Turn that thing in your hand into your best creativity tool.
I mean your phone. It’s been said that for most people their smartphones are mere consumption devices. Well, you can change that and make them into creation devices at any time.
My mission is to help you do that. I’ve created two Android apps for writers. I have plans for more apps that will be both for writing and general creativity, and also and my other favorite topic, designing your life.
The purpose of these apps
Many of us have at some point have had an addictive relationship with a device. I’ve been there, and many other people struggle with that. So, why not turn it into one of your best creative tools instead of a time waster.
You can turn your device time into useful time. All those minutes you have here and there that are pure idle time, can be put to good use instead of mindless scrolling.
Think of all that time in your day that gets frittered away into social media, a great yawning chasm that sucks up everything near it.
Reclaim it for your creativity now.
Waiting for the train or your kids at their lessons and practices, standing in line, when you find yourself alone at lunch, and all those other short periods of time.
They are too short to do much serious with, but could still be put to good use. They could be used to help develop your writing and creativity.
Writer’s tools
Alepoems
I created Alepoems after taking the Coursera MOOC Modern and Contemporary poetry. I loved the idea of playing with random strings of words.
The problem with our brains are they too easily fall into the same lines of thinking when we use words. A computer mixing up words can open up new ways using language.
It’s not that poems created are so massively good or mean anything, but when you see words next to each other that are never otherwise paired, it opens up possibility to use them in a new way. It can lead to new creative thinking.
Alepoems takes a text and creates a random poem from it. And there are a few settings to play with. There is both an Android App version and a website that does the same thing. Give them a try and enjoy playing with words and language.
Char Notes
This is my favorite project.
The basic idea is that you can create characters for your stories with it. There are several main areas for the character’s life to be developed. And each area has different fields to fill out.
Instead of drop downs and menus, the app allows you to fill in text to describe each trait to your liking. There are even a couple custom fields you can set in each area if you like. You can save the details into a file and print them out or anything else you like.
This app was intended for fiction writers to design new characters, but it definitely isn’t limited to them. Anyone can have some creative fun designing characters or describing strangers they see. It’s a creative exercise that is loads of fun.
Give it a try.
I hope you will give these two apps a try. They are free and have no ads or tracking or anything else that’s icky on them. I will be releasing a premium version of Char Notes that has new functions and options in the near future.
