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How do y'all feel about AI?  Not for writing stories for you, obviously, but for help with figuring out your story beats. I have six major characters in my story, three good and three bad. I've been asking GPT to help explain the conflicts and intrigue between my characters, and it's come up with multiple angles to consider. I think of it as a tool to help my creativity, not as a replacement for it. Thoughts?
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Nov 3, 2023 15:30
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I'm doing a slow Nano this year. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to swing 1600 words a day with a full time job and responsibilities at home. Especially from a long period of no writing at all. Instead, I'm looking to get three 25 minute sessions a day. That's averaging out to about 700 words a day so I'm giving myself permission to spin it out into December.
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Nov 3, 2023 15:58
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Waffle! posted:How do y'all feel about AI? My normal answer: I feel that good writing should reflect a writer as a person. So many great writers have talked about (paraphrasing for length) creating a character and learning who they are as the (writing) journey proceeds. Figuring out characters by yourself the hard way makes the story yours with your voice and view of the world. I feel like something providing me with characters or conflicts takes me out of the equation. There's curation, sure, but it doesn't travel down the same mental pathways as figuring out on your own. This is similar to advice about not sharing your ideas (which works for other media such as games). Some people are worried that if they share their totally unique and amazing idea that someone will steal it and, therefore, steal the profit/attention/credit or whatever. But I'm sure that if we all used the same basic plot or collection of major beats all of us here would write a distinctly different story through how we choose and present characters (main, supporting, and one-off) as well as dialog and description. NaNo answer: gently caress it. Whatever gets people to write this month is on theme. The Sean fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 15:58
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I think if you're stuck completely and you ask it to come up with 10 ideas, and one of them feels perfect to you, and then you write that idea yourself, it's probably no different than bouncing ideas off a friend / lecturer. If - like the infutiating ad I keep seeing on facebook - someone is using AI or fiverr labour to write the book and do the cover for them and then boasting about five figure passive income, that kind of parasite can gently caress off into the sea IMHO.
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Nov 3, 2023 16:00
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I'm using some very vague random tables from a solo RPG for when I get stuck. The results are open enough that they're not useful in a vacuum. They force me to place them in the context of my story and setting to be useful, and will sometimes prompt me to make connections between things that I wouldn't have considered. I wouldn't want something to suggest specific plot beats without me having to meet them half way e: the RPG is Ironsworn, available for free. I'm using the Action + Theme and Focus + Descriptor tables Tarnop fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 16:32
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Oh, word count update. 0 words. I'm fine with it. Just posting to make others feel better if they feel like they're not making enough progress. Gonna spend some time this weekend, myself.
The Sean fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 16:37
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Waffle! posted:How do y'all feel about AI? You could ask in the Fiction Advice thread. But in my opinion, if you want to be a writer, you should not be using AI assistance. That won't help your creativity in any way, it'll get you the processed and regurgitated slush of other people's creativity. Figure it out for yourself. Exercise your own brain, that's how you find creativity, not plugging words into an algorithm. The closest I come to using AI is name generators for some minor towns or characters, and even then some of the time I take something I liked and change it a bit.
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Nov 3, 2023 20:12
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4185 at the end of the day, so a bit behind schedule, but better than I expected.
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Nov 3, 2023 21:12
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Y'all make a bunch of good points, thanks.
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Nov 3, 2023 21:20
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Day 3: 1,144 Total: 5,631 A slower day but probably a more sensible pace for my old man hands. I have discovered a trick for stopping myself from having a new idea, having to go back and edit it, and then getting stuck in edit mode rather than production mode. New paragraph, caps lock: "RETCON: Arienne was psychically telling Tiberius how to get around the contract." Highlight & set text colour to red. Much better. She is now an active character rather than a sexy lamp. Continue on from that point as if that was the case. It's going to be messy when I edit next month but it does sidestep a really common problem I've had with previous projects where I end up going back over the same paragraph until I edit it to death and end up hating it. Today's paragraph was scary to write because it felt too honest, too cliche, but I didn't allow myself to get stuck thinking "not good enough." I can fix it in edit or after I'm done. I just need to keep going.
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Nov 4, 2023 00:04
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The Sean posted:Oh, word count update. 0 words. I'm fine with it. Just posting to make others feel better if they feel like they're not making enough progress. Gonna spend some time this weekend, myself. It's appreciated since I haven't started either. To be fair I'm on vacation! But thought I’d write on the flight and instead took advantage of a fully empty row to sleep, and didn't have the energy last night to do anything. Maybe another night or on the flights home! I've got all month to do what I can.
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Nov 4, 2023 01:34
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Day 3: Went out, was too tired when I came back. I did spent as much time as I could working on the scene, but I didn't end up getting much done. 297 words added, but 148 were removed for conflicting the tone, so the result is just 137 words added. And even after spending a lot of time working on it, I cannot shake the feeling like the main plot of the scene is far too slight and uninteresting. It's a stupid "caper" plot about trying to rig a game of drawing lots about who has to give a speech. It's weak and less intense than the previous scene. I'm likely going to just put a pin in the scene I'm working on, move on to a different scene and see if I can get something usable. The weekend isn't looking good for free time either. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Nov 4, 2023 |
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Nov 4, 2023 04:53
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day 3: 3350 words total: 11341 words today's words were devoted to a single conversation, but i'm really happy with it. was it all expository dialogue? yes
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Nov 4, 2023 05:45
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Day 3: 1,144 This is pretty much how I handle this too. I don't delete anything and I'm always moving forwards and leaving notes for myself
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Nov 4, 2023 07:41
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Wrote 1200 words today, it took the whole morning and was very grueling and it's not even part of my main project, but I did it, so there's that. I also wrote them on the PC so I have a count. There's also about 2 pages I wrote by hand but I'm a bit stuck there because I'm hitting a part of the story that I need to research a bit more. So far so good!
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Nov 4, 2023 11:38
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Day 3: Went out, was too tired when I came back. I did spent as much time as I could working on the scene, but I didn't end up getting much done. 297 words added, but 148 were removed for conflicting the tone, so the result is just 137 words added. And even after spending a lot of time working on it, I cannot shake the feeling like the main plot of the scene is far too slight and uninteresting. It's a stupid "caper" plot about trying to rig a game of drawing lots about who has to give a speech. It's weak and less intense than the previous scene. The scene didn't work at all; it's a big red flag if even the one who wrote it thinks it's a big waste of time (I would have spent most of the chapter setting up this rigged game so my heroine could give a speech only for it to not work anyway). I stuffed it into my deprecated folder, so my word count for yesterday is now zero. I suppose knowing the wrong direction to go is technically progress. I'll do something else which will feel more significant and introduce a few important characters.
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Nov 4, 2023 15:54
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:And even after spending a lot of time working on it, I cannot shake the feeling like the main plot of the scene is far too slight and uninteresting. [...] It's weak and less intense than the previous scene. I'm likely going to just put a pin in the scene I'm working on, move on to a different scene and see if I can get something usable. I have written many weak scenes. If I had to point to any one thing that has sapped my motivation for writing over the years, its repeatedly finding myself stuck in a bad, seemingly endless scene. It's completely deflating. Especially if you've spent significant time on them. In preparation for this year's, NaNo, I read The Writer's Journey and one passage from that has really stuck with me about what a scene actually is: A scene is a transaction, in which two or more people enter with one kind of deal between them, and negotiate or battle until a new deal has been cut, at which point the scene should end. - Migs Levy, Story Editor I'm on a five day streak (started a day early) and this piece of advice has pulled me back from the edge of writerly calamity more than once. 4,299 words so far.
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Nov 4, 2023 18:29
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:The scene didn't work at all; it's a big red flag if even the one who wrote it thinks it's a big waste of time (I would have spent most of the chapter setting up this rigged game so my heroine could give a speech only for it to not work anyway). I stuffed it into my deprecated folder, so my word count for yesterday is now zero. I suppose knowing the wrong direction to go is technically progress. I'll do something else which will feel more significant and introduce a few important characters. I also restarted, putting me at 250 words at the moment, but it's fun so far and I'm feeling much more motivated than I had in the past couple days. Even if we're not making huge strides, we've made a commitment to try everyday which I find is making me think more and more about my story while I am away from the keyboard and wanting to actually express it. 50,000 words at the end of this month would be nice, but I'd love to have a daily habit even more regardless of how many words it yields
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Nov 4, 2023 19:41
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I tweaked my opening chapter and finished it, going from 430 words to 1,400. I introduced the main character, some friends, a little confrontation, added some stakes, and she "saved the cat" near the end. Rose is on her way to try out for open enrollment at Wizard Academy, on the back of a large brown bear named Mrs. Brenda B.
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Nov 4, 2023 20:57
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Quote posted:I have written many weak scenes. If I had to point to any one thing that has sapped my motivation for writing over the years, its repeatedly finding myself stuck in a bad, seemingly endless scene. It's completely deflating. Especially if you've spent significant time on them. There's a tabletop RPG called Microscope which has a rule for playing scenes. Before a scene begins, the person calling for it states the question that the scene will answer. Once anyone feels that the question has been answered, they can call for the scene to end. Seems like advice that's cut from the same cloth e: 4124 words so far, I've been sick and it's killed my progress
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Nov 4, 2023 21:23
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Quote posted:A scene is a transaction, in which two or more people enter with one kind of deal between them, and negotiate or battle until a new deal has been cut, at which point the scene should end. - Migs Levy, Story Editor My preferred advice to keep scenes on track is to always keep in mind: "Goal, Conflict, Setback (or rarely, Victory)." That helps spot problems, and also provides what the shape of the solution could be. EDIT: That is to say: Goal: Give the character a clear, concrete goal they wish to achieve by the end of the scene. Try to make this clear as soon as possible when starting a new scene. Conflict: Something interferes with the characters attempts to achieve this goal. Often, the character has to back off and try again with a different approach, and again there's interference. Repeat until you're ready to end the scene. Setback: At the end, there's a setback of some kind. Either your character fails to accomplish that goal in a conclusive way, or else a new, different problem appears. Even if they succeed in their goal, if a new problem appears, it still counts as a setback. Setbacks raise tension and they keep the reader wanting to see more. Most of your scenes should end with setbacks... Victory: ...unless a setback would mean the book ends, such as the death of the main character. Victories are a brief respite from the crisis. They release tension and the reader can feel okay about stopping at that point (you usually don't want that). Try to avoid constant life or death stakes so that the only choice is to give your protagonist constant victories. That can result in your villains seeming ineffective and hapless, which reduces tension. You want the reader to be worried that the protagonist can fail. *** I've changed my heroine's goal for the scene to instead try to convince key political power players to support her. That at least feels more plausible than "make speech to a single crowd of the public and hope that provides the needed pressure." Some of those characters are plot critical so I would have needed to introduce them at some point anyway. (I also got some ideas for a completely different story which I only had a vague notion on (fantasy/noir starring an elf-in-exile as a hardboiled, broke P.I.). I don't have time to work on it, but I wrote those ideas down to have them later.) *** EDIT: Day 3 done, or rather I should get some sleep. Only a pitiful 317 words down, I should have focused more. Yet I feel better about these ones than the ones I had at the end of yesterday. I know roughly what the scene will be at least. I'm not sure I should introduce four new characters in the scene, even if I'm doing it in four one-on-one mini-scenes. (I still consider all four to be part of one scene, as the overall objective is the same for all four scenes.) Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Nov 5, 2023 |
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Nov 4, 2023 22:48
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Day 4: 1,116 Total: 6,747 They have escaped the ritual room and gotten into a fight with some cultists. Left it way, way late to start writing, so technically I'm writing twice on day 5? Either way has to stop because I spent most of today cutting up the remains of the pumpkin for the freezer, so my hands hurt. Hopefully tomorrow will be better progress.
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Nov 5, 2023 03:18
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day 4: 3081 words total: 14,442 still ahead of the linear goal, at least, even if the daily count is dropping fast.
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Nov 5, 2023 06:53
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Day 3: 5722 Day 4: 7188 Woke up really early today(thanks DST), and got in more writing, and already up to 7956 today! Should have more free time now, so I'm going to try to write a bit over the daily average I need.
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Nov 5, 2023 12:16
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Day 6 of an unbroken streak. This may be the longest I've ever maintained the habit. I'm finding that my stamina is increasing. I've been working in 25 minute blocks so far, but today the timer ticked and I kept on going. 5,555 words.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:00
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Didn't really write much today, but I did spend a lot of time ruminating on my story, doing some research, coming up with nice subplots and so on. Actual writing so far: barely half a page. I'll see how much it grows before I go to sleep. I do really like the upcoming scenes, but they're a bit hard to write down.
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Nov 5, 2023 22:33
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Reached 10,000 today. I'm 1/5th of the way there! I'm doing a completely new story rather than continuing one of my Nanowrimo novel series, and I'm still getting used to this new main character and figuring out how to write him. He's definitely growing on me, though, and I think this story is going to turn out nicely!
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Nov 5, 2023 23:14
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Day 5: 1141 Total: 7888 Difficult start today, biggest temptation was distraction. I need to be stricter with myself about starting earlier in the day.
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Nov 6, 2023 01:55
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day 5: 4287 words total: 18,709 words slow start, but when it started, boy did it. realized i really like writing dialogue.
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Nov 6, 2023 06:37
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Spent Friday and Saturday sick, didn’t get much done. Back on the editing train today, I’ve spent ~3 hours and have 2,100 acceptable words. I didn’t track how many I started with outside chapter totals, so I’ll post a tally when I hit the end of chapter 3 (two scenes remain).
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Nov 6, 2023 06:44
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Day 5: 956 words done today [3108 total], most of which were after midnight. It's after 2 AM now. I'll pay for it tomorrow, but I just wanted to get something done after spending most of the day being worthless and wasting time pointlessly. The day actually started well, I woke up with the phrase "House of Lords" in my mind. Of course, my story's Kingdom is a monarchy in a period of reform. Of course it's a constitutional monarchy. My heroine giving a speech to one crowd isn't what I need, she needs to meet with key influencers who can get laws passed. With that I had a solid idea what the scene needed to be, I just hosed around all day. It's probably going to be a long scene - I'm 1273 words into it after only 1 of 4 meetings, so it's likely going to be the entirety of the chapter. But I've got a sensible goal, points of conflict, a clear setback, and I also get to show off my heroine's cunning and political chops, as well as set out some hooks for later.
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Nov 6, 2023 08:15
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Going strong with a 7 day streak. Is anyone else using a time management tool to stay focused? I've been using the Pomodoro technique and a Chrome plugin called Marinara. It keeps track of stats, so I'll be interested to see how much focus time I've used at the end of this project and figure out my average words per minute for composition.
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Nov 6, 2023 14:26
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How do all of you with jobs and lives manage to keep going with this? I don't have a massive amount of responsibility compared to the average person, but even then I'm having real trouble fitting it in with even the minor responsibilities I do have.
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Nov 6, 2023 16:00
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Bobby Deluxe posted:How do all of you with jobs and lives manage to keep going with this? I don't have a massive amount of responsibility compared to the average person, but even then I'm having real trouble fitting it in with even the minor responsibilities I do have. i'm unemployed right now 
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Nov 6, 2023 16:02
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Gnossiennes posted:i'm unemployed right now  My first one was 2010, and I had a job then. I wrote through my lunch break every work day and then 2 hours after dinner. If I'd also had family responsibilities I doubt I'd have finished, I ended up having to write nearly 20,000 words over the final weekend
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Nov 6, 2023 16:13
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9287 for the first 5 days. I’m feeling pretty positive! I’ve been working a lot on finding a work-flow that works for me. I know I need an outline, but beyond that the last few projects have been shelved because I get stuck after the first draft. So this time I’ve tried moving straight to the 2nd draft after only writing the first act, heavily re-outlining based on the first draft synopsis. It's been a lot of work (20k word re-outline for a single act, yikes), but it has finally given me the breathing room to move past the rigidly chronological, over-narrating travelogue writing style that has annoyed me so much. I feel like I finally “get” scenes, and scene-transitions. It allowed me to put in a “leitmotif” scene, scenes out of chronological order, and even flashbacks! My prose may still be crap, but honestly figuring out how to structure the narrative in this way has felt a bigger and more important hurdle to clear. Ovenmaster fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 17:39
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Gnossiennes posted:i'm unemployed right now I will say, being disabled has made me miss having a routine that breaks up the structure of my day- so I'm glad to be doing this as a way to make my days feel distinct and have something "going on" when my friends ask me
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Nov 6, 2023 17:41
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Gnossiennes posted:i'm unemployed right now Even when having only 4 hours of volunteering a day last week, it felt hard to get time in to write. I'd imagine it being extra challenging if I had a full time job and family responsibilities. Day 5: 9338 Already got to 10161 today, and thought up a new character to drive conflict in the story, so feeling good about future writing!
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Nov 6, 2023 18:42
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Gnossiennes posted:i'm unemployed right now In my case it's thanks to RSI from a previous job, meaning I have much lower thresholds for how long I can spend on a PC. Frustrating on days like today when I was on a roll and wanted to keep going, but can't. Combine that with a mental health fear of getting burned out again and the limits I have to put on stuff just make the idea of doing this, and a job, and spending time with my wife, and keeping the house clean... I honestly don't know how everyone else does it. I have begun to think of my 1k words as my little creative treat to myself each day and have begun to feel a bit protective of it. Anyway: Day 6: 1,280 Total: 9,148 The heroes are sneaking out of a cave full of cultists.
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Nov 6, 2023 18:59
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Bobby Deluxe posted:High five society-hates-us buddy. I can't type, so I use the dictation feature that comes with the Microsoft office subscription. It's appreciably robust and you can even vocally input editing commands. You can also dictate on Google docs, but in my experience it's less powerful / versatile.
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Nov 6, 2023 19:14
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