TNT 1: Notebooks galore

[azuire]

Good evening everyone (at least, it's evening where I am). Hope you're all well. Welcome to the first Tips and Tricks column! All future entries will be searchable by the "tips and tricks" tag. Members, if you have an idea for a TNT discussion, feel free to PM it to us!

Allons-y!

I like to scribble. My current notebook has several pages that go on in messy longhand. When I was younger, I had my own typewriter and used that to hammer out my work. But to share writing on the internet, I have to type it on my computer, and for this I use OpenOffice: it has very convenient folders. I sometimes use WordPad if I'm in a hurry. I don't like Microsoft Word because it continually eats my work (and corrects my spelling). Recently a friend of mine bought Liquid Story Binder, and I saw another explaining how to use yWriter. Both seem very satisfied with their respective writing programs. So, what do you think about these programs? Which one(s) do you use? And where do you prefer to write, in notebooks, or on keyboards?

Share away :-)

Comments

[mercredigirl]

Oh, hey, Azu.

For me, I like writing longhand; there’s something about notebooks that’s so pretty! I just bought a lab notebook and a smaller journal to keep Biology notes (Molecular Genetics as well as Biochemistry). You know me, I love printing words (and cursive, sometimes).

But, for some reason, I don’t enjoy writing fiction in longhand nearly so much. Typically, I do my drafts in longhand on foolscap, and then rework them using MS Word. Otherwise – as on one memorable occasion – I typed everything out in HTML on Notepad, posted it on my WordPress, and then copy-pasted the formatted text into MS Word.

So, I guess, word processors are indispensable for me (particularly since, in the end, I’ll still need the computer to submit my work if I want to break into the publishing market!); but that doesn’t mean I’m averse to notebooks! It’s like comparing apples to oranges *searches for a more culturally-appropriate metaphor* durian to cempedak, haha. Word processors for their convenience and accessibility, but notebooks for the sheer aesthetic beauty and sensual pleasure of putting pencil to paper. (I can’t live without my notebooks! Give me more! Spam me with them! More! More! *carried away*)

I trust you feel the same about them writey things. ;D

(And, for the record: either glue-bound, hardcover manuscript books, or those black-covered Azone sketchpads. Moleskine notebooks are far too guilty a pleasure for me; I own none.)

[so_wordy]

It's very hard for me to leave the house without something to record my daily thoughts in. Inspiration comes from all places.

For notes and half-baked ideas, I enjoy a pen & paper. I have a writing journal from 2003 that is scarecely used, but that doesn't stop me from scribbling ideas and doodling in the margins! This collective place is ideal because I can go back and search/refine concepts later.

I use a computer often, mostly for posting, but also in the actual writing stage as well. I can type quicker than I write (longhand), but I sometimes find that typed drafts are less vibrant then their handwritten bretheren. Formatting poetry is a nightmare via Word2007, but is has to be done!

Ideally I'll do anything I can by hand. If I hit a creative oil sprig, then I'll type it out (because I'll forget it all too quickly). But I agree with mercredi, there's a certain satisfaction in penning something by hand. My writing also changes according to my mood, so I visually see the emotion I was feeling during the time a piece was written. It's always cool to look back on.

Oh, but I'd secretly love a typewriter.

[pipisafoat]

I've never been able to take notes on the computer. I get way too distracted. "OOH! Internets. OOH! Someone's online, let me chat with them. OOH! Email. OOH! Webcomics. What do you mean, class is over?" However, come studying time, I do one of two things: rewrite notes in a separate notebook or type them. Complete crapshoot which I'll choose.

My notebook of choice is the same for anything - single subject spiral bound, not particularly organized. Chaos = life. (I prefer red for "predominantly fiction" and black or dark blue for "predominantly classes")

[pipisafoat]

It's very hard for me to leave the house without something to record my daily thoughts in.

I love the pocket-sized composition notebooks for that, usually. Unless I'm going, say, for a walk in the woods, then I just take a full notebook and carry it and sit down and BAM! words on a page. I've been known to leave myself long voicemails when I've been driving and unable to stop and write, but then my phone service changed the way it did voicemail, so now I have to leave myself long private-locked voice posts on LJ, haha.

[mercredigirl]

I've never been able to take notes on the computer. I get way too distracted. "OOH! Internets. OOH! Someone's online, let me chat with them. OOH! Email. OOH! Webcomics. What do you mean, class is over?" However, come studying time, I do one of two things: rewrite notes in a separate notebook or type them. Complete crapshoot which I'll choose.

SO TRUE. Nothing beats a notebook when it comes to classroom note-taking.

[mercredigirl]

use a computer often, mostly for posting, but also in the actual writing stage as well. I can type quicker than I write (longhand), but I sometimes find that typed drafts are less vibrant then their handwritten bretheren. Formatting poetry is a nightmare via Word2007, but is has to be done!

I don't write poetry but AMEN to all of this!

[pipisafoat]

I'm a Mac user, though: this is important to me and to this explanation of my computering habits.

I like to work in Pages sometimes, but only if I'm sitting down and working on a long piece straight through and fact-checking later; it's easier to feel like I've made actual progress with it. More often than not, I'll paste my work into Pages to scroll around and look at what I've already written while working on it in my program of choice, TextEdit. I love TextEdit because it doesn't autoformat, it's super-easy to turn off it even recognizing misspelled words (while keeping it autocorrecting my most common typos, which I can set myself), and it looks great in a small window. Yet, if I want to do some tricky formatting, I can do it. I can have a pretty thorough spellcheck, fancy fonts, formatting, etc. For you Windows people, it's like WordPad and TextPad had a baby that looks like TextPad but is smarter and more capable than WordPad. (Because that clearly explains everything.) I like to use TextEdit in a small window, so when I'm writing short pieces, it feels like I'm making loads of progress. Also, TextEdit comes free with the Mac when you get it. Best of all worlds.

Yes, I have Word for Mac. Word is a program I use to check page length. Not even word count anymore. But people are always asking me "How many pages is it in Word?" like that's the most objective way to see how long something is. Whatever, people, I could just change my font size and have A MILLION PAGES! how would that be?

I think I tried yWriter once. Or something. One of those writing programs. I don't really remember it. I am very set in my ways ;)

So, in general, it's pretty clear that I like to use my computer for writing fiction whenever possible. It works better for me. However, I always try to have sticky notes and a wall in easy reach - if I get an idea that doesn't fit in the piece I'm working on at the moment, I want it on a sticky note hanging on my wall, dammit. None of this "make a file for ideas" nonsense - those get lost in my vast lack of organization. And really. STICKY NOTES. They're just awesome.

[pipisafoat]

All Word drives me nuts. I mean, I can handle my own version - I sort of have to; professors are forever wanting papers emailed to them in Word format - but I hope every day that nothing ever happens to it, because I don't know that I could survive the upgrade. Not if what's on the Windows computers is anything like what my next version would have to be. NO THANK YOU.
[I have Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac]

[pipisafoat]

I don't know. I sort of love classes where you sit around and talk and by the end of the semester you look up and say, "Huh. I have three lines of notes for this class. Two of which are me writing down classmate's names." I like it even more when you don't need any more notes than that. (Children's Literature. Clearly the best class I've ever had. Probably.)

[so_wordy]

When I carry my giant purse of doom *shakes*, I throw in my journal for kicks. I was so upset on Sunday because I brought said purse, but forgot the journal--at work, for seven hours, without a place to write on break *head desk*.

Otherwise I usually use the notes app on my phone (or voice recorder when I'm driving =X).

Voiiicemails! Why didn't I think of that?? You are awesome!

[so_wordy]

In college my one friend and I would always laugh at people who asked how many pages it was in Word. We were expected to do MLA formatting so 500 words (double spaced, times new roman, twelve point font, 1" margins) was always equal to one page! People would look at us like we were crazy and we'd crack up.

We iz english majors, hear us rawr.

STICKY NOTES. I have recently discovered my love of the lot. They are my bestest friends at work (ie. Visible all over my desk). My friend had her entire room decorated in sticky notes, all with words she found interesting and their definitions.

[pipisafoat]

In high school (it was a boarding school for science and math nerds), my friend decorated her door with sticky notes and let people write funny quotes on them. With the amount of sleep deprivation going on in that school, there were lots of ridiculous things being said. YAY STICKY NOTES!

Also, I much prefer APA formatting. I even like Chicago better than MLA. Chicago is pretty much exclusively used in history, though. Some English profs give us the choice between APA and MLA - they tend to be my favorites. Pointless opinions: I have them.

[thorarosebird]

Oh hi thar. :3 I'm, like, so totally gate-crashing this new comm. Hope you don't mind. XD

I'm a Word Processor girl. I have loads and loads of notebooks and whenever I get a new one I get all excited, thinking longhand is going to change me forever. But all that ends up in those notebooks are ... notes.

I find it easier and quicker to type, and it hurts my hands much less (I don't think I hold my pens right? I'm sure it shouldn't hurt).

[so_wordy]

hey crasher! :D

I'm the same way with journals. I have so many: one for a novel - which I was supposed to strictly write in for that...but I stopped, one personal, one for notes/creatively explicit, and another that's new! Oi.

Agreed! I can't write for extended periods of time. I hold the pen too tight--is that what you do? My hand cramps up and then I'm shot.

Carpal tunnel doesn't help either (especially when it flares up). I can't write when wearing a brace, but I can still type!

[thorarosebird]

Heeeeyyy, I'm so glad my notifications worked! :P

Oh I have dozens and dozens. I'm always wasting money on fancy ones and thinking THIS IS GOING TO BE MY BEST WORK but it never is. XD I got a really nice one for my birthday earlier in the month and it's like a moleskine and it has a lil pocket in the back for loose papers. :3 I ruined it already by writing rubbish on the first page. Oh well!

I think so. I hold it too near the nib or something. And doesn't it have something to do with what pen you use? Sometimes my handwriting's lovely, but with other pens (I can only imagine it's the pens' fault) it's really cramped and untidy. :(

I don't think I've ever had carpal tunnel. *touches wood* Except when I played a lot of badminton in school! What is it exactly? Is it painful? :(

[effex]

I do the first couple drafts of a piece and all the story notes long hand - it's much easier for me to do brain -> pencil than brain -> keyboard. I type things up in GoogleDocs (I use multiple computers so this is easiest) for the thirdish draft so I can 1) piece it together (I rarely write linearly to start), 2) switch to editor mode to review as I type and 3) send it out to betas.

Large scale revisions are written out by hand, with the file open for reference, before being typed.

I use medium unlined Piccadilly notebooks because they're cheap (the website says $10 but I usually find 'em for $5 at Borders) and sturdy.

I am intrigued by the stickynote + wall system.

[thorarosebird]

We don't have Borders anymore (where I live) so I can't get their nice notebooks anymore. :(

I have the same issue with multiple computers - I wrote on my work and home computer and have to email whatever I write back and forth, and the Word Processors don't match up which can be a huge pain.

[so_wordy]

Yay! And the same thing happens to me with the "best work" thing. *crosses everything out* You can always take an exacto knife to the binding and cut that one page out. I might do that to one of my journals (especially if it's only a few pages).

I just mimed holding a pen. Yeah, I hold it very close to the nib. Any other way just feels awkward for me. Haha, silly pens.

Carpal tunnel is when a nerve gets pinched in the wrist [or as wiki puts it "The canal is narrow and when any of the ten long flexor tendons passing through it swells or degenerates, the narrowing of the canal often results in the median nerve getting entrapped or compressed]. It can develop from injury or age (how I got it, I don't know). Often enough it causes a tingling sensation, hand falling asleep, or mostly commonly for me, a dull aching pain. On rare occasions my wrist will just give out - the muscle spasms and I drop whatever I'm holding. Good thing I haven't broken anything yet!

When I first got this in May '09, I thought I broke my wrist. It felt swollen and I was in so much pain. Thank goodness it's not nearly as bad anymore!

[lalalaleigha]

All of this. Right down to colour choice. *pleased*

[pipisafoat]

weird. weird. do we secretly share some parts of the brain? (i feel sorry for you if so.)

[lalalaleigha]

I am really ridiculous when it comes to writing history notes. I have to write in black ink in a thick spiral notebook in complete sentences. My handwriting is a nice blend of printing and cursive and it looks just so aesthetically pleasing and entirely appropriate to history notes.

My philosophy notes are less precise and a lot more haphazard. Anything goes. Other courses I don't really take notes in. XD whups.

I carry a notebook everywhere for the jotting of ideas. One is full of graphs for various ridiculous things: relationship dynamics, sliding scales of morality, etc. etc. These are my favourite. I will keep them and look at them fondly and with hilarity in ten years.

I have romantic visions of someday having a loft somewhere and typing madly by typewriter against a sunset while wearing suspenders and a fedora and pinstriped pants and smoking a pipe, only I don't smoke, so a licorice pipe will have to suffice.

Word = bane of my existence, but I use it out of habit and personal compulsion for fiction. Word 2007 is two thousand shades of not worth my time. I stole Word 2003 from my ex-boyfriend and, if I can help it, intend never to update. Straightforward interface. No small share of glitches, but acceptable.

[lalalaleigha]

*needs paid account posthaste*

I write papers on Macs at the university so I guess I use MacWord 2007 there. Best Word option. I am satisfied with this but less so with Macs in general (*ducks*) so it's perfect for paper-writing, given that I have no desire to do more than absolutely necessary on a Mac.

[lalalaleigha]

Yesterday I fleetingly thought "ARE WE THE SAME PERSON I WONDER?" and waited for you to say "I wonder if we're the same person" or something, but you didn't, so I firmly believe that we do not share parts of the brain. It was an effective test. XD

[selkath]

I write everything creative in WordPad. It's small, and simple (not a huge mess that looks terrible and fills up the better part of the screen, like Microsoft Word!) I can't write in notebooks, because my hands can't keep up with my head if I'm trying to write in pen/pencil-- not to mention that I start to get really painful cramps in my hand, as well. Plus, I can hang my WordPad document over an inspirational image, and turn on music, so the computer is most convenient.

Admittedly, I drag around little books or sticky notes or my sketchpad to jot notes in, in case I get a particularly good idea at an unfortunate time. I'll also write by hand if I really need to remember something.

[pipisafoat]

That's good, then. Good to know. Unless we secretly do, but the connection is temporarily down due to electrical storm. Or maybe we used to. I don't know. Food + TV instead of thinking, ahoy!

I have Ritz roasted vegetable crackers and various fun cheeses. This counts as a meal, right? (i clearly need to shop but i cannot like this)