poll: writing habits

[wisdomeagle]

The question is where you write fanfic; I mean... primarily. I sometimes brainstorm in a notebook or write there if I'm away from keyboard; I do some line-editing in Semagic because it has a spellcheck, but I do most of my writing and revision in NoteTab.

If you always use a two-step process (e.g. on paper first, then type it into a word processor or text editor for heavy revision), you can tell me in comments. And, obvs., if you checked any of the "other" options.

[Poll #1108644]

Hey, Alixtii. I saw your name in lights! Rockstar!

Comments

[such_heights]

I often do handwrite as well, however, especially if I'm having trouble with something, I find that sitting away from a computer with pen and paper can be very helpful.

[wisdomeagle]

:)

I do sometimes find that helpful, mostly when I'm struggling with a structure that doesn't seem to be linear.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[rydra_wong]

At the moment, Word.

(Plus a stash of wee little paper notebooks for jotting down ideas when I'm away from the computer, but I'm dyspraxic enough that handwriting is slow, painful and only semi-legible; I have a notebook by my bed for late-night ideas, and this often results in fun morning guessing games as I try to work out what the hell I was on about.)

But it's basically "Word because that's what's on my computer and has a word count"; I've been eyeing up other programs lately, including some of the programs designed for creative writing, like Writeroom and Scrivener.

[wisdomeagle]

I have a wee little notebook where everything gets written down -- fanfic, nonfanfic, appointments, funny things people say, doodles, etc.

What kinds of features do those programs have? I hadn't heard of them.

[rydra_wong]

They're fairly different. Scrivener's a mixture of word-processing and note-taking/organizing software designed for organizing large writing projects, with things like a virtual "corkboard" for notes (whereas my current novel-length WIP Of Doom is occupying umpteen nested folders of Word docs, containing outlines and drafts and notes for redrafts and notes from betas and deleted scenes and ...).

Writeroom is more the sensory deprivation approach to getting words down *g*.

They can both export text into a variety of other formats. I haven't tried either yet, but I'm squinting at them speculatively, with a view to possibly trying one after the WIP is finally done (switching horses in midstream not being a good strategy, I feel).

They're both for Mac, but I'd imagine there are similar programs for PCs.

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

I have this Mac application called CopyWrite (the name appeals to me nearly as much as the application) that is designed to cope with multiple drafts, notes, excessive versions, etc; that is, it's designed for the way that I write. There are some things that it doesn't do as well as I'd like, but for the most part, it's wonderful and I wish it had existed long ago.

[wisdomeagle]

Very neat!

[tresa-cho.livejournal.com]

If I get an idea in class i write it on paper but then transcribe it. Most of my fic is in Word. I might switch to LaTex now, though, because I'm trying to learn how to use it.

[wisdomeagle]

Cool! (My dad wants me to learn emacs. It's kind of tempting because it does seem to have many awesome features, but a is a bit daunting!)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

*fills out poll* As if I actually write fic these days ;)

I ticked WordPerfect, since I feel it still is primary. I do some in gmail, but not a lot since I'm bad at focusing on stuff at work (plus, writing porn at work is a bad idea since I . . . kind of get into what I'm writing).

[wisdomeagle]

*snerk*

Well, you wrote Secret Slasha. :D

In June I guess I drafted a lot of fic in email -- Juno, which has a crap interface -- but mostly as a stopgap. I def. prefer to use NoteTab.

(I didn't list "chat window!" as an option and now feel I should have.)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Looking at my del.icio.us (the one I did for all my own fic, a la musesfool, not my recs one), my last year's Secret Slasha is still in the most recent 10. :/

(And yes! That is so Amy and pearl_o and etc. I feel.)

[wisdomeagle]

I seem to have written ~15 full-length fics this year (though nearer twenty with the addition of h_e stuff not yet posted), which is half of what I wrote last year, which is like a third of what I wrote the year before. I do not like what mental health does to my creativity!

And yes. Exactly who I was thinking of. :)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

If we're gonna talk stuff that's longer than ficlets . . . last year's SeSa, 2 fics that were your fault, this year's SeSa . . . yeah.

I support improved Ari mental health. (Primarily for non- fic-related reasons, obv., but I know how frustrating it is for you to not be able to be creative, so yeah.)

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

I have this weird fic-mental health cycle going on, in that once the mental health is going downhill, the ficcing stops (witness these last couple months), but then sabethea will talk me into something crazy like 40fandoms or 12dayschristmas which forces me to write, even if only drabbles (78 of them - why did I get myself sucked in?). Whether writing again improves my mental health or just keeps me from going further down I'm not yet sure. I ought to observe myself more closely...

[wisdomeagle]

I know that writing makes me feel better -- the problem is that not-writing and lack-of-mental-health feed into each other, leaving me without means of externalizing and totally helpless. Um.

Things to work on in 2008!

Also, 12daysofChristmas looks so v. tempting although I know I should be packing. And haven't even finished Secret Slasha yet, so!

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I usually use MicrosoftWord, but will sometimes write in an email to myself-that way, I can work on it anywhere I am.

[wisdomeagle]

That's a very good way for those of us with mobile lifestyles. :)

[that_mireille]

I had to choose "other" because it was radio buttons. I write fic longhand, on paper; in GoogleDocs; in Microsoft Word; in Open Office; in Notepad; in LJ comments (directly typing it into there); and in IM. It depends on the story, where I'm going to be when I write it, and what computer I have access to at the moment.

[wisdomeagle]

I hear you. I definitely have a preferred method, but the comments have reminded me of all the other places/ways I've written fic.

[that_mireille]

I *don't* have a preferred method, really--I suspect that once the semester starts I'll have one story going in a notebook that lives in my backpack, another in GoogleDocs so I can write it anywhere I have 'net access, another in Word because it's too unwieldy for GoogleDocs, and the several co-written things going in LJ and IM.

[jadelennox]

Actually I use a mixture of Vi and DragonPad, but since I haven't encountered anyone else in fandom using NaturallySpeaking I'm pretty sure nobody else uses DragonPad. And every now and then I dictate fic into a portable voice recorder that I then upload into DragonPad. *g*

[wisdomeagle]

:)

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

I do all of my school and original-type writing in Word, times new roman, 12, but I do my fic in verdana 8 in wordpad.

I am a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a comfy hoodie.

[wisdomeagle]

You are too cute for words!

Also, I'm glad including Wordpad as an option was not for naught!

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I used Word extensively for business and technical writing during my professional years, so it's almost second nature. If I'm writing on the computer, it's always in Word. Even if I'm writing commentfic, I'll generally compose it in Word first.

But sometimes when I get stuck, writing longhand gets it flowing. I keep a few full-sized pads around for this, always spiral bound with the spiral on top. Which is hard to find, so I buy several at a time when I find them. Pre-laptop, there was always one of these in my luggage whenever I traveled. Sometimes fic actually flows more easily longhand than it does on the computer. I've often wondered what's different in the brain that makes it that way. Does my right hand have a different connection to my creative brain than my left? Or does it work differently because it's slower than typing? Dunno.

[wisdomeagle]

I sometimes write longhand because I have to (away from keyboard happens), but I'm so used to revising as I go that I find it doesn't flow nearly as well -- although some forms of writing (eg paperdiary) I've always done longhand and always will. (I think there is something about the brain working differently, and I want to have a record of my longhand brain as well as the digitized brain.)

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

The revision thing is one reason I like larger spiral pads -- mine end up looking something like this -- which a smaller size paper would make difficult.

I do think something different happens in the brain. I'd like to understand it better, if only to make more effective use of it.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Every so often I'll find that I work better onto paper: in any event I always have a notebook with me. It's supposed to be a fic notebook but my last one turned very general on me (reminders, notes written after therapy, random addresses that I'll never be able to find again because they're on a page in a notebook instead of somewhere useful, meeting notes)...

Most of the time I type straight into Word. Or Googledocs when I'm not on my own computer, or email from the most recent job. (At the one before that I had google access and so would use Googledocs if I simply had to write fic while at work. Which did happen occasionally.)

[wisdomeagle]

I have such a notebook too -- have since ninth grade. It is very useful and my closest companion.

(I use a Mead Fat Lil Notebook or something of similar size.)

I need to check out this Googedocs thing.

[vass]

Kate. It has session support and tabbing. It's also very good for coding, but I'm not a coder, just an occasional dabbler.

I keep meaning to learn vi or emacs, but I haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I'll make *that* a new year's resolution.

[zulu]

I write mostly in Word, but also in GoogleDocs if I have people to watch me--I sign them on as collaborators and then there's really no excuse if I don't have new words for them every few minutes or so. Good for betaing and editing, too.

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

Paper first. Then Word or whatever's handy (it depends on what computer I'm using--I've been trying to get into the habit of using GoogleDocs for just this reason).

[piperrhiannon.livejournal.com]

This needs to be made of ticky boxes so I can vote for more than one thing! But usually Wordpad or MS Word. I miss writing by hand sometimes, but my handwriting is TERRIBLE, and it takes so long compared to typing that I've more or less gone off of it. Which no one has caught up on yet, so I have a crapton of unused notebooks and journals from people...I appreciate the thought (and they're all really cute), but I have no idea what to do with it all!

[ojos11.livejournal.com]

I mostly use Word but I brainstorm in Onenote.

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

I handwrite as well, normally when I need to work at something and I know I'm going to be away from my computer. Most of my ficathon stories were started sitting at the circulation desk at my school library.

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

My computer doesn't have Word, it has "Works" which is kind of crappy. Sometimes I write in that if word count is important to me at the time. But mostly Wordpad. Since that computer is now indisposed, I wrote much of my yuletide fic in Word and really liked it. (Works is especially annoying because it will only tell you the word count for the whole doc, not selections.)

I like writing by hand but much of it gets scrapped because I hate transcribing (somehow things that looked good on paper don't look good on the screen.)

[raisintorte.livejournal.com]

I used to be all about word, but now I write almost everything in googledocs. And then I share it with my beta's so they can all access and peek in while I'm writing.

If I'm at work/don't have access to a computer - I hand write, then type into googledocs at home.

[justhuman.livejournal.com]

Word is my preferred place, but I've written out stories in my Gmail too.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Other than when I notebook on the train, the entire writing process from start to finish takes place in Semagic. It just makes sense to me; why write in an editor which formats your writing for a purpose which does not apply?

Yuletide and PrettyLights are getting written in OpenOffice, though.

[wisdomeagle]

I agree with your logic -- I use NoteTab b/c I like to save stuff and Semagic and I aren't good enough friends for me to trust it to save posts for me. But yeah, I stopped using Word for fanfic -- um, many years ago -- because it just made more sense to work in a text editor.

Where do you keep/work on the long WsiP like "To Live in Hearts"?

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

TLiH is a Word document on the desktop, which has Word. So is, for that matter, "Not Quite Queen of the Damned."

Were I to start a new chaptered fic, I suppose that would go into Open Office too, but I'll trust Semagic to save non-chaptered fic.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

I use Notepad or an actual notebook for the first draft, then transfer it to Microsoft Word. If I'm co-writing, like I have with carla_scribbles or hhhbkev or srichard, we'll use AIM back and forth, then copy/paste into MSWord.

[frogfarm]

It makes me unreasonably happy to see other users of vi.