Instead Of Doing NanoWriMo I Will Be Doing Something Where I Try To Aim For Writing An Actual Average

Instead of doing NanoWriMo I will be doing something where I try to aim for writing an actual average of 400 words a day for the month of November in memory of Terry Pratchett, who as far as I know never thought telling a computer to write a book for you is a good way to hone your skills as a writer.

It is hilarious and awesome and everyone should watch it seriously.

Did- did terminal montage just post a 4 minute animated short that detailed Shadows appearances throughout the sonic games and his own game over the years only to end it in sega sponsorship??? Fucking based

Also they look silly and stupid and I love them

you can speak to other writers for advice. You can post snippets and get feedback. You can trouble shoot on social media.

Writing groups were a thing long before generative AI entered the picture. Why do people act like this is no longer a thing?

The thing that really gets me about the NaNo AI thing in a this-would-be-funny-if-it-weren't-so-frustrating/infuriating/tragic way is that yes NaNo is about writing and creativity, building habits and creating etc.

But it's also about community and a lot of the bullshit reasons they cite for promoting AI tools are problems that are solved inherently through community. Things like "some people struggle with certain aspects of writing" and "some people don't know what do at this point" etc.

They say you need AI because you can't afford certain services but you can speak to other writers for advice. You can post snippets and get feedback. You can trouble shoot on social media.

Obviously they fucked up with their forums but prior to that they had tonnes of resources for structuring, editing and the craft in general - both technically and creatively. They could have focused on rebuilding that instead of pushing AI tools that scrape people's work and aren't anywhere near as nuaced as humans are.

Community on the internet is dying so I'm not saying it would be easy (see every single post by a fic writer on tumblr for the past three years as fandom is treated more and more like a commodity) but a large org like this should be better placed to try right?

Seconding this, but also adding that it's very helpful to both PC and mobile users to set the image size to scale with the browser if you're using image links.

<img src="insert image url here" width="75%"> is a good way to do it (note the percentage used for the width).

If you do it this way, the image will always scale to 75% (in this case) of the width of the text area, no matter how large or small the browser window is. 75% is what I personally recommend, but for taller images, it's better to use something around 50%. Use "preview" to check how it looks.

I feel the need to tell you that you can insert images into ao3 via certain html commands. You can also have hyperlinks.

<img src=”insert image url here”>

Oh thank you for letting me know! May have to edit the fic to do this when I have time

I learned to touch-type when I was in grade school in the 90s. We had a "computer" class, which really was just to teach us how to type (it was 1992. I was 10). We used software that came on 5.25" floppy disks, and ran on black-and-green monitors. I didn't really see the point at the time because none of our classes required typing. Half of us had no computer whatsoever at home.

Well, then I hit middle school. I discovered I could write stories. I discovered that I could not only write these stories, I could type them up. I could write a novel. I could write multiple novels. And my parents, bless them, actually let me print them out, even though it used up paper and printer ribbon. I still have those printed stories.

My kids don't get typing classes in school. I guess the idea is "computers are so ubiquitous these days that kids will naturally learn to type at home." My oldest did, sure, but it's just reasonably fast hunt-and-peck typing with just two fingers.

I should probably show my kids how to set their hands on the home row and then have them do typing practice before internet time. Typing is a valuable skill for anyone.

Wait I just saw a lot of replies on a poll that some of us writers were never taught to type and still struggle with it. Is this as common as it looks on that post??

Personally, my answers are 'writer' and 'yes'.

When I was maybe seven years old, my mom made a rule that I had to type up a paragraph of text from her book before I was allowed to start using the internet for the day. No rules on time, just that I had to do it with my fingers resting on asdf and jkl; between presses.

Impatience taught me FAST.

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.