Writing hands free: How my iPhone is helping create my novel

You come bounding out of the elevator as you race towards a meeting you were supposed to be present at 15 minutes ago. In one hand, you hold a Starbucks that is still roughly the same temperature as the molten core of the sun, and in the other you carefully juggle a briefcase, cell phone, tablet, car keys, a desk lamp, several small woodland creatures, and a bumper to a 1978 VW bug.

Ok. Maybe a that's a slight exaggeration. Bug bumpers are notoriously hard to come by. 

The point is, if you're anything like me, this is exactly the time when Lady Inspiration throws open the ornately decorated double doors and makes her grand entrance. Your book was the last thing on your mind not thirty seconds ago, and now you have the perfect ending where your protagonist has such an amazing revelation that future readers will be forever better for having been part of the journey. You even have the dialogue, verbatim, which creates such an eloquent and touching moment that you nearly tear up. It's absolutely perfect.

And there is no way of getting it out of your head.

If you stop and set down your sherpa's worth of gear, you're going to be even later for the meeting. If you make the mistake of telling yourself, "It's too great of an idea to forget. I'll remember it," then you've just committed the one tragic error we are all guilty of. You need to get your great idea secured now. 

Before I move on, I'd like to make it clear that in no way am I affiliated with Apple or any of its products. Ok? Ok. Moving on. 

What I have done throughout the entire writing of my novel, I Will Follow, is utilize the voice memo feature of my Iphone. I use it constantly. In my car, at work, in line at the grocery store (which results in no shortage of confused and concerned looks from onlookers and passers-by as I scream into my phone, "And finally, as he leaps out of the window, he lands on a fire hydrant and then flies away on a magical gravy boat!) Ok, so I haven't actually dictated those exact words, but you get the idea.

For the android users, I'd bet a weeks worth of macaroni and cheese that your phone has the same capability. Use it. When you absolutely cannot get to a laptop, PC, or even the ol' tried-and-true pen n' paper, take advantage of technology. You'll be glad you did.

'Til next time, keep those keyboards warm.

-John