The One Notebook Idea

The one notebook idea by Shaunta Grimes is a great idea. I have heard of so many writers say:

“you need to keep a writing notebook.”

“Take your notebook everywhere you go so you can write in it no matter where you are.”

“Keep a notebook on your nightstand by your bed. This way if you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea or a dream you want to record, you will be able to.”

This is great advice. But has a few flaws.

• You have to keep your notebook on you.

• You have to remember to take your notebook with you.

• A notebook can be big and bulky.

• Your notebook has to fit in your purse if you carry one.

• If your working you can’t very well have a notebook on you or in your hands.
• You will end up with a lot of notebooks on your bookshelf.

• Your notes will not be organized and you end up forgetting what you wrote. Or you may never find a specific note when you want it.

• Your hands can cramp up when doing a lot of writing by hand.

• If you wake up in the middle of the night to write something down, you have to turn on the light to see. This hurts your eyes sometimes and you risk waking other people up with the light.

• Even if you only spend 50¢ to a dollar on a new notebook the money spent on it still ads up. Especially when you have to buy pens and pencils to write with.

• Then there are the environmental issues associated with this

1. People kill trees every day to make the notebook paper.
2. All that paper and pens and pencils will end up in the landfills.

• If you do like Shaunta and use only 1 notebook each year there are a couple of problems with this too.

• If you fill one you have to start another one. OK, so what is wrong with that? Well, this leads to the second issue.

• You end up with notebooks with lots of empty pages. Half filled notebooks. This leads to wasted notebook paper.

A solution to the problem:

So how do we get around these issues? Believe it or not, there is a very good solution to all these issues. We are in the age of technology. We have computers, laptops, tablets, e-readers, and cell phones. The last three of these are usually smaller than a regular paper notebook. They are not as bulky as a notebook either. This takes up so much less space. There is Another advantage of all these electronic devices. You can sync your information through the different devices. There are even cloud storage capabilities over the internet. Which you are able to access anywhere. For instance, you type something on your phone, you can access it on your computer, laptop, and tablets.

So what does this mean?

• No more shelves of notebooks taking up space. You can store an almost unlimited amount of notes on a flash drive (scan drive, or jump drive). This device is as small as your finger.

• No more forgetting your notebook at home. You always have your cell phone on you everywhere you go.

• No more big and bulky notebooks. Your tablet is more than half of the size. Even better is that your cell phone is so small that it fits right into your pocket.

• No more getting cramps from doing a lot of writing. You can use styles to help with your typing or use your speech to text program that’s built into your device.

• If you wake up in the middle of the night and need to write something down, there is no need to turn on a light to do it. The light coming from the screen on your phone or tablet has enough light coming from it for you to see. So your not waking up others by turning the light on.

• There is no need for several different notebooks or planners. There are so many different apps you can use for:

1. writing, taking notes
2. keeping track of important dates
3. creating editorial calendars.

• You can also keep your notes organized into different categories.

1. Quotes
2. writing prompts
3. story ideas
4. special events
5. special dates
6. and any other category you can think of.

You no longer have to worry about all the disorganized chaos that comes from using a normal notebook.

Note-taking apps:

Evernote

I don’t know much about this app yet. I have heard about writers using it over the years, but never thought much about it until recently. I was reading a blog post that recommended it. So the other day I downloaded it onto my phone. Then I downloaded it onto my laptop.

Still, I haven’t done much with it yet. But I plan on learning more about it and try to use it more starting the first of the year. You can use this app for so much. Some of the things you can use it for are:

1. taking notes
2. taking pictures
3. creating notebooks
4. writing blog articles
5. and so much more.

Microsoft word

You can download this free in the app store. If you sign into it with your Microsoft account, you can access your files on your computer and laptop. This will also work the other way. The problem with this app is the writing font is so small. And you will need to adjust it. You will have to do this every time you go into the document to start writing.

Write now

This app is interesting. I discovered it earlier this month. It doesn’t matter what app you are using you can access this app and it will appear on top of the app you have opened. It looks like a small sticky note.

There are 3 kinds of notes you can create.

1. A text note.
2. A checklist note.
3. A voice note.

I have been using this app to create my mailing list master course. The email course I am designing to help build my list. You can even email your notes to yourself or anyone else.

Inkpad

I discovered this app in March 2015. I don’t remember if it was already pre programmed onto my phone back then. But it is possible that I downloaded it from the app store when I upgraded to my first ever smartphone. I have used it for taking notes and ideas about everything ever since.

1. The type of ink to buy for my printer
2. The entire list of books in order of the “in death” series by JD Robb
3. Book ideas that I would like to write
4. My insurance number
5. Passwords and websites to remember.

These are a few of the many things I took notes on using this app. You can create a text note or a list note. You can give your note a title and it even will tell you the date you created the note.

Life diary

I use this app as a journal or diary. I share my hopes and dreams. I share my feelings. I write out plans I want to do for different things. When I was a teenager and young adult I always carried a journal around. I wrote about everything in it. It was very therapeutic for me. Then I got out of the habit of keeping one. Then in the last month, I discovered this app in the app store. So I have been trying to get back into the habit of journaling again. I love that it is on my phone so I can write in it whenever I want.

The following apps are some others I use in my writing:

Writing prompts.

This is not an app for taking notes but it helps me to spark ideas for short fictional stories. there are more than 1,000 writing prompts you can choose from.

Kindle app

This app has every eBook I have ever bought for my kindle on it. I can access any book I want. There are hundreds of books in my account. And I have the power to buy more with one click. There is no longer a need to carry around a physical book everywhere I go. It doesn’t matter what size the book is or how many pages it contains. It is no heavier or bigger than my phone. If I finish a book I don’t have to wait until I get home to get another one and start reading. I can switch from book to book with a touch with my finger or stylus.

Answer the public

Not an app but I bookmarked this page on my home screen and use it when I need an idea for a blog post.

Blog idea generated

This is the same as “answer the public”. you type in a topic and it will generate hundreds of questions that people are asking about that topic.

Amazon KDP log in page

I also have this on my home screen so I can check my sales stats on my self published books whenever I want. I can even change the price of a book. I can even begin a book promotion.

Upworks

Used for finding freelance writing jobs. If you want to do some freelance writing then going through this company is a great option. With this app, you can search for jobs, apply for jobs, check your income earned. You can also message back and forth between you and your clients.

Other apps that you can use:

There are apps that you can use to write novels, screenplays, and short stories. There are even several different writing prompt apps you can even download and use. All you have to do is go to your play store or app store. Then search the following terms:

1. Writing prompts
2. Writing apps
3. Journaling apps
4. Note-taking apps

There are so many to choose from. Download a couple of different ones and try them out to see how you like them. If you don’t like one delete the ones you don’t like and try another. Keep the ones you like and will use them all the time.

Conclusion:

By using the technology that is at our disposal we are more likely to keep a writing notebook on us everywhere we go. We are also more likely to take notes when all we have to do is take your phone out of your pocket, open an app and start typing.

Typing is not only more efficient than writing with a pen or pencil. Yet even faster is using the speech software built into your phone. All you do is touch the mic button on the keyboard and start speaking.

You can always edit later when you have more time. So try it out. It’s more fun, more efficient, and more productive. You will get more thoughts out of your head faster. You can get more writing done each day. It may even help you to do better during NANOWRIMO.

Go forth and write!