Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

smsarber said:

Iron Maiden just isn't propelling me enough anymore. Guess I should put on Avenged Sevenfold!!

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Whatever oils those cogs.

smsarber said:

Uncle Jim, you've been doing this a long time. Do you ever get the "I suck"s?

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Oh, heavens to Betsy, yes.

I call it "Imposter syndrome." Any minute now my editors, readers, and everyone else is going to find out that I've just been faking it all along and I really can't write for sour beans.

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Meanwhile, on Microsoft Word questions, here's the answer: Delete Microsoft Word from your computer and install WordPerfect. This will make your writing better and faster, your teeth whiter, and get you a date with a hot person of your desired gender and preference.

Okay, WordPerfect installed. I downloaded the free trial, which runs out in 30 days. The full version is $299.00; do you know of a cheaper way I can get it? I'm on disability and my wife is expecting our second baby, so I don't have a spare three-hundred lying around. (Of course I don't need this program to write well.) All right, I'm off to try it out and see how good it is.

Okay, WordPerfect is pretty good, but UJ, you may have to come over and teach me all about the bells and whistles. Too bad I'll have to get rid of it in a month!

smsarber said:

Okay, WordPerfect installed. I downloaded the free trial, which runs out in 30 days. The full version is $299.00; do you know of a cheaper way I can get it?

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It's cheaper at Amazon than from Corel directly, if that helps.

All right, I'm off to try it out and see how good it is.

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It's got Word beat all to hell. I bet it won't even take the full 30 days of your free trial to make you a convert. For your first bell and whistle, I give you Alt-F3 - Reveal Codes.

smsarber said:

Okay, WordPerfect installed. I downloaded the free trial, which runs out in 30 days. The full version is $299.00; do you know of a cheaper way I can get it? I'm on disability and my wife is expecting our second baby, so I don't have a spare three-hundred lying around. (Of course I don't need this program to write well.) All right, I'm off to try it out and see how good it is.

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OpenOffice is free, and just as good. yWriter4 is designed for writing novels, and is also free.

Another vote for OpenOffice2.4.1. And here's a link to it:

hXXp://download.openoffice.org/

Just change the 'XX' to 'tt'.

Don said:

OpenOffice is free, and just as good. yWriter4 is designed for writing novels, and is also free.

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A minor caveat. The OpenOffice word processor is as good, or damn near as good, as MS-Word. And I use it regularly. Plus, the OpenOffice suite has some other good aspects (the drawing program in particular has some nice features). It's definitely worth having, especially so, given the price.

But the spreadsheet (which I also use, as appropriate) doesn't hold a candle to MS-Excel. Just be aware of that, if you ever work with spreadsheet software. MS-Excel is easily Microsoft's best designed major program for us benighted "users".

caw

Okay.

To be a writer you must be a reader.

What's the last book you read?

When?

Last book I finished reading was Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, in August. But that was only the last 50 pages, because I put it down a year ago.

Before that was After Dark by Haruki Murakami in March!

I've started and stopped other books but far out, that's bad. I need to get to it!

James D. Macdonald said:

Okay.

To be a writer you must be a reader.

What's the last book you read?

When?

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You besides all the beta-reads?

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle in July

I'm in the middle of Stephen R. Lawhead's "The Iron Lance", first of the "Celtic Crusades" trilogy. I own the books and love to read them every few years.

I've also just picked up and started reading AW member Richard Satterlie's "Agnes Hahn".

I rarely spend a week without reading a book. Of course, that means I'm not spending quite as much time as I could writing my book... sigh...

My reading list

James D. Macdonald said:

Okay.

To be a writer you must be a reader.

What's the last book you read?

When?

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My recent list (since June):

Self-editing for Fiction Writers
The First Five Pages, Lukeman
The Plot Thickens, Lukeman
The Writer's Journey, Vogler
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, Dumbach and Newborn
The Savage Garden, Mark Mills
The Berlin Novels, Christopher Isherwood
Stalin's Ghost, Cruz Smith
Currently reading: Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
Currently reading: The Prodigal Spy, Kanon
Waiting to read: 2 more books by Indridason, The Postman by Brin, etc.

James D. Macdonald said:

Okay.

To be a writer you must be a reader.

What's the last book you read?

When?

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Over the summer:
Finished rereading Pillars of the Earth
The Marble Sky
Three Cups of Tea
Mad River Road
Water for Elephants
Liar's Club
The Glass Castle
Stephen King on Writing
Have almost finished Modoc
Am working my way through The First Five Pages
(This one will take some time, since I'm doing all the exercises.)

Currently re-reading Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, Blatty's The Exorcist and Tolkien's The Two Towers; just finished Dean Koontz' Strange Highways, and started By the Light of the Moon (DK).

Not to mention loads of nonfiction.

Since July

CAT AND MOUSE – Gunter Grass
AMERICA 1908 – Jim Rasenberger
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE – George V. Higgins
WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS – Tim Russert
THE GREAT GATSBY – F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE MODERN LIBRARY WRITER'S WORKSHOP – Stephen Koch
THE CRIMINALIST – Eugene Izzi
MODERN ENGLISH USAGE – H.W. Fowler (Reference – not read)
INVASIONS – Eugene Izzi

It appears that I'm all over the map, but I read based on my interest(s), not toward a specific goal.

And yes, I'm adult A.D.D.

Axis by Robert Charles Wilson. Superb.

Working on Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook. I don't think it's aged well.

And The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. (Lawrence?) Great writing, if only I could like the protagonist better.

*Feels even more guilty by the impressive reading lists of other members*

bsolah said:

*Feels even more guilty by the impressive reading lists of other members*

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Ah, but maybe you're getting more writing done than my fitful starts and stops!

Chrisla said:

Ah, but maybe you're getting more writing done than my fitful starts and stops!

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Ha! Good one! I've been getting hardly any writing done lately, except recently started planning a new novel, which with work in the way (latest blog post explains my frustrations) makes it a slow process.

Currently reading,

Jack McDevitt's "Eternity Road"
Joe Konrath's "The Newbie's Guide To Publishing Book" and "Disturb"
David Hatcher Childress's "Extraterrestrial Archaeology"
Dean Koontz's "Midnight"
Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" and "Rendezvous With Rama"
Robert Heinlein's "Logic Of Empire"
H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West-Reanimator"

All on my Palm Tungsten E2 handheld.

bsolah said:

Ha! Good one! I've been getting hardly any writing done lately, except recently started planning a new novel, which with work in the way (latest blog post explains my frustrations) makes it a slow process.

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And I've spend weeks making false starts, trying to find a new beginning for a book I'm rewriting. I never expected it to be this tough!

Windfall, by James Magnuson. Finished today.

Before that, Relative Danger, by Charles Benoit.

Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child.

And Havoc, by Jack DuBrul.

Finished Elizabeth George's Well-Schooled in Murder last Thursday. Currently reading Toothpaste's Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key. Tonight I dipped into the new EQMM that was in my mailbox.

I haven't kept count but I think I've read between 8 and 10 books over the Summer. Most were fiction, some were writing craft How-To's. The truth is, I do most of my reading right here on the PC. The internet provides so much information, it is hard to stop reading from it.
I still have a $50 Barnes & Noble gift certificate left over from my birthday. I just haven't had time to go there and browse.