Category Archives: Learning curve

Posts in which I discuss things I’ve learned or need to learn about any of many topics.

Let’s discuss numbers today

Word count numbers, that is. My daily average for a seven and a half year period is 561 words per day. I’ve mentioned time and again that I’d like to get that number to 2,000 words a day. Not the historical average, because that would be a massive undertaking, but I’d like to reach aContinue reading “Let’s discuss numbers today”

Fighting to keep up my momentum

April was a great month for writing. I wrote more than 50,000 words. May has been fantastic. But I’ve recently finished a book and now I’m fighting to keep up my momentum. Finishing a big project leaves me feeling adrift. I have to stop letting myself feel like I’ve finished something when I finish aContinue reading “Fighting to keep up my momentum”

LibreOffice has an undo limitation that isn’t working for me

I have spent a lot of time preparing myself to switch permanently to LibreOffice before I move to a new computer and no longer have access to my old Microsoft Office 2007 install. Well, today, I came across the first limitation that actually might be a problem for me. I edit as I write. InContinue reading “LibreOffice has an undo limitation that isn’t working for me”

I was all set to be a rebel and then I realized I don’t have time

I wrote a long post about how I was abandoning WordPress a few days ago, and then I started the process by creating some HTML5 templates for one of my websites (the easiest to convert), but after two days of fiddling, it hit me hard that I don’t really have time for this. I amContinue reading “I was all set to be a rebel and then I realized I don’t have time”

Replacing blank space at the beginning and end of paragraphs in LibreOffice Writer

So I figured out how to replace blank spaces at the beginning and end of paragraphs in LibreOffice Writer. In Word, it’s as simple as searching for ^P with spaces before or after the ^P and replacing them with whatever you want to replace them with. Not so with LibreOffice Writer, but also not asContinue reading “Replacing blank space at the beginning and end of paragraphs in LibreOffice Writer”

Is it better to use LibreOffice’s built-in styles or custom styles for body text?

I’m trying to figure out if it’s better to use (and modify) the basic styles LibreOffice Writer includes by default or use my own custom styles. LibreOffice’s default template comes with a style called Text Body that seems to be meant as a default style for all text body (not hard to guess that). TheContinue reading “Is it better to use LibreOffice’s built-in styles or custom styles for body text?”

Look, unrealistic expectations will kill your dreams

Here’s the thing. When I set out to make writing my source of income, I knew what I was getting into. I’d been married to someone who did contract work for a while cutting lumber and I have a dad who did that for a while, too, and who worked as a mason for some-oddContinue reading “Look, unrealistic expectations will kill your dreams”

Days 1–6 of NANO 2018

I forgot to post that I’m participating in NANO this year (NaNoWriMo, actually, meaning National Novel Writing Month, forever hereafter to be called NANO by me). I’m actually doing pretty well. I got off to a strong start on a new(ish) book (nope, I haven’t finished the ending of the last book, still working onContinue reading “Days 1–6 of NANO 2018”

Who knows what day of book 19

I wrote 723 words yesterday. I haven’t given up on my 2,000 words a day plan, but progress doesn’t always happen in leaps and bounds, obviously. :) I don’t know that I even care how many days I’ve been working on my current book. I know I wrote previously that it could be nice informationContinue reading “Who knows what day of book 19”

Writing as work

For years I’ve avoided thinking of writing as work. I’ve even written a blog post about how writing is not a job, and after re-reading that, I stand behind what I said about it not being a job. However, I’ve also started to have a realization that for me, maybe doing everything I can toContinue reading “Writing as work”

Oh, hell. I’ve already lost track of the days

So that book 19, day whatever lasted a few days. I don’t even know what to say about this. The day after my last post, I pretty much decided I was spending too much time detailing out my struggle to write and that I should focus more on actually writing, you know? So I madeContinue reading “Oh, hell. I’ve already lost track of the days”

August changes

A few things have changed since my last writing post. I’ve decided: To ditch timers and timed writing for good. It feels weird to sit down and write without the timer. I still look for it in the corner of my screen as I type. I still look for the column on my spreadsheet andContinue reading “August changes”

Office 365 issues, OneNote, and my local notebooks

So… I mentioned canceling Office 365 and uninstalling? Turns out it wasn’t as easy as that. I still use OneNote, so I reinstalled it after uninstalling Office 365. OneNote is supposed to be a freebie these days, although who knows for how long, but right off it started giving me little error-like messages about myContinue reading “Office 365 issues, OneNote, and my local notebooks”

I’ve been binge reading and I’ve discovered something in Calibre that might help my writing

I can’t even number the number of stories I’ve read in the last two months since I published my last book. Most of those have been fan fiction stories, I’ll say, and I tried to stick with longer stories, although I did read a lot of short stories too. :) I like all lengths, butContinue reading “I’ve been binge reading and I’ve discovered something in Calibre that might help my writing”