Commentary: Writing in Real Time

[arpeejay]

So, no, this isn't a story, just some observations:

I've finally figured out that my preferred method of writing a muscle growth story is, strange as it may sound, right here in the Forum text editor. There are a couple of reasons for that:

(1) I'm lazy. If I write it in Word or some other word processing program and cut and paste I have to go do all kinds of tedious format edits along the way (paragraph breaks and so forth.) Writing it here avoids that complication.

(2) Immediate gratification. I write it, I post it, it shows up.

There are, of course, some significant downsides, including:

(a) Likelihood of losing work. For the most part, the editor seems fairly stable; on the other hand, "Submit New Thread" exposes what I've written to the vagaries of my ISP, the Forum's ISP, and the Internet in general. I always highlight / control c my text before hitting the submit button.

(b) I'm really pretty good about catching things as I'm writing but no first draft is ever perfect and my certainly are not. In addition to typos, I'm apt to type the first spelling of sound-the-same-spelled-differently words (there, their, they're; your, you're; even weigh and way!); likewise, I can get confused about who is talking, thinking, acting, etc. So usually within an hour (usually immediately) after posting a draft I go back and fix the mistakes.

(c) Ditto, sometimes I get to a point where I need to stop but the chapter / episode / vignette isn't quite finished. Given (b), I edit the first half and then just add the second half. I think I've been pretty good about indicating that people should "check back later for the rest of this section..." but I probably haven't been consistent about that and/or it's been overlooked.

And, yeah, (d) I know, I should grow up and be a good boy and never post anything until it's 100% perfect. Ain't gonna happen! :-)

In the meantime, many thanks for the great feedback. For whatever reason i seem to be in fertile territory these days and (as the king of unfinished tales!) it's really quite nice to be able to say I've written three *complete* stories in the past month.

xoxo

Richard

[arpeejay]

And, yeah, this nearly bombed when I sent it! :-)

[helliot]

If you want to write "live" and still have training wheels (and happen to use Firefox) you may want to check out the addon It's All Text. It allows you to edit text on any site with the text editor of your choice which means you have more flexibility and a backup so you don't lose your work. Web browser text updates every time you save. Very handy.

[martinp13]

What is to keep you from writing it in the editor of your choice, converting to text, and pasting that to the Forum?

Test:

This is a short story. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here.

Ipsum dolor quantum mechanics and all that stuff. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph.

And here is the finale. I didn?t do much character development, did I?

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I wrote that in Word and saved it, then Save As Text, then copy/pasted it into this message.

[arpeejay]

Originally Posted by martinp13

What is to keep you from writing it in the editor of your choice, converting to text, and pasting that to the Forum?

Test:

This is a short story. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here. There?s really not much here.

Ipsum dolor quantum mechanics and all that stuff. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph.

And here is the finale. I didn?t do much character development, did I?

-----

I wrote that in Word and saved it, then Save As Text, then copy/pasted it into this message.

A couple of things:

(1) I guess I wasn't making myself clear. I'm actually comfortable working in this text editor. It's easy to use, it's just that You-the-Reader are actually reading it in Real Time, so please bear with me! :-)

(2) No doubt I'm doing something wrong. When I write a story in Word and cut / paste it here, all the spaces between paragraphs disappear -- and as you've noticed, most of my "paragraphs" are only 1 or 2 lines long! It's a lot to go back and add the spaces. I'm pretty sure this ALSO happens when I save a document as text, so creating the breaks the first time here is actually more efficient (for me!)

Thanks for the tips!

Richard

[Ender]

I guess this dates me badly... I got started with computers in the days of punch cards and you never had direct access to the actual computer unless you had mega-bucks to burn and time share access was billed by the minute of connect time... so I grew up the idea of never doing anything online if you could do it offline. I still prefer to operate standalone as much as possible because it lowers your risk of security breachs... and being dependent on resources that aren't in your control...

Ender

[Jaypat]

I've actually been moving in the opposite direction lately. I pretty much want to complete a whole story before I post any of it. ...Thus the delay on GIfted Child. I have a couple of completed parts but I don't want to post them until it is entirely finished.

[xythan_shadow]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I tend to post in sections, but it takes me forever before I'm happy with what I post. I think I have like 5 or 6 stories open that have parts almost ready to post, but I'm not 100% happy with 'em yet.

But eventually my to-do list will be empty! Really, it will be one day.