I’m one of those writers who has to get my strokes of genius down in order to remember them, so I’ve gone through multiple note-taking systems. I’ve carried 3 x 5 notecards and a pen. I’ve had small notebooks in my purse, by my bed, in my office, the kitchen and by my favorite chair in front of the TV. I’ve had one large notebook that I schlep with me from room to room and on my daily travels.
None of it works. The 3 x 5’s get mangled and lost or distributed liberally hither and yon throughout my house, some blank, some written on, none in any order. The small notebooks–which one was I using when and where was I when I had that thought? And the large notebook that I schlep everywhere–too big, too heavy, too unwieldy, too unschlepable. I could go on telling you about the various online apps that I’ve tried and discarded for one reason or another.
The fact is that nothing gives me the mobility and ease of use that Google Drive does. It offers similar word processing capabilities to Pages or Word. So if I work on a project late at night on my iPad–or in the dentist’s office on my iPhone–they’re on the my Drive, readily accessible whenever, wherever and without my having to save or sync or really do anything besides be creative. Wikipedia calls it “a file storage and synchronization service provided by Google, released on April 24, 2012, which enables user cloud storage, file sharing and collaborative editing.” I call it genius, lifesaving and an über-boost to my writing habits.
I’m telling you all this because the MidLifeBloggers Writers Workshop, which is starting this Monday, is going to take place almost wholly on Google Drive. The only people who can access the Workshop posts are those who are registered for the class. I like to think of Google Drive as our private meeting room, a lounge of sorts, that we can go to wherever and whenever we please. You can go there to read, to write, to comment, to converse about posts of mine and those of your fellow writers in the Workshop. This is not time-specific; you can access and participate in the Writers Workshop anytime 24/7.
However, the fact that the Workshop will be behind a wall means if you’ve registered, you must
- Have a Gmail account. If you don’t already, get one here: https://support.google.com/mail/topic/1669013?hl=en&ref_topic=1668946
- Once you have the Gmail account, go here to sign on and download Drive: https://support.google.com/drive/?hl=en
If you’re registered for the Writers Workshop, look for email from me this weekend that will enable us to get up to speed Monday morning (in whatever your time zone!). If you’re not registered yet for the MidLifeBloggers Writers Workshop, last chance to sign up now. Hit the Paypal button below and go for it–join us….
