I have a problem. I’m addicted to my laptop.
My laptop is where I do all of my writing. My articles, my short stories, and the countless rough drafts for my novels. It houses all of my magic. If I wasn’t addicted to it, I wouldn’t be much of a writer.
The only problem with relying on it is that despite what it’d have you believe, it’s not the mostportable thing out there. You can take it to the park, or on vacation, or to your local Starbucks, but it’s a bit awkward to do so.
Pulling out your laptop is an endeavor all on its own. You have to lug the thing out of your bag, flip it open, and wait for it to wake up before you can get typing. When it comes to long writing sessions, this is fine. When it comes to a few paragraphs that you’d just like written down, it’s a hassle.
Laptops aren’t designed for jotting things down. But do you know what is?
Why You Should Write on Your Phone
Yeah, it’s your phone.
There are countless quotes and advice articles out there claiming that your phone will destroy any sense of productivity that you have. The thing is, I don’t totally disagree with that.
Your phone can provide almost infinite distractions. However, it can also help you accomplish any task. There are even a number of apps that are designed for productivity.
Even without a physical keyboard, you can write anything on your phone. It might take getting used to, but it’s more comfortable than dragging your laptop everywhere.
I spend a lot of time riding in cars against my will. It’s due to multiple obligations in my life. The car rides themselves are fine, but I feel a trickle of annoyance every time I get separated from my beautiful laptop. I’d even bring it along and type away on car rides. That quickly proved to be too uncomfortable. Especially since my family brings our little dog, Coco, everywhere we go. Imagine writing with a dog stepping all over your laptop.
I realized that I’d have to get creative if I wanted to be productive away from my laptop. I looked into ways to write a book from my phone. Heck, it’s worked out well for others. There was no reason why I couldn’t give it a shot too.
There are a few easy ways to do so, but since I write using a neat little program called Scrivener, I have a hard time using those options. I had to be creative in order to put them to use, but you won’t have that problem.
How You Can Write on Your Phone
If you write here on Medium, you could always download the Medium app and use that to create stories. You can read, write, and edit all in the same app. If your project is a Medium article then there’s really no better app or program to use.
If you use Scrivener like me, you could use the official Scrivener app for iOS. It allows you to edit and write your documents on your phone. Unfortunately, I can’t do this because I have an Android phone. That’s why I can’t recommend this option to everyone.
If I had to recommend a specific app for everyone, I’d like it to be free and accessible. That’s why I’m just going to do it. I’ll recommend what countless writers already have: Google Docs. I’m sure you’ve already heard of or use this app, but I’m bound by the laws of informational writing to explain it anyway.
Google Docs is Google’s superior version of Microsoft Word. It allows you to create and edit word documents that can be modified as long as you’re connected to the Internet. It also allows for offline viewing and editing if you download the document.
This is the overall best way to keep track of your writing. It allows for a variety of options including:
- Writing: You can start a new book or article as a word document. Now all you have to do is open the Docs app on your phone and get typing. As long as you have Google Docs on your computer too, you can easily switch between the two versions.
- Editing: The best part of writing on your phone is that it doesn’t matter how sloppy it is. My autocorrect used to run rampant whenever I wrote and it really messed up my sentences. Fortunately, I know that I can go back later and edit once I’m all done writing. Editing on your phone sounds like a disaster but it’s actually pretty relaxing.
- Note-taking: You don’t just have to focus on the work itself. You can take notes in separate documents and glance at them as you’re working on the main project. I keep whole folders full of information about my fictional characters and I refer back to them while I write in Scrivener. I believe that this is mostly what people use Google Docs for.
- Co-writing: Since your documents are online, they can be edited by anyone you share them with. You can work on something alongside a co-writer once you two set the document up. This doesn’t have much to do with phones unless one of or both of you are using them. That could make for an interesting experiment.
Write on Your Phone, Edit on Your Computer
I’d never suggest that you replace your computer with your phone. You could if it works for you, but I’d advise against it. There’s nothing more satisfying than typing with a physical, steady keyboard.
Writing on your phone shouldn’t faze out the work you do at home. It should complement it. Think of your phone as your computer’s personal assistant. It’s there to help your PC with its tasks, not take its job.
After a mobile writing session in the car, I’d come home and paste the work I did in Scrivener. This was usually a smooth process, but I occasionally found errors that were due to how sloppily I wrote on my phone. It was also due to autocorrect, but I can’t blame that for everything. I edited the errors away on my laptop, allowing it to put in its share of the work.
Just make sure that the two devices are working in harmony. If you can manage that, you’ll increase your daily word count by a noticeable percentage.
Final Thoughts
In this age of freelancing and self-published authors, you’ve got to maximize the amount of time spent writing. You can’t let yourself fall behind unless you want to invite laziness. That’s why I think it’s important to set up ways to write on every major device you own. If there was a way to write on your Playstation 4 or Xbox One, I would have talked about it.
The best thing about writing or editing on your phone is how empowering it is. It makes you feel like you’re in total control. It allows you a variety of options that you may not have even considered before. It’ll completely transform your workload.
Next time you feel like you’re not writing enough, remember the tips you’ve learned from reading this. Remember that you’ll always have options.