{"id":2348,"date":"2021-07-05T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2021-07-05T10:11:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T17:11:45","slug":"my-favorite-writing-tools-1-notebooks-pens-note-taking-software-and-writing-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetalcorn.com\/staging\/1364\/2021\/07\/05\/my-favorite-writing-tools-1-notebooks-pens-note-taking-software-and-writing-software\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Writing Tools 1: Notebooks, Pens, Note-Taking Software, and Writing Software"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of my LEUCHTTURM1917 notebooks and my favorite felt-tipped Sharpie<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Other writers procrastinate by binge-watching Netflix or reorganizing the contents of their hard drives or scrolling Twitter for 6.5 hours. I procrastinate by playing with new productivity tools (and scrolling Twitter for 6.5 hours and occasionally binge-watching Lucifer and… wait, where was I? Oh, yeah, productivity.) I geek out on notebooks, writing software, pens… basically anything that lets me feel like I’m doing something writing-related when I’m actually farting around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when I’m not farting around, I do appreciate having a solid suite of tools to help me organize the jumbled mess that spews out of my brain in search of a place to splat. I’ve tried a bunch (see: farting around), and I’ve found a few that work well for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analog Notes – and My Favorite Pen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LEUCHTTURM1917 Notebook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, I went to a presentation on bullet journaling at a library conference and decided to try it. I messed around with a few different notebooks before finding the LEUCHTTURM1917 Classic dotted A5. It’s probably the most popular and best-known notebook for bullet journaling, and even though I don’t bullet journal anymore, I still love my LEUCHTTURM. I use it to journal and freewrite, to brainstorm ideas, jot down key points from books I’m reading, copy down quotations I like or find motivating… basically, I use it to capture whatever interesting stuff grabs my attention. Also, because I have the maturity of a 12-year-old, I put stickers in it. I buy stickers when I travel (my favorites are from from national park gift shops) and paste in all my I Voted and I Gave Blood stickers. I even have my I’m Vaccinated stickers in there. Those’ll be interesting to look back on in a decade or two. But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to writing. I love having a lovely notebook with smooth, thick paper for brainstorming and freewriting. Using it helps me get unstuck, and it feels so genteel and literary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pocket notebook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I love my LEUCHTTURM, but it’s a little bulky to carry with me all the time, so I also keep a tiny notebook or notepad in my purse for jotting down ideas that come to me when I’m out and about. Why not use my phone? I do, but I’m slow typing on my phone, autocorrect is my sworn enemy, and I hate speech-to-text. I’d rather scribble my brilliant plot twist on the back of a CVS receipt than fight with my phone (and really, you could write half a novel on a CVS receipt–or use it as a jump rope. But I digress.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t have a favorite purse notebook. I usually use one I’ve picked up free at a library conference or some other event. The nicest one I’ve ever used was a Moleskin (like this one) that I got from a vendor rep years ago. LEUCHTTURM also makes a pocket-sized notebook. I might have to treat myself to one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpie Felt Tip Pens, Fine Point, Black, 12 Count<\/a>“>Sharpie pen<\/a> (that doesn’t bleed)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always been picky about my pens. Writing in longhand is a tactile experience, and if I’m going to do it, I want to enjoy it. My go-to in my starving college student days was a Bic ballpoint, the see-through kind so I knew when it was about to run out of ink (because it sucked to have a pen die in the middle of an English literature lecture and mess up my doodling<\/s> notetaking). I no longer have to live on peanut butter, ramen, and Bic ballpoints, so I’ve upgraded to a fine-point felt-tipped Sharpie. These little dudes are cheap, but they write as smoothly as some artist pens, and the ink is acid-free and archival quality. They even come in pretty colors in case you like that sorta thing (I’m a boring blue or black ink girl, because anything else is too hard on my middle-aged eyes). Just make sure to buy the kind that doesn’t bleed through paper like the original Sharpies do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Evernote<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite my grumbling about autocorrect and typing on my phone, I do jot short notes on my phone, usually when I’m outside exercising and don’t have a notebook handy. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll use the built-in notes app, but Evernote is a better choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evernote stores your notes in the cloud and has all kinds of cool features like notebooks and tagging and capturing content from the web. I have a notebook stack called, “Writing,” with notebooks for each of my novels in progress as well as a notebook called, “Ideas,” that’s pretty self-explanatory. The best thing about Evernote is that it makes my notes accessible via all of my devices as well as via the web. You can get a phone app (Android or iOS) as well as a desktop app for your computer. Basic access is free. A premium plan ($7.99\/mo) gives you more monthly uploads and bigger notes, lets you sync unlimited devices, access your notes offline, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evernote is worthy of its own post, which I might or might not get around to writing, but in case I don’t, check out these excellent posts on how writers can use Evernote: <\/p>\n\n\n\n