Wednesday, July 03, 2024

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group and Garden Booming


It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, founded by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

The question for today: 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?

Word I use daily, but I also use Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software. (It works better for nonfiction than fiction.) Plus Word Cloud is always fun to see what words one uses the most in a manuscript.

Those of you who are members of the IWSG Facebook, don’t forget to add your link there to the Wednesday IWSG post.
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Some of you saw this on Facebook, but it’s a good portion of my garden, growing like crazy. Quite a few herbs are on the back deck and the blackberries are out of sight to the left.


Through with raspberries and now blackberries in full swing. Also harvesting squash (which I DIDN'T plant!), lettuce, green beans, basil, cilantro, rosemary, catnip, and oregano. (I love my Hydro dehydrator.) Soon we'll have tomatoes (also DIDN'T plant), potatoes, jalepenos, more lettuce, garbanzos, carrots, green onions, more herbs, and a squash Kerri sent me from Texas. (Plus I grow sprouts year-round in the house.) Hope to try rhubarb in the fall along with fall lettuce.


Good thing I have a freezer in our garage!

24 comments:

Nick Wilford said...

I admire your flourishing garden. Just never had green fingers or the patience!

I've never tried voice recognition. The results would probably be very rambling! Or does it cut out the "ums", "ahs" etc. for you?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Your garden is really growing!

Damyanti Biswas said...

I've never tried the Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software, but it sounds like an interesting option. Definitely a nice alternative to constant keyboard clacking and aching wrists! Your garden is absolutely gorgeous! I've always dreamed of being able to harvest fruits and vegetables from a garden of my own.

Melissa said...

Your garden looks fabulous! Mine is already succumbing to the heat here in Texas. I had to pull up my basil and lettuce last week. It had bolted and gone to seed. The pepper and tomato plants aren't long for this world either. I'll throw in the towel soon and set my sights on the fall garden.

emaginette said...

Nice work. I can mow with the best of them, but my garden definitely needs something extra. hehehe

Anna from elements of emaginette

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Diane - gosh your garden doth grow ... how lovely. Dragon ... I'm certain it's hugely improved ... interesting to read everyone's software usage ... cheers Hilary

cleemckenzie said...

Great garden, Diane! Mine is doing okay, but I'm fighting off deer. Somehow they've found their way through my fence, so I'll have to walk the perimeter and see if I can fix the hole. It's that or give up on my plants.
https://cleemckenziebooks.substack.com/p/something-new-this-way-comes

J.S. Pailly said...

I've often felt that there's a good metaphor to be made, likening gardening to writing. But I don't know much about gardening, and I've killed almost every plant I've ever tried to care for, so that's a metaphor somebody else will have to make.

Interesting that your voice recognition software works better for nonfiction. I wonder why that is.

Natalie Aguirre said...

My garden is going really well too. I'm hoping to start some seedlings inside for a fall crop too. I love your garden pictures.

I've never tried voice recognition. Glad it works for you.

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Wow. I'm envious of your garden and green thumb. There's nothing like food from the garden. Enjoy, Spunk!

Gwen Gardner said...

I love your garden. My container garden is just now starting to take off, even though I planted in early May. I now have 4 green tomatoes! You sort of need a magnifying glass to tell, though. LOL.

I use Word daily as well, and ProWritingAid for editing and I just started using Atticus for formatting.

Leigh Caron said...

Wow! You're growing a lot! Gardening is so therapeutic...and delicious!!! I used to garden veggies, but here in the tropics of Mexico, I don't. Attracts rats and snakes.

Sandra Cox said...

You've got all kinds of goodies in your garden. I've had blackberries and tomatoes (I also didn't plant:) ripening.

Liz A. said...

I've wondered about dictating a book rather than typing it. That's the wave of the future ;) Curious how things you did not plant ended up in your garden.

Tyrean Martinson said...

Gorgeous garden! My husband is gardening this year for the first time in many years and it's been fun.

PJ Colando said...

Happy summer! Glad you are enjoying nature's bounty and eating healthy!

Happy 4th of July!

Fundy Blue said...

I'm very impressed with your garden, Diane! How lovely to have fresh herbs! We travel too much to go for a garden. I tried to link to my blog post on Facebook, and it refused to post it ~ said my content didn't meet its community standards. What??? I've been liking my blog to FaceBook forever. I'll worry about that later. Have a great 4th!

Loni Townsend said...

Your garden looks great! My daughter's garden is coming up. She's got carrots, tomatoes, and basil right now. I was hoping the lettuce would come up, since the guinea pigs love it, but it doesn't look that way.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

JS, with nonfiction, you just speak without having to add quotations or anything.

Louise, I'm sorry - I don't know why it said that.

Thank you everyone. Sorry, I was gone for a while. Despicable Me 4! I love my Minions.

Olga Godim said...

Great garden, Diane. I also use MS Word, have been using it for years.

Debs Carey said...

Another Word user here, but I'd totally forgotten about Word Cloud having played with it a few years ago - so thanks muchly for the reminder.

Debs posting today from Fiction Can Be Fun
Also found at Debs Despatches

H. R. Sinclair said...

Oh my, I don't see my comment. I don't remember seeing any issues--gah.

Anywho

I love your garden and I love that veggies are going you didn't plant. That's so fun. I grew some "spicy bell peppers." And I tried on yesterday, I was not just spicy is was habanero hot! 🥵

kimlajevardi.com said...

Your garden looks amazing.

Cathrina Constantine said...

Wow! Bountiful garden. Lots of surprises popping up in there.

Have a beautiful summer!