What Tools Do You Use While Writing?

[Off_base]

I just write in the lit publishing form and save my work in drafts until I finish them. I'm so exciting and literary.

 

[HelenL]

For those of you using excel to track characters, how exactly are you using that? I use Excel daily (in my actual paying job) and it has never once occurred to me to use it for erotica literature creation. And I'm not totally following how I should be using it but I'm always open to new ideas.

I only track age. It would be useful to have more info on the characters, and I should probably add a few lines at the top for each, but each story has a range of dates that aren't mentioned in the story but that I need to know to keep them up to date with story-related events (would they still be in college? old enough to drink? likely to be trusted with a business loan ?) so I have dates in rows and subtract birthday from event date in cells. 'Course, if you're not writing crossovers that wouldn't make sense. I do screw up names from time to time, I really should keep a list of secondary characters too. Thanks, @IWroteThis.

Oh yeah, another writing tool: babynames.it. I can search popular names for the year my character was born. I hate the task of finding unique names.

 

[crookedletter]

I hate the task of finding unique names.

I find this particularly arduous in erotica. If I pick a name for something else and realize belatedly that I have a cousin or a friend who used the name for a child, no big deal. But it would make me squeamish to use such names in the kind of things I post here.

 

[iwatchus]

I just write in the lit publishing form and save my work in drafts until I finish them. I'm so exciting and literary.

I hate to be negative, but DON"T DO IT THIS WAY!

A handful of people doing this have lost stories to glitches. You can always use a simple text editor if you want (what platform do you want to work on -- Windows, mac, linux?) then copy the text over. Make sure you have a copy of all your stories somewhere not here, just in case.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I use Google Docs for my notes, and then write the stories using Open Office.

 

[Zootonius]

A glass, some ice, and a 12 year old scotch

 

[Voboy]

Just Google Docs.

And, if things get awesome, some coconut oil and a towel.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I just write in the lit publishing form and save my work in drafts until I finish them. I'm so exciting and literary.

Either ye are a daredevil, or ye are the fool of fools. If you're doing this, better to copy and paste your progress in a .txt file and save it locally because the Lit editor has enough issues to be considered anathema to use it for actual writing.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have written using Notepad, Word, Wordpad, Google Docs, and most recently LibreOffice.

 

[Nightaelf]

For those of you using excel to track characters, how exactly are you using that? I use Excel daily (in my actual paying job) and it has never once occurred to me to use it for erotica literature creation. And I'm not totally following how I should be using it but I'm always open to new ideas.

I use a schedule like the one attached. It might be possible to make it simpler or clearer, but this system works for me. This is the schedule for my Life of Anne series, and quite a lot happens in it, so I sometimes lost track of things like ages and timelines. After I made this, I had a much better overview of my storyline.

 

[Erozetta]

I use pages and the Mac speaking for read to me.

But I have a question. How many people have an editor? I have had another author read one story this far before publishing. My SO has read a handful of stories to tell me certain parts don’t work but otherwise it’s been all me. Lots of you seem to have someone who will edit for you. Is that true?

I have two people I can reliably send work to for input, but I try not to because they are also writers and I don't want to interrupt their flow.

I think I might send them each one story for every four I write.

 

[cw5523729]

I use a schedule like the one attached. It might be possible to make it simpler or clearer, but this system works for me. This is the schedule for my Life of Anne series, and quite a lot happens in it, so I sometimes lost track of things like ages and timelines. After I made this, I had a much better overview of my storyline.

Thank you, that's very helpful. Had I had something like that years ago, my story series wouldn't be rife with anachronisms and inconsistencies. Oh well, I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future.

 

[HelenL]

Thank you, that's very helpful. Had I had something like that years ago, my story series wouldn't be rife with anachronisms and inconsistencies. Oh well, I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future.

Oh, they still can be

 

[ChloeTzang]

Google Docs for writing
Two displays + my laptop display
Coffee machine+assorted coffee
Big workstation - preferred location = basement
Google for research
Reference books - depending on what I'm writing but especially if it's historical
Youtube playlists (I always write with music playing)
Corkboard and post-it notes
My highly valued editor (LOL you know who you are)
Images - I collect images of characters and places for my stories and play them as a slide show while I'm writing. It helps me visualize what I'm wroting about (there's a reason I use 3 displays LOL - one of them is for that for and music) - I use the other 2 for writing

My brain cells - I track everything in my head - characters, plot, dates, scenes, pretty much everything for multiple stories that I'm working on or thinking about working on. I sometimes make rough notes inside a story as I'm working on it but that's more as a mempory jogger to come back and expand it
I do have a doc with a list of stories and story ideas and I have a folder of drafts and partially writte stuff or scenes that popped into my head

 

[IWroteThis]

Coffee machine+assorted coffee

Well, if we're going there, I need to add my Soda Stream and Wild Cherry Pepsi Zero to my list.

Speaking of, I need to go refill my drink…

 

[ericalauren]

I generally write using either Google Docs on my laptop or the Notes app on my iPhone. I also write by hand in my journal on a routine basis.

 

[Nightaelf]

Oh yeah, another writing tool: babynames.it. I can search popular names for the year my character was born. I hate the task of finding unique names.

Oooo....I like this!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I seriously don't know how you people use more than a word processor and a web browser on the computer, let alone track everything with a spreadsheet. To me it's far much pleasing on the brain to use index cards instead of a spreadsheet, with the added bonus that it's way easier and way more fun to reorganize scenes if such case is needed.

Coffee machine+assorted coffee

*Glances at water bottle.* How could I ever forget you, sweetheart?

If we're going here, I'll add a pair of dumbbells because I don't like sitting for too long.

 

[Erozetta]

Oh yeah, another writing tool: babynames.it. I can search popular names for the year my character was born. I hate the task of finding unique names.

I should probably use this. I recently submitted two stories to another site and only realized after the fact that the main male character in both stories was named Wes.

I have at least two other characters named Wes.

 

[HeyAll]

Google Docs

It looks the best, clean format. If there's no power/internet, then I use Word.

 

[SomaSlave]

I've moved over to Scrivener for my writing. The all in one environment has saved my continuity bacon on more than one occasion.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've moved over to Scrivener for my writing. The all in one environment has saved my continuity bacon on more than one occasion.

Made that big a difference?

 

[SomaSlave]

Made that big a difference?

It actually did. While there's a learning curve associated with Scrivener (and I haven't done a lot of customizing), having everything in one place (a writer's IDE) works better for me than having to deal with multiple applications/Web sites. Having all my stories in the series available in a single repository, with the ability to search across all of them at once, has made it easier to focus on the story and to ensure the storyline is maintaining its internal consistency.

The Characters section, in particular, has been invaluable in tracking the development of the characters across the stories. This is important for me, since they have a nasty habit of going places I didn't expect them to go. This will become increasingly important as the series starts to focus on Galatea's changing relationships with each of her masters and their changing relationships with each other.

 

[kreemi_pi]

I use my Masturbation Tools

 

[StillStunned]

I use my Masturbation Tools

My Woodwork teacher at school had a set of those. Obviously, he never let anyone else use them.