I am a couple of posts behind so today and tomorrow will be doubling up on posts to catch up so apologies for double emails in your inboxs.
I decided today would be a good day to share with you some of the writing apps I use and my thoughts on them.
So first up we have Scrivener a tool many writers will be familiar with, I love using this especially in the early stages of writing story outlines as the corkboard feature is great for shuffling things around. I decided to show you a screen shot from my Voices manuscript and as you can see from the number of stories down the side it has evolved from ten stories to a few extra which is part of the reason for the delay, I did toy with doing it in two volumes but have so many other things I want to do I decided that I would rather do one decent volume then get on with other stories.
Next up from the same people who developed Scrivener we have Scapple, this is a new app for me and I only have the 30 day free trial at the minute until I decide if I really need it or not. I love mind mapping and it is a lot of fun to use one drawback is remembering to change the orientation for the paper if you want to print off your mind map and I will admit it would probably be just as easy if not easier to doodle on paper but this does have the advantage that you don’t have to struggle to make up what you wrote at a later date and you can move things around if you find one area becoming a little congested.
Next up Freedom, I decided to give this a go after hearing Zadie Smith mention using it, the concept is really easy it imposes discipline to resist the temptation of Facebook and twitter for you. I am trying this with a 5 day free trial, you set how long you want your internet blocked for and can schedule which days you would like it to run on then it stops you being able to access the internet for those hours. You can over ride the system by restarting the computer if you really, really need to but but I have to confess I am finding this one really good however remember to set your preference to allow you local network if like me you have a wireless printer otherwise that won’t work either.
The Magic Spreadsheet is the brainchild of Tony Pisculli and I know I have mentioned it before but it is worth another mention, if you have trouble getting into the routine of writing then this helps inspire and encourage you to form that habit. So far this year I have written every day even if only a few hundred words.
Evernote is an app I have but I really do not use it as much as I should. It is similar to an online scrap book where you can save images, websites, articles etc, it also now syncs to a desk top version which I have installed as I intend to start using it more now to tie in with the Freedom app so I can access research without needing the internet on.
Finally the last app I am using is Pomodoro which is aimed at helping you develop better time management, it allows you to focus on a specific task for a period of time normally twenty- five minutes although I prefer thirty minute sessions then a break in between each task to encourage you to get up and move rather than spending all day sat at the desk.
Do you use writing apps if so which ones and why?
Paula Acton 
I don’t use any and I didn’t know there was so many of them out there. Do they work really well? Or could you just as easily track yourself on paper about the same? Which one is your favorite? And I would freak if my internet was turned off. I NEED pandora on to write.
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Great post, some things I’d never heard of but will definitely check out now 🙂
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Some good ones there – I’ve heard of most, use some, and I also use Aeon Timeline, which is great for keeping control of a timeline with different arcs – you can plot characters against events, track how old they are and what time of year it is.
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I will be checking these out. Thank you for the information.
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