A writer's love affair with Evernote

Once upon a time in a distant era when the dinosaurs roamed my backyard, I had to keep filing cabinets full of clippings from magazines, newspapers, and assorted other print sources as research for my writing. When I moved to a new home about four years ago, I filled two dumpster carts with no longer useful paper, files, clippings, magazines, and even notebooks and reference tomes.

These days, Evernote is my filing cabinet. It's also my primary word-processing tool for ongoing projects, notes, or fiction, because it's available on all of my digital devices, desktop, laptops, Chromebook, and tablet.

Writing the kind of nonfiction I've always done for articles in national, regional and local publications on just about any topic journalists write about, I'm always collecting information. Not infrequently, it takes a 5,000 word article or a book to make a paragraph or even just a sentence in a really well-researched nonfiction piece.

But it is a literal and metaphorical weight off of me not to need all that paper. Digital is instantly searchable, weighs nothing, and makes filing a keyboard operation sans papercuts.

I use Evernote every day. It clips anything you're reading or seeing online and offers many filing options, easy search, tagging, all that good digital stuff that makes life and work easier.

They seem to update rather often, which I find a pain in the ass, but at least the updates never seem to take long or suddenly alter the way I use it.

I'm sure there are other good digital note programs out there - Microsoft's OneNote, among others. But Evernote is certainly on top of that particular heap right now.

If you haven't used it, try it. Feel free to tell me I'm full of diddly doo. Shoptalk isn't a one-way street.

Allan Maurer

I like my pens SMOOOOOOOTH....

I like my pens SMOOOOOOOTH....

As a writer, I'm addicted to the best tools I can find. I write for a living, so fast and dependable are my first two requirements of any write-tool I use.

Pens, for instance.

Currently, while I use a lot of pens I acquire at events and conferences, I still buy two very good ballpoints when I see them at a good price.

Papermate's "Profile" pens are a sheer joy to use. Their ink flows so easily they rival the feel of a very good fountain pen. Be sure to get a notebook or Yellowpad with paper made in America. Those Chinese notebooks use substandard paper that doesn't take ink or pencil well and is easy to poke through. Ampad and OMNI both make superior Yellowpads. I still often use the marbled composition books, but again, only if they're American made.

Bic's "Velocity" brand is also a pleasure to use, a bit fatter than the Papermate Profile, but comfortable in the hand and again, a very good smooth ink technology. I find these a bit cheaper than the Papermate pens at places such as Walmart. -- Allan Maurer