The W1S1 Check-in and Chill Lounge and Bar

Lillie

practical experience, FTW
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I had that. It seemed the same as OO, except the spell checker didn't work half the time.
And my spelling is so bad I'm dead without a spell checker.

I might give it another go. Maybe it hadn't installed right or something.
 

Izz

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I haven't tried LibreOffice, but i do know that they're constantly updating it, so maybe they've improved the spellcheck. You could probably pick up Office 2003 on the cheap.
 

Lillie

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Oh yeah!

A new word processing program to try :D

Thank you!

I love trying them all out.
 

Izz

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:) No probs.

And don't forget google docs, too. You can download/save to disk as rtf.
 

Lillie

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Lol. You know what?
I don't even know what google docs is...

I ought to find out, I suppose. But google already sticks its beak into my mail. I'm not sure if I want them reading the tat drafts of my stories.
 

Aggy B.

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Totally not feeling the writing vibe this morning.

Maybe because I've got errands to run. Maybe because I've still got waaaaaay to much to write on the S&S short story.

Going to take another look at it this afternoon, see how I feel then. I need to get on a "finish it" bender. That's what I need. To have the stack of things to be edited get really big so I can start sending more stuff out.

:)
 

Izz

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:Hug2: for Aggy. Here's hoping the writing front looks better this afternoon.
 

Aggy B.

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Thanks, Izz.

Running errands for four hours left me hot and with a pinched nerve in my neck (again). So, now I have a headache.

Given how much I have left to write, I think subbing to S&S this year is no longer an option. The story I was writing is still kick-ass though. I think I'll go back and replace the language I took out as it fit the character better anyway, then working on finishing it up and subbing somewhere else.

I want to sub something to the Warrior Wisewoman antho (which isn't due 'til July) but I'm not sure what, yet. I don't write nearly as much SF as I do F. (Well, steampunk is more SF but they don't take steampunk for that antho.)

Ah, well. Things are settling down around here, but the constant go-go-go is catching up with me. I'll get back in the groove eventually. Just wish it were sooner.

Aggy, who really truly does love writing
 

Izz

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It's very understandable that you're a bit out of the groove at the moment, Aggs. You'll get back there when your brain decides it's ready :)


In other news: Electric Velocipede #21/22 will be available in print very soon. The print copies have arrived at NightShade, and will be shipping in the near future. I'm really looking forward to holding a hard copy of the mag in my hot not-so-little hands. :)
 

zanzjan

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I'll get back in the groove eventually. Just wish it were sooner.

It really does happen to all of us, and you've had an awful lot going on lately. I find that being in a writing slump is a lot like insomnia -- if I lie in bed trying to sleep, I can't, but if I get up and putz around the house and do something else, when I do finally get back into bed it's easier. Likewise, walking entirely away from writing, though it seems counter-productive, for me at least gives me a boost when I get back to it, especially if I spend the time doing something else creative that's entirely unlike writing. (Frex, right now I'm making a quilt while I mull over beta-reader feedback on my last story.)

Hope you find what you need to get you back in your groove soon!

In other news: Electric Velocipede #21/22 will be available in print very soon.

Cool beans! Will have to track it down when it comes out. (-:

-Suzanne
 

soapdish

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Hang in there, Aggy. :)

I didn't write at all today. Though I did brainstorm a lot. :D Not anything W1S1 related...but, yanno, whatever.

I intend on making up for it tomorrow, and finish the edits on the one I'd like to sub next month.
 

Nathaniel Katz

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My S&S story is all finished, and my betas are...nowhere to be found. This happened last deadline, too. They're both nice guys, but not the most reliable. I suppose I'll just send it off if neither emails me soon. *grumble*

On the upside, I found a much, much, much better way to edit. Instead of inputting the paper edits into the original file, I just retyped it from the paper edits. I think it made for a better edit, and, counter intuitively, it was far faster, too.
 

zanzjan

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I'd be willing to take a look at it tonight/tomorrow, if you're still looking for feedback and that's not too late. PM me and I'll drop you my real email.

-Suzanne
 

Nathaniel Katz

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Wow, it seems that w1s1ers are an incredibly awesome bunch of people (though I already had some inkling of that*). That being said, I'll have to save your offer, Alex, as I feel really bad shoving something with a RIGHT NOW deadline at someone, especially at multiple someones.

*and not just from being one
 

alexshvartsman

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@Nat: The way I do it is to e-mail my stories to a bunch of friends (including several fellow W1S1'ers). No one has the time to beta read *everything* but this way I can get a few responses for each story in time to be meaningful. Having only 2 beta readers sounds very scary to me, even if they are super reliable.
 

Aggy B.

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After a pretty horrible evening yesterday, I sat down and wrote a list of all the things I have "in-progress." (Sadly, this is just of things that have enough completed to actually say I made progress on them in the first place. There's a file of other stuff that only got a few paragraphs/pages written, too.)

Under short stories:
Inheritance
Brass Stars
The Hardest Kiss
The Dragonwife
Love Dolls
Callahan's Hysteria Device
The Cupid Booth


Under novellas:
The Box
Willa Arch and the King Errant
Quicksilver
Patronix
Untitled Mammoths and Steampunk
Masskill
Thicker Than Water

Under novels:
Gaslyte
The Incorrupt
Necrotek
Flipside
Earthborn
Outbound
Thingbreaker


At this point I could never have another new idea and probably still write for at least a decade. >_<

I don't know whether I should be excited or overwhelmed. :p
 

zanzjan

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Callahan's Hysteria Device

Ooooh, great title! Write that one next! (-:

I think I'm too afraid to put together a list like that. As you said, I could never have another idea and still not run out of things to write, but the ideas just keep coming anyway.

I suggest cultivating an air of absolute obliviousness as the best method of coping.

-Suzanne
 

Aggy B.

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Ooooh, great title! Write that one next! (-:

I think I'm too afraid to put together a list like that. As you said, I could never have another idea and still not run out of things to write, but the ideas just keep coming anyway.

I suggest cultivating an air of absolute obliviousness as the best method of coping.

-Suzanne

Hah. Callahan's Hysteria Device is kind of women's lib-steampunk-erotica. It's a great little story, but it needs some ironing out as to character motivation and plot arc.

Used to, the LIST made me a little depressed. But I try and look at it as "Here's what I've done while writing a few hours every week. What could I do if I were writing full-time?" And then I feel better and get back into the swing of things.

The difficulty is trying to figure out what should get my attention next. I wind up mostly following my gut and then I get sidetracked into several projects at the same time and things get sluggish again. I might have to do another "vote on my next project" poll to determine some kind of order for finishing. (And polish up my pitching skills at the same time. ;))
 

Nathaniel Katz

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I have probably half a dozen ideas in my head at any one time. When I started w1s1, I had six half-started stories. The number of those I've written now? Zero. Better ideas came along.

@Nat: The way I do it is to e-mail my stories to a bunch of friends (including several fellow W1S1'ers). No one has the time to beta read *everything* but this way I can get a few responses for each story in time to be meaningful. Having only 2 beta readers sounds very scary to me, even if they are super reliable.

I have a few more that I give pieces to, but those two are the only ones that read everything. Neither's a writer, but they're generally good for broad questions. Still, your system seems far superior.

@ Aggy (or any one else): where do you send your steampunk stories? I'm doing BSC at the moment, with Asimov's after them, but I'll admit I'm pretty much out of ideas after that. I'm not even sure if it's fantasy or science fiction...

And Callahan's Hysteria Device needs to be written.
 

Aggy B.

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@ Aggy (or any one else): where do you send your steampunk stories? I'm doing BSC at the moment, with Asimov's after them, but I'll admit I'm pretty much out of ideas after that. I'm not even sure if it's fantasy or science fiction...

And Callahan's Hysteria Device needs to be written.

I usually send steampunk to any publication that accepts both sci-fi AND fantasy. But my steampunk usually has at least a touch of magic. (Though not always.) If the tech is predominant, I would send to any pub that takes sci-fi.

With the growing popularity of steampunk there are a decent number of anthologies but they can be hard to track down. (I usually only find out about a week before a deadline and have to scramble to get something in.) I saw one in the Duotrope mailer a few weeks ago. Although they specifically said "nothing supernatural." Which kind of pisses me off, because even my stories that have NO magic still have aspects of the supernatural in them. (Real or perceived, it's hard to write about people who believe in a god without having some sense of the mystic.) But it's their pub, so they can make whatever rules they like.

Anyway. That's my two cents. I should caution that, when in doubt, I let the editors decide whether my material fits with their pub. Which probably means I send my fair share of stories that are not right for X or Y.