Ginny Frost
Let me start with: The possibilities are endless.
Every day I get a tip on my phone from Evernote. And
I think, “Here’s
another way authors can use this app to organize their writing.” I’ll try to
cram as many ideas as possible in this five-hundred-word post.
Personal Assistant
Few of us can afford a human personal assistant.
Those who can, I bow to you. Evernote can be a surrogate. With its reminders, calendar
feature, and checklists, authors can organize tasks easily. The notebook system
allows writers to put their business items all in one place. Or if your brain
works differently, one notebook can hold the entirety of tasks for your novel.
Separate notes can hold marketing plans, editing checklists, pictures of ads
and covers, and schedules for sales.
Novel Planning and Story Bibles
The
templates on Evernote are amazing. An author could plan an entire novel on the
app. And with the cloud feature, you can access the data on mobile and
desktop/laptop easily. (You do only get two devices for free, but it’s
workable.) The story dashboard template has an overview for writing tasks. The
character profile template has a rich list of character traits beyond just hair
and eye color. Evernote for a story bible? The answer is yes! The Story Premise
template is for the plotters out there. A detailed list of inciting events,
characters, and setting. Of course, a pantser could fill in as they go to
ensure they hit all the beats.
Note-taking
Like my favorite app, Keep, Evernote is a note-taker.
It also has an easy-to-use voice recorder for those ideas that pop up when you
can write them down—while driving, at a swim meet, or in the shower. (Shower is
harder. Get Aqua Notes for that.) The checklists make everyday life easier, and
like Keep, when items are crossed off the To-Do list, they don’t disappear. It’s so
important for “Did I do that thing? Yes, here it is checked off.” With multiple
notebooks, it’s easy to classify tasks and keep grocery lists out of your novel
plotting.
Sketch
Evernote has an option to draw right on the screen.
Easy for both desktop and mobile devices, it’s great for those whose brains do better with pictures.
Either with a stylus, mouse, or a finger, draw out that broach your heroine
wears or the room layout of the hidden cottage. Whatever you need. I’m not much
of an artist, but my two daughters loved this feature and doodled endlessly on
the app. There aren’t many tools—a pen, highlighter, eraser, and lasso, but it
gets the job done. Sketches tuck right into notebooks keeping your treasure
map, regular map, or detailed house plans right in with your other story parts.
Clipping Websites
Evernote makes it easy to take info from websites and
save the data. Create a research notebook or a “potential editors” one and cut data from the web right into
Evernote. You can simply cut and paste, but you can also click Share on
the webpage and download the information into Evernote.
Sharing
Using contacts, authors can share their notebooks
with others. (Extensive sharing requires a premium membership.) If you are
working with a writing partner, editor, agent, publisher and need to share your
data, Evernote makes it straightforward to send notes and notebooks to others.
Like Trello, you can have data open to multiple users in the premium package.
Hopefully, this
will get you started with Evernote. Like many of the apps we discuss, the
potential of the program is only limited to your imagination. Happy Writing!