Meeting minutes for Thursday, June 9, 2011

Steve Beisner offered several suggestions for "The Right Tech for Writing" at our June 9th meeting at our new venue, Brooks Institute on Cota Street. His first piece of wisdom was that sometimes the right tech was low tech, like a pad and pencil. Occasionally, the best way to research for your writing is to keep your eyes and ears peeled, and use a cardboard box full of files.

When talking about social media and email, he warned, “Don’t get obsessed or abuse it.” If we turn off the “You’ve got mail” signal, we’ll be less distracted while writing. When we do use email, he encouraged us to use it effectively, for example be sure to have a signature at the bottom with your contact information.

For sparking the inspiration to write, Steve shared a trick he learned from a lady he once knew, who would write a letter everyday to somebody she admired, whether or not she sent the letters is beside the point – she wrote everyday.

Moving on to the more “high tech” tools, Steve recommended a whole list of software for research, record keeping, and drafting and rewriting. An example of these resources was OmniOutliner (available for Mac and iPad), a program for brainstorming new ideas and organizing information. He also told us about some alternatives to the writing software many of us use, for instance OpenOffice is a free, open source, alternative to MS Word. Also on the list was the free program he developed himself, InkByte Tracker to help writers manage submissions to journals, publishers, agents, or any market. For the full list of programs Steve talked about, feel free to email him at beisner@alum.mit.edu. He welcomes writing-related tech questions from writers – it’s his way of “paying it forward” for all the help he’s gotten from other writers.

Then Steve gave the floor to his lovely wife Melinda Palacio, who opened by telling us, “If you remember one thing from tonight, I hope it’s that Ocotillo Dreams would make a great movie.” This pitch to screenwriters who might want to adapt her new novel into a screenplay was a tongue-in-cheek lead in to her point about how important community is to writers. Her connection to Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, who was in the audience that night, got Melinda her first reading as a poet. Ways she connects with other writers include blogging for La Bloga and attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where she and Steve met. She uses Facebook and Twitter to meet people she wouldn’t normal meet otherwise, and this is helpful for marketing. With Ocotillo Dreams going to press soon, marketing is big on her mind, since publishers rely on authors to do the bulk of it. To illustrate her promotional efforts she brought along the book cover poster and postcards, which she also mails out to old friend. Her other plans include a virtual book tour as well as real time signings at independent bookstores.

The problem is all this promoting takes Melinda away from her writing, and distractions are not good for a writer. She says she doesn’t compose on the computer because that’s too distracting. Sometimes she uses Scrivener, one of the high tech tools on Steve’s list, to concentrate on composing and structuring, but mostly she begins her writing with the low tech pad and pencil.