There are so many options available to writers today that sometimes we lose sight of the benefits these technological advances can have for our creative sides. Smart phones, for example, have almost eliminated the random clutter of scraps of paper on my nightstand. Now when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, I send myself a text or open a new memo or (in the case of my beautiful ipad) go directly into the document and type away. It’s a glorious thing and I love the feeling of knowing that all of my random thoughts that don’t apply to any one story are no longer scattered around my bedroom but neatly organized in a document titled Random Pieces.

There is, however, a downside. With these devices comes a million other ways that you could use them and a billion other things you could distract yourself with if you aren’t careful. I got a new phone today (a Samsung Fascinate which, so far, I highly recommend), but that means that I’ve spent most of the afternoon changing settings and adding apps and before I knew it I’d wasted one of my only afternoons off this week.

The point of this rambling blog post? Use your technological resources to their full potential, just make sure your technology doesn’t end up using you.

This post made possible by my Verizon Smartphone. 😉