TNT 1: Notebooks galore

[azuire]

Good evening everyone (at least, it's evening where I am). Hope you're all well. Welcome to the first Tips and Tricks column! All future entries will be searchable by the "tips and tricks" tag. Members, if you have an idea for a TNT discussion, feel free to PM it to us!

Allons-y!

I like to scribble. My current notebook has several pages that go on in messy longhand. When I was younger, I had my own typewriter and used that to hammer out my work. But to share writing on the internet, I have to type it on my computer, and for this I use OpenOffice: it has very convenient folders. I sometimes use WordPad if I'm in a hurry. I don't like Microsoft Word because it continually eats my work (and corrects my spelling). Recently a friend of mine bought Liquid Story Binder, and I saw another explaining how to use yWriter. Both seem very satisfied with their respective writing programs. So, what do you think about these programs? Which one(s) do you use? And where do you prefer to write, in notebooks, or on keyboards?

Share away :-)

Comments

[pipisafoat]

I'm a Mac user, though: this is important to me and to this explanation of my computering habits.

I like to work in Pages sometimes, but only if I'm sitting down and working on a long piece straight through and fact-checking later; it's easier to feel like I've made actual progress with it. More often than not, I'll paste my work into Pages to scroll around and look at what I've already written while working on it in my program of choice, TextEdit. I love TextEdit because it doesn't autoformat, it's super-easy to turn off it even recognizing misspelled words (while keeping it autocorrecting my most common typos, which I can set myself), and it looks great in a small window. Yet, if I want to do some tricky formatting, I can do it. I can have a pretty thorough spellcheck, fancy fonts, formatting, etc. For you Windows people, it's like WordPad and TextPad had a baby that looks like TextPad but is smarter and more capable than WordPad. (Because that clearly explains everything.) I like to use TextEdit in a small window, so when I'm writing short pieces, it feels like I'm making loads of progress. Also, TextEdit comes free with the Mac when you get it. Best of all worlds.

Yes, I have Word for Mac. Word is a program I use to check page length. Not even word count anymore. But people are always asking me "How many pages is it in Word?" like that's the most objective way to see how long something is. Whatever, people, I could just change my font size and have A MILLION PAGES! how would that be?

I think I tried yWriter once. Or something. One of those writing programs. I don't really remember it. I am very set in my ways ;)

So, in general, it's pretty clear that I like to use my computer for writing fiction whenever possible. It works better for me. However, I always try to have sticky notes and a wall in easy reach - if I get an idea that doesn't fit in the piece I'm working on at the moment, I want it on a sticky note hanging on my wall, dammit. None of this "make a file for ideas" nonsense - those get lost in my vast lack of organization. And really. STICKY NOTES. They're just awesome.

[so_wordy]

In college my one friend and I would always laugh at people who asked how many pages it was in Word. We were expected to do MLA formatting so 500 words (double spaced, times new roman, twelve point font, 1" margins) was always equal to one page! People would look at us like we were crazy and we'd crack up.

We iz english majors, hear us rawr.

STICKY NOTES. I have recently discovered my love of the lot. They are my bestest friends at work (ie. Visible all over my desk). My friend had her entire room decorated in sticky notes, all with words she found interesting and their definitions.

[pipisafoat]

In high school (it was a boarding school for science and math nerds), my friend decorated her door with sticky notes and let people write funny quotes on them. With the amount of sleep deprivation going on in that school, there were lots of ridiculous things being said. YAY STICKY NOTES!

Also, I much prefer APA formatting. I even like Chicago better than MLA. Chicago is pretty much exclusively used in history, though. Some English profs give us the choice between APA and MLA - they tend to be my favorites. Pointless opinions: I have them.