Evernote Saved the Inspiration For My Book

How I used an elephant to outline Penelope.

Number six on my bucket lists reads “Write a novel, as a teenager.” Now nineteen and with only next May to finish, I choice to focus on the book this summer. So for the last month, for six hours a day, I’ve been outlining; I finished two weeks ago and have since written four chapters. This post covers the technology that helped me plan, how I used the tools to my advantage, and a big waste of time I regret.

Evernote Saved The Outline

Early on my friend, obsessed writer, and Editor of The Clarion Content Aaron Mandel convinced me to write the book by hand. “Ugh, fine Aaron.” Then later I figured, “If I’m writing the damn thing by hand, might as well outline the same way, too.” What a bad fucking idea.

Outlining by pen and paper resulted in multiple notebooks filled with chicken scratch, and a few panic attacks late at night on my backyard porch: “Wow I have no clue where this plot is going I don’t even understand my characters what am I doing why can’t I just play video games like normal guys?”

After fourteen days, the strategy had to change. Here’s how Evernote made outlining easier.

Multiple Notebooks

The story has three parts that are broken into scenes/chapters. I designated a notebook for each trimester and each note inside those notebooks is a specific chapter, keeping my story organized into digestible sections.

A downside, the notes are organized within notebooks by alphabetical order, file size, and other metrics; you can’t drag and drop to put them in a specific order. I had to make a separate note called “Outline” in which I listed every scene in order, then I’d search for the scene title and find the note before typing the entire title.

I also made a notebook for characters in which I made a note for every notable. I jotted their characteristics, any themes connected to them, and tidbits. I found online content (pictures, articles, short stories) that helped me define a character, and Evernote made attaching that content to a note easy.

In the “General” notebook I have themes, symbols, random bits of story that have no place and I need to fit in somewhere, questions I need to answer myself, and other random thoughts.

I’d need twelve Moleskins to keep this organized.

Collaboration

I’m co-writing this book with my best friend. Because I can share notebooks and collaborate in them with her, our emailing has cut down significantly.

In the picture above, you can see how we use Evernote to outline together. When I make a note she can see and contribute to it. I write my personal thoughts/questions in purple font and she in pink.

Search

The search function makes finding something instant. I woke up a few times in the middle of the night thinking “Damn, I contradicted myself in these two scenes” then logged into my computer, searched the character’s name, and find all the scenes he appears.

Tags

I can tag scenes with characteristic I think important. For example, in the story the antagonist wants to go to Charleston, a recurring symbol. I tagged every scene (each a separate note) where the character talks about his dream, “Charleston.” Now, if I want to know when my character mentions the symbol, I look up the tag. Awesome!

In the above picture is another way I use tags. I outlined scenes in different severeness: sometimes the bare actions, sometimes the entire scene in a rant. Because I didn’t think every scene down to the detail and because the story develops primarily through dialogue, many of the scenes had space for me to put in conversation topics whenever I thought of them. So I tagged those empty scenes with the above tag, and when I came up with a cool dialogue topic for the characters, I searched the tag and put the topic in the most appropriate scene.

Brainstorming Ease

Writing in Evernote doesn’t piss me off. Have you ever taken notes in Microsoft Word? That pisses me off.

For some chapters, I only jotted the major actions that have to happen. I write my best during the first seating and I like to let the story and little details play themselves out, so I average 600 words per scene note. But for certain scenes, instead of outlining the skeleton, I brainstormed the entire thing. The large screen and design of Evernote helped me write down garbage and compost a story. Evernote also provides note information like this:

Edit Add Anywhere Anytime

Evernote works on my computer as software, on my phone as an app, and on the Internet as a website. If I need to change anything, anytime, I can.

I used to carry a little red moleskin in case of moments like waking up at night with a thought, and although I still sparingly use the pad, primarily I’ve been using the phone app for those moments.

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