A writer’s tools are as unique as the writer using them.
Without further ado, I’ll jump into what I use.
Two 5×7 hardcover lined notebooks
I have two of them because of the separation of concerns. The work notebook is the property of my employer.
I experimented with four notebooks so that I could keep track of tasks separately from the thoughts, but this got to be too cumbersome and I wasn’t using them consistently for these purposes.
What I’m currently doing to separate tasks to be able to find them easier is I’ll relegate tasks to their own two adjacent pages, and mark the page with a sticky tab so I can find it easily in the notebook. As I fill up those two pages, I’ll move the unfinished tasks to the next set of two adjacent pages, and put a fresh sticky tab there.
Doing it this way helps me to contain the tasks and not miss them scattered in my notes. And I do it in one notebook (per workplace).
My two kinds of go-to pens for these notebooks
As a card-carrying member of Generation X, I loved my Bic four-color pens growing up.
I bought a box of a dozen fine-tip Bic 4-color pens a couple of years ago, and still use them. I’ll switch colors just for fun, or to visually introduce a new topic in my writing.
My other go-to pens are Sharpie fine-point felt-tip pens. They come in a zillion colors, but I mostly use the common ones: black, blue, green, and red. They write a bit more smoothly than the Bics do. Variety is good.
I’m not the best at keeping track of where my pens are at any given time, so I use whatever I have available and will get a decent writing experience.
A small reporter-style flip notebook
I got this small notebook with 3×5 lined pads for carrying around most everywhere. One of my colleagues calls me Columbo because of it.
The notebook fits in my shirt pocket if I have one, or in my pants pocket if I don’t.
I use this for jotting down ideas if they come to me.
I had experimented with index cards held together with a small binder clip, but they ended up getting bent and hard to manage, and the writing experience wasn’t there. My flip notebook came with a pen that goes in a loop on the notebook cover.
And now for electronics: Google Keep
Moving to electronic writing, I’ll jot notes once in a while in Google Keep on my phone.
At some point I’ll play with Obsidian to remove one more app from what I use, but that might take some work. Google Keep is easy and low-friction to record a quite note.
750Words.com
I was an early user on 750Words.com, which is a website that encourages and nurtures a daily writing practice. Because I started early, I use it for free, but it does cost $5/month for new users.
The goal is in the domain: 750 words a day.
In my process, I guess I don’t need to use 750 Words.
I could just type into my Obsidian daily page, and it would count the words for me.
But I’m curiously motivated by fake Internet points, badges, statistics …
… and most of all confetti. Every day that I get my 750 words in I’m rewarded with a splash of digital confetti. I look forward to that!
Each day I copy my 750+ words into my daily page into …
Obsidian
Obsidian is a Markdown-based text editor with a rich capability for plugins and extensibility for many different purposes.
It’s free software and is local-first in how it stores things. You have control over your content, which is all plain-text files.
Obsidian is rapidly becoming more useful for me both as a store of my work and as a second brain for personal knowledge management.
(Fun fact: I have an Obsidian Starter Kit for Content Creators on Gumroad that will give you structure for using it as a second brain! It’s the same structure I’m using and improving myself.)
I’m in the process of moving more of my work into my Obsidian vault (collection) so that I can link things up and get it back into my control. My new articles get written in Obsidian first, and then published to a WordPress blog, Medium, or Substack.
Limited amounts in the platforms themselves
For short-form content (Threads, Substack, and Kit newsletters) I compose them directly in the editors there.
I’m torn as to whether or not I’d be better off composing them outside in Obsidian and bringing them in.
I should at least download the content from those sites to protect against their disappearance. This can happen at any moment, for any reason.
To summarize, I use …
- Google Keep, once in a while, on my phone
- Obsidian for progressively more stuff, especially new articles
- 750words.com for a bit of gamification and some analysis that I haven’t used yet
- A small Columbo-style notepad that I can carry in a pants pocket or a shirt pocket
- 5×7 hardcover journals for home and for work, with Bic 4-color pens or Sharpie felt tips
What do you use to write? What are your tools? Let me know in the comments!
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash