Here's an idea for us starving singer-songwriter types

[Lance Gallup]

Here's an idea for us starving singer-songwriter types - I went to a seminar last weekend with songwriters Michael and Lisa Gungor (Ancient Skies, Friend of God, etc.). At one point Michael mentioned that he uses MasterWriter songwriting software. Always looking for an excuse to add more tech to my life, I dutifully made note of that and checked out MasterWriter when I got home. I wasn't impressed. It's basically a rhyming dictionary and rudimentary database for the storage of your ideas. That's fine, but it's got a user interface straight out of Myst (that's a good thing for a game, a bad thing for productivity software) and it's just shy of $300. If you have a membership in ASCAP, BMI or some other PRO, it can be had for $200 - still pretty steep for what it offers, if you ask me. If I were a Dove award winning writer like Michael, I might feel differently, but I'm not and i don't. Still, I could use a better system for keeping track of my writing - I have scraps of paper, text files, digital audio snips, cassettes and ideas spread all over the place. I think I'd be better served by having it all in one easily accessible place.

Evernote.

Why didn't I think of this before? I've been using Evernote for assorted other information, why not my writing? It's free, it runs on anything - Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, web and can deal with just about any type of info in any file format. Text files and MP3 snips are easy. I can also scribble lyric ideas on my iTouch and upload it, or write on the back of a church bulletin, take a photo of it and upload the photo to Evernote. Evernote can scan and index text info in photos, and I can add tags to make searches and sorting more useful. And did I mention it's all free? No, Evernote doesn't have a rhyming dictionary, but there are free ones online.

Cool way to save $300 if you ask me.