Oolite Bulletins

Out of curiosity what, if any, writing tools do you use on your computer?

I'm not a big writer myself (sometimes an edible poet) but I did learn of Storybook, which is an excellent tool for building characters, locations and keeping track of plot-lines. As a bonus, it's open source, and we all love open source software right!

Another application that I haven't tried but seems like it would be a good writing tool is FocusWriter, which is another open source application that aims to be a "distraction-free word processor designed to immerse you as much as possible in your work."

One final tool that isn't specifically for writing but could be useful none-the-less is the mind-mapping tool XMind. I love the concept of mind mapping, it's an excellent way to collect your thoughts and XMind is one of the more intuitive applications I've found. It is also open source, although they do have a "enterprise" edition. However, I think the regular edition is perfectly adequate for home use (I'm not really sure what the difference is to be honest). I've tried Freemind, but somehow it seems a little less polished and a little more clumsy compared with XMind.

So what tools do you use if any?

I’ve only ever written Oofic, and I write that for fun, so I use no tools except the word processor. Even if I had aspirations to be a ‘published writer’, which I don't, I doubt that I’d use such tools as you mention. There’d probably be an ‘assistant’ (a paper-clip?) popping up and telling me that I’d forgotten to use indents or something, and suggesting a different font.

El Viejo wrote:

There’d probably be an ‘assistant’ (a paper-clip?) popping up and telling me that I’d forgotten to use indents or something, and suggesting a different font.

Wow, jaded much? Just kidding.

None of the software I mentioned is from Microsoft. The sole purpose is to aid your writing, not impede it, but fair enough.

Yeah… my comment about the ‘assistant’ was tongue-in-cheek.
Is it a quiet day in the office, Darkbee?

El Viejo wrote:

Yeah… my comment about the ‘assistant’ was tongue-in-cheek.
Is it a quiet day in the office, Darkbee?

LOL, you must have big cheeks

It's Thanksgiving!! (well almost) So yes, it's completely dead.

I'm one of the few suckers that actually bothered to come to work today. God bless productivity in a America! Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate it, and Happy Wednesday/Thursday to those that don't.

Don't forget to have that 'virtual' pint tomorrow... 1800Z.

Have a nice Thanksgiving!

I've never used any plot-tracking software myself ... it looks interesting but personally speaking I find backs of envelopes work fine! As long as you don't lose the envelopes, of course. A more organised person might use a notebook.

To be honest though I've never written anything with what could be called a large and complex plot, but I can see the benefits of keeping track of e.g. what bits of key information are known to which characters, and when they find out. I have a friend who is a professional proofreader and copy-editor, and from time to time she comes across manuscripts (or even worse, typeset proofs) where characters come back from the dead because the author's forgotten that they'd killed them off two chapters ago; or someone described as "elderly" in 1945 is still around and apparently not dramatically ancient in 2010 (this in a straight family Aga-saga, nothing supernatural involved, jut an authorial oversight); or someone new turns up because of a crucial bit of backstory that the author has forgotten to share with the reader ...

El Viejo wrote:

...and suggesting a different font.

LOL - don't you mean font colour?

for future reference, black font colour is easier to pass off as a work-related document - blue tends to require liberal use of alt+tab

lfnfan wrote:

LOL - don't you mean font colour?

for future reference, black font colour is easier to pass off as a work-related document - blue tends to require liberal use of alt+tab

I originally wanted to use a blue font on a black background, but couldn’t get it to format right.

‘Alt+tab’ is a useful switch… in Windows, so is ‘start+m’… it minimises all open apps instantly (including Oolite in full screen mode).

El Viejo wrote:

... in Windows, so is ‘start+m’… it minimises all open apps instantly (including Oolite in full screen mode).

Aaah, there is nothing quite like the four-finger-swipe on a MacBook's trackpad.

I, after trying a couple of wordprocessors and text editors, use this - or have started to:

http://wordgrinder.sourceforge.net/

Its a console wordprosessor.
Love it - no distractions - has everything i need (which isnt alot ) - worth a look.

I liked the look of the "FocusWriter" program earlier, "WordGrinder" has even less distraction (instead of tabs you can save groups of seperate documents- so when you open one, you have the others in the group to hand etc) - no mouse - just a tiny drop down menu - export and import: text and html, and export to troff and Latex; and some basic formatting .

El Viejo wrote:

I’ve only ever written Oofic, and I write that for fun, so I use no tools except the word processor. Even if I had aspirations to be a ‘published writer’, which I don't, I doubt that I’d use such tools as you mention. There’d probably be an ‘assistant’ (a paper-clip?) popping up and telling me that I’d forgotten to use indents or something, and suggesting a different font.

Paperclip? AAAH! (warning strong language....)
http://www.frmb.org/images/clip.gif

Just thought I;d jump in on this one. I've not written and OOfic yet, but my wordprocessor is open now with the first lines in process.

For general usage, any word processor will do, but for more complex layouts, I really like using StoryLines in WritersCafe.
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/

Great piece of software, it's cross platform, Win, Mac & Linux. I've used all 3 at some point and they all work great. It's a great tool for keeping track of your characters bio's, locations and other notes. It also works very well in doing novel format and screenplays (I've written both using it). If I don't have it I tend to get stuck in a writing corner because I go off on a writing tangent, lose track of the main thread of my story. It helps you plan out the storyline before hand and then just fill in the details.
The developers are also really friendly too. Based in Scotland, basically written by 2 people and respond to bug reports very quickly.


I also fancy having a go using Scrivener but I'm used to the feel of story lines now.
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/

Generally I've always preferred to just write off the cuff and make notes as I think of them for later and see where the story goes but as I wonted to write more and more complex things, I found it impossible to keep track without some sort of part/chapter/scene/character/location list.
Storylines fills that need very well. I can only say good things about it. Great value for money too.

!m!

I just use a word processor, usually Abi-word, for writing stories. And I use plain text files for "dossiers" on characters, systems, planet gov and etc. If I think of anything that's in the backstory of a character/system/etc I add it to their dossier so I can "flesh them out" for my own head without going into too much detail in the story itself. I write little vignettes and shorts about places and people and things that happened to characters years ago to develop a sense of their personality.

But the actual story, just word processor.

I've gone over to the dark side. I'm using Word 2010 on my new laptop. Sorry, it rocks.

Cheers,

Drew.