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What do you write on?

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Jamesaritchie

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I started off on WORDSTAR back in the '80s but I've been on WORD for more than 20 years now and never saw any need to change.

I started with WordStar, too, back when it was a brand new word processor. It was released in June of 1979, and my college started using it in September. I thought it was the most wonderful thing I'd ever seen, and I still use a program that looks and acts just like it, though my program technically isn't DOS. I loved it. A few writers still use it, and think it's the best ever.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Conventional wisdom was WordPerfect was a writer's tool, and MS Word was a business tool. Today, I still write with WordPerfect and only use a seven-year-old version of MS Word for business transmittals.

WordPerfect was used by almost every law firm in the country. It had, and may still have, a setup just for that purpose.

But, yes, it was considered the writer's word processor for a long time. WordStar was before that.

I haven't liked the last three versions of WordPerfect, though, so I no longer use it at all.
 

LalaSant712

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Thanks everyone. I definitely am going to try out one or two of these programs, I'll let yo know how it goes.
 

morngnstar

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TextEdit, on Mac. Windows speakers would call it Notepad. The Notes app on iPhone when I'm on the go. Really, what more do you need for drafts? When it's all ready to go, then copy-paste it into Word or something and make it pretty. I find tripping on the advanced features of a full-featured word processor more distracting than helpful.
 

LalaSant712

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TextEdit, on Mac. Windows speakers would call it Notepad. The Notes app on iPhone when I'm on the go. Really, what more do you need for drafts? When it's all ready to go, then copy-paste it into Word or something and make it pretty. I find tripping on the advanced features of a full-featured word processor more distracting than helpful.

It was more about organizing my notes, chapters, and inserts. I definitely got awesome feedback to that affect.
 

Roxxsmom

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I just use MS word on my desktop and laptop. I haven't bought it for my ipad yet, partially because my own computers still have word 2003, and every time I've tried to use a newer version of word that has "the ribbon," I end up being incredibly frustrated by not being able to see the features I use most often. The way the menus are set up in newer versions of word is just not logical to me.

I've thought of getting a different word processing program, but it seems like MS word in one form or another is what 90% of the world still uses.

I like being able to use a full-featured program that formats my story properly. Being able to "see" it in some semblance of how it would look on a printed page, or in a "real" book, really helps with my process. When I'm ready to proof read a section, I find putting it onto my ipad or nook reader really helps too.
 
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Locke

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A variety of things. If it weren't for the fact that it's a pain in the ass to go through and reformat a bunch of stuff to make it a valid manuscript, I'd be perfectly happy with any text editor capable of UTF-8 (which should be all of them, but Microsoft is so very recalcitrant about ASCII). Given the ubiquity of ebooks, I'm surprised that this isn't much more common.

If I'm bored at work then I'm using Word 2007 on a Windows 7 machine. If I'm on my tablet I'm on Google Docs (*sniff* I miss QuickOffice) on my Nexus 7 FHD. If I'm on my laptop at home then I'm using LibreOffice Writer on Debian.
 

PandaMan

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I jot words and sentences down onto Notepad or on my cell phone app called Writer. Then I transfer to Word and build each scene in a separate file. It's easy to arrange scenes that way.

WordStar was the first computer program I ever used. Haven't used it since Microsoft released Windows 95, almost 20 years ago.
 

Laer Carroll

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As you can see, there is no one right answer. Every writer is different and has different needs.

Some people swear by Scrivener. Others swear at it. It's fairly good as an organizational tool, but less good in creating the final MS. I have no trouble with organization; after decades of practice I can keep very complex structures in my head. I only use a separate file to keep track of names and ages and such for my characters as I can't always mentally keep track of those details.

Some people used an office database program or spreadsheet to keep track of the information Scrivener can keep track of. They do that usually because they already use those tools and find them easy to adapt to their writing needs.

I use Word 2002, an OEM copy I bought for $20 a dozen years ago. It does what I want. I use few of its advanced features, so am not interested in getting a later copy. If you want free, LibreOffice is a good choice, marginally better than the other versions of OpenOffice. http://www.libreoffice.org/

I do somewhat as Roxxsmom does. I set up my MSs so they closely match the way they'll be published. For a 6" x 9" page, single-spaced, etc. This lets me see when my paragraphs are too long (by my standards), dialogue too confusing, etc. I have a header with my title & page number on odd (left side) pages, name & page number on even (right side) pages.

When the book is done I can self-publish it on CreateSpace (after adjusting for Word's crude type-setting facilities). For my later books, for which I'm seeking an agent, I still print out a CS copy. For I've found that copy-editing a printed book, rather than a printed MS, helps me find problems I can't see otherwise.

But that's me. Your needs will inevitably vary & you likely will have to try several tools before you settle on ones which suit your needs.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I just use MS word on my desktop and laptop. I haven't bought it for my ipad yet, partially because my own computers still have word 2003, and every time I've tried to use a newer version of word that has "the ribbon," I end up being incredibly frustrated by not being able to see the features I use most often. The way the menus are set up in newer versions of word is just not logical to me.

.

That's the way I felt about the newer versions of Word until I used one for a while. Then something clicked and I realized the problem was that the old versions were the illogical ones, but that's what I was used to, what I had ingrained, so the switch was difficult. .

It took a while, but once I got the hang of the new versions, I threw away 2003 and never looked back. I can find everything on the new version faster and easier than I ever could with 2003. The ribbon works incredibly well, once you realize what each is for, and all the features are right there. No hunting for anything.
 

Callegro

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Surprised that there isn't more who use LibreOffice, free, great features, similar to Word, but without all the annoying extras they kept squeezing into the program, but yeah to each their own, if it works for ya, that's all that matters.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Surprised that there isn't more who use LibreOffice, free, great features, similar to Word, but without all the annoying extras they kept squeezing into the program, but yeah to each their own, if it works for ya, that's all that matters.

I have LibreOffice. I've had every version since before OpenOffice became OpenOffice. LibreOffice is somewhat similar to Word 2003 three, and it's fine for writing, but it's missing some key features I use regularly in Word. As a suite, it's missing a bunch of programs and features.

I don't know what makes the extra features Word has annoying? You don't have to use any of them, or even know they're in Word. If all you want to do is write, Word is as simple as opening the program and typing, or, if needed, it has every useful feature I can think of. And Word, even with these features, is much faster than Libreoffice.
 

Callegro

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Do you mind sharing some of the unique things that Word has that you use, I'm just wondering if there is some neat thing I'm missing, always seeing if there is something I'm missing at making my life easier :)

For me, it just became about digging through all the features trying to find what I wanted, but now days I just need a program for straight up typing, I don't do a lot of formatting. Thankfully I don't need any of the other MS Office, but yeah, excel....excels at what it does *ducks cups and pens thrown*

Also, not too sure about the fastness aspect, my laptop has 12 gigs of ram and it's SSD, so speed probably wouldn't be a big deal.

I'm new to writing, new to AW and while I was big into computers in high school, RL distracted me and I've fallen behind on tech, anything you want to share I would be interested.
 

BethS

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I started with WordStar, too, back when it was a brand new word processor.

Ever heard of Samna Word? That was our first word processor. Around 1985, that would have been.
 

Layla Lawlor

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I use a Mac program called Bean, which sadly is no longer supported (*cries*), but its native format is RTF so it's widely cross-compatible with other programs. I like it because it's fast-loading, simple, and has no bells and whistles except the most basic writing tools like spell check. I also have Word for compatibility (I usually open my stuff in Word to submission-format it, and use Word for exchanging documents with other people) but I don't like it for everyday writing.

Mostly I just want a program I can type into without it doing a bunch of stuff to my text. The only reason why I don't use TextEdit (the Mac version of Wordpad) is because it doesn't have a word count feature and that's a necessity for me.
 

chompers

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In 1989, both WordPerfect and MS Word were available in Northern Montana College's writing lab. I taught 101, 102, and 103 writing classes and conducted office hours in the computer lab. It was 25 years ago, but I recall WordPerfect being far more user-friendly for students than MS Word.

Conventional wisdom was WordPerfect was a writer's tool, and MS Word was a business tool. Today, I still write with WordPerfect and only use a seven-year-old version of MS Word for business transmittals.


I've used both WordPerfect and Word. I think WordPerfect is a little harder to learn, but it's barely a difference. But Word is more popular, so I've transitioned more to it. Although I prefer WordPerfect.

But for writing my rough drafts I use a combination of hand writing and yarny (yarny is broken down into scenes, and my prose is better when I hand write). And then I use yarny, Word, and epub for when I'm fleshing things out (Word gives me that full manuscript viewing capability, epub for readability). Then when I need to hunker down for serious editing, I print out a hard copy and mark it up.
 
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blacbird

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my prose is better when I hand write.

I excerpted this because I think it's an interesting matter for discussion. It might be a digression from the thread intent, though. I'll let others decide.

I do think that, for some, the medium does alter the product a bit, at least initially. I'm generally happier with my rough output in handwritten form than I am when I do it in a word-processor. I tend to produce cleaner, less wordy stuff that way. That probably is applicable just to me, and I don't mean to suggest it's the way things work for everybody.

But it is an interesting question.

caw
 

Cyia

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I'm a fan of hand-writing, too.

I find that it's often easier for me to scribble a scene on paper, then type it as an actual scene. Writing on paper also doesn't hurt my eyes nearly as much as using a backlit screen.
 

Thewitt

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I use Storyist on my Mac and iPad.

I find I spend about 4 hours a week writing on my iPad with a bluetooth keyboard, and another 8 hours writing on my Mac.

Storyist allows for syncing between the two with Dropbox today, and the next version will include iCloud support and keep the two versions in sync automatically.

I like Storyist because it lets me organize character sheets, scene sheets, etc and keep all my writing tools together in one place. If it had a timeline function it would be near perfect...

Export formats for many file types including ePub and DOC/RTF exist as well for when you want to do your final formatting.

I use Sigil to format the final ePub, and OpenOffice with a CreateSpace template for the print version formatting. Kindlegen turns the ePub into a MOBI for Amazon.
 

melindamusil

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I use google docs most of the time. I like storing my data in the cloud, since I use at least 4 different devices on a daily basis. But functionally, you won't see any difference between google docs and word - it has the same challenges with organizing a story.

I do use legal pads sometimes, when I'm away from a wifi signal. Sometimes I also switch to legal pads just to give my eyes a break from the screens.

I organize with a combination of outlines and spreadsheets in google docs and rough outlines written on legal pads.

It was more about organizing my notes, chapters, and inserts. I definitely got awesome feedback to that affect.
 
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