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Writing Aids
I use Micro$oft Office 365 Word and I just added ProwWritingAid. It picks up more errors than Word and so far I am happy with it. Which is a good thing, because it is pricey.
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- anonxyzus
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My main reason though is my working computer isnt connected to the net. I have heard good things about grammerly
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- Woody
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- YAGS
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My editor is Ulysses given it doesn't have any whistles, bells or anything else. Except said spell checker.
Simplicity lets me focus on the story and not the machinery. Using Word, for me, is like driving an 18 wheel semi two blocks down the street to buy a quart of milk.
Shadar
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elf
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After that I give it to someone to read and, I put all their fixes through the same process.
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- Woodclaw
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Autotune, in a simplistic sense, fixes the pitch of individual notes in the recording process so they are properly in tune. But it can also take some of the art away from a singer's craft and create a technically perfect but sometimes more sterile performance. My enjoyment of live music is that it's never the same from performance to performance. It's alive and organic. Sometimes technically poor, but with great emotion and fun. (But also sometimes terrible.)
Is there an analogy to heavy use of writing tools that file the rough edges off our prose, but may also muffle an author's distinctive voice? Or does the Autotune controversy have no analog in the writing world?
Shadar
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- Idylls
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Idylls wrote: I have trouble constructing concise sentences.. I installed Grammarly. I still have trouble constructing concise sentences. I uninstalled Grammarly.
That's sounds like me... I tried a few things before uninstalling them. My writer's voice is often a bit scratchy with the occasional cough or honking sneeze. But sometimes it's clear. Trying to Autotune my writer's voice to make it smooth and perfect might take away more than it adds.
Not to mention taking precious time that might be better spent dreaming up new ideas or characters.
Shadar
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- Idylls
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Idylls wrote: Wasn't there an AI or algorithm that can make stories?
I recall some AI that was taught the Hero's Journey style of storytelling, and cranked out some humorous prose that wasn't really any good.
Of course, the Hero's Journey is still the dominant (some would say only) story form for action-like movies.
The Wonder Woman movie was a classic example which proves this very old style still works. Some say that the Hero's Journey storytelling is hardwired into our DNA given it started with the earliest recorded style of casual storytelling.
As bad as life was back in ancient times, the one job that I would have loved would have been Traveling Storyteller. Going from town to town telling tales of heroes and villains and magical beings that lived just beyond the edges of their lands.
Shadar.
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- shadar
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Much better at math and physics!
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- ace191
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shadar wrote: I recall some AI that was taught the Hero's Journey style of storytelling, and cranked out some humorous prose that wasn't really any good.
Of course, the Hero's Journey is still the dominant (some would say only) story form for action-like movies.
The Wonder Woman movie was a classic example which proves this very old style still works. Some say that the Hero's Journey storytelling is hardwired into our DNA given it started with the earliest recorded style of casual storytelling.
As bad as life was back in ancient times, the one job that I would have loved would have been Traveling Storyteller. Going from town to town telling tales of heroes and villains and magical beings that lived just beyond the edges of their lands.
Shadar.
Just like a Scribe.
To think I only learned about the Hero's Journey a couple of months ago. Really opened my eyes to what works and why. Most characters I make don't even aspire to become a hero but just doing the right thing. Simple nobodies no bard would write about.
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- Idylls
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slim36 wrote: Nice diagram in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
This is a classic definition and portrayal of the method, but many of the terms can be modified to suit the story. This diagram suggests mythology and transformations, but equivalent concepts will fit.
Transformation is often a change of state of mind, and goddess can be any kind of superhuman or supernatural force. Also, some characters can be combined.
It's astoundingly easy to fit this to the Wonder Woman movie. Diana gets the call to adventure, she transforms (grows) with obvious gifts from the goddess, and she has to deal with a Threshold Guardian (her mother), Steve Trevor is obviously her helper/mentor (and lover), Abyss/Death/Rebirth, which makes up a large portion of every tale, is her learning the reality of the war, and the depths of horror and her despair and revulsion. Transformation in the last half of the circle is how she changes her focus and will to deal with the threat of Aries, etc. as she digs herself out of the horror and despair of the pit of war. She's not the same Princess who left Themoscyra. She's truly Wonder Woman now.
With the requirement for dramatic action scenes and fights that extend nearly to nearly the end of such movies these days, the last stages are often shortened or compressed. That's a twist that CGI-loving audiences demand. But we still get some atonement and a promise of the goddess, so to speak.
It just works. It'll be fun for me to watch WW84 and judge how Patty handles the Journey in that movie (whenever we get to see it).
Shadar
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In actual fact, two of the most archetypical examples of the hero's journey in modern fiction -- The Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars Trilogy -- operates by actually subverting parts of it. The Lord of the Rings works by actually subverting the element of the magical aid, by making it a burden rather than a tool, which is actually the flipside of the classic quest model: instead of finding a magic item, the goal is to dispose of one, which is at the same time the Abyss part of the tale.
If we look at the final duel in Return of the Jedi, Luke doesn't complete the classic tropes of the hero's journey, refusing to kill both Vader and the Emperor, actually proving that the old status quo (i.e. you can't go back from the Dark Side) wasn't good at all.
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