For nine months this pencil box has sat next to the computer pleading with me to stop sputtering and ranting at the idiotic comments in the local paper. Channeling Ernest Hemingway, the box quietly states, "The writer must write what he has to say, not speak it."Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Stupid box. When I need your help, I'll ask for it.
What is especially irritating about the engraving is that the box just sits there looking great and inspirational on the outside, but the inside is empty. Nothing to write with. Nothing to write on.
Empty. EMPTY!!!
Kind of like a person's head after watching fifteen minutes of afternoon television.
Blech!
Some people would say it's a nice decoration, but it shouldn't be a decoration. Far more than a fancy container, it was made for a purpose. It was given to me with a purpose. And I've been ignoring it...kind of on purpose.
It's difficult to ignore because even though it speaks silently, it speaks loudly. It reminds me that I have work to do and this is my toolbox.
I hate the term work.
One could justify the box's emptiness, I suppose, by asserting that pencil boxes have lost their usefulness in the age of computers. That's a copout, however. If nothing else, pencil boxes are symbolic of a writer's toolbox, and as such, should be filled. Which started me thinking, "What should be in the writer's tool box?"
The teacher instinct kicked in and proclaimed, "Let's make a list. Or better yet, let's make THREE!"
Here they are: The Old School List, the Digital Age List, and the Book Bag List.
Old School pencil boxes are made to accompany piles and piles of journals, loose-leaf notebooks, and legal pads. The most obvious element inside would be, to nobody's surprise,
1. Pencils. And their cousins the pens. At the initial stages of brainstorming ideas, writing utensils are probably enough.
However, as your project evolves, you may want to add...
2. Highlighters. Fluorescent markers make words stand out. If you come up with something particularly witty, the luminescence of these markers make the writer look smarter. Unfortunately, if you're particularly mundane or foolish, they only accentuate your kinship to a lethargic wombat, but...
3. Mini-Moleskine notebooks and Post-it pads are great for ideas and mess-free edits. On the other hand, if you really want to get rid of ridiculous phrases, Sharpies are great for blotting them out forever while conserving paper and the salvable material.
And let's not forget every teacher/secretary/writer's friend,
4. The paper clip/binder for keeping your good stuff together.
It may be hard to tell, but the Hemingway box above, and maybe yours, is large enough to also contain an
5. iPod with accompanying earbuds. What songs should be loaded onto it? See the page published earlier "Artists for the Perfect Playlist."
For those who have given up on long hand or who have the penmanship of a flopping carp, the previous list may seem pretty prosaic and boring. "What about digital writers?" you ask. I have answers, but I also have to preface my list here admitting my preference for the Mac.
If you are a PC person, I'm sorry...
That's not nice. Sorry. I assume there are PC parallels for what I am about to suggest. I just don't know for sure. I'm willing to learn and share.
Digital Age pencil boxes usually come embedded in your device. Your computer, laptop, and tablet usually has some form of
1. Word processing like Apple's Pages or Microsoft's Word. Google has Docs or something similar and useful. Speech-to-text features even take away your need to be a good typist. It's a good time to be a writer.
Speaking of Google...Sorry. Didn't mean to give you mental whiplash. But speaking of Google, a really good
2. Search engine is invaluable to the digital pencil box. Some people like Bing. Others, Yahoo. Still others have access to academic search sites. Personally, I find Google and Wikipedia useful for background information in writing fiction. For more detailed information, use as many engines as possible. (Oh, for former students railing against my prohibition of Wikipedia lo, those may years ago....note that this is for BACKGROUND information. For more detail, Wiki can still be valuable if one follows the linked citations.)
3. Dictionary/thesaurus apps usually come with your device, but I also suggest you make sure you have access to Dictionary.com as either a bookmark or as a separate app. That site uses numerous sources, great etymologies, and provides access to both a dictionary and thesaurus in one place.
4. USB jump drives are simple ways to store your information, as are external hard drives. And make no mistake: Backing up your work is vital. The hard drives have more storage capability, but the jump drives are smaller and simpler to transport. Unfortunately, that size makes them easier to lose as well. Just be careful.
5. Music can be your friend or enemy, so take this advice with caution. iTunes works in two great ways for those who want access to their music. Your downloaded playlists can travel with you on your devices, or if you're daring and like surprises, the new iTunes Radio makes some great selections.
That being said, I still like Pandora and am playing with Spotify. So any great choices on both.
For more information concerning music and writing, check in the August 2013 archives for the article entitled "Writing and Music: Building the Inspirational Playlist."
6. Organizational tools abound in the App Store, but let me point out one of the most useful that incorporates the best of the Old School and Digital Age lists: Scrivener. Designed with Mac in mind, one can assume correctly it works best in that format, but according to reviewers, the PC adaptation has retained the functionality of the original.
What does Scrivener do? It formats your material. It allows you to search, rearrange, outline with or without digital notecards. Writing tools include a dictionary/thesaurus in both British and American mode, a name generator, and many more. As great as Pages and Word are, Scrivener is much more powerful and writer-centric Because of all Scrivener can do, it also has a learning curve that will slow you down at the beginning of your first project, but the program makes the compilation of material super simple. The online manual and tutorials are, in a word, wonderful.
The third list features the catch-all contraption that follows good writers wherever they go to compose, the inimitable
Book bag.
The book bag can hold lots of good stuff, not the least of which is books. What kind of books?
1. Inspirational books are staples of every trip to the library or coffee shop. These are not necessarily for information, but more for motivation and encouragement. Books like Tao te Ching, The Spiritual Emerson, Dale Carnegie, Will Rogers, and Walden are in my bag because their simple presence can spark a train of thought, an image, or a theme that can keep one writing for hours.
However, they are not the only books to bring to the table or desk.
2. Reference books are good even if you have a laptop with all the reference apps. A particularly useful reference is, believe it or not, a hard-copy thesaurus.Occasionally, the right word is just not in the digital thesaurus because the writers don't always think the way you do when keying in a reference word. The ONE thesaurus that always seems to have the right synonym is Roget's Super Thesaurus by Marc McCutcheon, published by Writer's Digest Books. Honestly. No other thesaurus, including the massive Roget's, comes close to the usefulness of this reference. Even with Dictionary.com, Scrivener, and Apple, the Super Thesaurus is a must-have.
And no author's book bag is complete without
3. Writing books. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of selections in the writing section of Barnes and Noble, not to mention Amazon. What-to-write, how-to-write, and when-to-write books are about as numerous as pizza joints in the local strip mall, but there are a few that are especially helpful to have in your book bag.
Four of the most helpful are The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler; Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men's Lives and Loves and Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.; Vex Hex Smash Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing by Constance Hale; and How to Write and Sell Your First Novel by Oscar Collier with Frances Spatz Leighton.
Vogler and Bolen deal with archetypes that can guide plotting and characterization, two of a writer's most important tasks; Hale brings a different method to empowering your language; and finally, Collier gets into the culmination of writing––publishing.
There are many other books just as valuable that can give you guidance, including ones by such luminaries as William Golding, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King. Find what works for you and which you will actually use and put them in your bag.
Books are not the only thing to go into your book bag, however. There's also the ever-important
4. Assorted stuff. "Stuff" can be real notecards, journals, staplers, three-ring binders, three-hole punch, ruler, and a rubber rattlesnake just to scare some unsuspecting frump hiding in the library stacks or an annoying child at the window screaming at his inattentive, head-banging mother locked outside in a Mercedes listening to Black Sabbath on noise-canceling headphones. Anything that might prove valuable on your excursion.
CAUTION: A word of warning about the use of book bags: It seems these totes have been infected by the tribble virus and tend to multiply exponentially if not kept under strict control. Untamed stacks can leap out of closets and cupboards, causing severe cranial damage without the slightest provocation.That advice aside, the important lesson today is to fill your pencil boxes and book bags with the tools of the trade.
Trade.
That's the word. Much better than work. I probably could have found that in the thesaurus.
Which is the second lesson: Use the tools.
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