Monday, February 23, 2009

How to write on the go...with Evernote


I've been using Evernote since Beta and I've always loved it. And one of the things that I used it for was to jot down notes for my novel. However, during the early stages of the mobile, web, and desktop clients, note taking was all I used it for. 

But ever since the improved clients came out, I've been using Evernote more and more to actually write my novel. Especially on the train on the way to work via my Windows Mobile phone. Sometimes it's notes. Sometimes it's an actual chapter. Then, during other parts of the day, I add and edit in the desktop client. 

The reason I like using the phone, is at least during the draft stage, writing on the phone kinda forces me to be succinct, since hitting phone keys takes so much time. Especially if there are no seats and I only have one thumb to type with (since my other hand is holding onto a bar). Plus, being out and about seems to be a better environment for writing than my home desk. Seems like more of a diversion than work.

As for organization, I use keywords such as chapter, note, character, and location to keep things organized. And, to see my chapters in order, I have numbers at the beginning of the note title, select the chapter tag, and sort by title.

Now, when I get down to really perfecting my words, I'm not sure if I stay in Evernote, or copy over to Google Docs. Yet, I'm not really seeing why I would need to do that. Evernote's pop-out editor seems to have all the formatting I would need.

Any thoughts from anyone on this?

Though, I must say, that some of the things I don't like, is that I have to be connected to my carrier to access notes on the phone. I used to use Evernote for my shopping list. But sometimes, when I'm deep within a store, I lose my signal and can't access my shopping note. Seems it would be a great addition to have the option to save some notes on your phone locally.