The Writer's software thread (Discipline? Moi???)

3113 said:
I've Word 2004 (11.0) and I keep it up and running almost constantly. This is on a Macbook. It almost never crashes. (Do you repair permissions now and then?).

HOWEVER, I have found that the most recent update to it caused all kinds of trouble, so I keep it at 11.0.

There is another word-esque program for free that folk use for Mac: NeoOffice

Comes highly recommended and it's free.
I'm running Word X for Mac on a G4 Powerbook. Repair permissions now and then :rolleyes: mostly then. It's always been intermittently unstable. So I tend to shut it down when I'm not using it, and rarely keep it open with the Mac in sleep mode. Instability happens about once a month - I may have got a female computer.
 
3113 said:
Um. Does that help? is it kinda what you're looking for or completely off base?
Will you be my mommy? :p

My biggest problem is creating opposing characters. Two people want to fuck, and they do. Not much room for conflict, is there? :D

So now, I want to have BAD guys, and danger and heroic deeds and suspense, and I don't know if I can do it!
 
CrimsonMaiden said:
Don't mind me. I'm just popping in to give Neon a :kiss:
And returned :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: three fold.

Desperately busy at the moment, hence not around too much. :rose:
 
Stella_Omega said:
My biggest problem is creating opposing characters. Two people want to fuck, and they do. Not much room for conflict, is there?
Tons of room. For example, who gets to be on top? If both want to be on top, you've got conflict. Any hang-ups? Any emotional/mental scars from bad past experiences? Are both of them going to give the other what they need/want? Or is one of them a lousy lover? Will there be consequences if they fuck (i.e. they're married to other people? One's a priest? Etc.).

So now, I want to have BAD guys, and danger and heroic deeds and suspense, and I don't know if I can do it!
Of course you can. Suspence and danger (the potential for danger) certainly. You have both in your stories already.
 
Zeb_Carter said:
I am currently using yWriter2, it let's you not only keep notes and descriptions of the different parts of the story it allows you to write as well. It breaks everything down to chapters then scenes within a chapter. You compose the story at the scene level.

You can then export it from yWriter to text, html, etc. for publication.

Plus it's free! :)

I love yWriter. I'm currently using yWriter3 - really great piece of software. The character cards and storyboard functions are great for long fiction, and I get a kick out of the word usage analysis. It really helps highlight which words I'm using too often.
 
Arafura said:
I love yWriter. I'm currently using yWriter3 - really great piece of software. The character cards and storyboard functions are great for long fiction, and I get a kick out of the word usage analysis. It really helps highlight which words I'm using too often.

I don't think I could stand to be that organized....
 
drksideofthemoon said:
I don't think I could stand to be that organized....

Heh..I'm a total scatterbrain, so I need it! (Have been known to forget my own phone number.)
 
Arafura said:
Heh..I'm a total scatterbrain, so I need it! (Have been known to forget my own phone number.)

Well, I'm not much better...I just write, I don't try to develop the characters, I prefer to let them develop themselves as I write...and my plots only have a very rough outline in my head as I begin to work, and often change drastically as I write...
 
3113 said:
Tons of room. For example, who gets to be on top? If both want to be on top, you've got conflict. Any hang-ups? Any emotional/mental scars from bad past experiences? Are both of them going to give the other what they need/want? Or is one of them a lousy lover? Will there be consequences if they fuck (i.e. they're married to other people? One's a priest? Etc.).


Of course you can. Suspence and danger (the potential for danger) certainly. You have both in your stories already.
Hmm, a priest? 'nother plot is hatching... ;)

I'm getting used to this, if not quite the hang of it. I am beginning to get an idea of the sequence of events- one thing that I thought was fairly climactic, makes a better episode earlier on, so that there can be repercussions from it. It was going to be a side-issue, now it's pivotal.
And a character that already had a back story- his lover disappeared suddenly, as people were wont to do back in the seventeenth century- is now, instead of accepting that ,looking for the boy. If they meet up, what will that do to his current relationship? If he finds out that the boy died (being Native American in Puritan country, and also possibly vulnerable to smallpox) what will THAT do to his current relationship?

ooh, decisions, decisions.... :cool:
 
drksideofthemoon said:
Well, I'm not much better...I just write, I don't try to develop the characters, I prefer to let them develop themselves as I write...and my plots only have a very rough outline in my head as I begin to work, and often change drastically as I write...
Oh, I do that too- I have one story with four permutations now, none of which are finished- but "Sarabande" is well over 75,000 words and changing the plot means changing a LOT of text- and I will need to do that, if I want to make it a coherent whole. (maybe I don't want to? )
 
My problem these days isn't discipline, but giving a shit.

You'd think that with the success I've had recently I'd care more. Bur I don't.

Mostly because I'm scared to care. I've lost damn near everything I've cared about. Not sure I'm strong enough to do it again.
 
rgraham666 said:
My problem these days isn't discipline, but giving a shit.

You'd think that with the success I've had recently I'd care more. Bur I don't.

Mostly because I'm scared to care. I've lost damn near everything I've cared about. Not sure I'm strong enough to do it again.

Hugs Dearest :heart: :kiss:
 
Hmm. Just had a go on YWriter. So far I like it a lot... interesting change from Word.
x
V
 
Stella_Omega said:
Another one that don't run on mac. :(


It sounds, from your last couple of posts, as though you are doing far better than you thought, even without a software program. I don't know that I could eek out 75,000 words about anything at the point I'm at now. (although I continue to work diligently towards it)

Be not sad, lovely! I think you're doing just fine! :rose:
 
scriptordelecto said:
It sounds, from your last couple of posts, as though you are doing far better than you thought, even without a software program. I don't know that I could eek out 75,000 words about anything at the point I'm at now. (although I continue to work diligently towards it)

Be not sad, lovely! I think you're doing just fine! :rose:
:eek: That was all back in the nineties, actually....

I have many fragments, and an idea of where it all should go, but never had the ability to put it all together.

And now this new thing- all this trouble for- fanfic! :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
Stella_Omega said:
So my ambitions are climbing just a little, and I want to write more plot in my porn :D

And damned if it isn't hard for me to create a story arc and plot and all of that stuff- up till now I either write short stories, or I start off- like in "Sarabande" write as long group of related incidents and then don't know where to go from there.

What with Word being so clunky and stupidly bug-ridden, especailly on a mac, a simpler word processing software would be better, so I started using textedit to compose in, and it's really not bad! And I discovered that I could open two windows, and use one to write notes and keep bits of revision in.

And then it occurred to me that there must BE word processors already out there, with linked notes and stuff, and there are- and as I was looking around, I discovered storyweaver which promises to guide a writer through the whole understructure of the thing.

So I downloaded it, and I think it will work for me! It's NOT a word processor though. It does everything but that in the story process, and you have to write the thing in something else.

My problem is that the effort of creating the structure is so foreign to me, and makes me feel ADD, and I wonder if anyone has tips, or other software they like, or, umm... kisses to help me feel better or such... :rolleyes:

Hm. LOL. Aren't you kinda cheating yourself out of the writing process, then?

:kiss: :heart:
 
Stella_Omega said:
Oh, I do that too- I have one story with four permutations now, none of which are finished- but "Sarabande" is well over 75,000 words and changing the plot means changing a LOT of text- and I will need to do that, if I want to make it a coherent whole. (maybe I don't want to? )

Montana Summer is rapidly approaching 300.000 words with probably 24 major and minor characters...and yet, in spite of myself, it continues on...
 
rgraham666 said:
My problem these days isn't discipline, but giving a shit.

You'd think that with the success I've had recently I'd care more. Bur I don't.

Mostly because I'm scared to care. I've lost damn near everything I've cared about. Not sure I'm strong enough to do it again.

I guess it all comes down to what your definition of success is...

Me personally, being published is of no importance...If I write something, and it means something to just one person, then what I've done is a success...

I don't try to write to please anyone, I just write for myself...and since doing that, I think my writing has improved...
 
CharleyH said:
Hm. LOL. Aren't you kinda cheating yourself out of the writing process, then?

:kiss: :heart:
Oh, you. :p

No, I want to enlarge on my writing process, you know, and I have to say- it's helped, even that guided software- and you know I don't like following rules- has made a positive difference to my thinking process on this.
It does NOT write the story for you. And it's about as open-ended as it can get- just a series of suggestions. I ignore any part of it that doesn't seem relevant.

It's like sex- i take it where I can get it ;)

drksideofthemoon said:
Montana Summer is rapidly approaching 300.000 words with probably 24 major and minor characters...and yet, in spite of myself, it continues on...
crazy, isn't it?
I keep thinking of deconstructing it and making it into a series of shorter stories, with recurring characters. Then I don't have to worry about continuity and shit like that...
 
Stella_Omega said:
crazy, isn't it?
I keep thinking of deconstructing it and making it into a series of shorter stories, with recurring characters. Then I don't have to worry about continuity and shit like that...

Well, my Oat Opera is in 14 parts right now...I don't really know how it works, the story just sort of writes itself...I just type the words....
 
Stella,

I just ran across a tool that has versions for the Mac, it'a mainly a visual media tool but I think it has all the good stuff you could want in one package.

It's call Celtx and you can download it free at www.celtx.com - have fun.

ETA: It's actually a script writing tool but a novel is just a big script. ;)
 
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