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(Almost) Free note taker app for writers
Syncopetic adjective
1) the ability to sync information wirelessly and with ease between multiple devices
Don’t bother to look it up. It’s a word coined out of necessity.
A writer’s budget is often lean. No fat. No fuss. Certainly mine is and yours as well, I imagine, since you probably arrived at this post due to the headline. Additionally, a writer must always – always – have her tools at her finger tips. When I was a child, this meant keeping paper and pen by my bedside for midnight note taking when inspiration struck. Now it means a mobile application that is accessed and syncs from computers and phones everywhere.
My WIP was perhaps 75% complete in mid-2016 when Evernote altered its business model and limited syncing to two devices. Purchasing the pro model wasn’t something I wanted to consider. I felt cheated– although how much do I have the right to expect from a program offered for free? You see my stubborn backbone came in to play. I’ll manage, I thought. I took to emailing notes to myself, flagging them in my in-box, later transferring the info to Evernote when I had both the free time and proper access. It was a cumbersome process, to say the least.
I muddled through, only because my research was in the end stages. With Scrivener as my go-to writing app, I still had iOS compatibility, DropBox syncing – the whole deal. Scrivener includes a note taking/research section, far beyond anything I have yet to utilize. Still, my mindset prefers the bulk of my research in one app with my actual manuscript kept separately. I might have adapted.
Enter the new WIP. The characters. Their voices. The scenes that drift behind my eyelids at night. The numerous questions and resulting capture of historical detail. The snippets of dialogue that, if not quickly ensnared, will escape down the rabbit hole. With a sense of urgency setting in, I nearly caved and purchased Evernote Premium. But then my natural tendency to research kicked into high gear. There had to be another way.
After a good deal of consideration of a variety of note taking apps, I’m so far delighted with my decision to go with Nimbus Note. Free for up to 100mb/month upload with a few other, very reasonable restrictions, it functions much like EverNote — the OLD EverNote where you could sync unlimited devices. Notebooks, SUB-notebooks (could I even do that in EverNote?), tags, search capabilities… all set. The import from EverNote was a breeze. I had 250 + notes in my main folder and other minor folders; the full import was about 75% of my allotted monthly upload, so I’d say I’m good to go for future storage. The iOS app is performing beautifully, every device in sync.
Once again, I am syncopetic. All is write with my world.
(Note: I receive no compensation from Nimbus Note – only satisfaction.)
Let there be music
Life imitating art. I would never have dreamed it as I wrote the words.
My brother Leo passed away last night. It never occurred to me until I was reminiscing with a sister, I’d (somewhat subconsciously) named the choir master in my (as yet unpublished) novel “Mario.” Mario was my brother Leo’s middle name.
I chose the name because of its Italian connotation, not because the character is the maestro… or so I thought. Leo Mario sure did love to sing!
The conversation prompted memory of this clip from THE LAST ARIA:
“The Maestro raised his baton … As we commenced to sing, his eyes drifted closed and his expression turned euphoric as if the music transformed him. Lost in song, Mario Zanetti floated up … and became whole.”
Writing heals in so many ways–as does song. Sing with the angels, Leo Mario. Sing your heart out.
GIANNA’S WORLD
One of my wonderful beta-readers asked about a map of Agrodanno (Gianna’s fictional village in THE LAST ARIA) and its surroundings, not knowing I had already created one. While writing, I often went to My Maps in Google to construct and consult the map below. While my sister and I toured Emilia Romagna last year, the places I’d mapped felt eerily familiar. My sister had listened to me prattle on about “Gianna’s world” for days. She was as enthralled as I was as we gazed up at majestic Roccamalatina and peered at the slopes of Monte Sole, now bucolic but once the site of such indiscriminate violence. Each icon, marking a place either real or imagined, is representative of a scene within Part One of THE LAST ARIA and marks a small part of Italy’s forgotten front in WWII. Welcome to my world.
Your beta-readers love your novel. Now what?
The comments from my beta-readers give me goosebumps.
“I hated to have it end. … hated to let go of all the characters…. I will miss them.”
If I never get any further, I’ve already done what any author hopes to do, right? I’ve engaged a reader with my characters. But that’s not enough. Not yet. Not until I’ve queried my little fingers to the bone.
A Google search renders pages and pages of advice on writing the dreaded query letter. Bless all the literary agents who’ve dispersed valuable advice–to their benefit as well, I suppose, since the suggestions provided might improve the quality of the queries they receive.
I navigated through the sites, finding a good deal of repetitive information until… eureka! I hooked the QueryShark! The site is refreshingly different and absolutely indispensable.
If you’re an aspiring author at the query stage, read the archives at QueryShark.com. Eleven year’s worth… ELEVEN years! While I was unsure whether I would submit a query for review on the site, I read every word as if that were my intention. I took copious notes. It can’t hurt. I drafted no less than seven versions of my query as I read through the site. Did it help? Time will tell if it’s time well invested. Already six years in writing THE LAST ARIA, I’m not prone to cutting corners now. If you’re having trouble with that pesky query letter, check out the site.
Next on the checklist: the synopsis, the query letter’s evil stepsister.
Silly me, I thought I was done with my homework.
Just write
When the idea of writing THE LAST ARIA first occurred to me, it was due to the adage, “if you want to be a writer, you should write every day.” That night, Augie O’Connor appeared in my dreams. Just a soldier at the rail of a troop ship. Nothing more. It was as simple as that; I set off on a six-year quest to write my debut novel. But Augie and dreams and writing every day are all fodder for another post. This one is about an indispensable tool to get it done.
I’ve loved writing as long as I can remember. Every fall I’m tempted to go to a big box store and waft the pages of empty notebooks–large and small, lined and unlined–below my nose. The smell of fresh paper! Back to school time: blank pages brimming with the promise of things to come! But a novel? Where on earth did that come from? I haven’t written fiction since the stories I wrote in elementary school. But the urge struck, and there was no stopping once I’d begun.
Other than the thought of my mother suggesting in a very persuasive voice, “finish what you started,” there is one thing that kept me going: Scrivener.
Hands down, I found Scrivener the best writing tool of many I sampled. Up until now, my blogs and novel writing have been a hobby (yes, now I have high hopes!). From graphic design to web design, open source (read: free) programs are my go-to tools. I already have one expensive hobby (golf). I didn’t need another. Scrivener is an exception– and worth the nominal cost many times over.
I wrote THE LAST ARIA entirely out of sequence. It would have been impossible to keep track of my scenes and chapters in Word. Scrivener’s binder not only displays the complete outline, it also offers drag-and-drop capabilities to rearrange chapters and scenes. That’s a drop in the bucket of how it works to keep a writer organized.
Already started a project in Word? Not to worry; I had, too, but easily imported it to Scrivener–and never looked back.
Check Scrivener out for yourself. And start writing.
Love for Life
Anyone who has ever loved a dog must believe in an afterlife. Love like that cannot die.
Capital Issues
It seems the general public has forgotten the very simple concept of proper nouns. More and more, I notice text in which “Everyone” and his “Brother” insist on capitalizing words for emphasis. Remember proper nouns? Those were the words you weren’t allowed to use in Scrabble. Interestingly enough, much of the improperly capitalized verbiage is found in self-descriptive paragraphs. “Let me be your Agent. I am Experienced. Call Me Today.” A block of text written like one big headline leaves me thinking: don’t believe everything you read.
Unless you’re describing a person with a highly regarded title or political position, or a god or deity, please lay off the capitals. It makes me Crazy.