New Toy

I just bought a LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen. In brief, it is a clever device that uses optical encoding to digitally record what you are writing and hearing simultaneously. You can then play back the audio by clicking on the notes—great for situations where people are talking faster than you can write. It also records in stereo (the ear-plugs are stereo microphones), so you capture the localization of the sounds as well. I can see that songwriters might love this. (You know who you are...)

But I'm not a songwriter. I bought the pen to see if it might be useful as a digital lab notebook. Here are my impressions, as captured by the SmartPen itself as a pencast (and a brief addendum).

Pulse: Pro vs. Cons for Professionals
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Pulse: Pro vs. Cons for Professionals (addendum)
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The Return of the Word Count Graph

In my previous NaNoWriMo blogs I would post progress charts of my daily word totals. They were pretty popular (well, OK it was only cs10 who commented on them, but we make every effort to content the kill-bot), so here they are again.

The graphs are built by a spreadsheet that I use to track my writing totals. It also calculates how much I have to write per day to stay on pace to meet my monthly goal. Maybe I'll write more about that another time.

The January total was 14,519, which was 94% of my goal. We'll grade that as an "A", right?

Circus Ponies

Another writing tool that I have found really useful is Circus Ponies' Notebook. It is, in essence, a digital version of a paper notebook, and it is remarkably fun and intuitive to use. You can write in it. You can draw in it. You can stick things to the pages. More importantly CP's Notebook builds an easily searched table of contents as you go. Furthermore, unlike a paper notebook, you can make backup copies so that you're not completely fucked when you leave your life's work propped under the table at Starbuck's.

The way this relates to novel-writing is that novel-writing is a very messy business. With CP Notebook you can keep all the bits and pieces in one location. The notebook for my novel has all my research notes (including hyperlinks and pictures), as well as separate sections for character summaries, plot summaries, and an idea journal. It's all very transparent and "just works" in a very Mac-like fashion.

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Today's writing totals:
Blog: 163 words
Journal: 568 words (memoir & character notes)
DAILY TOTAL: 731 words

DECEMBER RUNNING TOTAL: 4,487/15,500 words

Morning Word

For the past few days I have been writing first thing in the morning. I have noticed two advantages. First, getting up to write lessens my morning-dread. (Good GOD! how I hate getting up in the morning.) Second, I write rather than poke around on the Internet. Hooray productivity!

Speaking of productivity, I have been testing out WriteRoom, the über-minimalist word processor that BC-S recommended a few postings ago. It truly is a terrific focusing tool, and I fully endorse it. For those who need a sharper kick in the pants, though, check out Dr. Wicked's Write or Die in "kamikaze" mode.)

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Today's writing totals:
Novel: 467 words
Blog: 105 words
DAILY TOTAL: 572 words

DECEMBER RUNNING TOTAL: 2,055/15,500 words

Bean

In response to a posting on Elevate the Ordinary, I wanted to write a heady intellectual treatise on my views of the difference between belief and faith. Unfortunately it's about two hours past my bedtime. I've put it in the queue, though. Perhaps it'll show up on another evening, when the novel isn't moving.

Instead, here's a link to Bean, my favorite "light" word processor for the Mac. It's free, easy to use, and remarkably full-featured.

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Today's writing totals:
Novel: 985 words
Blog: 73 words
DAILY TOTAL: 1,058 words

NOVEMBER RUNNING TOTAL: 9,978/15,000 words