Tools & Resources

As a writer, creative, techie blogger, I consider the SYSTEMS, TOOLS and the RESOURCES that help me through my day important to my efficiency. Here, I detail the products, tech, books, courses, services, and people I love; and will update as time goes by…

Some of these are affiliate links, but won’t cost you anything if you take a peek, and you’ll be helping me out if you do click on them. Others are simply recommendations.

Writing Tech

Hardware

Laptop – I use whatever is still working (currently an Asus on Windows 7). I go through new laptops every couple of years, back up to a Terabyte EHD and Cloud storage. Cheap inkjet printer, and a laser one for drafts also.
iPad Air – on-the-go writing, outlining, photography, note-taking, and sometimes – self editing.
iPhone – any smart phone can take audio notes of ideas on-the-go.

Software and Apps

Note – as a techie, and somebody who writes a lot of posts on this subject, my software of choice is broadrange, and favourites change over time.

Writing Editor and Project Management – Scrivener for Windows
Writing on iPAD with Markdown support – Drafts
Note-taking and Research / Inspiration Files – Evernote. (great for cross-platform accessibility and web clippings)
Outlining and Planning – Brainstorming, Mindmapping, Rich Media formations – Scapple (on Windows) and MagicalPad HD (iPAD)
Outlining and Planning – Index Carding – Index Card (for iPAD) and Writers Blocks 4 (Windows) but Scrivener’s Cards often suffice.
Ebook Publishing – Scrivener and sometimes MS Word to Jutoh or Calibre
Blogging – I’m writing this inside the WordPress.com online editor, but often draft posts on Windows Live Writer, or through iPAD app, Blogsy.
Graphics Work – I create digitally using Corel PaintShop Pro, but also have older versions of Photoshop and other graphics editors.

Website and Hosting

This blog is hosted on WordPress.com‘s free blogging system, although is upgraded to premium level. Currently it’s using a customised version of a free WordPress theme – Twenty Fourteen, but I change templates often.
Individual websites such as my upcoming Hunter Emkay site use WordPress.org platform for blogging, and premium themes and plugins for WordPress.
Social Media Management – this wordpress.com site has a number of free plugins posting to various social media sites. For self-hosted sites I use a number of general plugins for social media and SEO, typically the most popular. For individual social media scheduled posts, I like Buffer, but also use Hootsuite.

Productivity, Organisation and Everyday Life

Google Apps – I don’t use Google Drive very often, but do operate daily via Google Mail accounts, and Google Calendars.
Sharing Files – I use Dropbox for cloud storage, sharing and delivering files across my platforms.
Reading – I generally purchase ebooks via Kindle, so use the Kindle App. Sometimes I also use the iBooks app, and for PDFs and other docs to read on my iPAD, I use GoodReader.
Task Management – I subscribe to Todoist, which has apps for iPAD, Windows, a gmail plugin.
Reminders – I use Evernote to setup reminders which appear in Sunrise, a great free iPAD or mobile calendar app which also integrates with google calendars.