Creative Technology -- Writing Technology

On Wednesday, I talked about the technology I use in creating my music.  While I am first and foremost a composer, I do also dabble in writing fiction.  I've tried to get a couple of things published (though not with the sort of push behind them as I put behind my composing), so I suppose I could say I take my writing semi-seriously.

Much of the technology I use for writing is the same as what I use for my music, so I won't reiterate it here; suffice it to say that my computer, Dropbox.com, and an external hard drive are of just as much use to the writer (perhaps more so) as they are to the composer.

So what techs do I use specifically in my writing?

MP3 player -- This may seem weird to see on a list of writing technology, but when I'm at the computer writing away, having a soundtrack going in my ears helps give some momentum to the writing, as well as blocks out external distractions.  My music tastes range from instrumental to vocal, from movie themes to rock and everything in between.  I only listen to songs that have lyrics if I know the songs really well, and so can tune them out while I write; otherwise, I find myself distracted by the lyrics.

Word processor -- This pretty much goes without saying.  I do most of my writing in Word 2003 (not a big fan of the later Office products), but I have been known on occasion to use OpenOffice -- a suite of completely free software that mimics the products in the Microsoft Office suite (and can even save your files in Office format so your non-OpenOffice-using friends can look at your docs).  OpenOffice works well enough, though if you're a big fan of all the features and shortcuts of Word, it will drive you a little crazy that the tools are located under different menus and the keyboard shortcuts don't all work like you want them to.

Google Docs -- In terms of rough drafts, this one is pretty neat.  Simple sign up for a Google account at the Google Docs website (though if you've signed up for any of their other products, the same login works there, as well), and you can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with their online cross-platform program.  It's not great for creating a finalized product, but for that, you can always export it to an OpenOffice or Microsoft Office document to finish things up.

Write or Die -- This one almost falls under the heading of "whimsical," but I like it, so it goes here.  This is a free website (though for a fee you can download the program to use on your desktop) that encourages you to write at a steady pace for a set amount of time or until a set word count.  Depending on the mode you set the program to, it will either make an annoying sound when you stop typing, or else start to delete what you've already typed.  It's excellent for when you have a lot to write in a very short amount of time.  Not great for final drafts, but for getting a rough draft of something down on the page, it's great.  Once you're done typing, you copy the text to your computer's clipboard, then paste in into the document of your choice.

Digital Voice Recorder -- I listed this one in the general tech, but I'll include it here once more because of how much it can do for the writer.  We often get little snippets of ideas -- bits of dialog, a scene idea, a descriptive phrase, a new character -- that aren't fully formed, so being able to just talk them out helps us get them into a usable form.  The worst part of talking something out, however, is when you say something really good and intelligent, and then can't remember what you said.  Use the voice recorder, and every word out of your mouth is saved for posterity, so remembering that brilliant utterance is as simple as rewinding and listening again.


Much like with the music tech, there are literally hundreds of things that could go on this list -- this is just a sampling.  For example, I didn't include any of the specialized novel- or screenplay-writing software (mainly because I don't use any of it), but it's out there.  If you have some wonderful writing tech that you use, please feel free to include it here for the good of all.