Writing Goal for the Day?

[sr71plt]

Was your phone line connected to your computer? If so, the surge came in through the phone line, which isn't protected by your average surge protector.

Everything comes through our Comcast cable, yes. Everything else is fine, and it's only the connection to IE that isn't working--even after several hours working over the form with my son-in-law, who is the IT chief for one of the federal administrations. He'll be coming in a month to upgrade my router, so he'll work on it then. In the meantime, he put the computer's Internet on Firefox. I'll live.

The IE problem is in the desktop because all of the other computers in the house work fine through IE.

 

[PennLady]

For the record, I've been using Firefox for years and prefer it to the other browsers.

Okay, no real writing but I did work on an outline for another story. That feels like something, at least.

 

[autoplot]

For the record, I've been using Firefox for years and prefer it to the other browsers.

+1. I love Firefox.

 

[jdnunyer]

Haven't done much writing lately. RL beckons. Lots of work that needs to be done before I start teaching again.

Sorry to hear about the computer trouble SR.

Good luck with the new dissertation topic Tatyana. I never changed topics, but should have. I've published several papers since finishing my PhD, and none were from the dissertation. Though I may get my first pub out of it soon...

Glad to hear you're on a roll, autoplot!

 

[jdnunyer]

For the record, I've been using Firefox for years and prefer it to the other browsers.

I'm indifferent between Firefox and Chrome, but you couldn't pay me to use IE or Safari.

Well, okay, if you paid me enough, sure.

Okay, no real writing but I did work on an outline for another story. That feels like something, at least.

Something's better than nothing.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Good luck with the new dissertation topic Tatyana. I never changed topics, but should have. I've published several papers since finishing my PhD, and none were from the dissertation. Though I may get my first pub out of it soon...

Publications are actually one of my problems, though in a weird way. As with writing stories on lit, I'm easily distracted. I've spent enormous amounts of time on other people's research, often ignoring my own dissertation for weeks at a time. Constantly picking it up and putting it back down has, I think, made me miss giant warning signs. Oh well.

On the other hand, this "strategy" has led to a good number of publications, and I'm even the first author on two. And I think I can swing a sole-authored pub off one of the failed topics. So all's not lost. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. *sob*

Good luck getting papers out of your dissertation. Luckily, my field is all about the three paper option instead of the monograph, so that should be less of a problem.

ETA: Eh, in retrospect, this reads like an obnoxious "see, I'm just as good as everyone else" post. Sigh. Clearly, I'm feeling stressed about my career, especially as I watch my classmates graduate without me. Apologies. I could delete it... but I need to keep myself honest.

 

[sr71plt]

For the record, I've been using Firefox for years and prefer it to the other browsers.

Okay, no real writing but I did work on an outline for another story. That feels like something, at least.

I use whatever others put on my computer. Every piece of technology I touch falls apart.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Everything comes through our Comcast cable, yes. Everything else is fine, and it's only the connection to IE that isn't working--even after several hours working over the form with my son-in-law, who is the IT chief for one of the federal administrations. He'll be coming in a month to upgrade my router, so he'll work on it then. In the meantime, he put the computer's Internet on Firefox. I'll live.

The IE problem is in the desktop because all of the other computers in the house work fine through IE.

I know what happened. Your computer was infected by a weird EU virus that blocks all Microsoft products due to antitrust concerns.



(Come on, that was so bad it was good, yes?)

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

As long as we're playing the "what browser do you use" game...

Firefox for RL, Safari for lit.

Last thing I need is to pull up my browser as my advisor is looking over my shoulder, type in a letter, and have Firefox autofill a lit site.

 

[jdnunyer]

Publications are actually one of my problems, though in a weird way. As with writing stories on lit, I'm easily distracted. I've spent enormous amounts of time on other people's research, often ignoring my own dissertation for weeks at a time. Constantly picking it up and putting it back down has, I think, made me miss giant warning signs. Oh well.

On the other hand, this "strategy" has led to a good number of publications, and I'm even the first author on two. And I think I can swing a sole-authored pub off one of the failed topics. So all's not lost. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. *sob*

It's easy to get caught up reading too much. I tell my grad students that all the time.

But if you've got a few pubs already, you're doing something right.

Good luck getting papers out of your dissertation. Luckily, my field is all about the three paper option instead of the monograph, so that should be less of a problem.

Same here. I won't go near a monograph til I have tenure. It's all about articles.

ETA: Eh, in retrospect, this reads like an obnoxious "see, I'm just as good as everyone else" post. Sigh. Clearly, I'm feeling stressed about my career, especially as I watch my classmates graduate without me. Apologies. I could delete it... but I need to keep myself honest.

I don't think it reads that way. No worries.

 

[jdnunyer]

I know what happened. Your computer was infected by a weird EU virus that blocks all Microsoft products due to antitrust concerns.



(Come on, that was so bad it was good, yes?)

lol

I won't even touch Microsoft Office. I write my fiction in the same software I use to write academic papers, simply because it never ever crashes on me. I don't need any of its advanced features for writing fiction, but I just like it.

And I don't save anything on my hard drive anymore. I've had too many computers crash. Everything is saved in dropbox so when this computer dies too, I'll know that two minutes after opening up my new one, there everything is, waiting for me.

 

[sr71plt]

I know what happened. Your computer was infected by a weird EU virus that blocks all Microsoft products due to antitrust concerns.



(Come on, that was so bad it was good, yes?)

Well, then, it probably missed a good dozen Microsoft programs.

The downside was that I was banned from my home office as the experts were working on this--and I'm behind on the production I planned for today.

 

[autoplot]

As long as we're playing the "what browser do you use" game...

Firefox for RL, Safari for lit.

Last thing I need is to pull up my browser as my advisor is looking over my shoulder, type in a letter, and have Firefox autofill a lit site.

Heh. You're the smart one. Something like that happened to me recently -- fortunately, it was just a friend of mine and I don't think he noticed. I should probably switch to Chrome exclusively for Lit browsing.

 

[sr71plt]

lol

I won't even touch Microsoft Office. I write my fiction in the same software I use to write academic papers, simply because it never ever crashes on me. I don't need any of its advanced features for writing fiction, but I just like it.

And I don't save anything on my hard drive anymore. I've had too many computers crash. Everything is saved in dropbox so when this computer dies too, I'll know that two minutes after opening up my new one, there everything is, waiting for me.

I do everything in the programs I also have to work in for mainstream publishers. That's Word. And not even the most recent Word programs. I work in what I have and always have to step it down to send to the publisher.

I think now that the various platforms convert OK, but in the years in which I started with electronic editing, the conversion was a horror.

 

[autoplot]

I won't even touch Microsoft Office. I write my fiction in the same software I use to write academic papers, simply because it never ever crashes on me. I don't need any of its advanced features for writing fiction, but I just like it.

I use FocusWriter. It rocks.

And I don't save anything on my hard drive anymore. I've had too many computers crash. Everything is saved in dropbox so when this computer dies too, I'll know that two minutes after opening up my new one, there everything is, waiting for me.

Same here... all my "important" writing is on Dropbox.

 

[jdnunyer]

I do everything in the programs I also have to work in for mainstream publishers. That's Word. And not even the most recent Word programs. I work in what I have and always have to step it down to send to the publisher.

I think now that the various platforms convert OK, but in the years in which I started with electronic editing, the conversion was a horror.

That makes sense. I haven't tried publishing anything in a long time. When I did, I used Word.

These days, I work on research, or I write stuff I never plan to do anything with besides post here. <shrug>

 

[jdnunyer]

I use FocusWriter. It rocks.

Never heard of it. Will have to check that out. Thanks for the tip!

 

[sr71plt]

I save most everything by publishing it. (No lie. I would never have posted to Lit. if I didn't want to preserve my stories without having evidence of them in my house. For the same reason, I don't just post to one Web site.)

 

[autoplot]

Never heard of it. Will have to check that out. Thanks for the tip!

Sure thing. It works for me because I like to write at high speed without having to worry about formatting or layout -- I do that all on the second pass.

 

[jdnunyer]

Sure thing. It works for me because I like to write at high speed without having to worry about formatting or layout -- I do that all on the second pass.

That makes sense. I worry more than I should about formatting and layout on the first go, and it definitely slows me down.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't worry much about formatting at all. I'm not the book designer and publishers want to get it as stripped as possible from the author. I probably make a good 40 percent of my editing money in just stripping the extraneous formatting out of the author's version so that the publisher can work with it.

 

[jdnunyer]

I don't worry much about formatting at all. I'm not the book designer and publishers want to get it as stripped as possible from the author. I probably make a good 40 percent of my editing money in just stripping the extraneous formatting out of the author's version so that the publisher can work with it.

Makes sense.

I spend most of my "writing" time on scholarly writing, and the author is responsible for having the manuscript formatted properly. Of course, if it is accepted, the publisher formats it for the journal. But it won't even go out for review if it isn't formatted properly. So it's just habit for me at this point to think about it while writing.

 

[sr71plt]

Most of my editing is for academic presses--and you'd be surprised how many authors misinterpret (or ignore) the formatting requirements given them.

 

[jdnunyer]

That's too bad. Although I guess it works out well for you...

 

[sr71plt]

That's too bad. Although I guess it works out well for you...

Yes, it does. I try to think of that whenever I'm looking for whatever elusive fancy macro they've tried to embed in the manuscript.