The Writer’s Technology Companion

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Ideas are paradoxical. While hours of urgent deep thought might leave us without a clue, at other times ideas seem to pop into our heads effortlessly, dazzling us with their perfection. Alas, these brilliant moments of inspiration come all too often when we’re busy doing other things — driving, showering, drifting off to sleep, or […]

Of all the things that writers have to do, the task that seems the most burdensome is the step that’s most crucial to getting our work into print: submitting it. Sending out submissions isn’t just a bookkeeping nightmare – you have to remember where you sent it and when and how long to wait before […]

Though blogs and RSS feeds are the hot thing right now, there are still lots of people who prefer good old-fashioned email newsletter. Newsletters have a number of qualities that make them preferable to blogging for some purposes, such as:

They’re “push” technology: Instead of waiting for a reader to visit your blog, or check their […]

One piece of advice that’s floated around a lot to help people stay on track with their big projects is to set a deadline. In my experience, and probably yours, this doesn’t work very well because there are no consequences for not meeting your “pretend” deadline — allowing you the fudge room to keep procrastinating.
Stikk has come […]

If your writing takes you away from your home computer often, or if the thought of working “in the cloud” (on the web) just appeals to you, you might want to try an online submission tracking system. Luminary’s Writer’s Database (not to be confused with the desktop “Writer’s Database” I mentioned in Part 3 of […]

One of the least glamorous parts of a writer’s job is keeping track of submissions. Knowing who you sent a query or a finished piece, what you sent them, when you sent it, and whether it’s been accepted or rejected is crucial, but mundane — especially compared with the far more fulfilling work of actually writing our […]

PlotBot is a new free web application geared towards screenwriters. Because it’s on the web, you can log in and work on your screenplay anywhere you have access to a computer.
Better yet, PlotBot allows you and any number of collaborators to log in and work on the same screenplay at the same time. You […]

Do you ever do group writing exercises? Are you co-authoring a novel? Do you want to put together a compilation of essays, short stories, or poems?
The web makes working with other writers and/or clients easier than ever. Gone are the days of posting typescripts of chapters back and forth between co-authors — now you can log in […]

I have 10 invites to the private beta for anyone who was intrigued by my mention of Evernote in my Lifehack piece, The Ultimate Writing Productivity Resource. The desktop program will work just fine without being in the beta-testing program — you’ll be able to "clip" webpages and text from other apps and save them to […]