Tools of the Trade (Software)

I've always been a fan of tools. Whenever I go to a hardware store, I can't help but spend a few minutes just looking at all the saws, screwdrivers, wrenches, and hammers on display. I'm especially fascinated by power tools such as hammer drills and grinders. Using them never fails to give me a thrill, even if all I'm doing is screwing in a doorstop. 

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), no work I ever did for a living required me to use my hands for anything more taxing than typing on a keyboard. Still, both my fiction and copywriting work eventually led me to create my own digital toolkit. 

That's what this blog post is about. The computer programs that make up my writer's toolkit. If that sounds useless to anyone who doesn't write on a daily basis, that's because it is. But since it amuses me to write about this stuff, I'm going to indulge myself and do it anyway. You've been warned.

Here are the programs that are always open when I write:

Tool #1: Text Processor

My favorite writing software is Google Docs. It looks sleek and feels great to use, it has a good spellcheck, it doesn't take any harddrive space, it can be accessed anywhere where there is internet, and it works splendidly with Google Drive Sync. I use it for all my copywriting work. 

Sadly, Google Docs becomes unbearably slow when editing text files longer than a couple thousand words. For this reason, I do all of my fiction writing in LibreOffice, which is an open source (free) version of Microsoft Word. 

LibreOffice has a ton of features (99% of which I don't use, but hey), works like a charm even on my crappy laptop, and doesn't need online connectivity, so there's that.

Tool #2: Music Player

As far as yours truly is concerned, writing in silence is a miserable experience. I use VLC Media Player (free) to play music files directly from my computer, but you don't actually need dedicated software for this. YouTube, Spotify, online radio, or similar streaming services will do the job just fine. 

Tool #3: Dictionary

A good and easy-to-use dictionary is a must, which is why I use WordWeb. It's a cute little dictionary program that's free as long as you pretend you've never been on an airplane when it asks you if you've flown this year. 

"But Mijat, why bother with a dictionary program when you can just Google the words you don't know," I hear you ask. Because it takes too much effort, dear reader. Googling requires me to open a new tab in Chrome, type in the term I'm looking for, followed by "meaning" to make sure Google gives me what I want, and then wait a few seconds for the search to load. 

With WordWeb, I can just click on the program on the taskbar, type in the word, and get everything instantly. Convenience and efficiency are essential when you're writing thousands of words every day. Also, it prevents me from getting distracted by my Google searches. 

Tool #4: Translator

I'm not a native English speaker, okay? When I'm tired and/or hungover, I sometimes find it difficult to remember certain words. Luckily, the free Microsoft Translator that you can get via the Microsoft Store is basically the same thing as Google Translate, only better.

As with the dictionary, Microsoft Translate allows me to cut straight to the chase and skip the entire *open new tab, type "serbian into english", wait a few seconds for Google Translate to load, get my answer* process. Give me convenience, or give me death. 

* * *

So there you have it. These are the four programs that I always use while writing. There's also some hardware that I can't imagine writing without, but I guess I'll leave that for a different post because this one is already way longer than I thought it'd be. 

Oh? What's that? You're wondering if I was paid to shill for these programs? Heh. I'm touched that you'd think that's the case here... and saddened that it's not.

IQ Tests Are Creepy

Let's say you score high on an IQ test.

Sounds great, right? You now know for a fact you're more intelligent than most individuals out there and, more importantly, you're also smarter than most of the people in your life. It's a huge ego boost. 

Therein lies the problem. By having your intellectual superiority confirmed by an impartial and objective test, you're receiving a lifetime permission to feel superior to others. Worse, it gives you an excuse to dismiss their input because, hey, if what they're saying doesn't make sense to you, it must mean they're wrong and you're right because you're smarter than them. 

Obviously, not everyone would let a high IQ score get to their head. Some people really are humble. But if knowing what your IQ is isn't going to affect the way you perceive yourself, why bother with an IQ test in the first place?

Scoring low is even worse. Aside from being depressing and embarrassing, it can potentially ruin your life. Never again will you be able to hear a differing opinion or make an important decision without second-guessing yourself. 

Is the person you're disagreeing with really wrong, or do you just think that because you're stupid? Did you make a good choice, or are there better options you can't see because, again, you lack the intellectual capacity to do so? Are people really agreeing with you, or are they just feeling sorry for you because they can tell you're a moron? 

Getting an average IQ score is probably the least bad outcome. It keeps you grounded. When you do something stupid, it's okay, because everybody does it from time to time. And when you make smart decisions, that's great because you did better than expected.

However, if studies are to be believed, most people think they're above average or even extraordinary in some way. Knowing for a fact that they're "nothing special" would likely be almost as devastating to them as getting a low IQ score. 

So... yeah. Doing an IQ test is kind of like reading the Necronomicon. The secret knowledge it contains may destroy you. 

Which makes me wonder: perhaps we're not supposed to actually do IQ tests. Perhaps they're not about scoring as high as you can, but rather about not scoring at all. Perhaps what's really being tested is our ability to walk away and be content with who we are. 

Damn. That ended up sounding a lot more uplifting than I expected.

Fun With Content Writing

Let’s talk work. Have you ever heard of online copywriting or content writing? No? Here’s a definition:

A website content writer is an employee or a freelancer who specializes in providing relevant content for various websites. 

In human speech, this means people are paid to write thousands upon thousands of words of promotional text for your local restaurant, repair shop, or funeral company’s seedy website. I’m one of those people.

I write blog posts and website content about cleaning services, construction consultants, cannabis stores, limousine rentals, integral adjusters, online chatbots, cash counters, classic car restoration, ship repair companies, swimming pool equipment, overhead storage racks, and so on.

Sounds like ponderous work, doesn’t it? Nah, not at all. I actually have fun while writing this stuff. Read on to learn my secret. It’s deep stuff, I assure you.

Here’s a typical passage I’d write for a cleaning company:

There’s nothing worse than coming home after an exhausting day at work, only to discover you have a lot of tiring house cleaning waiting for you. Here at Horror Maids, we want to help you reclaim your leisure time by taking care of all that mopping and dusting for you. Reach out to us today and kick back while our cleaning superstars give you the gift of a sparkling clean home.

Here’s another one (sometimes they may appear in the same text together):

We’ll come right out and say it: cleaning is boring and tiring. Worse, it takes up the precious leisure time you could spend doing the things you love in the company of your friends and family. By outsourcing your cleaning to Horror Maids, you’ll not only be getting a pristine home, you’ll also have more time to focus on the things that truly matter. 

Variations of these paragraphs appear in hundreds of texts I wrote for dozens of cleaning companies. Imagine what a normal person would think if they unknowingly visited these websites and saw the exact same stuff written over and over again with slightly different phrasing. It’d be sort of creepy, wouldn’t it? Maybe there’s a horror story idea in there. But I digress.

So how do I make writing the same stuff every day even remotely amusing? Simple. I come up with the most insane over-the-top praise for mundane things, and I look for the juiciest places to drop F bombs.

So when I write this:

Reach out to us today and kick back while our cleaning superstars give you the gift of a sparkling clean home.

In my head it reads like this:

Reach out to us today and kick back while our cleaning demigods give you the miracle of a sparkling clean home.

Remember how, back in high school, the most idiotic stuff could crack you up during the final one or two classes because your mind was tired and your sense of humor has temporarily degenerated?

This is like that, except I’m all alone in my room, chuckling at my own bad jokes. The idea of using terms like godly, divine, Christlike, Oscar-winning, Arcadian, heavenly, luminous, angelic, miraculous, staggering, wondrous, magnificent, mind-blowing, etc., to describe cleaning ladies is a daily source of mirth for me. I love it.

But wait, it gets better. This:

We’ll come right out and say it: cleaning is boring and tiring. Worse, it takes up the time you could otherwise spend doing the things you love in the company of your friends and family.

Instantly becomes this in my mind:

Fuck cleaning. It takes up the precious leisure time you could otherwise spend drinking with your friends and family.

The thought of actually typing these sentences and submitting them to my bosses for review adds an extra layer of joy. Imagining the faces they’d make while reading, or the comments they’d leave, damn near makes me want to do it. Hell, I’m giggling as I write this.

As I said, deep stuff.

A Matter of Aesthetics

Once upon a time, I had a blog.

It was devoted to the tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40k. I loved that game, and I loved writing battle reports describing the many grueling conflicts my trusty Space Marines had fought in. Looks-wise, it was all metallic grays and bright gray fonts and simple text-based buttons. I thought that blog looked pretty neat. I still do.

My friends disagreed, though. They thought it looked very early-2000s. I was okay with that. After all, it was devoted to an army of toy soldiers who fought other people's toy soldiers. Still, when I decided to start this blog, I figured I should choose a more professional-looking template.

And yet, after days of browsing WordPress and Blogger templates, I ended up cobbling together the one you're looking at right now. I love its minimalist design, big font, and dark gray backgrounds that are oh so easy on the eyes.

But why? Pre-designed themes are objectively better. I mean, look at these. Just look at them.

They're flawless. The images and the backgrounds and even the font seem destined to be together. It's all professionally arranged and designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It's the online equivalent of those fancy designer apartments. Like this one:

If I saw this apartment in a movie or in a video game, I'd nod in approval. I'd rewind the scene to look at the details, or holster my in-game gun and just marvel at the aesthetic for a moment or two. I respect the time, money, and energy that went into making it look so good.

But would I actually live there? No chance. It looks unnatural to me. Like every color and piece of furniture was selected beforehand, and then all bought together. That's not how most people equip their homes.

Like the individuals who live in them, homes start out as blank slates and develop as they age. Some of the stuff in them is inherited, some is there because that's what the residents could afford, and some is a direct result of the residents' passions. You can learn a lot about a person just by looking at their home. That's how it ought to be.

Should websites follow the same logic? Not if they're supposed to represent a business or appeal to a mainstream audience. Writing is neither of those things, however. Fiction has always been and always will be a deeply personal thing. The brainchild of what the writer considers to be fun and meaningful. If it was any other way, books would be mass produced by faceless corporations, rather than penned by individuals whose urge to write was stronger than their need to socialize, or pursue more lucrative endeavors, or consume entertainment created by others.

With this in mind, I thought: screw it. You aren't reading this blog because you want a fine-tuned corporate product. You're here because you read some of my stuff, and you enjoyed or hated it enough to seek me out. Showing you a face caked in makeup would be a form of lying, and I strive to keep my lying to a minimum.

Besides, if you can stomach the things I write, I'm pretty sure you can appreciate an early-2000s blog aesthetic too.