tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post2165859229420717753..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Writing ToolsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-5516934938470558122009-11-30T10:49:37.976-05:002009-11-30T10:49:37.976-05:00Tables in Scrivener have so far been made easy by ...Tables in Scrivener have so far been made easy by not needing to do them as tables. Most of the time when I've needed to do tables, the styleguide has just called for tabs, so they can run it through their own style engine. I admit that if I had to do a fancy one, I'd probably offload that snippit of work to word.<br /><br />Of course, now I feel like experimenting.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-41260708132673746132009-11-26T16:29:22.835-05:002009-11-26T16:29:22.835-05:00Rob, do you do your game-writing in Scrivener? Are...Rob, do you do your game-writing in Scrivener? Are there any tricks re tables and such I should beware? I just bought a Macbook and downloaded Scrivener over the weekend, so I'm all n00b-y.Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08018705513587424497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-77612662605273775762009-11-25T18:26:18.123-05:002009-11-25T18:26:18.123-05:00*smacks head*
Writemonkey is PC? Doh.
I may try...*smacks head*<br /><br />Writemonkey is PC? Doh. <br /><br />I may try it. If only for a lark. Word works for me, but I'm happy to try out some new and exciting tools...<br /><br />Thanks, Fred!<br /><br />-- c.Chuck Wendighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08798919366354453539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-64422610664396089882009-11-25T17:44:54.234-05:002009-11-25T17:44:54.234-05:00There was a time, before all these fancy programs,...There was a time, before all these fancy programs, that I set up a 486 running Linux with no graphical interface and Emacs. No network connection, just a floppy disk. (Sadly, a pre-USB computer.) I also had a dedicated space just for writing, on a different floor from my "office" and the evil networked computer. It was pretty effective, but I had to give it up when my son was born nearly ten years ago.<br /><br />I still use Emacs for all my writing... it doesn't always work exactly as I'd like, but it runs on every platform and doesn't require a graphical interface.<br /><br />I use Emacs for a lot of reasons... similar to Fred, I learned layout as a separate task (Xerox Ventura Publisher in the late 80's) and I wanted pure plain text. Ever since VP, I've preferred text-code markups, so adapting to something like Markdown and then using a post-processor to produce whatever formats I want is just the way my mind works now days.<br /><br />But another big thing is that I also write code for a living. I don't want to learn different keyboard shortcuts and ways of thinking about documents for different tasks, different OS's, local files versus files on a remote system, etc. For all of its cumbersome bits, it lets me put the details of "how to use the editor" behind me and just write... whether it's code, a roleplaying game article, a novel, or a shopping list.<br /><br />Obviously, it's not for everyone... and it's taken me years of use, and learning a little Lisp, to adapt my configuration to all the different tasks I put it to. And I'm still discovering features I didn't know it had.<br /><br />I need to go learn about Org-mode... it looks like some of its organizational features would work well for fiction and roleplaying writing.Ravenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10434437834457303196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-47313324338062186602009-11-25T13:12:24.896-05:002009-11-25T13:12:24.896-05:00That said, Writemonkey is totally PC friendly. :)That said, Writemonkey is totally PC friendly. :)Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08362641974657304051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-37418066249838354782009-11-25T13:07:48.496-05:002009-11-25T13:07:48.496-05:00Damn you, Mac bastards! You get all the really coo...Damn you, Mac bastards! You get all the really cool programs.Chuck Wendighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08798919366354453539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-24039421244135013952009-11-25T12:14:16.076-05:002009-11-25T12:14:16.076-05:00I've been doing more writing since being intro...I've been doing more writing since being introduced to WriteMonkey than I have in a long time.<br /><br />Thanks, Rob.ZeroGainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03122409469631926274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-5294555663618511632009-11-24T12:05:15.249-05:002009-11-24T12:05:15.249-05:00Ever since my buddy introduced me to TextEdit for ...Ever since my buddy introduced me to TextEdit for the mac I've mostly avoided Word, and use Indesign for the layout. These writing programs sound cool though, being able to blank out distractions and just write would certainly be a boon. I'm going to give Writemonkey a try.Helmsmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05248835491973291242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-65566766346131887962009-11-24T10:40:07.380-05:002009-11-24T10:40:07.380-05:00I just wanted to thank you for introducing me to W...I just wanted to thank you for introducing me to WriteMonkey. I unconsciously lost whole chunks of yesterday to plain writing, which is something I haven't really done since my 8088. <br /><br />I had to use the timer to remind myself to interact with the world. And that's a very good thing.Eppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396530823622784353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-70870657675930345382009-11-23T19:05:46.963-05:002009-11-23T19:05:46.963-05:00Doing layout may be my protector, here. I don'...Doing layout may be my protector, here. I don't regard Word as producing end-state files, so there's no point in worrying about how the text looks while I'm writing in it. How it looks gets determined later, in layout. :)Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08362641974657304051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-20544659119265518452009-11-23T17:39:58.644-05:002009-11-23T17:39:58.644-05:00Everything I've ever written for an RPG produc...Everything I've ever written for an RPG product, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of words, has been on Word. I also wrote my whole novel on Word, too. I've tried using other software but it weirds me out. I played around with Scrivener but I think it was designed for somebody who isn't me, since it intimidated me to start playing around with geegaws and sorting files.<br /><br />It's interesting that you mention the whole long document thing, too. When I wrote my novel, I had the whole thing in one file as I wrote. My editor hates the whole one file = one chapter thing, which probably influenced me, too, but I think I just got started on all of this in a very different way from some other writers.Cam_Bankshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16162534181760938499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-66158329402935399702009-11-23T16:16:01.038-05:002009-11-23T16:16:01.038-05:00Scrivener has switched my writing to the Mac and t...Scrivener has switched my writing to the Mac and there's no going back. So I use Writeroom (mainly because since it was free on MacHeist last week) although I find Scrivener good enough so far, the black page is actually more intimidating. I like starting with regular Scrivener, and if I need to push out the distractions, I can go into full screen mode once I have my momentum started with a few words. <br /><br />Unfortunately, my work set up is dual monitor, and I have my chat and twitter windows on the small, laptop monitor, and the main screen is the 30". Scrivener (and Writeroom and likely others) only blackens the main screen, not any additional monitors, so it doesn't help keep my computer distraction free.<br /><br />However, I have to say, hearing about the typewriter and other sound options in Writemonkey makes me yearn for something like that on the Mac. But the Focus really takes the cake and sounds like a great feature.<br /><br />For Scrivener, I'm not sure what problems you heard of, but I have only run into one, and it's avoidable and not something you can make happen by accident. <br /><br />I have Dropbox on three computers - my work Mac laptop, my home PC, and home Mac laptop. I have the Scrivener files directly in my drop box, so they open and save right there (incidentally, I love working at home and seeing Windows tell me that anywhere from 2 to 30+ files have updated in my drop box as I work on Scrivener).<br /><br />The only problem I've run into is if I leave the file open at work and try to open it at home. Nothing bad happened. Scrivener warned me that the file is opened elsewhere, so I canceled the attempt. I've just made it part of my workflow to close any Scrivener files when I leave. Scrivener + Dropbox are an amazing combo. I don't know what happens if you try to bilocate a file, I suspect that when you return to the remote opened file, there's a risk of the data reverting at best, or corruption at worst. But you always get the warning, so if you forget, you aren't in danger of causing problems.<br /><br />What's also great is that I can read the files on the PC - the Scrivener file is a directory of RTF and TXT files (with some XML files managing it all). So although I can't use Scrivener on it, the data is completely accessible without a special export.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-38032661619892913272009-11-23T15:32:19.489-05:002009-11-23T15:32:19.489-05:00@chris I actually just downloaded Omnwriter today ...@chris I actually just downloaded Omnwriter today after a comment on twitter. No opinion yet, but I'm curious to try it out.<br /><br />And huh - I'd never actually dug into the folder guts, except on an export, I'd just assumed database by the behavior. Hmm. May have to think about what that means.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-27660885923989047822009-11-23T15:15:26.426-05:002009-11-23T15:15:26.426-05:00First, Emily, Scrivener has a full-screen writing ...First, Emily, Scrivener has a full-screen writing mode that can be configured to be almost identical to writeroom.<br /><br />Second, Rob, have you looked at the new <a href="http://www.ommwriter.com/" rel="nofollow">Ommwriter</a> beta? It's interesting... I've heard it described as WriteRoom if it were designed by Brian Eno.<br /><br />Also, technically, Scrivener does NOT use a database for storage. If you control-click (right-click) on a .scriv file, and choose "Show Package Contents," you'll find a series of rich text files that correspond to each "section" of your document.Chris Simmonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17227476995924683154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-55439273499969458532009-11-23T13:06:48.967-05:002009-11-23T13:06:48.967-05:00I'm always interested to see you write about w...I'm always interested to see you write about writing, Rob, not the least of which because we clearly go about the process very differently. I suspect some of it may be the writing-intensive legal background, but I write everything in Word and have no problems with it whatsoever. That "focus" thing you talk about sounds like torture to me. Which just goes to prove how personal the process of writing is in general.Justin D. Jacobsonhttp://www.johnraingame.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-59838089358466432962009-11-23T13:02:40.334-05:002009-11-23T13:02:40.334-05:00OK, you've sold me on Writemonkey.
I'd l...OK, you've sold me on Writemonkey. <br /><br />I'd love to see you follow this up with a post on organizing various types of notes cohesively. I've been using Evernote since I got my iPhone, and it's really handy but very limited - I wouldn't want to put tons and tons of text into it, but it's great for lists that require occasional editing.<br /><br />Even a post on integrating your writing projects with Dropbox would be cool. I've got it, but I still haven't configured it yet.Matthew D. Gandyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10385705569087231697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-3311721724702647112009-11-23T12:56:46.549-05:002009-11-23T12:56:46.549-05:00A vast amount of my quarter of a million published...A vast amount of my quarter of a million published words -- gaming, tech, etc, real published stuff -- was written in a green and black term window with pico. Now I've gotten awesome and upgraded to nano, but on the mac I am all about writeroom.<br /><br />I cannot seriously write anything in Word. It has way too many blinky lights. If I'm trapped on Windows I will generally whip out notepad++ (although at work I am highly considering installing writemonkey) and write in something clean, simple and minimalistic. <br /><br />Believe it or not Scrivener has too many blinking lights for me. I have tried writing in its windows several times and I have always ended up writing something in writeroom and then importing it into scrivener. I need an interface that has /nothing/. My brain has been trained that green on black == working time, anything else is other stuff. <br /><br />I believe Word 5.2 was the penultimate release of the software and anything after that added bloat.Emilyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11069100225375930667noreply@blogger.com