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Note taking and writing tools - What do you use?

Posted by dougist • 8/29/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: blogger, blogging life, getting started, journals, mark twain, tools, wordpress

We are all writing feverishly, masses of content spilling into the blog sphere every day. My sense is that we are not all just typing into a WordPress or Blogger screen in Firefox. There must be something else that you use to capture thoughts, organize ideas, and consolidate them into finished work.

My favorite tool is Journler (I wrote that I think Mark Twain would have used Journler if he were a blogger)

I also use WriteRoom and (for the big stuff) Scrivener.

So what do you use?

Here's one of my posts about my writing tools: dougist.com/index.php?p=25

Doug

User Comments

8/29/08

8MinutesOld

Ball point pen and paper. I don't want to live in front of my screen ;-)

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8/29/08

Shiley

PP I use my brain and I'm always coming up with new ways to search positive news in my search engine. My Thoughts I use my brain and sometimes my stumble toolbar. The Heart of a Mom I use my gram's book. I really should work on that blog more.

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8/29/08

MidwestMom

I am a parent -- whenever I and my children are outside (and I'm not in my garden) I use a legal pad and a pencil.

Sorry to disappoint.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  No disappointment...I know a lot (a lot) of people who use paper based systems. I remember being in a very high tech world and the predominate tool we had were spiral bound, graph paper notebooks. I still use a modified hipster PDA (a pile of 3x5 cards) when I'm out.
2. 8/29/08
  
  MidwestMom
  
  ha. hipster pda -- very funny.
  
  I think it is interesting how very low-tech many of us are. When you're 'wired' all the time, it can be somewhat soul-killing.
3. 8/30/08
  
  dougist
  
  I can't take credit for the term or idea "hipster PDA". The idea has a remarkably vast following, with people coming up with pages and designs. I'd say it is one of the hotter topics in productivity blogs. I'd add links but there are too many,
  
  This one from Merlin Mann is a start: www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda
  
  (it may have been the first)
8/29/08

ThriftShopRomantic

I write notes when I'm out and about on whatever I have handy. But then I've had some luck typing them into individual unpublished entries in Blogger. That has helped me have a nice little archive of ideas to draw on.

Sometimes I compose my posts in MSWord or TextEditor. But most of the time I just compose in Blogger.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  So you use "Drafts" as a small repository of work, interesting, kind of an on-line file of "in process". I have a few hundred items in Journler, I don't think I could get them all up loaded, even if I wanted to. But I guess the idea is that the journal becomes the blog over time, a published repository of thoughts...
  
  Jen, your work is so well crafted and cleverly written I bet you go through a number of drafts.
2. 10/03/08
  
  ThriftShopRomantic
  
  Gosh, thank you (sorry- I just saw this now and I see your comment was from a month ago!)
  
  I usually don't do a full draft, and then go back and do another draft. Instead, I tend edit as I go, over the course of a few paragraphs at a time. I lose the tone if I get too far before smoothing things out.
8/29/08

aningeniousname

My head is my note book, inside it looks like a very scruffy office. There are post it notes stuck all over the peeling walls and in the middle of the room there is a desk with one leg thats just a touch too short, which is covered with all the stuff I have got to do next. Things go from the post it notes to the desk in roughly a clock wise order.
It's not perfect but it's a system.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  lol....I had a closet like that once, or was it a bad dream after a eating a martini olive that had gone bad, I forget....
8/29/08

blogonsmog

24" widescreen display and two copies of notepad side by side on the screen. The left copy is cut and pastes from multiple websites for text of interest on the topic I want to write about. The right notepad is my version of my writing. I use notepad because that way I am sure of not getting any embedded stuff that my blogger tools will croak on. I learned that the hard way.

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8/29/08

sayzlim

I use mindmap software to save my idea, I'll use search engine If I need information...

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8/29/08

SweetViolet

MS Word. I started using Word in 1988 or thereabouts, before the PC had a mouse and the Macs was a tiny little box with a 9" screen.

I've been with Word on two platforms and through every iteration until present day. I know it inside and out and since I type WAY faster than I write by hand, typing it up in Word and then copying and pasting to the blog is the most efficient way for me. I can even multi-task with Word, letting my fingers drain the composition out of my head while another part of my mind answers the phone, watches TV or listens to Hubby (that particular ability is strictly limited to whatever I have already composed in my head...I can't multi-task while composing!). After decades of keyboarding, transcribing everything from Dictaphone tapes to voicemails, taking minutes of lively board and engineering department meetings, and running my own word processing business, Word is my very good friend and trusty companion!

Except when I write poetry. Then I have to have pen, paper, and privacy.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  So do you keep a folder of old .DOC files and search through it occasionally?
  
  I've been chatting with a productivity consultant who has a single *huge* txt file that he adds to and edits with Emacs. He says if goes back to the 1980's and is full of all his notes and ideas. He uses this as a mine for his material at work and in his (very successful) blog.
8/29/08

blogonsmog

Has anyone used an automatic article writing program as a starting point just to get around the writer's block. With the intent of significant rewrite of course. I tried downloading one program but what it spit out I didn't really understand so I gave up.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  weblogian
  
  Have you seen this
  
  Tool for creative writings
  weblogian.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/tool-for-creative-writers-novelists-an...
  
  Using Jarte as a tool to write/Design your blog Post
  weblogian.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/using-jarte-as-a-tool-for-writing-your...
2. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  No, but I will open a random page in the (paper) dictionary and read few entries. Its amazing what that can get started in your head.
8/29/08

EelKat

I sit in my garden with my 13 cats and write everything out in long hand with pen and paper, than at night me and the cats come inside and I type it up on MSWorks so I can spell check, than post it using FireFox browser so that I can double spell check.

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1. 8/29/08
  
  dougist
  
  What do the cats use? (sorry, couldn't resist)
8/29/08

CrystalRaven

I have a black spiral bound 9 x 12 artists' sketch book, that I put everything in, notes, poems, sketches etc

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8/29/08

kdawg68

pen and paper...and if I'm marking up a daily racing form, it has to be a red-pen so that it sticks out to me.

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8/30/08

dougist

Did everyone spend the day outside with a paper and pen jotting ideas for this week's posts?

I find that I get a lot of good writing done on the weekend.

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8/30/08

Davidlind

I use a small recorder that I can put in my shirt pocket. I have great ideas when I am driving and I will never remember them unless they are immediately transferred to something. When you are driving you don't really have a lot of options. So the recorder really helps.

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8/30/08

Nomadic

As a writer and artist my moleskin is never far away. When I travel I take a digital recorder to help with interviews.

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8/30/08

clioandme

Dougist, maybe you should have pointed out in your OP that you were talking Mac apps. I have some posts about Mac applications here: homepage.mac.com/markstoneman/mac%20applications.html , but I just realized that I never blogged about information management, say with Tinderbox, DEVONthink, Circus Ponies Notebook, YoJimbo or iData.

For blogging I find that MarsEdit does enough, unless I need to sort something out, in which case I find mind-mapping with Incubator to be helpful.

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1. 8/30/08
  
  clioandme
  
  P.S. Lately my Mac favorite is VoodooPad.
2. 8/31/08
  
  dougist
  
  I was actually surprised that no Web 2.0 applications made it into the discussion (yet). I would think that thin client tools like google docs would be a natural for bloggers to use to manage the inventory for their writing, especially since we all seem to be twittering here and stumbling on there....
  
  (I've been going through your list Mark. Its extensive. A nice piece of work)
3. 8/31/08
  
  clioandme
  
  For web applications, how about Google Notebook instead of Google Docs?
  www.google.com/notebook/
  
  You could also use a private blog with it's tagging features to keep track of and comment on data.
  
  Here are articles that shows how to use web apps to collect, organize, and harvest data: www.micropersuasion.com/2007/02/transform_gmail.html
  www.micropersuasion.com/2007/12/become-a-knowle.html
  
  Course the increasing ubiquity of ads can be a turn-off.
  
  A serious alternative to Google Docs with many more web apps on offer is ZOHO: www.zoho.com/
  
  All of this is only useful if you are at your desk or somewhere where you are able to open up a laptop. Seems many people here are talking about capturing ideas when they first occur.
4. 9/28/08
  
  dougist
  
  OK Mark, Its all your fault. Because of your post I tried Google Notebook and now I can't get away from it. Its filling up rapidly with clips. My core tool is still Journler, but GNotbook is great for catching the ephemera that would otherwise just pass by.
8/30/08

jackpayne

Mark Twain was a cool dude. Never undestimate the achievements of a cool dude.

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1. 9/05/08
  
  dougist
  
  So true Jack
8/31/08

hollywoodchainsaw

i have three Sony digital tape recorders

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8/31/08

chrisskoyles

Blogging is about the only form orf writing where I Don't use pen and paper first.

I generally carry two small notebooks with me everywhere for jotting notes and things down, but then for doing any kind of propper writing, it's out with the pencil and the A4 block of paper, write down a first draft and then type it up on good ol' office.

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8/31/08

DaneMorgan

TreePad, Google Notes and a legal pad

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8/31/08

RichManofAction

A nintendo gamecube, bottle of jack, and a wench. The autoblog is fueled by badass most other times.

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1. 9/01/08
  
  dougist
  
  That sounds like my buddies who run our gaming (BF 1942) forums. Funny how some of the best stuff comes out that way...
2. 9/01/08
  
  RichManofAction
  
  your buddies need to reevaluate their methods
9/02/08

annz

What an great question. I wish I were better at being organized with my notes. I do use my blog drafts as ways to keep notes for future posts. I even have one draft that's just titled "post ideas" where I can jot down quick thoughts for future posts from whatever computer I'm on. I also send myself a lot of emails, and with gmail, I can tag them, though it's still very disorganized with it. I've tried google docs, google notebook, pen and paper, word docs and other methods and just still haven't found anything that works well for me, I'm still searching.

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1. 9/02/08
  
  dougist
  
  Thanks annz!
  
  The Gmail to yourself idea is a great trick. Back when I had a BlackBerry strapped to my hip I used "emails to me" as a form or todo list and a way to get ideas to my team.
  
  I've tried to break myself of the paper and pen habit using iphone notepad and all, (not easy when one's addiction to Levengers was so serious they sent thank you cards) but when I'm in the Bobst (library) all I see around me are kids with piles of paper. Under-grad and grad students are not picking up the web 2.0 thing at least not that I can see.
  
  The cool thing I've found in having electronic notes is the ability to find relationships and connections that are not obvious from a linear read of chronological notebooks.
9/02/08

ranist22

Pen, pencil and paper for short notes.

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9/03/08

BlogDogW2

Good old classic pen and paper when not using keyboard and screen.

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9/03/08

suburbqueen

Good old-fashioned pen and paper. When I'm ready to type, I simply use wordpad and copy and paste to Blogger. It's just the way I've always done it.

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9/04/08

sanjidas

I really hate typing. I don't do it unless I absolutely have to.

Paper frees my mind. My innermost thoughts flourish best on paper - preferably bound in a small pad.

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9/04/08

drjay1966

I'm completely illiterate, so simply dictate everything to my cousin Huey, who has a computer.

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9/05/08

voodooKobra

I've mentioned this before, but my previous method has been obsoleted by a surplus in supplies.

I have 5 notebooks randomly scattered across my bedroom. If and when I have an idea, I flip one open and write the idea down. Whichever one is nearest to me at the time. Then I toss it somewhere. (I also have a whiteboard for important stuff.)

When I'm going to write something, (I first consult the whiteboard, then) I grab a notebook at random and flip through it. If I don't feel inspired, I toss it somewhere and grab another one. If after going through every notebook I have no topic, I go watch CNN and History Channel until someone says something stupid, or I flip through Wikipedia for controversies that make no sense.

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9/05/08

qelqoth

"There must be something else that you use to capture thoughts, organize ideas, and consolidate them into finished work."

I can't vouch for the rest of you but I tend to use my brain. It's always been regarded as the main tool in my writing arsenal. Other than that, I use emacs/vi for drafting up new articles and after that, I follow up with a bit of proof reading. A strong cup of coffee works wonders as well.

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9/05/08

wehireu

Ballpoint pen and small notepad for taking notes on the train.

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9/05/08

Onchong

Steno notebook. Know shorthand writing and use it most of the time. Fine point blue and/or black ballpen.

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9/05/08

poisonapplesauce

I voice record to my blackberry

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1. 9/06/08
  
  dougist
  
  Cool... does it transcribe out? And what kind of editing do you have to do afterwords?
2. 9/08/08
  
  poisonapplesauce
  
  nah, unfortunately not, however being as lazy as I am, I just forward it to my vonage voice mail and it sends me a voice to text email. I know there are other ways but this one I can do from my couch.
  
  After that I copy paste into wordpress and run spell check, maybe fine tune a few things and publish
9/08/08

dougist

So you paper and pen folks...you take notes in a journal, and then one day copy out some notes into a draft, then re-write the draft, then type it into WordPress or Blogger, or whatever? Isn't that a lot of work?

Shelby Foote wrote all of his books longhand (he thought it "monstrous to have something like a computer between me and my words") But he was able to send his pages off to a publisher for the hard work of keying it in. Seems like we have that extra step of "typesetting" internalized in our little blog industry, and that adds an extra step or two when we write drafts out in longhand.

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9/28/08

blackzero85

metapad and acdsee for capturing images.

Actually, I am also FAQ writer so writing tool like metapad is pretty important for me. Notepad and Paint are pretty useless... but eh, it's personal taste.

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10/03/08

napalmtongue

I use MS Word. Then I save all the articles/writing to organized files by month and year.

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10/03/08

dosox

I signed in at Blogger and then starts typing...
I tried to note down some points at first but it doesn't work with me.
I have to be there at Blogger by no means...

STICKIES saves me once in a blue moon.

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10/03/08

timethief

I don't take notes in longhand nor do I develop posts that way either. Doing so was too limiting and also created redundancy as I had to type it all again later. I have online copies of my notes that can be used in many ways. I make them in either a text editor or an offline blog editor and that's where I also develop them by fleshing them out, and editing.

If your are typing directly into a blog software editor and the site coughs or goes down you lose ALL the data that does not make it into the data center. I don't take this risk anymore because such is not the case when you use either a text editor or an offline blog editor. You can publish directly to your blog when you are ready and you always have a back-up of every post.

Here's a link to a review I did of free text editors onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/free-plain-text-editors/
onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/offline-blog-editors-reviews/
Here's another link to a review I did of free offline blog editors that you can write in and publish directly from to your blog onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/offline-blog-editors-reviews/

When I'm out and about I have tiny notebooks that I pick up cheap from liquidators. They fit in a pocket or purse so a scribble enough to have the gist in them.

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10/03/08

maccasenior

Windows Live Writer

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10/04/08

mikodragonfly

For Novels and Short stories, I use yWriter and Liquid Story Binder XE. For blog entries, flash fics, and poems - a good old text editor works best for me - I use GetDiz for that.

When I have to do my final edits/formatting on long works - I usually export to Open Office and and go from there.

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