They all have to do with being a writer (aspiring):
- Preview this book: The Kindle store lets you download the first two or three chapters of almost any book, for FREE. Every time someone now asks me, "Have you read so-n-so?", if I haven't, I just go grab samples of their work. It's a great way to have a library of different writers at your fingertips. Study them!
- Annotations and Notes: I can add my own commentary and notes to anything I read on it. This is very useful for finding interesting passages later, without having to write on the physical copy.
- Reading my own stuff: I can convert a DOC or PDF easily, and put it on the Kindle. A nice way to proofread without having to sit at the computer, or print out reams of paper. The annotation feature above makes it easy to flag things I need to fix, without getting bogged down in fixing them as I find them.
- Pacing: The Kindle has an interesting dilemma; how to show where you are in a book. It can't show a page number, because you can change the font size to your liking. So instead it shows a percentage. I realized last night that this makes for an easy way to place the "beats" in a story. On the current book I'm reading, the Kindle says I'm 15% in, and I still haven't gotten to the problem our hero is facing. I knew it had felt kinda slow. I'm going to start watching for certain "beats" like a hawk, and seeing where they fall in books that work, and books that dont. Granted, it can be done by comparing page #'s in normal books, but this is quicker and can become intuitive.
