As I’ve gotten more into writing, I’ve found some products* that have helped me out a lot. Additional useful products will be recommended as I or others discover their benefit.
Here’s a short listing of them: (The names are click-able links to the products)
Software
Bonsai Organizer — As I mentioned in my book, this is the most used utility on my computer: Period! I use it everyday to just stay organized. Not only do I use it to organize my thoughts for my books, it’s also great for to-do lists, travel item checklists, grocery lists, class lecture notes, meeting minutes, webinar notes (both viewing and creating), speech notes, and to collect thoughts about pretty much anything. (Clicking the link will save you $2 of the normal price, through special arrangement with the developer.) If you want to try it for free before you buy, you can use this link: Try out Bonsai! Note: Paid members also have access to a video I created that shows them how I use Bonsai to organize my manuscripts. See the Tutorial Page. (By the way, I’ve added a little video below that shows how to install Bonsai to your computer.)
NOTE: The video opens in a small window. Click on the full-screen button in the lower right side of the window that opens up to view the video full screen.
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Open Office — Consists of Writer (Word Processor like MS Word), Calc (like Excel), Impress (like MS Powerpoint), Draw (like Paint on steroids), and Base (database like MS Access). If you want a high quality set of tools for your computer, be it Windows, MAC, Linux, or Unix, try it out. (But don’t do it before you write your book, or you’ll have so much fun playing, you’ll never get to the book!) Best thing: It’s completely FREE! (Click on the “Great Software tab to get more details about each of the included programs.)
EditPlus — A great simple plain text editor. I use this editor to quickly work with plain text and simple html documents. It doesn’t insert any unexpected formatting into the document. What you see is what you get. It runs about $35 or so with lifetime free upgrades. (I don’t make money if you buy it. It’s just a great light-weight but powerful editor.) You can try it for 30 days for free, if you wish.
Electronic Gadgets
Kitchen Timer — Very useful to prevent “losing time” while following the rabbit down the hole. (What I call the Google Time Vortex that afflicts many of us curious people.)
USB Flash Drive Memory Stick — Ya gotta back up your work. I consider this is essential because you NEVER want to lose your work. It’s especially critical when you’re collecting and writing down massive amounts of stuff in a short period of time like a day. Imaging losing your entire outline, manuscript, or book because you forgot to back it up to an external memory device for only a day. You could lose EVERYTHING you’ve done.
Ron’s 4 Hour Book
Here’s a link to my book, “Write a Book in 4 Hours for Amazon.com” It’s in an advanced draft form and I’ll update it when I publish it.
[wpmc-protected][S3FILE file=’docs/The-4-Hour-Book.pdf’ anchor=’Click to Download Ron’s 4 Hour Book‘]
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