• Podcasts
• RSS aggregators
• Twitter

Now admittedly, these will take some setting up initially – there is some searching involved. However, once set up, the information comes to you. I subscribe to several science and skeptical podcasts using iTunes, and update my iPod every weekend. I now have a bank of information to absorb over the week during my walks to and from train stations to get to work. If something catches your ear, many podcasts have an associated website where they keep show notes. These normally take the form of a series of links to further research on the topic in questions.

Blogs (as you know ), are another great source of information. But wouldn’t it be great if you could access all the blogs you are interested in in one place? No problem! Every blog has an RSS feed. I forget what that stands for (tsk), but it’s basically a stripped down, information only feed of all the entries in the blog. This lets you subscribe to the feed using an RSS aggregator of some kind. This is  where you gather all your feeds into one place. A lot of the time you can order them into categories or give them tags so that you can find them more easily. Now you have access to all of them at once, and it’s easy to see what new posts have been submitted to each of these blogs while you’ve been away from your computer. It all comes to you. There are loads of RSS aggregators (or RSS readers as they are also called) out there, and chances are you’ve got one already. You can subscribe straight through the Firefox web browser for example, and the new posts will be put into a handy dropdown in your toolbar. Apple Mail also has a way of showing the blogs you’ve subscribed to in the left-hand column, beneath all of your email folders. There are loads of free ones too. Personally I use Google Reader, as it’s a web app, so is available on every computer with an internet connection (plus my iPod Touch, and even my Nintendo Wii), and it is easy to arrange feeds into categories.

To subscribe to a feed, just look for this symbol, either on the site itself, or in your browsers address bar. Depending on the reader you are using, this alone will subscribe you, or you may need to copy and paste the URL into your reader.

Twitter is perhaps not the most obvious choice, but I am loving Twitter for exactly this purpose at the moment. Twitter is a kind of microblogging service. You sign up, and get to write 140 characters about something and post it. This goes out to anyone who happens to be looking at everything coming out of Twitter, or are looking at Twitterers (‘Tweeters’? Actually, I think ‘Tweeps’ is the popular term at the moment. That may change tomorrow),  in their local area, plus it goes out to anyone following you. Following is the thing that makes Twitter powerful. There’s a whole load of people out there who are interested in the same things as you, and they’re providing links, talking about events, and responding to questions all the time. All you have to do is ‘listen’.

All this does sound like a bit of work, but it’s not nearly as much as it looks. For Twitter, start by searching for celebrities that you’re interested in, or friends that you know are on there. Don’t know who to follow, then take a look at my Twitter profile for ideas. Other than that, the whole thing kind of snowballs and feeds off itself. You only need to find two good blogs or podcasts that you like and it’s not long before you are referred to a couple more from within those posts or episodes. Believe me, you will soon have what feels like a little community of like-minded people feeding you information. And don’t forget, podcasters often have blogs and visa versa, and many of them are on Twitter too. And many of them know each other. It’s this fact that means your collection grows, but it’s brought into sharp focus when you see the conversations between the people you are following on Twitter. It’s interesting to watch in itself.

Practice

One other reason why inspiration doesn’t come easily any more might simply be that I am out of practice. It sounds odd to say you can ‘practice’ at being inspired, but as long as there are activities you can do towards something (see above), you should be able to become better at it. In theory, this means that the more you look for inspiration, the more used to this activity your brain becomes and the more automatic it becomes. The big upside of this is that even if we don’t feel inspired very often now, the more we graze on our interests, the more we will be inspired and the easier it will come.

It works by installing a bit of software that allows a specific folder to be designated as your ‘DropBox’. The contents of this folder is then automagically uploaded to DropBox servers whenever your computer is on, including any changes you make. Anything on the server that has changed is also automatically downloaded.

Where it gets clever is that you can install it on several computers, and register those computers on the same DropBox account. So, if I’m editing a file in my lunch break at work, that sits in my DropBox folder, it will automatically get uploaded. Then, when I’m at home and I turn on my computer, the document will be automatically downloaded to my home computer. And it works on Mac (my work PC is a Mac), Windows (my home PC) and even Linux, and files can be sent between these different operating systems.

There is also a web interface, that tracks changes to documents, allows you to compare them and roll back changes! Plus, a way of sharing photos between family members and friends.

Another use for writers might be as a collaboration tool – the same document can be updated among different writers.

Of course, some of you will be concerned over issues of copyright. I recommend you read the license agreement if you are worried. But, the quick and dirty version is that you own everything you upload, you agree that you own it, and you agree that it is your responsibility. And here comes another warning – it is not intended as a backup system, even though files are being stored on DropBox servers.

So there you have it. If you give it a go (or have done already), or have thought of another use for it for writers, let us know what you think below.

In the early stages of a project it feels really creative to get some ideas down and start shaping the thing that’s lurking in your mind. And it’s most joyous when it is as instant as possible. It allows me space to think, generate more ideas and importantly, not forget any! (How many times have you been writing a paragraph where an idea to include in the next paragraph comes to you, only for you to forget it by the time you’re ready to write it?)

One fantastic piece of software I use for this is Freemind. It is a mind mapping tool, and although it is not hugely sophisticated or feature rich, it is incredibly easy to use and quite flexible with the kinds of things you can include on your mind map. The software is designed around generating flow between your brain and the ‘page’. So everything is quick and easy to do and you almost never have to use the mouse – everything can be done through the keyboard. A lot of people may not like this concept, but you have to write if you’re taking notes, and constantly swapping between mouse and keyboard wastes time.

As well as adding long bits of text as nodes, you can add notes (if you want to write a couple of paragraphs for example), links to pages on the web, images, and links to other nodes (drawn as arrows on the page). You can also add little pictures to nodes to indicate what they are for, or format the text.

Another great thing about it is that it is written in Java, which means it can work on any operating system. And best of all – it is FREE!

Download it here, familiarise yourself with the keyboard shortcuts, and have a go. Let me know what you think in the comments section, and if you know of any other great software for writers, let everyone know!