Progress · 7:19am Dec 29th, 2016
Hi everyone! I feel I owe an update of where I am at. ^-^;
I can't, at the moment, use MS Word, or otherwise, so am trying to get acquainted with google documents, to limited success. x.x;
I am writing though, and working on the next chapter of a Stranger Among the Voices. As always, that pesky starting point is what is frustrating me, but hopefully working though it. ^-^
I did, however, want to share something that meant a lot to me. I got an Xmas gift, as is something that happens over Xmas, funnily enough! But, this Xmas gift was something I didn't realise I needed, or wanted. Someone, or more accurately, a few people important to me, went ahead and created a physical copy of the first story I wrote.
I'll be the first to admit it's flawed in several areas, and I understand, and accept, people's critique of it. It was my first story, but I also understand, for all its glaring flaws, a lot of people enjoyed it for what it is. I am really humbled by that fact, and am grateful for all the advise I have received, and hopefully used to improve with my other two work in progresses.
I've been told I'm hard on myself, and that when I feel bogged down, I'll abandon something I do because I feel I'm not good enough. Being who I am, not sure if it's true or not. Just that I know this was really special to me to receive. So... I guess I'm back into writing, because if people care enough to do this, I owe it to them to keep writing. ^-^
Also, it is made with A4 paper, printed on both sides, and surprisingly heavy. >.<
How did I ever write those many words? x.x
Hey, ya live!
Anything in particular with Google Documents that is giving you issues? It's generally a friendly system to use, outside of the import into fimfiction throwing formatting errors. If you type out your italic, bold, underline tags in the GDoc, you can just copy and paste it all over into the fimfiction chapter edit page.
Its good to hear you had a good Christmas and it looks like you have some awesome friends who really care for you to do something like that, that is really, really cool.
It is so good to hear from you again and that you might be making some progress, While yes your stories are not perfect I still consider them to be very enjoyable and I do love the characters you created so hearing that we may be getting some more of them in the future has really made my day.
Good luck with everything.
I'm very glad to hear that you are coming back. I had written you off as yet another great author who has been demotivated by the mess the show has become and stopped writing, but it's great to see that I was wrong.
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Funnily enough, the auto-correct and spellchecker. ^-^; Everything else is very samey, but I am terrified of losing all my progress, so I have... buttloads of saved doc's of what I've done on my computer. x.x
4359956 Ah, I see. Well, the good news is that Google Docs syncs online automatically, so you really don't ever lose progress. It also tracks your revisions, so even if something is deleted, you can see the history to retrieve it. Relatively easy to organize the drive, too.
The spellcheck is a bit funky, I'll admit, I usually end up having to give the chapter a thorough reading to ensure nothing pokes me, or have a friend go over it for such things.
Hopefully it works out though. Your writing was very interesting, would be nice to see you come back after so long and hop back on that wagon.
Horse words are numerous and always come to writers in herds!
BTW, Merry Christmas!
It's great to hear from you again. I've probably re-read your stories a dozen times at least.
If Google Docs is giving you too much trouble, you could try LibreOffice. It's free, open-source, and offers pretty much what Microsoft Word can offer you.
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Plus, you can install LanguageTool (a grammar checker for LibreOffice that does a great job of picking defaults which won't make your fiction sound like a quarterly earnings report) and then get a free Dropbox account to add online backup and/or sync for 2GiB of any kind of files you want, LibreOffice or otherwise.
How did you write so many words? The answer is one at a time.
Welcome back.
Just be aware that you will have to correct the formatting when you import a document from Google doc into fimfiction. Which means you'll likely have to go back put in bold, Italic, and sometimes backspaces.
I got into the habit of adding // to every sentence or paragraph in google docs and then pressing control f in the fimficiton document to find where I need to make the corrections.
I can't wait to read the next chapter of your masterpiece!
good to hear from you
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There's an add-on you can get for Google Docs that does BBCode exports. Since FIMFic uses BBCode for formatting, this may be something y'all might want to look at.
Yay, you're still alive!
I can't wait. I think I will go reread all of your stories for the 7th time
I think it's pretty awesome to have gotten a physical copy of your story.
Try Libre Office, its pretty good, and its free.
GORDON'STYSTARR'S ALIVE!I wish you the very best of luck with your return, and I shall eagerly anticipate any progress you make on your wonderful stories.
welcome back you were missed greatly
4360292 Thanks for the heads up
4359956 If nothing else, Google Apps/Drive is a marvelous backup solution for the price. Yes the tools available are not as polished as in the Office suite, but it's nice to have them at your fingertips anywhere you can find an internet connection.
Excellent!
Yes! Good on you Tystarr! I know it's easy to critique your own work too harshly, but your stories are all amazing and you should see them to the end
Good to see you get back on the horse, figuratively speaking.
Looking forward to the next chapter.
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Well, that gift was nice ^_^
I know there are critiques of your work, and nothing is beyond critical analysis, but I (and many others) really like your stories. I still re-read both of the Stranger stories on occasion, even the incomplete one. I haven't checked out Pinion because it's incomplete, but if you ever finish that I'd definitely give it a go.
When and if you update A Stranger Among the Voices I'll probably freak out a little bit, because I've been waiting so long for more of it to read. No pressure mind, as I've said before I don't want you to feel pressured into churning out something for the sake of it. Labor of love and all that, no? A little pressure serves as a motivator, but too much is just a crushing force.
Have you considered using either OpenOffice or LibreOffice? I use the latter myself (It apparently has pretty much all the features of the former, and other features besides). It can open word (.doc or .docx) files as well. I haven't used Word since HIgh School myself. You might find it more comfortable to use Libre/Open Office instead of Google Docs, since they're basically designed to emulate and function like Word. It has spell check, but I can't speak to its efficacy, as I've never used it. That said, having backups is a good idea regardless.
I've been using LibreOffice to write (once I have a couple more chapters written, I'll start posting it), as well as to open and edit FiMFiction .html copies of stories to convert to .MOBI format. It's not perfect, it has given me some trouble, but I expect Word wouldn't have been much better in that regard.
I'll add my vote for the free-download LibreOffice as a passable substitute for Microsoft Office. The look and feel is a little bit like an old version of M$ Office, but it has a pretty good file conversion utility. It can open and edit a wide variety of formats.
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/
But most importantly, you write some very good stories, and I'm just the sort of greedy word-o-vore who will urge you to write more of them by whatever means is available.
That's some awesome friends you have there.
It's almost been a year, please come back!