Home » The Crystal Hall » Authors Corner » Authors: where do you write?
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38673 is a reply to message #38647 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 02:19   |
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 Diane Castle
Messages: 2505
Registered: September 2007
Location: Oregon, USA |
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I have a couple computers, one of which is solely for work with no messing around on it. The others get used for creative writing. The desktop model is in the home office, with a view into the back yard. Fish pond, plants, the occasional deer or raccoon that has to be chased off before it shreds something the SO wants to keep... But that's off to the side, out the bay window. The computer desk faces a windowless wall for minimal distraction. And I seldom play music, unless I have a new CD I want to wear out. The last CD I bought and played repetitively was Pink's "Funhouse". The one before that was Weird Al.
[BTW, for some Stephen King-style creepiness, go to YouTube and watch the video of Pink's song "Please Don't Leave Me". I completely didn't envision *that* when I first heard the song.]
Diane
"WHO has deactivated my BEAUTIFUL frogs?"
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38682 is a reply to message #38647 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 02:41 |
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tensai
Messages: 976
Registered: July 2008 |
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...I feel kinda old-school, seeing as how I do a lot of writing on paper. But hey, I can write anywhere, as long as I have a notebook with me.
It's not actual long-form, though; I'll usually just be sitting around and scribbling ideas/scenelets/outlines, working stuff down. Then, I come inside. Computer faces a blank white wall, mostly because I'm too lazy to hang anything. Music? Depends partly on mood of scene and character, and sometimes I'll just groove to one specific song, over and over and over. (Were it not for headphones, my housemates would have killed me long ago)
Software? I use this little tool called Liquid Story Binder that I got as a freebie a while back; it's nice because it updates wordcount as you type.
"It took her some time to accept that with such wings, her soul would never soar--but the fact that she could kick a man's lungs out through his spine was ultimately some small consolation." -ursulav
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38698 is a reply to message #38647 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 10:06 |
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Nocte
Messages: 731
Registered: February 2009
Location: Sideways from the Sun, So... |
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If it matters, I usually write on a laptop anywhere in the house. I write mostly at night, if not extremely early morning.
I use word, font size 12. I am thinking of changing to a different program, since Word is saying that is is not genuine and it is annoying me. I could write in notepad, if I really felt like going back to basics. No spell check, No word count, no bold, italics or underscore. Just me, the laptop and notepad.
Music? Whatever I have on my playlist. Apocalyptica, Nightwish, Godsmack, TWEWY OST, stuff from Bully and a few Black Mages songs. Only once had I used the endless loop function of iTunes. That was for a songfic I wrote. The song was Symphony of Destruction (The Gristle Mix).
"On the other hand, maybe all this could have been avoided if you just managed to get laid once in a while. You can't even tell me you'd be this tightly wound if you were receiving Treasure Type O regularly" Roy Greenhilt
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38704 is a reply to message #38698 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 10:45 |
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Rabiata
Messages: 521
Registered: July 2008
Location: Germany |
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| Nocte wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 10:06 |
I use word, font size 12. I am thinking of changing to a different program, since Word is saying that is is not genuine and it is annoying me. I could write in notepad, if I really felt like going back to basics. No spell check, No word count, no bold, italics or underscore. Just me, the laptop and notepad.
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Open Office might be worth a try. It can do almost everything Word can do, and the user interface is similar enough to make the transition easy enough.
Note to self... must not start dricking out about Microsoft 
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38711 is a reply to message #38698 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 12:04 |
oljak.eru
Messages: 1341
Registered: December 2008 |
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| Nocte wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 16:06 |
I use word, font size 12. I am thinking of changing to a different program, since Word is saying that is is not genuine and it is annoying me. I could write in notepad, if I really felt like going back to basics. No spell check, No word count, no bold, italics or underscore. Just me, the laptop and notepad.
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Open Office provides most of what you could want. I personally like Google Documents for writing stuff though.
Most of my work is still done in a combination of KompoZer (NVU bugfix) (I sure hope a usable version of NVU's successor BlueGriffon will come out and finally give us a decent modern WYSIWYG HTML editor again) and SciTE (source code editor), but sometimes when I don't want to have to deal with setting up the markup as I want it first I just fire off Open Office.
“I am SO level-headed! And anyone who says different is going to have to answer to... The CABBIT OF DOOM!” -Jade
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38719 is a reply to message #38711 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 12:37 |
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E. E. Nalley
Messages: 603
Registered: July 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA |
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We turned the dinning room of the apartment into a pseudo-office, and its where I do most of the writing. Although most of Case of the Poisonous Patent was written on vacation sitting on the in law's back porch on the laptop.
Music is a must when I write and folks know not to disturb me with the head phones on and the keys getting abused.  I generally have a wide variety of instrumental soundtracks when I write, looping on a mood or tone I'm going for in a particular scene, but not always. There's a good smattering of Jimmy Buffett, Smash Mouth, Better than Ezra, The Eagles, The Monkeys, Bare Naked Ladies and the Like.
For those interested the soundtracks are Lord of the Rings, Star Treks 2&3, The Incredibles, Battlestar Galaticia (Original), The Patriot, mixed with classic, Blue Danube, The Planets, The Four Seasons, Night on Bald Mountain, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Avi Maria, and a changing collection of Chamber Music to Baroque.
As far as the tools, Word XP Pro in Times New Roman 12pt, in Print View mode. I tried Open Office, it promptly starting inserting garbage characters and carriage returns when swapped back and forth between it and Word and it was promptly un-installed.
You get what you pay for I guess.
Be a dreamer who DOES, not a dreamer who dreams!
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38723 is a reply to message #38719 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 12:58 |
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Rabiata
Messages: 521
Registered: July 2008
Location: Germany |
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| E. E. Nalley wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 12:37 |
As far as the tools, Word XP Pro in Times New Roman 12pt, in Print View mode. I tried Open Office, it promptly starting inserting garbage characters and carriage returns when swapped back and forth between it and Word and it was promptly un-installed.
You get what you pay for I guess.
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Yes, the support for the (poorly documented) MS Word .doc format is not at 100%.
But then again, Word does not support the native "Open Document Format" of Open Office at all. Which is, by the way, an industry standard by now.
*starts ranting*
Of course, many people don't know that and think supporting the crappy Microsoft format is a sign of quality in a word processor.
Unfortunately, the Gates-spawned blight on the face of computer science called Microsoft has already brainwashed too many people into thinking...
*gets dragged into an ambulance that rapidly disappears towards the Arkham sanatorium*
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38724 is a reply to message #38723 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 13:46 |
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E. E. Nalley
Messages: 603
Registered: July 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA |
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| Rabiata wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 12:58 |
Yes, the support for the (poorly documented) MS Word .doc format is not at 100%.
But then again, Word does not support the native "Open Document Format" of Open Office at all. Which is, by the way, an industry standard by now.
*starts ranting*
Of course, many people don't know that and think supporting the crappy Microsoft format is a sign of quality in a word processor.
Unfortunately, the Gates-spawned blight on the face of computer science called Microsoft has already brainwashed too many people into thinking...
*gets dragged into an ambulance that rapidly disappears towards the Arkham sanatorium*
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Oh dear, I'm not sure I can respond to this without starting a flame war but, stranger things have happened, so let me give it a try.
I've never understood why people hate Bill Gates so much. You'd think he'd be held up as the American Example. A college drop out who goes on to be one of (and I think for a while) the worlds richest men. He practically brings about the computer revolution we all enjoy single handed, and opens the door for more geeks to be come millionaires than any other technology in the history of man.
Heck, the man practically made 'Geek' Sexy.
You talk about Standards, Rabiata, well the world NEEDS a common OS, like the world needed a telephone standard, and a telegraph standard before that. Uncle Bill gave us that.
As far as .Doc standard, I. Don't. Care. who is using what, or how. I've been using Word since version '95 and it WORKS. So, I'm sorry, that's the standard by which Open Office is going to be measured. And I found it wanting. No author wants to pour out our soul and then find it full of garbage characters, unwanted carriage returns and other 'artifacts, bugs, glitches', or anything else.
I type, it writes. I probably sound like a Mac phile at this point, but I just want it to work. And Word works.
Now, if Open Office does it for you, GREAT! Have fun! But don't try to 'convert' me or fling around words like 'Brainwashed by Bill Gates'. I admire the man, and while he has his faults, no human doesn't.
Be a dreamer who DOES, not a dreamer who dreams!
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| Re: Authors: where do you write? [message #38731 is a reply to message #38647 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 14:44 |
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Rabiata
Messages: 521
Registered: July 2008
Location: Germany |
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Well, that was exaggerated for dramatic value (and to give Faraway the drick-out he seemed to hope for ).
But let me explain a bit more, even if it gets off topic:
There are open standards everyone can implement. Those are good for competition. Because you can switch your software if you dislike the old vendor and still work with your data. For example HTML and PDF, you have quite a good selection of software for working with those.
And there are "standards" that are merely viewed as such because the company that introduced them has a huge market share. Those often lack publicly available documentation or are even protected by patents. The consequence is that only the original vendor can easily implement them. An example is the .Doc standard where you have already noticed that others have difficulty supporting it. Offhand, I am not aware of any non-Microsoft vendor who does .Doc really well.
And I actually dislike Microsoft for its business methods:
For many years, they have used their control of the prevailing OS to sabotage the competition, often in illegal ways. Of that, they were actually found guilty in court. Only the punishment was ridiculously low, hardly a slap on the wrist for a company that size 
Edit: Wikipedia has a quite good overview here
What we need is not a common OS, but common protocols and data formats supported by multiple vendors. That way, we can always switch when one of them gives us trouble.
[Updated on: Wed, 06 May 2009 14:51]
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