Inaugural Post ...

... in yet another forum. While I've had a Live Journal for years, I decided to take my mental wanderings to a new venue. This will be a far more personal blog than anything I've done previously. While I've made some wonderful friends on LJ, of whom some have translated into the real life variety, the focus of that journal was my fan fiction writing. Yes, I wrote fan fiction. No, I'm not going to go into detail. Suffice it to say that my experiences in those fandoms were enlightening and served as a proving ground for my craft. I honed my skills playing with well-known and well-loved characters, and I proofread (a.k.a. beta-read) for some of the best writers those fandoms had to offer. I learned a great deal -- about writing and about myself -- and now feel the need to move on to writing something original; something that I can call my very own.

Scary stuff.

Anyway, in the interest of this recent determination to write original fiction, I did something I didn't think I'd ever do. No, I didn't shoplift. No, I didn't get caught making out in the back of a car. No, I didn't consume an entire package of Oreos in one sitting.

I purchased writing software.

While this may not seem like a "big thing" to the uninitiated, to a purist such as myself it was a hu-u-u-u-ge step. Trust me. And yes, I am a purist, at least where the art of writing is concerned. I've been a diehard favorite-pen-and-yellow-legal-pad kind of gal for so long, it seems like sacrilege to advance to a more modern convenience such as writing software. I've always been afraid that the software itself would be a distraction; that the process of creating would be more compelling than the actual creation. For that reason alone, I've avoided even considering software.

But upon the recommendation of my dear friend L, I sampled The Writer's Cafe by Anthemion Software, Ltd. What a wonderful application! I played with the demo for over an hour, and when the "Sorry, no more" sign flashed on the screen, I pouted in disappointment. It has virtual index cards which can be maneuvered on parallel story lines, scrapbooks for organizing photos or making flowcharts, pin boards for scraps of ideas or items you want to keep handy. It utilizes Open Office, which, with a simple plug-in download from Microsoft, can be integrated with Word. The best part, and the feature which ultimately sold me, is that the entire application is completely portable! I placed said entire application on my Cruzer and can take my writing anywhere there's an accessible PC.

Do I still have my idea notebooks? Yes. My research notebooks? Yes. I think I shall always have an inherent need to physically write things down. But I no longer have to shuffle index cards, or wade through pages of notes trying to formulate a logical outline only to cross things out or crumble wads of paper in frustration. I have advanced into the 21st century.

Now if I could only figure out how to program my universal remote.