Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone. Time for the weekly check in and as usual I am jumping all around the place something my work colleagues are starting to find a little annoying *g* so I have slightly random post for you.

First, while I am sure everyone knows about this, I just wanted to link to the transcripts page over at The Hatstand. These are always a massive help to me when I am thinking about matching things up with the episodes.

Second I wanted to highlight the LJ comm little_details which helps writers with the research and fact checking. Well worth looking through the old posts here as well as potentially posting as the comm is watched by a large number of LJ users.

Next some Tips to Increase Writing Productivity and Hints and Tips for Distraction Free Writing. This is something I desperately need as I keep letting myself get distracted by the phone, the TV, spring cleaning, staring at the wall, everything *hangs head in shame*.

And lastly a bit of fun, how about a couple title generators to help you think of a title for your story, Title-o-matic and Random Book Title Generator. Clicking a few times gave me the options of: Haze Moccasin, Crystalline Blue, Icewater Series, Snow in the Memory, Hard Consort, and Stray Dog Kiss. *grins*.

Anyway now is your chance to check in and let us know how you are getting on, ask any questions, tell us that the suggested title Haze Moccasin fits your work perfectly, and so on.

Comments

Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[judesmk.livejournal.com]

Interesting about titles: I find I have a title before I even have an idea for a story and the rest follows on. For my BB story, I've had the title in my head for years (it was originally going to be a Mills and Boon novel but don't kick me for that!!) and I find that the title and some of that original plot are working very nicely for B&D. That said I've only got to the end of Chapter 3 (around 6000 words). And that's the other thing, how trustworthy is the word counter on Word. I read somewhere the other day that it counts anything with white space around it so a dash becomes a word, etc. Anyone know. Still it at least gives me some clue as to how I'm getting along.

Luv

Judes

Re: Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Titles are such fun. I'm glad I'm not the only one with titles and no stories yet. :)

I wouldn't worry about the word count unless it's off by thousands! . Nobody's going to be counting every single word to be sure you hit 20,000 if Word says you have 19,867. But if you have 14,000, then we might need to talk.

You could check it in another program like Open Office, which BTW is a much nicer program than Word and NOT owned by Microsoft! *beg* Or upload it into one of the automated archives and just do a preview rather than post it which will make it visible to other folks.

If it's really worrying you, you may send me your draft and I'd be happy to put it into Open Office and tell you what I have as far as a word count. Then you can then be reassured or freaked out. :)

Re: Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

*butting in* I used to use Open Office and beta for someone who used Word. She writes a lot of restricted word count shorts. Open Office always said more words than Word did! However, having said that, it's usually different by only about 100 words, so I really wouldn't stress about it at all.

I now use Word because when a publisher requests an rtf file, Open Office is a bitch and deletes all the formating all the time.

Re: Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

That's too bad you had problems. I love it. I don't use any Windows or Microsoft programs on my primary laptop. I do use a Windows laptop for vidding only but otherwise I try to stay off the net with it since Windows is a virus magnet and I don't care for their programs. :) I do love my Corel vidding program so until I find a Linux vidding program I like as well, I'll keep that other laptop as a backup.

Re: Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

It was rather annoying... moreso for my editor who had to format my story TWICE.

My computer has Vista on it, which is okay, as far as it goes. But I've switched browsers to Chrome which I find much better than IE.

Re: Weekly check in post *waves hello*

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

For some reason the title is always the last things for me, but this may explain why I am so bad at them. And a big yay or 6000 words that is awesome.