This Writer’s Toolbox
There’s always so much chitchat about what tools writers use in their craft: software, hardware, notebooks, planners. I’m not high-tech, but there are some things I feel like I can’t live without.
I’m a PC girl. Stop with your Apple evangelizing. I use a Mac at my day job, but, you know, I just never liked it. And I’m not here to wax philosophical about operating systems—I’m not that sophisticated. The bottom line is that keyboard feel is really, really important to me. I want to feel a good strike, and I want the keys to have satisfying kickback, and I want to love how it sounds when I’m on a roll. I have a little Dell laptop that my friend refurbished for me, and I can’t be happier with it. I’m not against Apple—I have an iPhone I’m happy with—but I really just don’t love Mac keyboards. [Many years ago, I wrote massive chunks of several of my published books on an Alpha Smart. It looked like a weird little toy, a translucent blue-green device with a tiny screen that showed maybe three lines of text at a time. It was great for someone who got easily distracted by the Internet—it was strictly a word processor. When I was done writing, all I had to do was connect it to my desktop computer, open a Word document, and all my writing zipped into the Word doc. And it weighed like a pound, so I carried it everywhere.]
Microsoft Word. This is where I write the actual words of my book. And recently, I discovered Novel Factory, and I’m in love. I think it was designed primarily for beginning writers, but as I am working on a manuscript with four POVs and a world like none other I’ve written, I have found Novel Factory an amazing tool for organization.
Planners. Google Calendar is zero fun because you can’t draw in it and put stickers on it. I’m a paper planner girl and I will be forever. It’s a bit of a sickness. I mean, you can only have one planner a year, technically. And somehow I often have more than one going at once—one for my life, one for my writing, one for whatever else. The one I’m using now for my life planning is from Sourcebooks, called “C’est la f*cking vie.” It’s got lots of daily space, and lots of surprise swear words on the pages and on stickers, which resonates with me.
Brainstorming, planning, and scribbling: I’m a notebook/blank book/journal hoarder from way back, and I keep gathering more and more. When I teach yoga, I write my lesson plans in spiral books because they lay flat on my mat. For writing, I have lots of different needs. For my brainstorming and ideas and random pieces of dialogue and planning, I use whatever pretty and inspiring notebook fits into the current handbag I’m using. I maintain an index of canon information for each story in a Hustle Co. hardcover bullet journal. For larger mind-mapping work, I have a huge two-sided white board in my basement that flips over; Teddy uses one side for his projects and I use the other. I use index cards to write scenes and then I lay them out on the floor or tape them on the wall and move them around if I need to change the order of plot events. (Though we painted our walls recently, so I have a feeling my tape-to-the-wall days are over.)
Lastly, my two favorite office tools of all time. Here they are. Without these two items, I would be finished. There would be no Jen Safrey books.
Highlighters. Highlighters are the office-supply love of my life. I use color codes to highlight canon notes in my bullet journals and different character arcs in my notebooks. I highlight passages in reference books so I remember to come back to them later. I highlight my expenses in my bank statements to make tax time easier. If you give me a package of highlighters as a gift, I’m the happiest person on Earth.
Post-It Notes. Heaven sent. I can write a novel with literally just a pile of Post-Its and no other tools if I had to. I tab research books, notebooks, binders. I write notes for the current scene I’m on and stick it to the side of my screen as I work. I note what I plan to work on tomorrow and stick it on my laptop cover. I label the piles of crap on my desk: bills, need follow-up calls, stuff to file. I like Post-It Notes in all shapes, colors, sizes. I like the dispensers and I like the pads. I like it all. Give me all the Post-It Notes.
I think most writers would agree: Bring us to an office-supply store and it’s even more squeal-worthy than a candy store.
What supplies can you not be without for your work?
