You Know Nothing About Writing, Language, nor Grammar!

Writing + Reference

I know nothing! Indeed I don't! You are absolutely right!

So, here's a collection of links that are way better than anything I can ever come up with...

(Of course, I added all these links in my Touch Portal setup, so they're only a tap away, but you could just as well store them as links on your desktop. I keep a somewhat curated selection here as well.)

The Edit Loop

Writing + Reference

Every writer has a different approach to writing and editing. Every successful writer is probably going to tell you editing is an essential.

Every great writer without the money to afford an editor has to edit him / herself. It is my firm belief that if you don't edit, then you'll get nowhere. Period.

So, here's my current approach, until I'm rich enough to afford a real editor...

All tensed up today...

Writing + Reference

Many beginning writers understand the concept of present and past tense, but fail to properly apply it. They 'mix' tenses, often with horrible results.

I've been trying to find a good explanation to help ease the pain, but thus far I haven't been able to write up some decent explanation, sorry.

Below's the best I could come up with thus far.

WaitWindow - checking for open and closed windows from a batchfile

Datatalk + Waitwindow

This is a little command line tool I wrote to help me check from a batch file for windows which are open or closed. It can also launch other programs if a specific condition is met.

I couldn't find what I needed, and so I wrote it myself... You can download waitwindow.exe and waitfile.exe here.

(Searching for wallpapers may have brought you to this page. If so, try this link for a selection from the wallpapers that I collected.)

GoogleDocs getting slow (lagging when typing and searching)? Blame Grammarly!

Datatalk + Google Docs + Grammarly

I noticed that, sometimes, GoogleDocs suddenly slowed down. It looks like the culprit is Grammarly. The fix is easy, though a little illogical.

Read on if you installed Grammarly...

The writing process

Column + Writing + Reference + Mindmap

Writing is hard. It's very hard. People have no clue how hard it actually is. Even writers themselves are clueless.

So, I set out to document the writing process. Read on (besides, it was about time I created another mindmap)...

Windows 10 shortcuts to batch files and Store Apps

Windows

Windows 10 is pretty inconsistent when it comes to creating and pinning shortcuts. Here's some information if you need to pin a shortcut to a batchfile to the taskbar, if you want to create a desktop shortcut to a Microsoft Store App, or if you want to automate stuff...

Non-native speakers writing in English

Writing + Reference

A non-native English speaker runs into problems that may not be that obvious to a native speaker. To a native speaker, some of these mistakes may look funny, or stupid, but then I would like to invite the English speaker to try his or her hand at Dutch or Chinese.

The reader's first impression, or 'what comes before the plot'

Writing

You're an aspiring author. And your work just... sucks. Potential readers run away with polite excuses, and it seems they can't understand your great vision. Fear not! You can get better, or at least better than me 😁

It's not that hard. But before you craft wonderful plots, believable characters, and encompassing worlds, you might want to have a quick peek at the basics, and what kind of first impression your work will leave behind.

Commas

Writing

A writer's nightmare. It's very, very easy to do them wrong. And yeah, I did struggle, and still do.

The site Grammarbook seems to be pretty good. But sites can go down, and there are some exceptions, so...