Sure, you can write with nothing but a pen and a pile of blank paper. After all, there’s no doubt some of the greatest books, essays and novels of all time have been written that way many years ago.
There’s no reason, however, to restrict yourself to such meager supplies. It’s a modern world, after all, with a veritable treasure trove of tools and equipment that can help streamline your writing life.
- A good desk. Every writer needs a good work area, so invest in a sturdy desk with enough space to accommodate your computer setup comfortably. Similarly, make sure there’s an empty area where you can review books and printouts, as well as occasionally handwrite stuff, in case you’re in the mood for that.
- A mid-range computer. If you’re going to use a machine primarily for writing, you won’t need one of those high-end systems. A low-voltage laptop with one of the lower-end CPUs should handle all the processing power you require.
- A word processing software. Invest in a good one. Free software like AbiWord or Open Office Writer are decent, but lack the heavy feature set available in Microsoft Office’s suite. The last thing you want is to suddenly develop a need for a capability and not have it available to you. In case you’re interested, my personal favorite software for writing is Microsoft Office OneNote. I recommend it to everyone. Just a note: regardless of what software you pick, make sure you have a way of converting it to a Word-compatible format.
- A good writing improvement software. While Word will have its own spell and grammar checker, we find dedicated writing software to be a much more effective solution on the long-term. Not only do they have more features (e.g. style checkers, programmability), they’ll also tend to play better with a variety of tools in your computer.
- Standard office machines. You want to have regular office equipment on there, from faxes, landlines, answering machines and such. If you’re more tech-savvy, you can arrange for all the same conveniences right on your PC, though, so that can save a whole lot in initial equipment.
