East of the Sun IWSG July 3rd ?

July 3 question – What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?

First, many thanks to our generous hosts, JS Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise Fundy-Blue and Natalie Aguirre.

July 3rd ? Seriously ? First of the Dog Days, ruled by Sirius, famous for sultry heat, drought, storms, and mad dogs. I just checked. The July 3rd forecast for where we live is 14C, same as today, and overnight, down to 7C. Summer was last week, three torrid days, including a wonderful Midsummer’s Day, celebrating the last day of solstice at a local Bronze Age site, but down to 15C by the 27th.

Switch the heating on, in July ? Wouldn’t seem right, nor would the bills, but there’s a shed full of wood outside, saw mill waste, already paid for and a leaning tree that had to go, two years ago.. This summer, I’m not planning to chill anywhere In this weather, light the woodburner, close the shutters, get on with writing. Fifth or sixth edit of my ghost story, inspired by the experience of living in a truly haunted house.

A strangely memorable summer worked for Mary Shelley, written, presumably, with a quill pen, an art I’m sure I could never master. Even at four, writing with a chunky pencil, my wobbly capitals were the worst in our class. Marks were deducted, detentions served, through too many years of my earl;y schooldays. Writing changed for me the day I started to learn keyboard. You could choose a font ? Make your text look as if it was written by somebody real ? Hallelujah ! – as I wasn’t writing, when too clever by half software started thinking for me. I meant both the town in Germany and an orchestra in Manchester.

What works best for me now ? Jarte Plus free word processor. It does auto save. It uses the Microsoft RTF engine. You can switch off all Ctrl functions and Insert / Overwrite. It is what Wordpad should have been, but Microsoft would not make any money on that. Wordpad is going to be discontinued.

My favourite writing device of all ? The door I can close, locked away in a little room at the back of the house. No door ? However smart, no processing would work.

This is the first Wednesday of the month post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, this group offers a safe space where writers can share their fears and insecurities without being judged. “We are a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement, we are creating a community of support.”