Author Archives: Matt Jones

About Matt Jones

Software Engineer for a living. Fantasy writer for myself. I'm a writer, veteran, gamer, hacker, maker, astronomer, thinker, and altogether indescribable.

Writing to Music

Matt Jones The Writing Life 9 Comments

While surfing a few writing boards, one topic that I see appear quite often is the subject of music.  Usually it’s someone asking what music a writer listens to while writing, and how it affects them.  In other cases, I’ve seen people list a few bands and almost ask if it’s ok to listen to it while writing.  My answer has and always will be, if it helps you write, do it!

Neil Gaiman states pretty elegantly in the liner notes to his music cd “Where’s Neil when you need him:” “music was always part of the writing process — different music for different stories.”  Brandon Sanderson wrote in in his blog: “Music is a large part of the writing process for me. Listening to particular songs, with particular beats, can really get me into the writing mood, sparking images and ideas in my head. I depend on it in many cases to make me write when, sometimes, I don’t feel like it.”  Sanderson, when asked specifically what he listens to, he goes from classical, Metallica, Daft Punk, etc.

Personally, I listen to rock when I want a fast paced scene, and classical or Celtic when I want a softer feel.  I try to match the beat to the rhythm of the scene.  Look at the music you like and look at your scene.  Whichever genre or song you think best matches how you want to write, use it.  You don’t need permission, you just need to write!

A Writer’s Software Arsenal

Matt Jones Writing Tools 4 Comments

The enemy of every writer is the same:  the blank page.  We each have different weapons that we use against this common foe, but being a programmer by trade, I tend to use software in my arsenal.  Being my first post, I thought it would be a good idea to list some of the common software tools that many authors, including myself, use.  Just to note, these are all my own personal recommendations and I have not been influenced by their publishers.

The Word Processor

Microsoft Word: ~$149.99 with office. (https://office.microsoft.com)
Openoffice: Free (http://www.openoffice.org/)
Google Docs:  Free (https://docs.google.com/)

A common theme you’ll hear when writers give advice is to use what works best for you.  It doesn’t really matter which word processor you use, as long as you have something you can use to write with.  When you write, you should use something that is familiar to you and lets you work with very little thought on how it goes down on paper.  If the line that appears under misspelled words throws you off your game, disable the feature.  You can always run a spell check at the end.  Just write!

Plotting:

Wikidpad: Free http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/

When I first started plotting my books, I would create a lot of files in Microsoft Word and put my thoughts down there.  As my novels grew larger, my system began to fall apart.  Another author suggested wikidpad to me and it has been a huge time-saver ever since.  It has a small learning curve that takes a little getting used to, but once you’re familiar with it, things begin to fall into place.  As you plot out elements, you can quickly link to other elements and world elements.  This can easily turn a convoluted mess into a well-structured system.  The price is hard to beat as well.

Backup

Dropbox: Free http://www.dropbox.com
Carbonite: $59/year http://www.carbonite.com/

Computer backup services have been around for a while but still tend to go unused by many writers.  Some claim that they don’t want their unpublished works stored somewhere online, while others just haven’t taken the time to set it up.  As with any type of insurance, it’s not a problem until something goes wrong.  I personally keep all my transcripts on dropbox.  The advantages are numerous.  I can access my documents from my home or work.  I can start writing on my desktop at home, and finish from my laptop in a café with no worry of how to transfer it between the two computers.  If I’m at a conference, I can pull out my iPhone and instantly pull up a transcript to show off, or even email to potential agents or publishers.  One other feature I like about Dropbox is that it will keep a revision history.  If you have a bad night and delete half the document in a fit of rage, you can go back and pull up a prior version, restoring the lost chapters.

I will continue to look at other software that may be useful to writers to battle the blank page.  If you have ideas or suggestions, please leave a comment, and I may look at them in future posts.