For a while I had this complex. I termed it, 'the dreaded blank white page'. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. That moment you open up a word document with intentions to write the best damn story of your life, only to be confronted with a stark empty whiteness that is what hell is most likely resembles. All of a sudden you are overwhelmed with a pervading sense of terror, and you either flee to keep your sanity intact, or you are so unnerved that you put only a few trembling words onto the page and then decide it's all too much for you, and that the bright hurts your eyes, and you'll do it tomorrow when everything is not quite so scary.
I have the solution! Worked for me, anyway. New Document > Page Layout > Page Color > Second Darkest Shade of Black. Voila! Let the darkness envelop you in its warm, embryotic embrace. For added cave-like goodness, you can change the look of the entire Word program to suit your new duds: go to Office Button > Word Options > Popular > Color Scheme > Black.
Have fun wallowing in your dark little hole.
GET THIS GIRL A MEDAL
I just write something, even if it's bad.
On the other hand, I kind of like how it looks and am going to start writing everything like that.
Would the strings get tangled in my chest hair?
HA! That is a question best answered by someone close to you.
It's a pretty badass shirt, though, even if the feather or fern-frond looks a little emo.
I might try that...hmm.
Arkadia's thing...not the shirt.
Sometimes I do green text on black background in a DOS looking font, listen to H-Town and pretend it's 1993. It's actually quite comfortable on your eyeballs, so there you go.
Do you also wear neon colors? I'm just trying to sort out how deep into the early 90s I will need to go to try your approach out...will I need jelly sandals?
Yes. I was going to put a picture here in my Fresh Prince look but every time I try to do a cool New Jack Swing posture I just look like a fat, possibly homeless, white guy.
I'm like Dwayne. Even if I know I'm typing utter tripe, I just get it out and revise it later. I tell myself it's just practice that way!
I hate when the camera angle is all wrong and it makes you look like a fat, possibly homeless white guy. They have REALLY got to sort that issue out...all this technology and they can't make a camera that doesn't magically take awful photos...
I think it's actually taking a picture of the inside of my soul, which, you know, I thought I could hide it behind all this fat flab, but...
I dig that format. Makes me feel...sort of like Ronnie James Dio must have felt while he was writing "Holy Diver". I can deal with that.
Can't stop reading your name as 'Fylth', Philippe. I like that better.
So, obviously, I still choked out the words, with plans to edit later, like some of you guys, but I never managed to actually finish stories so I could get around to the editing. I think I dig the dark template because I most often write in the dark. Sitting in a dark room at night with a harsh white light staring me in the face is not my idea of a good time (or a suitable way to encourage eye health). The black is easier on the eyes and I guess I pretend I'm just looking at the backs of my eyelids, but with words printed across them.
I get a lot more writing done now. I don't get distracted nearly as easily. I don't need to constantly pull my eyes away to rest them. So many more words from such a small change. Very interesting how that is.
Renfield - your color scheme is badass. I actually once did the black background + green text, DOS style, when I was writing an alien story. Every time I opened up that document I was instantly in the mood to watch Mars Attacks!.
Alternately, if you're on a Mac, you can just hold down Cmd-opt-ctrl-8, and it will invert (/toggle) all the screen colors.
"I dig that format. Makes me feel...sort of like Ronnie James Dio must have felt while he was writing "Holy Diver". I can deal with that."
\m/
I hate writing on white. I always use notebooks with colored paper if possible. If not, I try to get away with using colored pens.
@Gordon - THANK YOU! I had no idea about that little trick. Maybe I'll get something done this weekend afterall. :)
You're welcome. It's possible on Windows, too. Shift-Alt-Print Screen.
Second Darkest Shade of Black
I'm guessing this is the next porn trilogy by the 50 Shades lady, originally written as Tenacious D slash.
J.Y., that shirt looks like the elf version of a Star Trek uni.
I'm intrigued by these color schemes. In the way-back machine, you were forced to write with white, green, or amber text on a faux-black background. Once real color hit, I immediately switched to the white background. However, on my phone, I always set the ebook text to black background with white letters. Hmmm.
Sparrow, I just got back from Lake Tahoe where I saw an inordinate amount of neon clothes. Definte 90s flashback.
