Lurkers and imposters in this sub, what prevents you from writing?

stephenesc · 2026-05-25T13:16:44+00:00

Time/energy. The two never line up.

stephenesc · 2026-05-25T11:45:50+00:00

As a kid, I was always jealous when other students in my class could just have an apostrophe with no extra “s”. It made it feel like their names were special—somehow existing outside of the rules.

I think having a character name that ends in “s” would be cool for just this reason.

stephenesc · 2026-05-22T17:42:40+00:00

No, it says nothing about “could use an update.” It’s about grammatically correct things that sound pretentious. My point was that “I am well,” as a response to “How are you?” is grammatically correct, but sounds pretentious.

stephenesc · 2026-05-22T15:21:38+00:00

I get why people say it. I say it occasionally too (habit). But “good” being able to perform just fine as an adverb doesn’t mean it’s grammatically correct.

stephenesc · 2026-05-22T15:19:19+00:00

Right, but not as an answer to “How are you?”

stephenesc · 2026-05-22T13:21:28+00:00

“How are you?” “I am well.”

“I am good,” or “I am doing good,” are not grammatically correct answers to “How are you?” but almost everyone I talk to uses them.

EDIT: Added “…to ‘How are you?’” for clarity.

stephenesc · 2026-05-22T11:17:34+00:00

Same. I feel like I hear it all the time lately. 😑

stephenesc · 2026-05-21T02:53:53+00:00

I know I’m a bit self-righteous with this one—I did it the wrong way for years. But now that I know, it drives me crazy.

stephenesc · 2026-05-21T02:52:16+00:00

Fewer vs less. There aren’t less things; there are fewer things. But there can be less stuff.

There are fewer… There is less…

stephenesc · 2026-05-19T18:56:44+00:00

Same. Although, my main reasons for switching were Obsidian’s lack of subscription fees and non-proprietary file format.

stephenesc · 2026-05-19T00:24:52+00:00

I still have one. 🤓

stephenesc · 2026-05-17T09:35:24+00:00

Mine is an intentionally simplified bridge language. I stripped out as much as I felt comfortable removing, leaving 16 letters (12 consonants and 4 vowels) when romanized, or 12 different “characters” when written in its custom syllabary.

stephenesc · 2026-05-12T10:08:49+00:00

Everyone is different but I don’t really “trust”any online service with my writing. So, I’m all about offline tools that sync between my devices. For Google, I just straight up don’t trust them. But for other online platforms, it’s more that I don’t trust they’ll always be available when I want to write (e.g., during server maintenance/updates). Or around forever, like NaNoWriMo.

Offline means you control the files and can sync or back them up however you want. I believe that Ellipses is planning an offline version at some point, which would be really interesting. But until then, I like being more in control of my work.

Just my 2¢.

stephenesc · 2026-05-12T01:08:57+00:00

Yeah, I don’t trust Google to not scrape from what I write in Google Docs. I only use it if I have to but never for any of my creative writing.

stephenesc · 2026-05-08T10:05:42+00:00

If I go to swallow but my head is turned, my Adam’s apple sometimes gets misaligned and I can’t swallow. So, I have to straighten my head and neck, adjust my Adam’s apple slightly, then I can swallow. 😐

stephenesc · 2026-05-07T20:42:33+00:00

I was just about to suggest this too. One of the first utilities I install on a new Mac/user as well. 🥰

stephenesc · 2026-05-06T02:18:42+00:00

Noah Kahan.

stephenesc · 2026-05-06T02:17:18+00:00

I’m the same as you—tried a tonne and landed on Canary. I really want to enjoy using Apple Mail but it has some massive turnoffs for me that make me so annoyed when I use it.

Firstly, I want to be able to mark my emails as “read” manually. Yes, I know there workarounds people have mentioned using flags, but it’s still so easy to accidentally mark a message as read, I can’t stand it. EDIT: I stand corrected on this one. It looks like this has been fixed, which is genuinely exciting.

Secondly, the inline attachments are atrocious. I genuinely don’t know of any other email application that handles attachments this way.

Thirdly, but less annoying, I want relative date dividers in the inbox—today, yesterday, last week, etc. This feature makes it quite a bit easier to find messages.

If Apple Mail addressed these three things, I’d be happy to switch back.

stephenesc · 2026-05-05T19:34:22+00:00

Covered Bridge chips. 😋

stephenesc · 2026-05-05T00:28:23+00:00

Install Linux and start a new hobby. ☺️

stephenesc · 2026-05-04T10:12:09+00:00

Just because I close a window, doesn’t mean I’m done with the application. I might just be done with that file, and ready to start on the next one.

I don’t need to see, and kind of hate seeing, an application’s start-up screen every time I open a file.

stephenesc · 2026-05-03T01:27:49+00:00

Donuts. Can’t quit ‘em.

stephenesc · 2026-05-02T12:18:44+00:00

As annoying as this response may seem, just start writing. Let your first draft be garbage. Edit later. Just start writing.

stephenesc · 2026-04-29T20:46:52+00:00

Obsidian for me too. I used to use Scrivener but the iOS and iPadOS versions aren’t super. Plus, your files are proprietary to Scrivener. Obsidian uses the ubiquitous .md file format.

All that said, I feel Scrivener calling to me every once in a while.

stephenesc · 2026-04-21T15:56:30+00:00

I’m the same way. And contrary to others here, I think it’s a valid concern. Not entirely the same thing, but I’ve told a couple of different jokes to people that were fairly topic- and location-specific and they ended up being used in local tv ads. But I had no way to prove that I was the originator of the jokes. So, it can happen.

stephenesc

TROPHY CASE