Dev Blog 23: The Davenport Jotter
I've really enjoyed using Davenport for developing my next novel, but at the moment it's a desktop-only app, which means I don't have it to hand when I have a random idea in the middle of a supermarket.
A tablet version is on the cards, but that's a big undertaking and definitely not for now - and the more I thought about it the more I felt that what I was missing wasn't necessarily access to the full app, but the ability to jot down a quick note whenever inspiration strikes and sort through them later.
So I decided to do something about that.
In its current form, the Jotter is an app on my phone that has two things: a text entry box and a button labelled 'Jot'. When the button is pressed, it sends the contents of the text entry box to my website. When I get home, I can load up Davenport and use Ctrl+J to download and create notes from everything I've submitted via the mobile app.
It's astoundingly crude, and I absolutely love it to bits. On the phone, I can't edit notes I've jotted down previously. I can't even see them. It's like writing to a lover: once the letter is in the post there is no recalling it, no second-guessing it. All I can do is wait until I get home and see it face-to-face. Ordinarily that would make absolutely no sense, but so much of writing is about how you feel in the moment that seeing these fragments and belated corrections appear in a drawer connects me to those supermarket-aisle ideas in a way that careful editing and second thoughts would not.
Precisely what form this feature would take at release, I don't know. Firing everything via my website creates a lot of complications, so I might look into routing it via some third party system. Meantime, this is my new favourite thing.
A tablet version is on the cards, but that's a big undertaking and definitely not for now - and the more I thought about it the more I felt that what I was missing wasn't necessarily access to the full app, but the ability to jot down a quick note whenever inspiration strikes and sort through them later.
So I decided to do something about that.
In its current form, the Jotter is an app on my phone that has two things: a text entry box and a button labelled 'Jot'. When the button is pressed, it sends the contents of the text entry box to my website. When I get home, I can load up Davenport and use Ctrl+J to download and create notes from everything I've submitted via the mobile app.
It's astoundingly crude, and I absolutely love it to bits. On the phone, I can't edit notes I've jotted down previously. I can't even see them. It's like writing to a lover: once the letter is in the post there is no recalling it, no second-guessing it. All I can do is wait until I get home and see it face-to-face. Ordinarily that would make absolutely no sense, but so much of writing is about how you feel in the moment that seeing these fragments and belated corrections appear in a drawer connects me to those supermarket-aisle ideas in a way that careful editing and second thoughts would not.
Precisely what form this feature would take at release, I don't know. Firing everything via my website creates a lot of complications, so I might look into routing it via some third party system. Meantime, this is my new favourite thing.
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