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[pameladean]

My friend minnehaha is wondering about how many undecided voters there are around here, and has set up a simple poll to assuage her wonderment. There's an option for people who aren't old enough to vote or aren't citizens of the U.S., if you are curious to see others' responses. It only takes a moment to fill out, and you'll be adding to the sum of human knowledge.

Here's the link:

http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1259967

Briefly, in other news, I've finished the revisions for Going North, Volume 1. However, it appears that the newest version of Open Office broke templates. I never understood them in the first place, really, but David made me one and I was using it. I was about to say that I hate Open Office, but I don't. It's nifty and does a lot of very cool things. What I hate is is its idiotic, self-referential, send-you-around-in-circles, never-define-anything, use-stupid-unintuitive-terms-in-the-first-place help files.

However, I have found a tedious but reliable workaround involving a lot of cutting and pasting. This is light-years better than floundering around in the Unhelp files. I hope I can mail the unbloody book tomorrow. I hope.

Pamela

Comments

Cutting and pasting, etc.

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

For all that all or virtually all (I can't name any exceptions) of my writer friends have insisted for over 20 years that computers are exactly the way any writer ought to travel, every so often I read or hear something that makes me all the more certain that my staying with typewriters is exactly the way I need to go, whether anybody else understands it or not. (Actually "all the more certain" is a bit misleading. I have been 100% certain since very early on that the typewriter is the way I want to go; but every so often something happens that makes me underline this and put exclamation points after it.) I also hope you can mail the unbloody book tomorrow; please keep us posted.

Nate

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. I can't conceive of doing this all on a typewriter -- not being able to cut-and-paste scenes or portions of scenes into new spaces when I decide they need to be moved, not being able to run a search on the document, not being able to back it up. I'm happy typewriters work for you, but my head explodes at the thought.

Then again, I use Wordperfect instead of Word, and have problems with it about once a year, if that.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I don't know what "run a search on the document" means, or why one benefits by "backing something up" when it is equally likely that you'll lose the document when the system crashes -- not a possibility with a typed document, although I did need to retype one back in 1975 when I spilled orange juice on it. I do appreciate that anybody, anywhere, would say "I'm happy typewriters work for you, but...." Back when I was still trying to write fiction on an ongoing basis, the general consensus was that I was just plain crazy, so any time somebody says something that differs from that, I feel relieved. (I may do a post on this in a day or two, as there has been an update.)

Nate B.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Hey, I know people who write their first drafts longhand, which is no crazier than using the typewriter. Possibly moreso.

"Run a search" means being able to go, oh, where was it that I had that line/introduced that detail/last saw that character, and having the computer pop me directly to the part of the document I need, even when I haven't the faintest clue where to start looking. Backing up . . . I suspect there's a weird thing of perspective there. To you, the electronic version is fragile, because the system can crash and you lose it. To me, the paper version is fragile, because there's only one and making copies is a lot of work. I like knowing that if my house burns down, I still have my novel. (Funny story, though -- I've made backups religiously since the day over a decade ago when I somehow lost a file I was working on and had to re-type from hard copy. Since then, I have not had a single problem with losing a file, having the system crash, etc. Not once. I make backups because I'm paranoid, not because I've needed them.)

I went to an archaeological field school where we had to write papers, living in pup tents on a hillside in Wales. I had brought my laptop, so I could at least compose on the computer, even though I had to write the final product out longhand. My friends had to do it all with pens and paper. We had some fascinating discussions about our composition processes, and how working on the computer had shaped them. But if the method you're using works for you, and you don't feel any particular lack in your life, I don't see why anybody should try to make you change.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

If I ever gave you the impression I thought you were crazy for doing what works for you (as opposed to just sharing what works for me), I apologize. If that impression interfered with your writing process, I apologize double.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Apology accepted, and very good to hear from you. Louie got a call from the guy at the typewriter repair shop (and wonderful that Minneapolis has even one typewriter repair shop -- a friend reports that New York City doesn't). The typewriter is fixed. I'm going to start with touching up a couple of "almost" ready manuscripts, and then see how I feel. (I think that it may have looked obvious, even though false, that "Nate has been completely unable to finish a novel" and "Nate is the only Scribbly who doesn't use a computer or word processor" were correlated. I'm reluctant to put words in people's mouths 20 years later, but I hope and expect that you're happy that I *may* be ready to stop this lengthy rest and get some work done.)

Nate



Nate

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Didn't mean to sign my name twice.

Didn't mean to sign my name twice.

Didn't mean to sign my name twice.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[pameladean]

Well, I certainly wouldn't tell you not to use a typewriter if that's what you want to use. I may have done so in the past, but after all this time, telling you that would be very silly.

I think it's worth the occasional wrestling with Open Office, though. Also, bear in mind that Open Office is open-source and that means that it's free but has bad help files. I loved the software I used to have, which is no longer supported, but I clung to it stubbornly for too long. There are probably programs out there that wouldn't give me the problems Open Office does, but I'm very lazy and Open Office is right here. So some of my problems are self-inflicted.

P.

Re: Cutting and pasting, etc.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

NisusWriter, both Express and Pro, aren't free. They just have help files that read like it. 8>P (If I weren't busy actually using the software, I'd volunteer to rewrite their documentation so reallive humans could benefit from it.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I hope I can mail the unbloody book tomorrow.

<bounce>

[pameladean]

This week, for sure.

Then I can revise Volume 2. O joy. 8-)

P.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

<bouncitty bounce>

Just in case being reminded of your drooling fans helps you get through the revision. ^_^

[pameladean]

It does, actually, quite a lot.

P.

[jry.livejournal.com]

<drool>

[aedifica]

Oh, well in that case: *drool*

(I promise to clean up my own drool, though.)

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I don't do this often b/c I don't want to be obnoxious BUT OMG SO SO EXCITED. SO. EXCITED. OMG NEW _THICK_ TWO-VOLUME DEAN BOOK OMG.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

Both my SO and I recently reread all of the Secret Country trilogy and we are eagerly anticipating the appearance of the new book.

My social scientist hat is wondering about selection bias; are people in the reading-network of everyone who reposted the link to the poll more likely to have made up their minds? I wouldn't be surprised if people On The Internets are more likely to have made up their minds, what with the whole self-reinforcing easy-to-read-only-stuff-you-agree-with thing.

(Me, my mind was made up in January; nobody running is my ideal candidate but I'll take Less War over More War any day, thank you very much.)

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Mailng the book is good!

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Yayy, revisions, yayyy! Also, yaaayyyy!

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

Squee!!! Boooooooooooook!! :D

Is it just like Dubious Hills? Is it? *peers up hopefully* *g*

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

OMG closer to bookbookbook!

....Sadly I cannot offer anything about Open Office because I just now realized I HATE every single incarnation of Word and am now looking for something different. Besides Notepad.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing! And here's hoping you can mail it tomorrow.