Post and discuss your writing software set-up!

[Hotkey]

Post and discuss your writing software set-up!

This is a Silentcook-approved thread (in concept only, of course), inspired by this post. Meaning - this is a dickie-bow, cigars and port affair. People are welcome to suggest and critic software, but do not proselytize operating systems. Not that I need to mention this anyway; this forum is mature enough to avoid such arguments.

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I shall begin.

I use LibreOffice on Windows (nothing against Microsoft Office, but I can't justify the cost considering how few features I need).

I have two documents - one for ideas and inspiration (on the left) and one for the finished product (on the right).

I have dual 24" monitors running at 1920x1080, and maximize each document to fit its monitor.

Furthermore, I increase the height of the pages, reduce the margins, decrease the size of the font, and zoom out to view as much information as possible at once.

It's not a set-up I'm entirely happy with (there's an element of 'information overload' about it), but it's the best thing for me I've found so far.



Full Size (3840x1080)

[brythain]

For writing in this context (KS fanfic) I have a modest set-up:

1) Excel, with a spreadsheet showing events in my timeline. I just insert events whenever I need to, setting my cells to wrap. Dates, people, etc.
2) Word, with two sets of windows: one set has the KS scripts in them so that I'm always being reminded of what characters said and what they sound like; one set has my work-in-progress and other related pieces.
3) A browser of some sort, FF or Saf or Chrome — basically with a preset number of tabs for research.

That's it, really!

[dewelar]

For writing in this context (KS fanfic) I have a modest set-up:

1) Excel, with a spreadsheet showing events in my timeline. I just insert events whenever I need to, setting my cells to wrap. Dates, people, etc.
2) Word, with two sets of windows: one set has the KS scripts in them so that I'm always being reminded of what characters said and what they sound like; one set has my work-in-progress and other related pieces.
3) A browser of some sort, FF or Saf or Chrome — basically with a preset number of tabs for research.

Pretty much the same for me, but maybe even more minimalist. I use Word for the actual writing -- usually I have all the chapters I'm working on (usually that's about 3 chapters, sometimes more) open, plus my outline and timeline. I'm running Word 2007, if that means anything to anyone. Firefox for research, and occasionally will run a scene or two in the game as needed.

That's it, really!

Yeah, what he said .

[Numb]

Microsoft word 2003, because it was free when I got it. I keep three different documents for the main chunk of writing; the plot notes, character notes and the actual writing. Beyond that, when I create new characters, I write three shorts placing them in preset situations; a trip through a city, a day trip to the countryside and a problem designed for the specific character to overcome.

Past that, I have two monitors and always have a slideshow of nature and cityscapes on it with traditional Japanese music playing. This prevents me from procrastinating and ending up on reddit, YouTube or these forums. In rare cases like my Miki
Route, I will have a text document with times and dates of specific events that occur in the source material, but I tend to stick to my own content now anyway. The traditional Japanese music is good for background music, as it isn't catchy like a lot of jazz, my favourite genre, and is very calm compared to classical.

[LorSquirrel]

I use Microsoft Word 2007 because it was already installed on this PC when I bought it. I also have the KS wiki, these forums, the main KS Website, a Japanese calender of 2007, the KS soundtrack, and the game up in the background. I do all of this, so that I'm never that far away from the any information I might need on the timeline of the game, what happens to certain characters at certain points, and so I can listen to Lilly's theme because I think it's awesome.

I only use one monitor, mostly because I'm not all that tech savvy and also because I never really need more than one monitor to look stuff up.

I also have a few things to try and keep me from procrastinating; I have a few rules of writing that I recite to myself if i get stuck, I close out every other window other than MS Word, so that I'm not tempted to look at YT, and I play the KS soundtrack to give me some ideas. (Even with all of that, I still procrastinate, but that's more due to me being a very unfocused person.)

[Oscar Wildecat]

When working on plain text documents -- such as the sort that gets posted here, I usually use ultraedit studio. I've done proofreading for others on a few occasions (and I am available to do more). Ultraedit has a really nice text comparison program is great for proofreading. I also have Microsoft Office available.

I also use dual monitors, in my case a 27" and a 24". But that's a carryover from my work.

[Silentcook]

Wordpad for writing, Notepad for editing, and WinMerge for diffs. That's it.

[SpunkySix]

Right now I'm using my Notepad and that's it, but I plan to use Works when I get home and have more time to focus on actually furthering my fan fiction.

[Oddball]

I use Openoffice.

[forgetmenot]

I'm one of those weird cross-platform writers (I have a Windows desktop and a Macbook), so I use plaintext files and swap between Word and TextEdit, respectively. Usually a browser open for research, that whole shebang.

One of the weirder quirks I have is that I write best when listening to metal at low volumes. When it's quiet it's close to pink noise, I guess.

[SpunkySix]

I'm one of those weird cross-platform writers (I have a Windows desktop and a Macbook), so I use plaintext files and swap between Word and TextEdit, respectively. Usually a browser open for research, that whole shebang.

One of the weirder quirks I have is that I write best when listening to metal at low volumes. When it's quiet it's close to pink noise, I guess.

A couple of questions from a fellow Macbook user:

1. Any advice on where to go for a Windows desktop? It'd be more familiar, and also nice to be able to download more... OS X limits me there. I was lucky to be able to play KS even.

2. Which browser do you find runs the fastest? I'm using Safari since it's the default. Is there anything better?

3. Is pink noise the same thing as white noise? I've never heard that color being used for that term before.

[forgetmenot]

I'm one of those weird cross-platform writers (I have a Windows desktop and a Macbook), so I use plaintext files and swap between Word and TextEdit, respectively. Usually a browser open for research, that whole shebang.

One of the weirder quirks I have is that I write best when listening to metal at low volumes. When it's quiet it's close to pink noise, I guess.

A couple of questions from a fellow Macbook user:

1. Any advice on where to go for a Windows desktop? It'd be more familiar, and also nice to be able to download more... OS X limits me there. I was lucky to be able to play KS even.

2. Which browser do you find runs the fastest? I'm using Safari since it's the default. Is there anything better?

3. Is pink noise the same thing as white noise? I've never heard that color being used for that term before.

1. Build your own. It's insanely easy, and you'll also get more bang for your buck. I'd suggest Reddit's Build a PC subreddit, /r/buildapc, for in-depth advice, part reviews, etc. Don't think it's something you can't do if you're not technically inclined. It's seriously like putting a LEGO set together. Just be a little more careful (ha, ha).

2. I prefer Chrome, but that's only because I own a Chromecast that I use for watching television. I'd say that's probably the only upgrade from Safari. The rest are all sort of side-grades depending on what you want from a browser.

3. This is actually an advanced physics question, believe it or not, having to do a lot with sonics. White noise can best be thought of as an auditory analogue of white light, i.e. having equal power in equal frequency bands (the audible ones, anyhow). This is an example of white noise.

Pink noise's power, however, scales linearly downwards with respect to the power of the noise (in decibels, or dB for short). Mathematically, this means that the same amount of power is in the 50 - 100 Hz band as the 5,000 - 10,000 Hz band.

From the wikipedia article:

Since humans hear in such a proportional space, where a doubling of frequency (an octave) is perceived the same regardless of actual frequency (40–60 Hz is heard as the same interval and distance as 4000–6000 Hz), every octave contains the same amount of energy and thus pink noise is often used as a reference signal in audio engineering.

I've heard of it since I used to/still do somewhat work in the audio engineering field. Here's an example of pink noise.

Edit: Since this has veered decidedly off-topic, we should probably keep future discussions to PMs. However, I'll leave this be for now, since this is a discussion thread anyhow and some other people may find this interesting/want to use pink or white noise as something to play while they write.

[SpunkySix]

Good idea. But thanks for the advice, and I did find that to be an interesting idea for playing in the background while writing.

[demonix]

LibreOffice Writer for typing out the stories, the game if I need to pull any route specific information, the web for any other information I'll need and my brain for general story progression and ideas for new stories.

And that's about it.

[bhtooefr]

I have a multi-stage process.

When I want to write during downtime at work, I keep an Apple //c (with the Memory Expansion keyboard - this is important, because that version of the keyboard has, in my opinion, far better feel and reliability) in my cube, and I do writing in AppleWorks 5.1 on that machine. I then transfer the files over to text files on a modern computer running CiderPress (a program for manipulating Apple II disk images on Windows), and then from there to Google Drive.

At home, my writing process is on my 15" MacBook Pro Retina, with the display set to 2880x1800 (so I can have Firefox (with the GDrive documents , a terminal with irssi running, IM windows, and the game all up with space to spare). I do my writing and editing in Google Drive, and usually use my Matias Tactile Pro 4 as the keyboard.

When I'm traveling, I sometimes leave my Mac at home, and instead take a Fujitsu P1620, an 8.9" Core 2 Duo-based convertible tablet - basically it's a netbook that has a better processor and screen, and a pointing stick, which is my preferred pointing device. (It serves a few other purposes - it's my car diagnostic and amateur radio machine as well). I use Win7 on it, for what it's worth. That works equally well for GDrive, except for the rather cramped (16 mm pitch) keyboard.

Also, as far as running Windows, you don't need a separate computer to do it, Macs since 2006 have been able to dual-boot Windows, and with sufficient CPU and RAM, can also run Windows (at reduced performance) in a virtual machine alongside OS X. While I do have dedicated Windows machines, most of the time, if I need Windows (except for the amateur radio and car diagnostic cases), I just run it on my Mac.