Forum: Author Hangout

How do you denote telepathy

Honey_Moon 🚫
Updated:

Here's an odd question. I have a character in a current story that has no vocal apparatus. She isn't a human, but a rather pretty anthropomorphic bunny interacting with humans.

I've been doing something like this.

"Hey, you're a bunny girl!" The human shouted.

(That's right.) The bunny's nose twitched, but her mouth never moved. (How are you this fine day?)

"I heard that in my mind!"

(Of course, silly!) The bunny grinned. (Rabbits don't have human type vocal cords!)

Does anyone have a better idea for this? She doesn't read minds or anything. The words just appear in the mind of the person she's addressing. If they didn't already know my bunny wasn't moving her mouth, they would think they were hearing normal speech.

Oh, and yes. Her female friend, who is futanari, gets something rather unique. The bunny keeps on talking to her while giving a blow job! Oh, the wonders of telepathy!

Replies: Redsliver Switch Blayde Switch Blayde rustyken awnlee jawking REP Vincent Berg Ernest Bywater BalRog joyR

Redsliver 🚫

@Honey_Moon

That poor poor futanari. Isn't the whole reason that penises exist is to fit into the female mouth to give the wielder of said penis a few moments relief from the yammering?

I've never used telepathy in my story, but if someone did it consistently as you have above, it would work for me. How I would do it myself? I don't know. My kneejerk is basic quotation marks with expositionary prose to set the reader to know the coming bits are in the mind.

Replies: Honey_Moon

Honey_Moon 🚫

@Redsliver

That poor poor futanari. Isn't the whole reason that penises exist is to fit into the female mouth to give the wielder of said penis a few moments relief from the yammering?

That made me laugh!

I tried bracketing the telepathic speech with * but in Open Office it makes the text bold. I don't think it would display well on the site. I'll stick with (using this format).

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Honey_Moon

Possibly italics. Or maybe even italics within double quotes to distinguish it from thoughts (although telepathy is pretty much a thought that the other person hears).

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Possibly italics. Or maybe even italics within double quotes to distinguish it from thoughts (although telepathy is pretty much a thought that the other person hears).

You want to clearly differentiate normal dialogue from telepathy, so using double quotes for both is problematic, at best. Since single quotes are used less often (at least for most English language usages), combining the two common 'internal thought' conventions of single quotes and italics pretty much guarantees that telepathic exchanges won't be confused for anything else, and are fairly easy to identify with any font choices.

All-in-all, it's the standard telepathic convention on SOL for a reason.

aubie56 🚫
Updated:

For what it's worth, I surround the mental message with bold square brackets like this [Hello, my friend.]

Oops, I don't know how to make a bold character in this context.

Replies: Remus2

Remus2 🚫
Updated:

@aubie56

[Hello, my friend.]

Hello, my friend. 
The real thing without the spaces in the

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Remus2

The easy way to do it in the forum is when writing your post, select the text you want in bold and click the button at the top of the text box labeled strong.

Replies: joyR Vincent Berg

joyR 🚫

@Dominions Son

The easy way to do it in the forum is when writing your post, select the text you want in bold and click the button at the top of the text box labeled strong.

Why 'strong' and not 'b' for bold..?

Replies: Dominions Son Ernest Bywater

Dominions Son 🚫

@joyR

Why 'strong' and not 'b' for bold..?

Because it's very nearly the same effect and you don't have to code the tags manually. Go ask our host why he made a button for strong but not bold.

Replies: helmut_meukel joyR Vincent Berg

helmut_meukel 🚫

@Dominions Son

Because it's very nearly the same effect and you don't have to code the tags manually. Go ask our host why he made a button for strong but not bold.

But there are buttons for italics and bold.

HM.

joyR 🚫

@Dominions Son

Go ask our host why he made a button for strong but not bold.

Why should I bother Lazeez with such a stupid question...? Especially since directly above this text box I'm typing in there is;

i b link em strong Quote

And the 'b' is short for bold. Try it sometime.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

Because it's very nearly the same effect and you don't have to code the tags manually. Go ask our host why he made a button for strong but not bold.

Personally, I've always stuck to and , as that's what most word processors and text processing programs revert to when converting text to html. If you go with the largely outdated and rarely used (outside of elementary coding classes) strong and emphasis commands, they AREN'T treated the same in most programs. (Trust me, I tried converting to them, and gave it up quickly thereafter.) It looks nice on your computer, but when parsing through different programs, your results won't remain as you intended!

Coding purists insist on using strong and Emphasis html commands, but the rest of the world ignores those commands entirely. :(

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@joyR

Why 'strong' and not 'b' for bold..?

Bold is purely visual while the text to voice software will change tone for strong as it's a code for audio as well as visual. It's often now required by legislation for those with visual issues using a text to speech program.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

Bold is purely visual while the text to voice software will change tone for strong as it's a code for audio as well as visual. It's often now required by legislation for those with visual issues using a text to speech program.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the vast majority of text to speech programs (at least those used by the visually impaired, as opposed to unreliable 3rd party apps thrown together by whomever), they announce, as part of the text read aloud, which words, phrases and sentences are italicized and bolded. Coding them as Strong and Emphasis is utterly unnecessary.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

The easy way to do it in the forum is when writing your post, select the text you want in bold and click the button at the top of the text box labeled strong.

Except, just like writing in upper case, bolding is pretty universally interpreted by readers as shouting, which is hardly the message you want to send for non-verbal communication. Subtle is better in these cases. Something easily recognizable, distinct from other uses, but which doesn't trip readers up every time they encounter it.

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Honey_Moon

I found an article that discusses how authors did it in their novels.

https://www.ignitedinkwriting.com/ignite-your-ink-blog-for-writers/how-to-punctuate-dialogue-standard-format-and-other-options/2018

Telepathic Communication

When Steven King's telepathic character broadcasted her thoughts in Carrie` he used parenthesis:

(who's there)

And Sue, without thought, spoke in the same fashion:

(me Sue Snell) (page 273)

Because the characters are communicating through images and impressions in thought, King dropped the periods and other punctuation marks of the telepathic dialogue. However, it is still clear the characters are speaking to each other.

There were other examples, too, using double slashes/slashes and lt/gt signs.

Replies: Honey_Moon Vincent Berg

Honey_Moon 🚫

@Switch Blayde

When Steven King's telepathic character broadcasted her thoughts in Carrie` he used parenthesis:

If it's good enough for Steven King, it's good enough for me!
Thanks!

Replies: Redsliver Keet

Redsliver 🚫

@Honey_Moon

If it's good enough for Steven King, it's good enough for me!
Thanks!

Cocaine!

Replies: Honey_Moon

Honey_Moon 🚫

@Redsliver

Cocaine!

Never tried that yet. Does it improve your writing skills?

Replies: Redsliver joyR

Redsliver 🚫

@Honey_Moon

In my experience, cocaine's like two quick cups of coffee and an irritated nose. I found it deeply underwhelming. Having a really really bad trip on mushrooms was probably the best thing that happened to my writing.

joyR 🚫

@Honey_Moon

Never tried that yet. Does it improve your writing skills?

If you wish to simulate the effect simply rub the inside of your nose with sandpaper whilst spinning around until you are too dizzy to stay upright, then continue spinning whilst taking all the cash you have and burning it.

:)

Keet 🚫
Updated:

@Honey_Moon

If it's good enough for Steven King, it's good enough for me!
Thanks!

Nope. He probably used parenthesis because they are easy characters on the keyboard. Laziness I suppose. Almost any other character would do a better job because it will not appear as possibly being part of the 'normal' text without it being a 'thought' where parenthesis could cause confusion.

Replies: Honey_Moon Vincent Berg

Honey_Moon 🚫

@Keet

Nope. He probably used parenthesis because they are easy characters on the keyboard.

Nope? Are you saying he used parenthesis because they weren't good enough for him??

I'll say it again...If it's good enough for Steven King, it's good enough for me!

That's what I'm sticking with.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@Honey_Moon

Nope? Are you saying he used parenthesis because they weren't good enough for him??

I'll say it again...If it's good enough for Steven King, it's good enough for me!

That's what I'm sticking with.

What I was trying to say was that Steven King possibly went for parenthesis because it was an easy character to type.
I doubt the choice of one single author to express something in a specific way makes it a good rule. Many other authors have used other ways to express thought or mind control in a more understandable way to the reader. Parenthesis are already used for other purposes which could make it confusing to the reader.
In the end it really doesn't matter how you express thoughts. What matters is if it's clear to the reader. If you think the parenthesis do the job than by all means use them.

Replies: Honey_Moon

Honey_Moon 🚫

@Keet

What I was trying to say was that Steven King possibly went for parenthesis because it was an easy character to type.

Good enough for me.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Keet

He probably used parenthesis because they are easy characters on the keyboard. Laziness I suppose.

No, given the time frames when he first started (when authors were unable to format their own text until the text reached the publishers), it was mostly the easiest to implement, rather than the easiest of read/use.

Vincent Berg 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

When Steven King's telepathic character broadcasted her thoughts in Carrie` he used parenthesis:

(who's there)

And Sue, without thought, spoke in the same fashion:

(me Sue Snell) (page 273)

Those work, but flies in the face of eschewing parentheses (punctuation standards) in fiction (in non-fiction they're used purely as asides to the what's being said, or explanatory source notes).

Though, of the two (rounded parentheses or angle brackets), I'd favor the rounded parentheses, as they're less visually jarring.

rustyken 🚫

@Honey_Moon

I've used italics to denote telepathic conversation. Seems to have worked quite well.

Cheers

QM 🚫

I use italics in my Magician and Mage stories to denote telepathy.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Honey_Moon

Parentheses are fine IMO and your example works well. I've seen other authors use other techniques but often they are associated with an increase in emphasis, which parentheses avoid.

AJ

REP 🚫

@Honey_Moon

I us italics.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@REP

I us italics.

Hmm, there seems to be a litter missing? :)

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

Hmm, there seems to be a litter missing?

Yeah, the letter from your mother telling you to behave yourself! 'D

LupusDei 🚫

My intuitive approach would be to use italics with quotation marks for strong telepathy and speech like sentences in italics without quotation marks for over-imaginative interpretations of body language.

Yeah, that's a lot of italics.

Now, imagine someone speaking with two different characters in direct voice using different language with each, simultaneously interpreting body language that doesn't conform with what was said, exchanging telepathic messages with a third being, and on top of all that texting on the phone...

Replies: Honey_Moon

Honey_Moon 🚫
Updated:

@LupusDei

My intuitive approach would be to use italics with quotation marks for strong telepathy and speech like sentences in italics without quotation marks for over-imaginative interpretations of body language.

As a reader I would find this annoying. Sticking with the parentheses. After much thought, and several posts here, I think it's the easiest and least intrusive way to go. My character doesn't read minds or anything. It's just what would be normal speech projecting. I may go different if this was a serious science fiction novel, but let's face facts. It's a hopefully comic sex story being written for a fan-fic contest over at Futanari Palace.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Honey_Moon

As a reader I would find this annoying. Sticking with the parentheses. After much thought, and several posts here, I think it's the easiest and least intrusive way to go. My character doesn't read minds or anything. It's just what would be normal speech projecting. I may go different if this was a serious science fiction novel, but let's face facts. It's a hopefully comic sex story being written for a fan-fic contest over at Futanari Palace.

Ah, there's the rub. My usage for the combination of single quotes and italics is based on its extensive use in science fiction, where the dialogue tends to be extensive and the back and forth is after fast and extended.

As a fan fiction, your readers wouldn't likely recognize it, and they don't face the same constraints (of having to explain complicated back stories throughout the story). So, yeah, for your usage, I'd probably go with simple parentheses.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Honey_Moon

I've used telepathy extensively in a wide variety of stories, and when I first started I did a semi-comprehensive search of telepathy convensions across SOL. The most popular convention uses a combination of single-quotes and italics (since either use alone denotes internal thoughts, and telepathy is seen as dialogue occurring as thoughts in each person's mind).

'Hey, I'm talking to you hear, lardbutt!'

The key though, is to provide enough context so that readers know what's happening when they first encounter it, so they'll recognize and accept it whenever they see it through the rest of the story.

One mild problem with this, is that some text to speech programs 'speak' italics by speeding up the text, making it difficult to hear. This doesn't occur with Screen-Readers for the blind, but happens somewhat frequently with many 3rd-party text reader programs.

BarBar 🚫
Updated:

I seem to recall a story but have no idea where it was, where the different telepathic speakers used different shaped parentheses so that you could immediately tell who the thought came from. And I might be confusing things but I think the same story used double parentheses for mind speech.

eg ((hello there)) < < Hi Brad > > [[That wasn't Brad. I'm Brad]]

Replies: Keet Vincent Berg

Keet 🚫

@BarBar

eg ((hello there)) < < Hi Brad > > [[That wasn't Brad. I'm Brad]]

If an author uses parenthesis at least the double parenthesis distinguishes the mind speak from 'normal' parenthesis usage. With multiple mind speakers I would definitely like it if an author uses different markings for different speakers.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@BarBar

I seem to recall a story but have no idea where it was, where the different telepathic speakers used different shaped parentheses so that you could immediately tell who the thought came from. And I might be confusing things but I think the same story used double parentheses for mind speech.

I'd think, if you have more than two, maybe three telepathic speakers, that would spiral out of control quickly.

I prefer applying the typically identifying tags to my telepathic communications:

'Watson, come quick!'

'Whoever this is,' he answered, 'leave a message after the brain fart: BURRP!'

richardshagrin 🚫
Updated:

I have a vague recollection that one author here used different colored type to indicate the thoughts of different personalities of a character. Something like that could be used to indicated mind speech.

Upon additional research the story is "Dominion Chronicle: Book 1 by Dominion's Son".

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@richardshagrin

I have a vague recollection that one author here used different colored type to indicate the thoughts of different personalities of a character. Something like that could be used to indicated mind speech.

The problem with that is that colors disappear in a flat text version of the story.

joyR 🚫
Updated:

Whilst several good suggestions have been put forward, why would anyone seek to complicate such a simple issue?

If an author can write dialogue then they already know how to write in such a way that the reader knows who is speaking. Therefore it only remains to clarify how they are speaking.

Speaking telepathically can easily be dealt with in the same way as speaking in a foreign language is dealt with. Use italics.

For an example of how italics and good writing can make reading easy, I suggest checking out They That Have Power by hermit

Why complicate things? KISS works perfectly and makes reading easy.

Replies: awnlee jawking graybyrd

awnlee jawking 🚫

@joyR

Speaking telepathically can easily be dealt with in the same way as speaking in a foreign language is dealt with. Use italics.

Italics have multiple uses. In the dead-tree novel I'm just about to read, they're used for the bipolar protagonist's innermost thoughts.

They're a possible solution for telepathic communication but not the only one and not necessarily the best, depending on circumstances.

AJ

graybyrd 🚫
Updated:

@joyR

Here on SOL forums, KISS is b.o.r.i.n.g!

Also, most posts seem to be regarded as little more than chum bait.

I do agree with your point. Myself, I'd use italics. Never did see the problem, myself.

Ernest Bywater 🚫
Updated:

@Honey_Moon

She doesn't read minds or anything. The words just appear in the mind of the person she's addressing

I've seen people use all four types of brackets, ( ) < > { } [ ], to designate telepathy with < > and [ ] being the most common as well as < < > >. The problem is sometimes those brackets get lost in electronic formats as they get seen as code by some software.

However, I consistently use italics to show a person is thinking something, eg:

Fred drove away while thinking, Well, that didn't go well. Stuff 'em.

So if you can establish early what is dialogue, what is thought, and what is telepathy you could use italics with quotes like dialogue to indicate it's mind dialogue. Eg:

Fred thinks, I wonder she can understand me? So he says, "Do you understand my language?"

Then he hears in his mind, "Yes, I know your language, but I can't speak it, just place my response in your mind."

That way you just combine the existing processes to meld them as a third way.

edit to fix the system eating some brackets.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

So if you can establish early what is dialogue, what is thought

I cannot find it now, but I believe I recall reading a blog entry by Lubrican some time ago saying he uses double quotation marks for dialogue and single quotation marks for thought. As I recall, he did not address telepathy.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@PotomacBob

I cannot find it now, but I believe I recall reading a blog entry by Lubrican some time ago saying he uses double quotation marks for dialogue and single quotation marks for thought. As I recall, he did not address telepathy.

If you think of telepathy as 'dialogue spoken directly through others minds', the you'd use the italics (to denote internal thoughts) with normal punctuation to denote speech (which also allow the use of dialogue tags). The rest is just basic literature.

BalRog 🚫

@Honey_Moon

If there is a lot of it, I use guillimets with italics. If there is only a little I just use italics.

BlacKnight 🚫

My personal style in fiction is double-quotes for dialogue only (except in some odd quote-nesting corner cases), single-quotes for any non-dialogue uses of quotes (like short story or song titles), unquoted italics for thoughts, and italics bracketed with asterisks for telepathy. Nested quotes always alternate double and single.

"This is dialogue," he said.

This is my internal monologue, I thought.

*This is telepathy,* she sent.

'By His Bootstraps' is a short story by Robert Heinlein.

"I prefer '"—All You Zombies—"'," he said.

(Note that '"—All You Zombies—"' actually includes quotation marks in the title.)

In my actual writing, because I write directly in HTML in a text editor and have full control over the code, that would be implemented just by tagging < q> and < cite> tags with classes and setting the CSS to style them appropriately (I have an external fiction.css file that includes a bunch of standard stuff like this that I link into all my stories).

For example, my CSS file has:

q.telepathy {
font-style: italic;
quotes: "*" "*";
}

So in the actual story, I'd write:

< q class="telepathy">This is telepathy,< /q> she sent.

And it would be formatted by the browser like the above example.

(Let's see if I can manage to keep the forum from eating my HTML examples...)

Replies: graybyrd Honey_Moon Vincent Berg

graybyrd 🚫

@BlacKnight

Red meat if I ever saw it... here come the sharks!

(Serves ya right fer postin' a sensible, workable method, with a durn good example, even! Makes the walls of SOL Forum shake 'n' shudder, it does, 'n it spiles all th' thread-driftin' chaos 'n' conflabulation, too!)

Besides that, ya talk like a BBEdit web-crafter! Insistin' on total control... Jeez! (That's the result of seein' MS Word or Frontpage output once't too often, I guess.)

My basic question is, how in Hades does anybody know what a telepath sez, cuz 1)there ain't none, and 2) iffen there wuz, they'd not use words but images, and how does one punctuate images? So... in reality, the author is just a sideline translator, like that Chorus clown in the Greek tragedy who interjects to say what the God is [really, really] sayin' ... so who gives a fig what marks are used to keep them words from all runnin' together? Hmmm? As long as they ain't hash marks from yer shorts, that is...

Replies: Honey_Moon

Honey_Moon 🚫

@graybyrd

2) iffen there wuz, they'd not use words but images, and how does one punctuate images? So... in reality, the author is just a sideline translator, like that Chorus clown in the Greek tragedy who interjects to say what the God is [really, really] sayin'

In my story, the person receiving the thought perceives it as spoken words. The genetically transformed anthropomorphic rabbit has no vocal cords. Yes, a telepathic bunny! It's a hopefully comic fan-fic written for a contest at another site. I'll post it here once the contest is concluded.

Replies: graybyrd

graybyrd 🚫

@Honey_Moon

The genetically transformed anthropomorphic rabbit has no vocal cords.

I gotta tell ya, I useta raise bunnies on the homestead. There's only THREE things that goes thru a bunnie's head (male, female, old, young, it don't matter): eat, sh*t, f*ck; eat, sh*t, f*ck; eat, sh*t, f*ck -- and that's the sum total of it. Thank Goddess for predators, or we'd all be hip-deep in them long-eared f*ckin' critters!

So listenin' in on a telepathic anthropomorphic varmint's gonna get pretty borin' in the first ten seconds or so: eat, sh*t, f*ck

Unless, of course, it's a WOGER wabbit... then all bets are off.

Honey_Moon 🚫

@BlacKnight

Robert Heinlein

Quick aside...
One of my all time best favorite authors!

Vincent Berg 🚫

@BlacKnight

*This is telepathy,* she sent.

Doesn't the SOL processing engine translate asterisks into bolded text? That would change ALL your telepathic messages into people shouting at each other from hundreds of miles away. It doesn't seem like a 'higher form' of communication to me! ;D

Replies: graybyrd Honey_Moon

graybyrd 🚫

@Vincent Berg

Doesn't the SOL processing engine translate asterisks into bolded text?

That would be a function of the 'Markdown' text processor (and the single asterisk would denote 'italics;' a double asterisk on each side denotes bold face.)

Plain text 'Markdown' files can be posted to SOL for auto-translation into HTML if their suffix is ".md.txt"; otherwise it would make little sense to apply Markdown translation to non-Markdown files such as HTML or whatever.

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@graybyrd

SOL's formatter (1998) pre-dates the creation of markdown (2004).

SOL's formatter always treated the underscore as italic () and the asterisk as bold () regardless of the submitted format.

I was surprised when Gruber released markdown and instead of underscore (the prevailing standard in usenet for italics) he used a single asterisk for italics and a double asterisk for bold. He later amended it in markdown 1.0.1 to add single underscore and double underscore for italics and bold, but didn't fix the original issue.

Replies: graybyrd Michael Loucks

graybyrd 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thanks for the flashback. Yup, instead of everyone playing nice together, it seems the denizens of both the internet and the Unix/Linux environs preferred to act like independent alleycats, each scratching in his own sandbox. Combine that with egos & greed, we got conflicting standards, warring camps, and 'lebenty-leben distros of Linux, so confusing that it's near impossible to recommend lifeboats to victims fleeing the flaming ship of Win10.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@graybyrd

so confusing that it's near impossible to recommend lifeboats to victims fleeing the flaming ship of Win10.

Although not my preferred distribution of Linux (Debian) I have read here in the forum that multiple authors have replaced Windows with Zorin OS.
The advantage of Zorin is that it can be made to look like either iOS or Windows to make the transition easier. It's based on the well maintained Ubuntu distribution which in turn is based on Debian and can make even an old computer run fast again.

Replies: graybyrd

graybyrd 🚫

@Keet

Agreed. Zorin is good; I know a few who have migrated to it. It works well for them. Ubuntu is also very good. I prefer another Debian-based distro called SolydXK; it has been rock solid for me for four years now. And my wife is comfortable with it, after her Windows died from forced obsolescence. She's never looked back. The most difficult thing for most folks is to be patient and learn working with an unfamiliar system. That's why Zorin is popular. The 'look & feel' is similar. But sadly, scratch the surface and it's something unfamiliar. They'll have to adjust to Linux methods. Most folks just won't do it.

I've found in four years that much if not most Windows software will run on Linux using the WINE interface. So there's a good chance that what one is unwilling to give up, needn't be. As for writers, there is LibreOffice for Linux. Scrivener for Windows will run under WINE.

I've chatted with a number of writers (not on SOL) who are picking up older computers, both Macintosh and Windows, and running earlier OS versions and older software, staying air-gapped off the 'net. They're both escaping Win10, and avoiding the 'net for distraction-free writing. Also they're gettng real value for the few $ they spend. (Of course they have an up-to-date system for 'net connections. That's where Linux really shines. Buy an older computer & load it up for free with new Linux, internet safe.)

I use two 10-year-old Intel Macs, a desktop and a laptop, with writing software that has reached its peak of development. And I carry around an old Alphasmart keyboard for notes and draft entries.

The point is: there's no reason to be left thinking there's only one game in town.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@graybyrd

I've found in four years that much if not most Windows software will run on Linux using the WINE interface. So there's a good chance that what one is unwilling to give up, needn't be. As for writers, there is LibreOffice for Linux. Scrivener for Windows will run under WINE.

I never used Wine. I never ran into needing software for which there is no Linux alternative. Often the Linux alternative is even better than the Windows equivalent, not to mention that almost eveything is free as in OpenSource. In many cases Wine requires careful configuration which makes it more difficult to use than simply trying out the Linux alternative. For most the difficult thing will be replacing Word with LibreOffice although LO is slowly bypassing Word in stability and functionality.
I suggested Zorin because the biggest problem people have when switching to Linux is the frightening amount of choices in desktops where Windows gives you no choice at all. Zorin solves that by presenting a familiar desktop.
I can only advise authors here that are investigating a switch to Linux to ask others that have already made the switch.

Replies: graybyrd

graybyrd 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

Again, good advice. But I'll note that there are two software programs for which there is NO equivalent or alternative on Linux (and one is not available for Windows): Scrivener, for Mac and Win, has no equivalent on Linux; DEVONthink, an incredible AI-based free-form database application, valuable for writing research, is ONLY available on Mac and there is nothing equivalent for either Win or Linux.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@graybyrd

But I'll note that there are two software programs for which there is NO equivalent or alternative on Linux (and one is not available for Windows): Scrivener, for Mac and Win, has no equivalent on Linux; DEVONthink,

If you can live with the last OpenSource version of Scrivener (1.9.0.1 beta) then it is available for Linux. Since it's OpenSource it's also free although it seems to be worth the money. Might be an alternative for those who can't afford it.
Never heard of DEVONthink but that's because it's Mac only. It seems that there are multiple good alternatives for Linux like Zim or Zotero but like most alternatives for either Linux or Windows they all work a little different. It depends on what specific functions you use to determine what is the best alternative. For Linux you are likely to get a lot of extra functionality you might find useful.

Replies: graybyrd

graybyrd 🚫

@Keet

I do run Linux; have done so for... 4 or 5 years now. Even converted the *spousal* unit to Linux, when MS turned her Win box into a container of dead rats.

That Linux version of Scrivner is too far gone, and had a few glitches, to seriously consider. Believe me, the latest Ver 2.x Windows version runs flawlessly on WINE, and with WINE now included in all the major distro repositories, it's dead simple and, frankly, a no brainer. No need for a bunch of tweaking or arcane set-ups.

As for DEVONthink... the thundering herd on the Scrivener forums will make a believer out of most anybody. I've used it for years, also, and there is NOTHING... not a damn thing anywhere... that will touch it. No Zotero, Zim, or anything Win or Linux offers. A damn shame that it takes a fairly late-model Mac and a recent version of MacOs to run the versions available for download. (I have an older version of DT on my older Macs).

Yeh, that extra Linux functionality is true, but the greatest value of all is the stability, constant security updates (automatic; no restarts!) and great internet tools ... free & opensource.

With Linux "I" own & control the computer; MS has never come around to that attitude. 'Nuff said.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@graybyrd

With Linux "I" own & control the computer; MS has never come around to that attitude. 'Nuff said.

I totally agree, that's why I run Linux exclusively. Whatever happens, I stay in control.

Michael Loucks 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I was surprised when Gruber released markdown and instead of underscore (the prevailing standard in usenet for italics) he used a single asterisk for italics and a double asterisk for bold. He later amended it in markdown 1.0.1 to add single underscore and double underscore for italics and bold, but didn't fix the original issue.

Which caused me to have to write a perl/bash converter to create markdown from my raw text files (which use the basic text formatting you support) to import into Scrivener to make my digital versions.

Honey_Moon 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

Doesn't the SOL processing engine translate asterisks into bolded text?

That's why I abandoned my original plan to use asterisks. Like I said in an earlier post. I decided that (this) would be far less intrusive for the readers. I have my character 'shout' in only one line of dialog (AND I DECIDED ON CAPS OVER BOLD). It was just easier for me. I post my stories as plain text files, after all. This is also my first use of telepathy in a story. It may be the last.

joyR 🚫
Updated:

@Honey_Moon

The bunny keeps on talking to her while giving a blow job! Oh, the wonders of telepathy!

Which is nothing compared to the wonders of empathy...! Which would allow her to feel how her friend is feeling the sensations she is creating.

Now if they were both empathic you'd have a feedback loop that would be truly mind shattering...!

ETA Almost on topic. Sorry. Feel free to continue discussing operating systems in a thread about telepathic bunny fucking.

Replies: graybyrd

graybyrd 🚫

@joyR

Oh, Joy! Br'er Bunny practicing safe computing (condoms cover its paws whilst keyboarding), concurrently engaging in flagrantly unsafe sex [screaming in delight telepathically] which triggers massively empathic rabbit ranch orgy!

(Now back on topic?)

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫

@graybyrd

I suggest you train your rabbits to leap at cunnilingus. Which in rabbit-speak is 'lepus cuniculus'...

(All the fun of sex without the population explosion)

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Forum: Author Hangout

How do you denote telepathy

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...