midnightpoet

I'm just popping in to say I miss ThinkWrite and all of you. I haven't had time enough to sit at a computer and read everything that's been written for the last few installments, but as soon as my computer is back up and running, I'll try and catch up on everything. I may even be back to writing again then, I don't know....when my hard drive crashed I lost a story I'd been working on that had gotten to 7 pages and was the longest thing I'd written to date. That's kind of made writing hard for me lately, cause I'm so frustrated over that.

Anyway, enough rambling, just wanted to say I miss ya'll, and be warned, I'll be back soon.

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They're all good ... scary with surprise endings. I'm not sure I can write about spooks and the like but I'll give it some thought and may have a go. Don't hold your breath, though; it could be dangerous! Keep the stories coming ... I enjoy reading them and who knows what your writings may spark off in the rest of us.

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Sorry, midnight, I was writing while you posted the above. 'Bad luck to lose so much work. I won't say "hit the save button now and then" because I forget to do that myself. Maybe a short story will help you get over the disappointment. Here's hoping you have a go.

Doug

mouse: Loved your "last" story as you call it. Very intense and a joy to read.

giraffe: Aren't you the table turner. I've often put the ThinkDraw folks into the mix of stories along with the master Ron himself. Gave me a good belly laugh and even at 400 words or whatever you said, I consider it "in the running".

Might have to wrap this up early. Thought the idea of ending it on Devil's Night as being proper, but I think I've held this out too long and need to hand off the torch. Stay tuned. Keep posting as I haven't had my fill, yet or made up my mind. Login?

midnightpoet

Login, the story was saved, several times. It was just saved on my hard drive. That hard drive is now completely fried....

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Are you sure it's fried ... maybe, just maybe the hard drive could be connected to another computer and the work retrieved? I've had documents retrieved in that way, after someone (who shall remain nameless) dropped a blob of solder on the motherboard. The board was a write-off by the memory was intact.

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-by +but

mouse

Giraffe- Oh, I did love your tale. I got a chuckle to see all our "names" there and I do have owls sitting on "perches" in every room in my house--How did you know--Clairvoyant perhaps ??

Login--Hope you can come up with something, too

midnight poet-- go ahead give it another try

maddyjean08

Oh, giraffe! That's so nice! You got the tiger mask from my profile and then called me "The Mad One"! How fun!

giraffe

Right on, Mad One. Everyone's profile has their location and interests. Doug's says that he works the graveyard shift and unwinds with ThinkDraw. It all fit together.

Doug, I'm out of town for a couple weeks, so don't pick me unless you want a half-assed job. Thanks for your review.

Robindcr8l

I remember awhile ago Ron told how to get the computer to tell you your word count, I just don't remember how to do it. I have WordPerfect, not Microsoft Word, but I think I was able to figure it out, even with the Microsoft instructions. Can anyone help me?

maddyjean08

I can't, sorry! I find it much more easier to count as I, every few sentences I count what I just wrote and write it down. Then, add on what I count next. To me, it's just a lot less work than dealing with all this techinical stuff.

maddyjean08

I + go= I go

Dragon

giraffe, that was fantastic! Loved it. Still chuckling over Lady Dragon cackling.

maddyjean08

Dragon, you're so special! You got to be the basiccly main character.

Dragon

Just the first one mentioned maddyjean, what would the story be without our youthful Mad One Jean?

maddyjean08

It would still be a story...... Thanks, though!

giraffe

What I do is type the story in an email. (10)
then just keep track as I go along. (10+8=18)
Only do it in paragraphs and keep a running total on screen. (18+12=30)
Only it's usually more like larger paragraphs and at the end, after adjusting to make room for or delete words, you go back and erase the number count. (30+28+58)
That way you know where you have words to spare or need to add some. Then you copy and paste the finished version in ThinkWrite. (58+25=83)

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Robin, I'm using Microsoft word. I click on 'Tools' and then click 'word count' on the drop-down menu.

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'Hope I'm not too late with this ... it's silly but the editing was an interesting exercise. 366 words exactly:

The spider was casually staring at me, appearing to count its toes. I can’t bear to be near them and this one was big and black. As I headed for the broom cupboard, I mentally recited ‘This little piggy went to market and this big spider won’t make it.’

Grabbing the fly swat, I shuddered. Was it the spider or was it the unusually cold air… cold enough to make me shiver. It was Halloween but nothing was further from my mind. I retreated, leaving the doors open; swirling cold air following me through the kitchen.

The creature was sitting on the hearthrug looking like an evil talisman. As I lunged at it, it ran up the fireside chair. Using the arm for a platform, it seemed to perform a double summersault onto the side-table. I was now in warrior mode! The critter took refuge behind the viridescent angel … a gift, brought back from a school trip by my offspring … the spider was safe for the moment. Then suddenly, it scuttled to the alabaster vase. I hated that vase and had no qualms about lashing out. In my frenzy I sent the vase into a spin and it wobbled and hummed like a centrifuge, eventually falling and smashing several other more precious pieces. Chasing the creature, I lurched at it again, knocking the lamp flying. The place was now looking as though a poltergeist had done it over. The fugitive ran along the skirting and out of the room, through the kitchen and into the open broom cupboard. Darn it … it knows the house like the back of its hairy legs. I flailed around with the fly swat, knocking things flying in my frenzy.

The doorbell rang. “Hang on … there’s a spider running wild in here.” Then to my amazement the ‘beast’ dived into an empty jar. I held the fly swat firmly over the top and took it with me. On opening the door, I jumped backwards in horror. There on my doorstep was a ghost! The jar left my hand, flying upwards and outwards, eventually smashing into pieces in the yard.

“Oops! Sorry to scare you lady. Trick or treat?”