Tag Archives: mobile

NaNoWriMo on the iPad

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I love my iPad. This year, I’m going to do something crazy. I’m going to leave my writing dungeon and get out and about while writing for NaNoWriMo. November weather in Florida is notoriously stunning, so I’m going to attempt to soak in some of that and still get some writing done.

I am pretty handy with my iPad onscreen keyboard, but for this lengthy task, I will be using a combination of bluetooth keyboard with Dragon dictation. Some of you might argue that Dragon is not very accurate, but I will argue right back that the goal of NaNoWriMo is get 50K words of a novel done in November. Once December rolls around, I can start the editing process.

I plan to do the actual writing on my iPad2, and use tools on my phone to help me get past my sporadic and annoying bouts of writer’s block, as well as helping me in the editing process in December, which I will do completely on my laptop.

Here are my favorite mobile apps for NaNoWriMo!

  1. Lists for Writers – Hands down this is my favorite. Yes, I’m biased because I helped make it, but it was born out of our collection of lists from years of working on NaNoWriMo! It has always delivered in time of need!
  2. Story Spark – This app generates scenarios. Most of the time, this app just sparks another idea for the story I’m already writing. However, I have used this to write short fictions to get in the groove or get unstuck.
  3. Name Dice – You can’t beat this free app for realistic name combinations. I use this all the time to create placeholder names when I can’t decide on a final name for a character. You just never know when the perfect name will come up!
  4. Story Dice – Not sure what happens next in your story? Roll the story dice for a random idea/object to weave into your plot.
  5. Spooky Story Dice – This is a special edition of Story Dice with 25+ slightly more sinister die faces included. Great for horror writing or even a lightly spooky tale for kids.
  6. Spy Tools for Kids – This is a new one for me to use with writing projects. One of the tools in this app is a fake ID maker. You can create driver licenses, passports, and spy agency IDs. I plan to use this by creating passports and/or driver licenses for all of my characters. They are really easy to make, and I can save the images to my camera roll to use elsewhere. I might even print them out for fun!

I use a few other apps including Evernote, Dropbox, and Flipboard. If you aren’t already using these all the time, get with the program and get them! Free!

Good luck in November!

Related articles: 9 Packing Tips for Camp NaNoWriMo

I’m headed to Capitol Hill!

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I’m headed to Washington on Sunday as part of the Association for Competitive Technology‘s Annual Fly-In. Our group of 50 tech CEOs and developers will be meeting with the DC representatives of many Silicon Valley companies to learn about the potential impact that pending government activity may have on our industry. We will also meet with our elected officials and agency staff to educate them about our businesses and how the ecosystem works.

One of the main messages I will bring to Capitol Hill lawmakers is that the [software/app] industry is having a tremendous impact on our local community. ACT did a great study on the revolutionary changes happening right now as America is increasingly becoming a mobile economy. Software companies are finding success in every part of the country and those that are most successful in the mobile space are overwhelmingly small companies and startups.

We need to make sure that lawmakers and regulators hear the voices of small business tech companies.  Innovation is taking place at a remarkable pace, but overreaching laws or regulation could this industry growth to a screeching halt.  I plan to explain to my elected representatives the success our company is having in Tampa and what we need that will allow us to continue to grow and create more jobs.  Specifically, Washington should:

  • Allow internet companies to implement new solutions for data transparency; Congress should resist the urge to apply broad regulatory restrictions that would deny consumers many of the products and services they rely on every day;
  • Implement a program to improve computer science education in our schools to help students qualify for rewarding careers in the tech industry.  This would build a larger workforce of American software developers and address the high skilled worker shortage we face;
  • Allow small software companies to protect their intellectual property without having to fight patent trolls and speculative lawsuits; and
  • Ensure that the government does not impede efforts to strengthen and expand our internet infrastructure so consumers can benefit from more reliable wireline and wireless data connectivity.

These are issues that the federal government is facing that will impact my business.  I’m looking forward to meeting with my elected officials and others in Washington to educate them about the technology industry so they can make the right decisions about our future.  Hopefully, an informed Congress will help companies like mine continue to flourish in our community.

Related Articles:

ACT Members Coming to DC for Annual Fly In Event