Dude, where's my stylus? What we write with, when we write

**Alwyn** · March 10, 2019, 05:19 AM

When you write, what do you write with? Pen and paper or Google Docs? Libre Office or Open Office? Word or LaTeX? Stylus and wax tablet - or a microphone and video editing software?

When you write creative writing, AAR chapters, Tale of the Week entries and so on, what do you write them with - and why? Would you recommend what you use to others?

This was inspired by a discussion on Swaeft's story Change, in which Kilo11 said:

Originally Posted by Kilo11

Well, I have lots of reasons why, and thoughts on the matter. I'll box them for politeness' sake.

LaTeX

It seems much more complicated, and one does indeed need to learn how to use it a bit (when I started using it, I needed about two weeks to figure out the nooks and crannies, and to grips with how one makes a good document with it), but it allows for much more control in typesetting a document. However, the main reason I use it is because it makes citing and referencing things far easier than it ever could be in Word (or a similar program), and it additionally has a lot of good functionality with images and graphs. For that reason it is ideal for any type of academic or scientific work (which is my job), and that's the core of why I use it.

However, that being said, it is super nice for other things as well, and since it's all open-source stuff, there are also awesome templates that are easy to find laying all of the internet. Like, I write my AAR and CW stuff in LaTeX, using a paperback book template I found online, and the results are really nice. Perfect spacing, perfect options available, so that when I print a .pdf it really looks just like a book. To me, that is nice, and also helps me gauge if a chapter is getting too long (I have a better feel for paperback page lengths than for word counts or page counts from a Word file).

But I guess it really is a personal choice, and depends a lot on what your needs are. If you do a lot of writing where citations or data are expected, LaTeX is a good choice. If you just write short or simple things, where there aren't rigid expectations about formatting or that stuff, Word can be just as good. I think at the end of the day what I like most about it is that you put the commands for the typesetting in yourself, so nothing ever happens where you're like "What the hell?! Why did that just indent itself?" I used to find that happening a lot in Word, that formatting would just be done automatically, but done in a way I didn't want, and I could never understand how to undo or modify it. In LaTeX if I want an indent I just type \indent before the text begins. If I want a bigger indent for the document I can just at the outset type, e.g. \setlength\parindent{1in}. Obviously that looks cryptic, but once you have a basic handle of the typesetting coding, it is all really simple and straightforward.

So that's the long answer.

**Derc** · March 10, 2019, 05:27 AM

Notepad++, lol. What else would I need?

**Hitai de Bodemloze** · March 10, 2019, 06:10 AM

Bogstandard Microsoft Word for me. I did learn LaTex for school, but I wouldn't really consider using it to write an AAR; LaTex can make things look really pretty, but if no one else but me is going to see it, it's rather a wasted effort. Tried Libre and OpenOffice before, but they make my eyes hurt.

**Caillagh de Bodemloze** · March 10, 2019, 07:47 AM

As a loyal member of WS staff, I naturally write everything in the blood of the many ritual sacrifices we need to carry out, on slabs of dark stone, with a quill made from a feather from one of the Stymphalian birds.

(In reality, I use LibreOffice for some things, but I generally handwrite longer things and then transcribe them. I like being able to cross things out and scribble all over my first draft - and transcribing is a great opportunity to do some much-needed editing!)

**Cookiegod** · March 10, 2019, 01:07 PM

I don't write. That solved the problem with no bugfixes needed.

**Turkafinwë** · March 11, 2019, 09:22 AM

Most of the time I use a combination of handwritten text and OpenOffice documents. What I do for my AAR is handwrite most of the things that are happening while I play the game, a bit like a summary. Then I usually handwrite the outline of my chapters on paper because I just like it better than a document on a computer. Writing something on paper gives me a certain satisfaction typing on a computer does not. I then port it over to OpenOffice and save it on my computer for the final draft before posting it here. I use OpenOffice just because it is the program that I have. No specific preference for it, it's just an easy place to store my text and mostly out of habit that I use said program. I do sometimes use Notepad++ but mostly OpenOffice. For TotW's I only use OpenOffice, I don't write it on paper first.

I used to handwrite loads of AAR's in many notebooks before I even knew what an AAR was.

Now they are all gathering dust in a drawer in my room.

**NorseThing** · March 11, 2019, 05:32 PM

Duplicate of Turkafinwë response except for the dusty draws of notebooks. I threw those out decades ago in fit of rage or depression. What ever the reason was, they are gone now just as my mom distributed my 'toys' to the neighbor kids when I went of to college decades ago.

**Swaeft** · March 11, 2019, 08:56 PM

Nice thread! Some great responses so far.

I myself use Word for its simplicity and just because I've never felt like I needed another program. The functionality MS Word provides for me is enough

Originally Posted by Cookiegod

I don't write. That solved the problem with no bugfixes needed.

Patch this immediately!!!

**Kilo11** · March 12, 2019, 08:30 AM

There are indeed some great responses so far, and I find it oddly amusing how fitting some of the software choices are for certain individuals (mainly looking at you Derc

).

For the poll I checked the box for LaTeX, as that is where I actually type up my finished stuff, but I always start with pencil and paper. I find it really helpful for the creative process to be able to drop in and out without needing to boot up a computer and open the relevant files, and to be able to comfortably write in bed, or take my stuff with me for a walk or things of that nature. I also find it really helpful for the flow to not be able to distract myself from writing by doing things like research or checking a thesaurus along the way*. Seriously, one of the biggest hindrances to me getting on with writing when I first started was doing research while I typed. Now, I just scratch away and circle things I know need to be filled in later. For example, for things in my AAR, I know there are certain wadis that will be traveled and I know where they are (you can just look at them on GoogleEarth), but I don't know their names when I start writing. So what I usually do is with pencil and paper write something like "They would be traveling for six days and more down the blasted bed of Wadi ?, after which they would cut toward the shining sea." I'll then circle the "Wadi ?" spot, to remind myself to look it up when transcribing. It works pretty well (for me, at least), and has proven a useful way to get more content out without sacrificing any attention to detail, as I just push back the research for that moment during transcription when I find the circled things.

As to using LaTeX, the benefits are definitely to be found for academic or research purposes, and for that reason I wouldn't recommend it unless you also do that sort of thing for work (in which case, I would strongly recommend checking out the program). However, it can also be nice if you are into nice formatting, or having more control over your final product. For me, the reason I do my fiction writing there (in addition to me being familiar with it) is because I wanted to be able to see how many paperback pages my chapters were running. So I just found a LaTeX template for paperback writing, made a few tweaks for my own purposes, and then started in. The results look really nice and make me feel like I am making an actual book, which is sort of motivating on its own. So that might also be something in its favor.

Thesaurus usage

**Ybbon** · March 13, 2019, 03:25 PM

Depends what I'm doing, for ToTW I use BBEdit just because it is the same Mac Editor I use at work and I always write in text with the tags embedded. When I had a linux laptop I just used a text editor for the same reason. For work we also use Google Docs - so things like reviews etc.

But I use a rather nice Caran D'Arche ballpoint to take notes - 15 year anniversary gift at my last company, and I use a Cross fountain pen for my journal - but that's because my wife bought it as an annivesary gift.

**Alwyn** · March 13, 2019, 03:35 PM

I like the sound of seeing how many paperback pages you've written in LaTeX and feeling like you're making an actual book. You make a good point about not doing research as you type, Kilo11, leaving blanks because you're going to look up place names later is a good idea.

Yes, a nice pen helps with taking notes. Fountain pens are lovely, although I always used to mess them up by pressing too hard.

**McScottish** · March 14, 2019, 10:46 AM

Handwritten notes and OpenOffice when it comes to typing it up, also make use of a Seiko ER-8000 Britannica and Oxford Concise Encyclopedia, Dictionary and Thesaurus when the need arises. Still a nice bit of kit to have. Lastly, although I may not use it to write on, a glass of whiskey is sometimes used to lubricate the brain-cells.

Funnily enough, way back when, I used to sit in lectures at university - the boring ones about the Enlightenment and such - and scribble down entire passages in my notebook...those were the days, my friend.

**Kilo11** · March 14, 2019, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by McScottish

Lastly, although I may not use it to write on, a glass of whiskey is sometimes used to lubricate the brain-cells.

Well, I thought that went without saying. I am still a rather poor man myself (these student loans won't pay themselves, after all), but the one indulgence I have allowed myself is a shelf of whiskys, which always come in handy when I am sitting down to write. They also come in handy when I am feeling rakish, but that is a story for another time

On that note, I have just made a thread in the CW section for me to share some of my experience with whiskies. Feel free to head over there and check it out if you're interested. As of now there is just the OP, but I will add in some more stuff tomorrow.

**NorseThing** · March 14, 2019, 05:04 PM

Something to add to my previous post here. As I play a game I will do a print screen of anything remotely that might be useful such as character cards, battle statistics, screenshots of combat, and so on. I also do a bit of scribbling while the game is in progress and date the notes to tie in with the print screens.

I agree that research and writing should be done at separate times for many reasons. For me the actual writing probably dates back to how I typed my college essays and papers. I was known by one Professor as 'one shot' since he spotted me one day in the library with a pile of books and no notes. Just a manual typewriter. What he did not know, this was after weeks of reading and note taking. The final report was taking quotes from sources which is what he saw. Nothing can be a 'one shot'. I did explain this after he issued the final grades since I thought it to my advantage to not reveal how much actual work went into the papers. Maybe I was spending too much time or maybe I was spending too little. All I knew is that the college library could lock up for the night and I had permission to stay later. Truly burning the midnight oil! I also had a pass key for the law library, but that is another story.

**Derc** · March 16, 2019, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by Kilo11

There are indeed some great responses so far, and I find it oddly amusing how fitting some of the software choices are for certain individuals (mainly looking at you Derc

).

Yeah, no. It may sound funny at first but it makes all the sense in the world.
Word, Libre, Latex and so on makes sense if you have a big continuous story and/or want some formatting. I have a lot of smaller chunks, seperated into countless little files, all being condensed in themselves.

Formation and pictures in the same viewport would annoy me, especially since you can't simply copy and paste your content over to the forums (which is good because WYSIWYG comes with a lot of problems). You need the abstracted text with BB-Code you put into the box, not the actual result. So what I need is a simple text editor on one monitor and a window to check screenshots on the other. The latter is simply handled by the OS Explorer.

Notepad++ is very mighty. It's fast, reliable, adaptive, it has automatic line and syntax highlighting, a quick encoding conversion, is able to show TODOS, ALL invisible signs and, most useful for my structure, has a mass editor. I don't need to copy and paste everything and then adjust it. All I need to do is to throw one or two Regex commands in and suddenly all of my ~10 files are ready to go for a new campaign. Annoying things like editing image-paths takes a minute at max.

I guess everyone works differently. The longer I need to write the more erratic I become. So I need to be quick all the time. Open it, write it down, close it again. Then check it out and rework it later. Waiting out even so small load times, seeing a lot of redundant information and being forced to scroll around would distract enourmously in that short time, actually making me forget what I wanted to write down in the first place because my mind drifts around easy. So so easy.

You made me have an idea. Maybe I'll put in some developer diaries or something like that in between campaigns.
Well ... probably not.

**Kilo11** · March 16, 2019, 04:23 PM

I can totally understand that. One of the main reasons I find using LaTeX to be so helpful (and also for things like posts) is that it shows the plaintext, and I can put BBcode in there without it making things screwy. The points about speed of opening/closing files is also an interesting point, and something that other authors might want to think about a bit for themselves, as how one writes can have an impact on what one ends up writing. It doesn't have to necessarily be that way, but it is always good to know that the way one does a thing can impact on the result.