"This is something I wrote in one of my moments of insight. Tell me what you think."


In the first instance, M/S, I would suggest more moments of insight...

I won't comment on why you might have written it or what spurred you on to do so. Autobiographical writing appears in many places for an equal number of reasons. And this, obviously, easily crosses into works of fiction. Authorial interpolation is one phrase that's used.

Please note that my comments rest purely in the arena of CW and that is how I would like you to receive them.

I was particularly interested where you talk of your own world and the seperate outside world. Where those who might dislike you in the outer world held true to those principles in your inner world. Your inner worlds use of and interaction with superheroes also brought another layer of intrigue to the work.

Of particular note has to be the line: '...Batman never liked me, still doesn’t actually...' which neatly flips the tone from that of one describing your inner world to a more conspiratorial tone. Very deft.

From a writers perspective, I do feel there could be mileage in further fictionalised explorations of the two worlds, how they interact and the conflicts that may occur.

A good piece.

Thankyou.

Rae x

Hi Mike/Stephanie,

I've read your post and I think I got the gist of what you were expressing.

I can relate to the comic book references (I collected comics in the 60's and 70's.)

I don't think I got the full impact of what you were conveying because the ".doc" format you used. Can I request that you save future posts as ASCII (.txt). What I saw as a bunch of formatting garbage followed by your post in unformated text followed by more formatting junk.
I didn't get any of the paragraph or spacing you intended since the text came over as a "stream of conscience". I never made it through "Ulysses" by James Joyce and I had the same problem with your story.

I don't have MS Word (which I assume you composed it in) so I'm asking you post in a more universal format.

Best,
Melody

Hi Melody, Sorry to but in...

I'm left a little confused here - state normal some would say - by what you're using as your everyday WP reader. The .doc format is indeed MS Word and that's pretty much accepted as the most universal format and, generally speaking, can be handled by most other programmes...

If M/S isn't about to answer your query I'm quite happy to try and convert the file to something you can read easily - Joyce, eek!

Rae xx

Hi Rae,

I realize that MS Word is pretty much the "Linga Franca" because of Microsoft's huge market share, but some of us have come to the conclusion that it is way overpriced and requires way too many computer resources and has way many too many "features" that most users will ever need (not to mention the bugs that can cause you to loose your work).
Once I left the corporate world, I decided to use a format that anyone (PC, Mac, Unix, Linux, mainframe, et al.) could read.
ASCII text meets that requirement and virtually any word processing program will save files in .txt format (unless you've gone crazy with multiple fonts and graphics.) Microsoft used to distributate a free program that would allow non-Word users to view .doc files, but it hasn't been updated since 2003 (I checked, since I wanted to read Mike/Stephanie' s story as she wanted it to be seen.)
I've used WordStar, WordPerfect and lots of other dead or dying word processors and I have lots of unreadable files.
If you are trying to communicate your ideas and you are not depending on lots of fonts and graphics, ASCII it the way to go,.

Best,
Melody

Hi Rae,

I don't in any way to denegrate Mike/Stephanie, I totally respect her talent and creativity and I look forward to many more posts from her.
However, here is what I see when I open her file:


[ Mods note: imagine lots of misc symbols ... (sorry they were playing havoc with the width of the thread!) Rae x]

Hi Mike/Stephanie,

Please don't take my comments as being in any way a criticism of you or your writing (which I do really enjoy.) I am just frustrated that I can't read them as you intended them to be seen.

I don't have MS Word, but if I remember correctly, there is a "Save As" option that lets you save your work as ASCII/.txt format. That format will be readable by virtually any computer user in Western Europe, North and South America, Australia and parts of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Pacific islands (and maybe Antarctia.....)

The only real drawbacks are that you can't save most foreign characters (Russian, Greek, Chinese, Arabic etc.) and you will lose any fancy fonts and graphics.

Best,
Melody

Hi Rae,

I've been using Microsoft's own "Notepad" for word processing since I retired back in 2000. It won't open .doc files properly even though they are from another Microsoft program. (Notepad is free with Windows, but you have to pay for Word...)

Most of my word processings are letters (as in snail mail) or filmographies for my film reference project. Neither of these require the massive overkill (IMHO) of something like Word. If I want to fancy up the text, I use a desktop publishing or graphics program.

I'm currently (in the backround) downloading a fresh copy of Microsoft Word Reader 2003. The copy I had wouldn't deal with newer .doc files - I believe I read that Microsoft changed their file formats when they released Office 2007. My old copy of Word Reader may have been corrupted when my PC crashed a little while ago. Hopefully I'll be able to read Mike/Stephanie's attachments with a new copy.

If that doesn't work, does anyone know of a freeware/public domain program that will properly open newer Word .doc files?

Best,
Melody

Hi Melody,

Firstly, apols. I had to remove most of your 'this is what I see' post as it made the thread 14 miles wide...

You could try numerous freeware wp products out there. Example: http://www.openoffice.org I haven't tried it just come across the site now and again.

Ah, Wordstar, I remember it well!

Rae x

Hi Rae,

No problem about the removal, I just wanted to show I wasn't getting a very readable file.

In an earlier post I said Microsoft hadn't updated Word Reader 2003 for the Office 2007 file formats. It turns out (as is sadly often the case) that I was wrong. The program isn't Word Reader, it is called Word Viewer and is supposed to handle the newer files. It's a pretty huge download for my lousy dial up connection so it will be a while before I can try it. (If anyone else is interested, the file name is wordview_en-us.exe on the downloads section of Microsoft's website.

Wordstar - after all these years, I still have to stop myself from trying to use the Wordstar "diamond" when I'm typing.

Best,
Melody

Hi Rae and Mike/Stephanie,

The Word Viewer program worked fine. I can see M/S's post as I think she intended (4 pages, double spaced with the title in bold.)

I'm sorry to have bothered you all with my problem viewing posts. (As Gilda Radner used to say on Saturday Night Live, "Never mind..")

Now I need to go back and read "My Mother is an Alien" with proper formatting.

Best,
Melody

Hi Anne,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

Best,
Melody

Hi Anne,

Not so offtopic - I'd already posted, coincidently, a link to their site. But have never used it so it's nice to get an endorsement.

I'm sure M/S won't mind our slight meandering from her good work - on the basis that we've established a good way for non-ms users to interact with it

Rae x

Hi Anne and Rae,

Thank you both for referring me to Open Office Suite. As freeware the price is certainly right and so far It has opened all the file formats I tried.

This reply took 3 months because it took me that long to download it. It is a pretty massive 150MB file which my current dial-up ISP had a lot of trouble with. I tried to download it from SUN 3 times via Firefox, 2 times via Explorer and 2 times with Google Chrome, the second of which finally worked. (Unfortunately, it is not one of those programs that will pick up at the point the download failed, you have to start all over each time.) If you don't have a high speed broadband connection my suggestion is to go to the library and download it there (and be sure to bring 3 blank CD's so you can load it at home.)

Again, thank you both.

Best,
Melody