Can smartphones be part of the creative process?

This morning I woke up and made my way to the kitchen, mechanically filled the teapot with water, turned on the burner and let the water start to get hot. In a few minutes it would boil. In the meantime I poured the coffee grounds into the French press. It's a morning ritual, and one I share with millions around the world, I'm sure. But somehow it still feels very personal, because no matter how many people do this same ritual every morning, we all do it with nuance and personality. And at the same time, the ritual is a bit of a framework for what's going on in my head - the creative process that starts to churn its beloved gears as soon as I open my eyes.

While I waited for my water to boil, I looked out the window. I love my view. I live in a third floor one bedroom, and the other buildings on the block are mostly two stories high, so that means I get this wonderful view of both my block and the San Francisco downtown skyline. It had been raining much of the night and everything was wrapped in the film of morning dampness, with a few clumps of clouds lurking their slow journeys across the sky. For me, the air after a good rain is one of the best times to be a writer.

As the water boiled and whirred on the stove, all I could think about was heading out for a morning stroll, just to see what was going on and take it all in. And being a city-dweller who spends my work days online, I slipped my ever-present smartphone into my pocket without thinking. Only a few hours later did I come across this wonderful article about Maira Kalman. It's about walking in the city as part of the creative process. Kalman is an illustrator who talks a lot about getting away from thinking too much and just letting your brain be empty and feeling.

There's a short video where she talks about her process. Boy, did it ring true.

She says: "I walk everywhere in the city. Any city. You see everything you need to see for a lifetime. Every emotion. Every condition. Every fashion. Every glory." Which is a great way to think about it.

And then she says, "When you see something that makes your heart go, "ah, o my god that's fantastic," then why wouldn't you record that, even if it wasn't supposed to be part of the story, because that's what you're responding to, that's what's making you come to life with feeling."

I realized when watching her talk on that video that I do that, I clear my mind and take that walk, pretty frequently. And I used to do it with a pen and paper. Sometimes I still do. But more often than not, I do it with my smartphone. And while that could be distracting, I've come up with some ways to make the smartphone work for me and my creative process, rather than letting it take over my brain and distract me from being receptive to creative catalysts.

Here are some tips for making your smartphone (in my case, an iPhone) work for your creative process instead of against it:

1. Notes App: I love this one. It's not intended for writing, it's intended for quick notes. It's even in this crazy font, like Comic Sans or something. The reason I like it is because there is no command for "Undo." That keeps me from revising anything. When I see or think of something, I type it in. I'm wary of deleting any of the notes because then I lose that piece of the rough draft forever. At first I thought of this lack of an "Undo" option as a problem, something I didn't like. But then I realized it keeps me from doing too much revision and instead focuses me on just taking the quick note, then e-mailing them all to myself for when I get home.

2. Voice Memo: Most smartphones have a simple app where you can record your voice and it will log it as a sound file. This is good for when you want to get an idea down when you're in the car, but it's also really fun for experimenting with the noises of the city. Sometimes I will record a few minutes of city noise, say on a corner, so that I can replay it when I'm writing a scene in the city. To get your mind going about the possibilities of sound, listen to John Cage talk about it. Wow. I'm experimenting with reading over city noise I've recorded because I can control the volume level more than when I'm actually standing out in the city.

3. Video: Sometimes I'll just hold my phone in front of me and let it record what I'm walking past and through. Or I'll hold it up on my shoulder and let it record what is behind me. I don't focus on what I'm recording, that would be a distraction. Instead I just go about my walk, almost until I forget I'm even recording. Then I can go back and watch the video when I get back to my writing place. It throws a whole new perspective into the mix.

4. Photos: This is an easy one, and one I'm guessing many writers do. Taking a photo of a scene you like so you can go back to it when you're writing about it is a great tool.

5. Music: I like to make a playlist for myself before I go out and just let it go when I'm walking. Not only does it let me go into my own world when I want to, it is a way to bring different moods to the same scene. For instance, I'll go to a park and have both Vivaldi and Rage Against the Machine cued up. I'll watch the same scene with different background music, then watch it with no music at all, and it's amazing what comes out of those different perspectives.

Do you have any tips for using a smartphone as part of the creative process when you're out for a walk?

Images courtesy of topgold via flickr and ^^RaviN^^ via flickr