Fic writing polls

[51stcenturyfox]

[Poll #1510631][Poll #1510632][Poll #1510633]

Comments

[mtgat]

I kind of hate Google docs, but that's because I write and keep my primary file in Word and I can't make the "Track changes" or "Merge documents" functions work with an imported Google docs file. It's possible I just haven't figured out the trick yet. :)

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't know either.

I write directly into Google docs, then sometimes transfer into notepad to make sure there's no weird formatting in the copy.

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

I've signed up to Google Docs and AO3... but haven't transferred documents yet... hope this helps

I sometimes write bits on paper before fleshing out in word

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yes, paper for me if I'm not around my computer and don't want to forget something. :D

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

The only fics I have on AO3 are my Yuletide fics, because the search archive at Yuletide was down and I'm an attention whore. And also too lazy to put anything else on there/figure out what's worth reposting and what isn't.

Composing in pen first turns out to be really useful, because a) I usually write in pen somewhere I don't have the internet around to distract me and b) I edit as I type up. Things composed directly into word don't get edited. Lala alalal. This is why they *Suck*.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

My writing is nearly illegible if writing fast, so I screw myself if I use pen and paper much. There are too many crossouts and things (and little arrows to reorder bits). That's reserved for: "I'm sitting in the car and just got an idea." My memory for things like lines of dialogue is terrible.

AO3 is kind of simple for archiving, because you can throw the URLS into one box and post a bunch of things at once. I'll do three or so at a time, but only have a few things up there at the moment.

You do have to clean up the headers and tag things after they're up, though.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I find that it entirely depends on my state of mind. Often, I have to start out writing by hand just to get a feel for the shape of the story. Once the words won't come quickly enough by hand, I know I'm ready to start typing. Sometimes I copy up what I've written out, sometimes I scrap it and start over. Usually, there has to be some part of the story in physical form in order for me to be able to really *see* it. Drabbles are almost always the result of handwriting and crossing out, so that I can see the whole thing at once. Seeing is really important to me - unless I know what shape and colour the story is, I can't do a damn thing. Often I have to write about 1000 words to chip away to the story I actually want to tell, and it's normally the fifth or so draft that turns out to be the one I need. Lengthy, but effective :S

I've worked with betas in google docs (literally - they've been editing while I'm writing. When there were three of them, I scrolled back up the page to find that they were happily arguing amonst themselves in 3 different colours o.O) but more often I like Word documents with lots of colours. One beta always works in pink, the other works in blue, and I use traffic light colours. It works for us!

My archiving sucks, and it's only when LJ crashes that I realise just how much of my stuff would be lost if the servers died forever. *clings to AO3 and Dreamwidth*

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yes! I kind of love the "edit stuff while I write more stuff" overlap in Google docs.

You know the Ctrl-M thing there? I just learned that... I'd been highlighting things when I beta. MUCH easier now to just use this function instead of the "highlight this, then pick a colour" thing. And handy when more than one person is in there fiddling around.

There are a few things I still have in Word but I've had a computer crash completely and lost some stories, so now I save them somewhere online, even just in email.

[golden-d.livejournal.com]

I prefer to write in Word, but for the past several months my laptop (which is dying a slow death) refuses to open any other Microsoft Office programs whatsoever. So Google Docs or notepad it is!

Occasionally I write longhand, but I've noticed that the fics I scribble out are never fics that I return to for polishing. They're like...ideas that I needed to get out, but aren't worth especially much as stories.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I had Office expire on me a while back! I do have a new version but I associate it with work and just... bleaurrgh!

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I physically can't write by hand anymore - too painful. Plus, illegible even to me. THough I keep a tiny notebook in my pocket so I can feel like a real writer (tm).

I'm trying to archive my work in muliple places re: the servers are not robust. I even have a website of my own that I haven't updated in oh .... about 5 years? I've forgotten the password and don't even have an ftp program to access it anymore. Still it's a record of my fandom self back in teh x-men days. I'm trying to move everything, even my very old, scary stuff to AO3 just for completions sake. I do plan on re-doing/moving my website (slash city seems to be a zombie compnay now. things sort of work and they took my money last year but I've not heard a thing from the company in years).

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

There was a discussion on metafandom yesterday about moving really old stories over, and whether people should put a note on them saying, "you know, this was written 12 years ago... I did actually improve!" :D

But really, people still like a lot of those stories (I recognised the poster's fic handle from back-in-the-day. I hope you can rescue your stuff easily!

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

What is this 'paper' and 'pencil' you write of?

Seriously. I can't physically write anymore. Three lines and my hand is cramped. I can type 100 words per minute though.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

SAME.

If there's a modernistic tech war and we lose all of our computers to electromagnetic pulse in the upper atmosphere, there will be no fanfic from me!

Well, I could get a typewriter and use that in between scavenging for food and the THUNDERDOME cagefights.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

I also write in Open Office. I've scrawled notes on every surface known including skin. But I never write the story longhand. A) my handwriting is so bad from years of computer dependency that even I can't read it sometimes and B) I type as fast as I think, but not so with handwriting...I hate the logjam of ideas.

When Bees and I wrote our VS ep together, I used Word's merge function more than once to synch things up. As I recall, I copy/pasted the Gdocs version and saved as a Word doc, then compared it to my local copy to accept/reject. I seem to recall a formatting issue kept making fake changes when I tried a proper export. I have a theory that I have yet to test that it's easier to synch up when both of you are using the same editor locally before uploading to Gdocs.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

fleshfic? :D

When I co-wrote with neifile7, we did it in Google docs. That seemed to work quite well, but for longer stories, yeah, it slows down when it saves your text. :P

[wiredblowfish.livejournal.com]

I have started many of my stories on paper with pen, 'cause I am always thinking about Torchwood at inopportune times--like all my waking hours and not enough of my sleeping ones;)

I will get a little inspiration somewhere, like in bed, did I say that outloud? And I will write a few words down in a notebook that is handy or stray envelope or magazine margin.

I keep them because they always seems so awesome in the beginning idea stage;)

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I write fortune cookies... in bed!

Okay, no I don't. :D

Usually I have ideas when walking the dog and have to repeat bits over and over to remember them. NEED TAPE RECORDER.

Not that any particularly earth-shattering revelations come out of my fic brain, but you know.

[pocketmouse]

I write everything in Scrivener now, which is Mac-only, so when I send things to betas I usually export it to .doc, but I never write in Word any more. So I can't really answer the first poll.

Although, actually, once in a blue moon if I get an idea at work (or they've run out of work for me to do & I'm really fucking bored), I'll write down whatever snippets I get so I can remember the exact phrasing. Usually I'll write it in pretty sloppy cursive. I can always read my own handwriting, but then no one else knows I'm sitting at my desk writing porn.

Again.

[misswinterhill.livejournal.com]

Me too! I'm a total convert to Scrivener :D Cos I don't have word, I beta in googledocs and in TextEdit.

I did nanowrimo last year in Scrivener, so I'm pretty new to it all still, though.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

Hehe... This is fun. Also, for the last one, while I checked 'keep a copy on my hard drive', I also keep a separate back up drive that I back up to once a week. You know, for that extra buzz of security :).

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I spilled wine. In my keyboard. On a laptop. Once.

*moves Diet Pepsi*

[edibleflowers.livejournal.com]

I can't answer the first two polls! Though I'm probably being too picky with #1. I use Notetab, which is a text editor similar to Notepad, only a whole lot more versatile - multiple tabs, adds html, is generally darn nifty. (And I used to use Word, but due to security restrictions at work, I can't really work with Word files on my jump drive anymore. Another reason to favor text editors.) Annnnd if I use a beta, it's usually my friend lemniskate, so I post it on LJ filtered to her.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Ehh, I should have listed "other" as a choice. ')

I've thought of the LJ filter thing, but I like betas to poke around and do things to the text, as long as they mark the changes.

[allfireburns.livejournal.com]

Where I compose my fic depends on my mood. Sometimes I need the computer, sometimes I can't do anything without pen and paper (usually when I have been working on the computer for ages and keep deleting everything I have after a paragraph or two - pen and paper makes that harder, if not impossible). Writing on the computer, I usually prefer GDocs, but lately I've been writing everything on yWriter - I started playing with it for NaNo, and then fell in love with it. ...still, I should probably go back to GDocs so I don't have to keep carrying around this easily damaged USB drive. XD

And when I have a story betaed... it usually depends on who I'm having beta it. If they have and don't mind GDocs, that's definitely my first choice, though in the past I've also emailed it to them (in the email or as an attachment), and put the story in a filtered post on my LJ and had them respond in the comments (which... really only works well for fics under 1000 words, otherwise things get clunky).

When I post things, it goes everywhere - because I am paranoid, and do not want the disappearance of one site to mean the disappearance of my fic. At the moment, I archive my fics at my LJ fic journal, its backup on Dreamwidth, on AO3, and on Teaspoon if it happens to be Whofic. (This is a PAIN IN THE ASS when I realize months later that I've made a stupid mistake somehow and have to correct the story in four places, but I manage. XD) I'm sure I have copies of my fic somewhere on my hard drive or on GDocs, but it's all very scattered on three computers and two accounts. Having an easily accessible online archive is much simpler for me.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I do wait to post in an archive until my story's up for a while... I fix little things that bother me on LJ after posting. :)

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I tend to write in word, but I do make notes and rough out scenes on paper quite often, and I often use paper for planning the structure of a fic because I draw BOXES for scenes and it's great fun. I find it makes it easier to compose patterns and parallels (or notice patterns and parallels if I've stuck them in by accident).

When I actually write in word I'm horribly non-linear and I am terrible at writing entire drafts. I pick and pick at a few little scenes until I work up enough momentum to fill in the gaps. I usually end up with say an opening paragraph that's had four drafts and is perfect and the rest all as odd sentences or weird stream of consciousness stuff. I actually hate the way I write, it really frustrates me. I wish I could write entire drafts in one go instead of sticking for entire mornings on two sentences. It seems to work out okay in terms of final results, but it's really tooth gnashing to have to go through. WRITER ANGST.

I post stuff to my fic LJ and now I'm using AO3 because I wanted to have a backup just in case LJ goes kablooey. I have most of my fics on my hard drive somewhere, but that might not be eternal either. Plus I actually really like AO3 as an archive so I want to support it by using it.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

You draw boxes? Like a sort of storyboard? Cool! I hear you on the ordering angst!

I do like to support archives, too. And it appears that you can get an awful lot of text into an AO3 post.

[totally4ryo.livejournal.com]

For getting copy to my beta/s I post on LJ under custom lock. So I didn't answer that one. I get the beta version in a Word doc with 'track changes' & comments features on.
And I still remember the days of having to snail mail hard copy to a fanzine editor and wait to see if they will publish it. If accepted I got back through snail mail a galley copy that had all the proposed changes & editing for my approval. Them were the days.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT YOU ARE LISTENING TO THE JOKER/BATMAN LOVE SONG.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I PINE A LOT... *sings*

WHICH ONE IS CATHY?

(aargh. I don't have a Taco Bale icon anymore.)

[firefly-124.livejournal.com]

I kind of hate Google Docs, but it is sometimes convenient, and there's one friend I sometimes exchange beta services with who likes that best. When I'm seriously blocked, sometimes taking myself off to a coffee shop with pen and paper will do the trick. Also, I've been known to scrawl plot ideas and bits of dialogue in the margins of my class notes. On occasion. Ahem.

Oh, and every so often I try using yWriter, which is a very neat piece of software, but you have to actually know where the hell your story is going in order for the features to be any use whatsoever. Considering I rarely know wtf is going on until the characters clue me in thousands of words in ... yeah. Not so much.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling...

I kind of love Google docs. Google Wave, on the other hand? No.

[lookninjas.livejournal.com]

At the moment, I do pretty much everything in Google docs. This is because I am apparently the only person in the world who doesn't have Word (just Works), so attempting to send anything to a beta is an exercise in "Oh, you can't read that format? Hang on, let me export it to .rtf... Oh, the formatting's gone wonky? Let me try --" and so on. Google Docs is just faster.

Also, given that my laptop just died and my desktop is not exactly healthy, it's nice to know I've got things saved somewhere that's less likely to crash.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

I like the ability to email the entire doc, too... nice to do that IN CASE something happens to Google docs. *is cautious*

[auctorial.livejournal.com]

I write so much faster on paper. For some reason, I'm just able to think better, write down words, and keep moving on, as opposed to on the computer, where I spend large amounts of time staring blankly, obsessively typing, deleting, and retyping one sentence, and playing minesweeper. So, lol, half of it is getting rid of the distractions.

It's a pain to type it all up though, since I can barely understand my handwriting. I'm looking at my notebook right now, and "legs" looks like "keys". And I've had to resort to tracing out words and relying on muscle memory to tell me what I'd written.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Oh YEAH. I am constantly distracted on the computer. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing; I don't have ADD but I write a little, read email, write more, etc.

As long as no one tries to TALK to me. ARGH! Cannot... concentrate. :D

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

I wish I had clay and stylus.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

It would be RETRO! :D

[greenet.livejournal.com]

I use TextEdit and Scrivener, and they're both awesome.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I see now that Scrivener should have been an option!

[lirren.livejournal.com]

I checked the "compose directly in LJ" ticky not because I do that all the time, but because occasionally for things like comment fic I write straight into the comment box. I've also been known to write something on an LJ entry, then transfer it to Word to spell-check and grammar check it before sending it to my beta. So it was a legitimate ticky, but maybe not in the way it was originally intended, in my case.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I've done that too. Sometimes I've lost the text that way, though. D:

[cruentum.livejournal.com]

I love writing in email. It's so my preferred method over any of the others. Googledocs is becoming more popular so lately I've done some writing in that. It works for me the ways word documents don't anymore. It's too official to write something into a word document.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, check ours.

[gracie-musica.livejournal.com]

When I use a beta, I also have a special group on LJ for them to read/comment on it.

It gets me in trouble when I don't PAY ATTENTION AT THE MEETINGS and post publicly.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Betas love telling us what to do! :D

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I used to write all my stories in a paper journal, but in the past year I've started to write some stuff directly on the computer (in Word). Most of these are either 1) short things, 2) short deadline things (*cough* Yuletide), or 3) long things where I'm really on a roll and don't want to slow down.

Generally I find that paper is less distracting and slows my thinking down to what I'm writing now rather than what I'll be writing next. It also limits the amount of editing I can do, preventing the "one perfectly polished paragraph" problem.

I use an inexpensive bound journal from Borders and put everything in it--stories, story ideas, journal entries, plumbing and carpentry designs, software design, and occasionally shopping lists. Everything goes in whatever order I write it; since I'm frequently writing multiple stories, I try to put the working title of the story at the top of the page when I switch stories. Journal entries are dated, so that usually gives me an idea of when I started a given story.

[purple-shoes.livejournal.com]

I used to do the same thing when I would hand write! I would have bits of stories spread all through a journal, with the working titles scribbled on top so I knew what when with what.

I probably prefer handwriting over typing in some ways, but then I got lazy about transferring anything I hand wrote to the computer. Which is kind of a shame, really.