Playing Favourites

Technology is a wonderful thing. It's been finely honed to give the world the iPad, and a bunch of apps to put on it. These are some of the apps I use for my writing.

For the record, I don't know what other platforms have these apps, but I know that you can get them for your iPad, and maybe even your other iProducts.

Also be well aware that all of these are free. I'm a total cheapskate, and I'd imagine that I'm not alone in that. Relish this news.

The funny bit is that all of the screenshots are from the iPhone. I don't even have an iPhone.

A Novel Idea

This is a great story structure app. There are various different places to flesh out ideas and characters and everything. It's incredibly simple and allows you to connect ideas. It's sort of like a series of questionnaires, and I love that. The character section, for example, asks for stuff like height (eight feet), hair colour (N/A), and external conflict. Cool, no?

I'm not impressed with the sudden bout of ads suddenly filling up the screen, but, hey, it's free.

Moleskine Journal

This one's just a lot of fun to play with. I've got a million notebooks going right now, and one is devoted to my current project. It's pretty user-friendly, and allows you to draw and write and put in pictures all over the place. It's a great place to compile your inspiration.

It's still kind of glitchy, but honestly, it's worth it. It is really cool.

Pearltrees

This one's great. I use it on my iPad and my computer, though I vastly prefer organising on my iPad. It's so much easier. It's perfect for collecting and organising inspiration and things you find in your research. I also use it as a sort of makeshift YouTube playlist, but that is not the point. Here's my writing Pearltree, feel free to peruse technical information and inspiration all at the same time!

Evernote

This is one of those catch-all apps. Most of my favourites are, actually. Whatever, I like having lots of places to jot down ideas at three in the morning. I like to write full scenes in this one, actually. Unlike the Moleskine app, it uses your iThing's autocorrect, so you can at least be marginally coherent when you write. It's simple to use, and that's how I roll, yo.

Dictionary.com Dictionary and Thesaurus

If you think you don't need a dictionary and/or thesaurus, you are wrong. So very, very wrong. I mean, where else are you gonna look up words like Tarmac or wiles at three in the morning? Google?

Okay, yeah, probably.

Dress-Up

I love you, Modcloth.

Author tours are a thing, right? So, if I end up getting published, and if my things are popular (as we all know they will be, I'm fantastic), and author tours are actually a thing, can I have a big ol' dress budget set into my contract?
Please and thank you, anonymous faces of the internet.
Sometimes, adorable dresses inspire you to write, and that is okay.

Alina

Music is one of the most important pieces of my writing process. Certainly more than Tetris. As such, I compile playlists every time I start a new project, because I know how much of an impact music has on my writing. It offers inspiration when the well runs dry, helps me to properly envision the scene, and is a good way to waste time while still telling people, "Leave me alone, I'm busy doing writer things."

I've already talked about two of the songs on my Willow playlist, but here's another. It's a slow, haunting melody that really worked well for the more emotional aspects of the story, of which there were many.

Seriously, guys, I'm an emotional wreck.

Worth it, though.

Part of Your World

I'm watching a mockumentary about mermaids. It's called Mermaids: The Body Found, and Animal Planet put it out last year. It's fascinating, and wildly inspiring, but what's funny is how certain people are that this is an actual documentary about real events and stuff.

Seriously, guys, slow down. It's not real.

Of course, there are more things in heaven and earth, but you guys have to chill. It's an interesting film, done in an interesting fashion, and not fodder for conspiracy theories.

Writing about mermaids is making me a cynic. Whoops.

Tools of the Trade

These are some of my chosen writing tools. We've got three different notebooks, a sketchbook, several different colours of pens, and a pencil. Though you can see that, actually. I write on a computer, but I like to compile my thoughts and inspirations in notebooks.

I mostly use the black notebook, and it's slowly starting to fill with absurd notes like, reminders to pay my application fee for CSUCI, bits of dialogue ("I rather think I have a better grasp on English than you do."), and chunks of snark like "He is a middle-school girl, okay?" 

The big one is strictly for my current project. So far, I have notes on the species I've created (also a drawing), decisions on how to feel about certain characters, and quotes that act as inspiration. This is where the different colours come in handy. Each has a different purpose, though, truth be told, I haven't totally figured out what yet. Still useful.

Seriously, though, I am literally never without something to write with and on. When I went to the Renaissance Faire and couldn't find the little circle notebook, I made one out of sketchbook paper. I'm clever like that. My iPad works in a pinch as well. At the end of the day, I just collect relevant things into the black notebook, and one of these days, I'll do the same with my big notebook.

Finally: a sketch of a character and some really messy writing. It's all good, yo.

On Loop

While writing The Willow Queen, there were quite a few songs that I played constantly. I had two playlists set up for it, one with more modern songs, one that sounded more like a movie score, and it was fantastic. For this second project, I'm sadly lacking Spotify, so I'm just randomly sifting through music in the hidden realms within YouTube. Worth it.

Either way, here are two of the songs I had on repeat for The Willow Queen.

"Soldier On" by Temper Trap. It sort of became my theme song for my main character, and it became a major inspiration for the whole novel. It has a tremendous sort of strength that was channeled directly into the main character, and I think it affected it hugely. Not that I'm complaining.

"Metamorphosis 2" by Philip Glass was another major inspirational song. This one went on the playlist that sounded like a movie score, for good reason. It starts off a bit solemn, but there's the undercurrent of, I dunno, excitement, I think, running through it. I dunno, it just fit. I'm the writer, I say it works.

Also, while writing the book, I ended up listening to more Renaissance and traditional Indian music than I'd ever assumed I would, ever. These are things that happen.