"The Writing Tech Blues"

               I'm beginning to see why some days I don't get any writing done.  It's not a lack of time, lack of motivation, or the most common excuses writers will give. I have a ton of ideas, all my notes gathered, and everything to do some serious writing, but I figured out my biggest issue. It's all mental with me, but I always felt the majority of writing blocks are mentally anyway. 

My biggest issue when it comes to writing is my job. I do very basic tech support for 40+ hours a week, and by the time I'm done, I don't want to see a PC at all, or any other tech. I may browse social media on my phone afterwards, but that's it. I finding it harder to sit at a PC for fun after dealing with such basic issues all day while being screamed at over such nonsense. It's at the point that if I ever became to the point I could leave IT period, I would never do tech support outside of my own equipment. 

What I need to do is go old-school, and stock up on notepads and pencils. That, or accept technology knowledge will never approve, and try to focus my frustration into a more creative outlet. Again, it's all in my mind, and I will overcome. Until then, my face is remained buried in my palms as I keep fixing computers.

"Word Processors"

I'm taking a break from my novel writing to discuss something all writers use: word processors. When I first started on PC's, you only had two real options: Word and Wordperfect. Now, there's so many free and paid options, it can be an overload of information. In fact, there's so many, that I could easily have 100+ installed on my own system. However, I'm going to discuss the few I've tried and/or used over the years. 

There is one thing I'm going to stress before I discuss the software. Regardless which one I've used, they all have this flaw: The built-in spell check / grammar check is not a true editor. Yes, spell check can be helpful, but no program will ever replace by hand editing. My example of why I don't trust them anymore is when spell check turned masacre into massacre.   Also, when I was editing a chapter by hand, I noticed I had three redundant paragraphs. Since there was no spelling errors, the software completely ignored it.

Now, I'm beginning my thoughts on the actual software. The first program I want to get out of the way is Word. Word is the word processor the majority of most editors, publishers, etc, will ask for when you submit a file. In my honest opinion, if you ever bought a program, Word is my first choice because it's the industry default. 

The main advantage of Word is when you submit a file made in Word, you know it works. I never had to fix any files when using one version of Word into another. Far as which version, since you got to buy it, always get the newest version. It's easier to find, and you know it'll be a valid copy. The downside is like a lot of word processors; it's not designed to be better at one specific writing task. 

Also, I won't deny it. I always finalize my novel files in Word. I found it easier to make sure the format is correct, insert page numbers, and other final touches in Word than any other word processor.  No matter how hard I tried to stop using Word, I will always use it at the end of my writing process.

Now, I may confuse people with this next software. The next program I prefer is Libre Office. Yes, there's always Open Office, which in very similar to Libre. However, I use Libre since it's updated more often, and they are quicker to fix any programming issues. Also, Libre is maintained by a community of programmers. 

                A very quick history of the two is Open Office came out first in 2000. When Oracle acquired Open Office in 2010, Libre Office was formed because Oracle was making it too corporate, not free and an open-source (Open source means you can actually download the codes for the program). So, most of the developers of Open Office left, and created Libre. In the end, Open Office is not longer open. If they could, they probably charge people to use it like Microsoft Office. 

Anyway, back to why I love Libre Office. The main thing about Libre besides it being free are the facts it works on any system out there, and will open Word files. You can install out on any computer out there. It runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux. The main reason I started using it more than Word is because I used to switch between Linux and Windows, and I didn't have to worry about the file messing up.

The other reason I love Libre is you can customize it. With my bad vision, the typical white background, black font of most word processors gets to me after a while. With Libre, I can change every color within the program, and customize everything. In fact, here's how my Libre looks:

Now, the biggest irks with Libre Office is some of the easiest things are a pain in the rear, and this is why all my final work gets done in Word. You have to go through six steps to insert page numbers. Also, resetting margins requires even more steps. It's a jack-of-all-trades program that buries useful tools. So, how I do my writing process is I type all my rough drafts in Libre, then finalize them in Word.

In the past few weeks, I've been messing with WPS Office. It's free, but overall, I've already uninstalled it. The nice thing is it can either look like old-school Office XP or the newest version. My problem is I had so many issues with my files while using it. Overall, I do install thins on systems where they MIGHT need to open a Word or Excel file. Bottom line, I will never use this for my novel writing.

My parting words are no matter which one you go with, choose what works best for you. There are more novel-geared word processors out there that people use, but I’m not a fan of them.  The main thing is no matter which software you run, keep on writing. The technology being used doesn’t make you a writer, but the imagination inside you do.