DEVONthink & EverNote: Tools for Taking Notes
I've heard a lot about
DEVONthink for the Mac. It's being used by
notable authors such as
Steven Johnson.
Since people can't seem to stop talking about it, I went to investigate what all the
hoopla is about, and it appears to have a really nice keyword smart grouping function for notes.
Being a PC/Windows guy, I went in search of something similar. I found
EverNote. It allows 'smart grouping' - also known as keyword categorization, and a host of other neat features. The best part? The basic version is free. The retail version supports handwriting features--but if you're like me, you don't really care about that stuff and the free version functions perfectly without the extra features.
Some people might ask, "Why not use Mind Manager or FreeMind?" That's a great question, and I love those apps, but they are better for hierarchical organization and visual mapping. I don't necessarily need all that for making clip files of odd news, or organizing snippets and tidbits of inspiration.
In other words,
EverNote makes a good InfoBucket or InfoScoop, for lack of a better term. My notes don't have to be super organized, in fact I prefer them not to be. Notation for me is a very quick and dirty process. All I really need is a way to sort my notes effectively by topic, and
EverNote handles all that nicely without much trouble.
It's free. Give it a try if you're looking for some note-taking software, or simply if you like to try new tools.
Anyone using
DEVONthink or
EverNote?
Doing The Unstuck
"It's a perfect day for doing the
Unstuck, for dancing like you can't hear the beat, and you don't give a further thought to things like
feet block."
For those in the U.S. or with access to a Barnes & Noble, it's on clearance right now for $4.98 - an awfully cheap price to end your writer's block.
This one has a lot of juicy advice. I don't so much have a problem writing as I do coming up with the right ideas for the right scenes. It doesn't matter, as the book so far is solving both for me.
At the very least, do yourself a favor and flip through it at the bookstore to see if it might help you. My guess is it can.
"It's a perfect day for getting wild, forgetting all your worries, life and everything that makes you cry."
Ok, now that we know one of Eric's favorite bands in high school... get out and get yourself
Unstuck.
Novelist Biz Plans
"If you're stuck thinking of authors as 'writers,' you're never going to understand branding."
An apt quote from
this Forbes article on successful authors. Which begs the question; What is your business plan for novel-writing? Do you have one?
Thanks to
Grumpy Old Bookman for that link.
What's Wrong With Sci-Fi?
Over on The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler there is a
decent piece on how the 'fans' themselves are killing science-fiction.
If we're just talking about readers, I agree that the negativity and trolling should be held responsible for some of the 'destruction.'
If we're talking about critical dissection among writers, that's another thing. Getting all nitpicky about a piece of work is one way that writers learn. Until I read Heinlein I had no idea he wrote such bad prose. Not that it matters in the face of the ideas--the ideas are what resonate with people, and why they love the works so much.
Similar can be said for Isaac "The Rambler" Asimov. I found his work to go off too much into the characters' headspace, which in general is a poor storytelling technique--at the very least overused in his case.
But this is relatively 'old' sci-fi, or well-entrenched to say the least. If sci-fi fans are holding back new sci-fi because they simply won't give it a chance, then yes... that is sad.
But as others may have suggested, don't read web forums then. Only misery seems to come from online negativity.
Just to be a thorn, the devil's advocate in me just has to ask... "What if they're right?"
Is there something wrong with sci-fi these days? If so, what is it?
Discussing Intellectual Properties
I should have linked
this a while ago. Scott is the co-owner of
3D Realms, where I work.
The interview is all about games, but don't be fooled by that. Many of the topics discussed affect novelists and writers as well. After all, it is the job of fiction writers to create new intellectual property.
Can You Identify Good Ideas?
"I'll know it when I see it."
Maybe you won't? Seth Godin has one of the best
blog posts I've read in a long time, for the simple lie it exposes.
We've all said it at one time or another.
You won't know it when you see it, because even people who are exceptionally gifted at picking out good ideas sometimes pass up goldmine opportunities.
Nobody can identify all the good ideas, all the time. Nobody. Like wisdom and the humility of Socrates, the best thing you can do is to admit that you know nothing, and work to constantly improve your knowledge. The same is true for picking out good ideas. We all have to admit that we aren't as great as we think, and our only recourse is to work at becoming better about picking good ideas.
It's the only way to move forward.
And picking ideas is one area where it pays to second-guess yourself. Is your idea really that good? Why? Maybe you've come up with a stinker. But then again, maybe that idea that woke you up in the middle of the night, but seemed stupid the next morning--maybe it's the best idea you've ever had?
What measurements do you use in judging an idea? Are you good at picking them?
Do you know it when you see it?
Content is King
I've been giving a lot of thought to the debate over art vs. entertainment, and the debate appears to be framed in the wrong way.
On one hand you have this idea of integrity--that as a writer you should just follow your own heart, mind, wants, dreams, whatever and then just hope and pray that other people like it. On the other hand there is the idea that maybe you can identify the things that make up a bestseller, and maybe strive to nail some of those things in the hopes they will work.
The problem here whether we're talking about 'following your heart' or 'writing for the market' - we're talking in the abstract, being as vague as anyone can possibly be. As a result, we're not getting to the bottom of the issue and truly cracking these values that seem to conflict for so many writers.
So this morning I was reading Ian Hocking's
post, which was prompted by an
essay. The essay came pretty close, albeit accidentally, to identifying the problem with this art-entertainment conflict of values.
"At some point you find that 90% of the stuff you're writing is motivated and informed by an overwhelming need to be liked. This results in shitty fiction. And the shitty work must get fed to the wastebasket, less because of any sort of artistic integrity than simply because shitty work will cause you to be disliked."
First, I like that he eventually throws the notion of artistic integrity out the window. We're talking about fiction here. The writer's job is to make things up. The writer's job is to tell a lie, and to make that lie as believable as possible. I'm not sure how integrity can be valued in a portion of books that are entirely mythical. When you boil it down, fiction is nothing other than well-crafted bullshit. We're not publishing groundbreaking science nor medical knowledge that will save millions of lives and earn us the Nobel. We make widgets that people bury their nose in when they're bored. Some may not like that image because it erodes the grandiose idea of what a writer is, but it's true. How can you say one B.S. artist has more integrity than another? You can't. At the end of the day we're all pulling stuff out of our butts. I can't pretend mine stinks any less than yours, and you can't pretend that yours stinks any less than the next person.
Second, the line about
"the stuff you're writing is motivated and informed by an overwhelming need to be liked" comes very close to identifying the heart of the matter.
The unfortunate mistake that both art-minded and pop-minded writers make is they both often write for the approval of others.
If you're aiming for art, your most cherished goal is to create something that the critics will applaud, that intellectuals will dissect, and that everyone will find 'deep' and meaningful.
If you're aiming for pop fiction, your most cherished goal is to create a story that everyone likes, talks about, and that everyone finds highly entertaining.
Here's the problem; Both of these ignore why stories catch on, become liked, or sell.
The answer is content. Ideas. Everyone in the lit world is talking about how horrible Dan Brown's prose is. Clue Phone for Lit World--Dan Brown stories
don't sell for their beautiful prose.Neither does Stranger in a Strange Land, any Philip K. Dick story, or just about any fiction I can think of...
Nor do they sell because they had twelve stages within three acts. They don't sell because you did or didn't use flashbacks. They don't sell because you used lots of metaphors, similes, or other literary constructs. When it comes down to an individual buying a book, they never buy books for this generic range of tools that writers use. Admit it right now--nobody cares.
Hit stories spread like wildfire for the controversy and conflict of their ideas. The ideas are the only thing that matter. If the content is strong enough, you can completely choke on the prose. I would even go so far as to say the ideas can sometimes carry a botched storytelling. The structure, pacing, arrangement, and the way the story plays out can even be flawed. If the ideas are strong enough, it will spread. If it's still a story that people want to hear in spite of all flaws, it will spread.
The goal of both the art-minded and the pop-minded writer are the same; To have the book appreciated. Quality prose is great. A good structure is great. But ultimately, the work will be judged on its ideas--its content.
People don't care about you as the writer. They only care about your ideas... your content. If the subject of your story is strong enough, only then will people care.
If you want your story to be successful then choose ideas that people care about. Choose ideas that many people would find interesting. This doesn't mean they have to be existing popular ideas. But they need to be something that the audience would care about. Storytelling is about relevance. It's about the question, "Why does anyone care?"
Only well-chosen content can answer that question.
Content is king. If you believe anything else, you might be lying to yourself.
I've heard a lot about DEVONthink for the Mac. It's being used by notable authors such as Steven Johnson.
