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The Nitty Gritty of it all...
I never tend to tell people that I'm a writer.
If I do they always ask... "Have you been published?"
And, until recently, I would always have to be honest and say... "Well, no but..."
However, I have now been published. Some of my short stories have appeared in the wonderful Back Street Heroes and so I can now give the questioner a withering look and reply... "Of course..."
Do you know how good that makes me feel!
What I usually tell people (those who can be bothered to ask, that is) is that "I work on a farm with horses and, in my spare time I do some writing." That way it doesn't raise any expectations.
I then always asked get the same questions...
"Where do you get your ideas from?"
"Do you use a wordprocessor? Which one?"
"I always thought I could write a great novel but I just don't have the time. How do you find time to write?"
And, more recently... "Do you use AI?"
These are the answers to some of those questions.
Where do you get your ideas from?
Normally I get asked this question at social gatherings; expat barbeques and suchlike.
And it's the one question that I find really difficult to answer.
I look around and think to myself...
Just here, with the 40 or 50 of us enjoying greasy sausage and baguette sandwiches and drinking too much red wine, there much be at least one novel and half a dozen short stories. For me it's not a struggle to find ideas; it's sifting all the ideas out and choosing only the worthwhile ones that is the hard task.
That couple over there, they're not married. Are they having an affair? Are they about to start an affair? I'd love to write that story even if I have to make it all up myself.
That other couple. They are married but she doesn't seem happy. Is he beating her or is she worried that he's suddenly become interested (in a non-appropriate way) to their teenage daughter? I wonder what there story is.
The hostess seems to be hitting the red wine rather hard. Is there something there that I should know (and write about?)
Or, for a novel, what if this was a school reunion and all these people were comparing their youthful expectations with the grim reality of real life. Yes, I know it's been done a thousand times in TV dramas but one more time shouldn't hurt.
Finding the ideas (and extrapolation the value form them) is something that I've written about in another article (called Confessions and Other Lies.)
Read Confessions and Other Lies
How do you find the time to write?
This is my biggest bugbear.
I guard my time jealously, trying to ensure that I get enough time to write.
In fact, it matters so much to me that I found the time to write an article about it. It's called Finding the Time.
Do You Use AI?
The quick answer is no. Not only don't I use AI, I wouldn't even know how to use it if I wanted to.
I know that some people write about how wonderful it is in helping to organise thought processes and generate text. I've got a whole bunch of dirty little habits that do all those things for me. I've even written an article about how they work and why just the right exercise book (and even the colour of the cover) matter as does the type of pen I use, and the colour of it's ink.
So I won't go into that here - if you are interested, you can always read Dirty Habits in your own time.
Do You Use a Wordprocessor? Which one?
Now, this is the real Nitty Gritty of it all. The actual process of getting the words down - on paper and, ultimately, on a computer.
I'll start off by saying that I do a lot of my initial writing in an exercise book but...
At some point it does need to go onto a computer.
The wordprocessor that I use is called Focus Writer. It is what is know as a minimal wordprocessor in that it does very little but doesn't get in the way of the important thing - the writing.
You can get it from... https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/ and this is what they have to say about it...
"FocusWriter is a simple, distraction-free word processor. It utilizes a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing the program to have a familiar look and feel to it while still getting out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work.
FocusWriter allows you to customize your environment by creating themes that control the font, colors, and background image to add ambiance. It also features on-the-fly updating statistics, daily goals, multiple open documents, spell-checking, and much more.
Additionally, when you open the program your current work in progress will automatically load and position you where you last left off so that you can immediately jump back in."
It is available for Linux and Windows.
Mine is set up to save files as .RTF - Rich Text Format. I don't know if that is the default or if I chose that as the default format but the beauty of RTF is that it is readable by any other worprocessor and you can use Bold, Italic, Underline and Headings and so forth.
However, at some point you will need to save and send out a version of your text that your editor, agent or publisher can read exactly as you want it to be read.
And, unfortunately, the only answer there is Microsoft Office.
I know that people will hate me for saying that - indeed, as an evangelist for open source free software, I hate myself for saying it but...
The sad truth is that almost every time I've created a Word document (or a PDF) using Libre Office (or Open Office), someone tells me they can't read it.
There is a free, online version of Microsoft Office 365 available at... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web
As for the computer, less is more.
For me, the ideal solution is a second hand desktop PC running a cut down version of Linux. You can pick up a second hand PC from any number of resellers on eBay or Amazon for about £50. Look for a Small Form Format (SFF) one as these take up less space and are almost certainly Energy Star compliant. This means that they use less electricity. Don't worry about memory, processor speed or RAM; whatever you get is going to be more than enough.
Bung a lightweight copy of Linux on it. There are many versions of Linux but I use Debian. I use this as it was one of the original versions and I have been using it since 1993 when it came on two floppy disks (remember them?) Ubuntu is based on Debian. Once Debian is installed I'd go about deleting (actually un-installing) anything and everything that you don't want or need. Definately uninstall the web browser and email client - you really don't need their distractions whilst you are writing.
Ultimately all I'd want to end up with would be Focus Writer (for writing the stories/novels), a text editor, a file manager, a music player and a terminal application.
Anything else is a potential distraction and, believe me...
Although I like (or should I say. need) music whilst I am writing, at those times when I am struggling to find the words, it's the music player (and its playlists) that I find myself playing with.
Two screens are a must for me. Even the lowest specced second hand PC will have a VGA port and a HDMI port. Thus you can use two screens without needing any other hardware. You may need to buy an adaptor to convert HDMI to VGA - that's cheaper than converting VGA to HDMI. You can pick up second hand screens for about £20 as they don't need to be high spec. You're not going to be playing games on them - this is your writing machine.
The beauty of having two screens is that you can leave your wordprocessor open on one screen and use the other for anything else you use on that PC. That way you get used to where the wordprocessor is; which screen is doing the real work, the WRITING.
You are going to need to back up your work.
Now, if you are using Focus Writer (and, thus, saving your work as RTF files) you couold spend a lifetime writing and still not write enough to fill up a 2GB USB key. I imagine they give away 2GB USB keys with breakfast cereals these days.
What I do is have a Writing directory/folder and an Archive folder.
The Writing folder is where the actual work in progress and finished files live. Once a week I copy the whole folder, rename it as something like writing02062026 and then past it into the Archive folder. This way, if I accidently kill off a character and need to bring him/her back to life I can go to the Archive folder and find the last version of the story where the character is still alive.
Every night (actually, every morning but it's the same thing) I back up my Writing and Archive folders to a 6GB USB key and a 300GB external USB hard drive. Both media have additional files on them (scans of my passport, medical card, driving license etc.)
The USB key goes in my pocket and I carry it around at all times.
I don't bother backing up the music files that I have for the music player - I can always replace those in case of a disaster (I still have the original CDs that I cut them from and even if I lost those I could probably replace them at a euro a time with a visit to a Vide Grenier - a sort of cross between a Car Boot Sale and Village Fete - every town and village in France is allowed to have two of those a year.)
I also back up to the Internet every few days or so. There are many free ways of doing this (Google Drive, Dropbox etc.) but I just use some of the space on my webserver (that this site is hosted on) as I'm paying for that anyway and I'm using less than 1GB of the 250GB space that comes with the contract.
That way, the house can burn down (thus losing me my computer and the external backup hard drive) and I can get mugged and have my USB key stolen (God knows why, they cost pennies these days) and still (once I've recovered) get my writing files back.
Thinking about it, though, we're so behind the times in my little part of rural Brittany I'm not sure we've invented Mugging (or other street crime) yet. For sure, it'll come one day but then, I've heard there's a new band called The Beatles who are going to be the next big thing - can't see them knocking Bing Crosby and Edith Piaf off the charts though? We really are a bit behind the times here - and I like it that way.
Logically, using a secondhand laptop makes even more sense as you get one of your two screens with the unit. Also, the battery gives you some work time should you suffer a power outage. For me, I'd need an external keyboard as I'm a touch typist and can't use small keyboards. I'd also need an external mouse as, after a lifetime in IT, I still can't use a touchpad. Those things are cheap though. All the other prinicples remain the same.
“Well, that's my little ramble (and I'm aware that it really is a ramble; I do need to restructure it into a better and more logical format) over and done with. If you're interested in writing yourself, you probably won't have learned anything worth learning from it and if you just like to read, there's only one thing I can say to you...”
Read to Live, Live to Read!
I hope that you have enjoyed this article.
All the best