laptop got me thinking about a writer's tools. Not the 'toolbox' in the sense that Stephen King writes about in On Writing (the grammar, the style, the voice) but the actual tools writer's use to organize and produce.






Here's what I use:
Writing
Laptop, small bedside notebook, 4 whiteboards mounted on my office wall for untangling plot muddles, notes for iphone, itunes for music, post it notes (also on my wall, also for untangling plots and motives) stickie notes on laptop

Revising
All of the above plus: stickie tabs, highlighters (at least 4 colors) pad of paper for drawing diagrams, Breakout Novel Workbook, Solitare (when I hit a wall, I do something else with my conscious mind to let the unconscious have a go.) prayer beads. Kidding about that last one, but it's not a bad idea....

What tools do you use?


8 comments:

  1. My writing tools consist largely of a pad (the paper kind) and pencil for writing ideas, notes, and brain-dumping, and my laptop for the actual writing. I'm not very strict on how I use these--sometimes I will use the laptop to outline, and I have written entire short stories in longhand which I have then typed up. But I rarely do that anymore.

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  2. I'm all about a cork, pushpins and note cards. It helps me storyboard.

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  3. I have a desktop, a laptop and a netbook. I have multiple spiral notebooks and a storyboard (corkboard) on my office wall for all those plotting purposes.

    And I'm more of a Minesweeper girl...

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  4. I need more tools and more space! I would love to have all my prompts and diagrams and maps etc on the walls around me but I have to write in the dining room :-( I went to buy coloured post-its and the shop was shut! I'll get there in the end! Great post! :-) LindaK

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  5. I use a laptop now, after many, many, many years of faithfully typing on huge desktops. I also have my external disk drive so I can convert and reformat the files I wrote in MacWriteII and ClarisWorks many moons ago. For my handwritten magnum opus, which will eventually span 12 volumes, I love a beautiful notebook and a nice pen.

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  6. Oh excellent to think about the tools we use as writers. My computer went out a couple of months ago and it was like the end of the world. I also have to use the tool Angry Birds. And my dog for taking walks to get through plot muddles. And my cat for laying on my keyboards (it strengthens my arm muscles) Thanks for posting.

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  7. Nice post. I would be lost without postits and my notebook :) Stopping by from the A-Z challenge, nice to meet you.

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  8. I use a computer and a notebook/pen. I find it helps me to switch between them whenever I am feeling stuck.

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