Equipment and soft/hardware suggestions?

[DeeLo316]

I'm the only one who uses my laptop. It's for sending emails, writing, video and audio editing, and listening to music. When necessary, I read e-books on it. I prefer paperbacks.

I love writing, and have been doing it in some way or another since I was a young child. I'm 70 now. To me, the act of writing is a paradox: simple, yet complex. Personally, I think it's too easy for writers and aspiring writers to get sucked into a lot of gimmicks these days. There's always somebody out there who is willing to take someone else's money for the promise of production and success. Lack of money to spend on writing tools often leads to an increase in writing creativity and productivity.

The great works of writing--fiction and nonfiction and poetry--that have endured for ages were written with "primitive" tools. To me, it's the creativity from the soul that makes good and great writing. A typewriter, computer, or voice recorder just makes preserving and sharing it easier. The basics of what makes a good story don't change.

Writing is like running, in my opinion. Anybody can do it. For most people, how well they do it depends less on gadgets and technology than grit and motivation. I like the old saying: Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

 

[HopeScribed]

So true

 

[MisterChris]

I bought a $300 HP laptop from Walmart 7 years ago, and I'm still using it. It came loaded with Windows 10 Home. I keep getting messages that my computer will not accommodate Windows 11. I do not care. I am not buying a new computer until this one dies. It's working fine. I wrote my entire novel on it, and am drafting the sequel.

When I bought the computer, it did not come loaded with Word and I refused to pay $95 for Word. I downloaded LibreOffice, which is an open source (free) word processing software that works like Word. I love it. I used it to write my 103,000-word novel. I self-published the novel in January as a Kindle ebook and paperback using Amazon KDP, but I bought my own ISBN through Bowker (USA), so if I decide to publish my paperback elsewhere, I own the publishing rights, not Amazon. I can switch in 24 hours, no strings attached. You can't do that with a traditional publisher.

Here is the download link for LibreOffice. https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/
They do updates often. The next one will be November 2025. It's all free. LibreOffice has a function that lets you combine small documents into one master document, which can help writers manage and revise chapters individually and collectively.

I use Firefox as my internet browser on my HP laptop and my iPhone. Firefox allows you to sync them.

Hope that helps!

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Something to add to this... If you let Amazon issue you an ISBN. you can ONLY sell (online) that paperback book with THAT ISBN on Amazon. You can't sell it elsewhere. HOWEVER, if later you want to go wide distribution with paperback, you can definitely purchase a new ISBN (or block of them) from Bowker, and then sell it elsewhere using THAT ISBN. (You'd want to make sure the ISBN on your copyright page matches the version you are selling, though, in each respective place.

 

[Jeff Potts]

I need a new computer. And the issue is had with atticus got me thinking before I invest in more waste.

What do you use to write?
Paper, computer ( desk/lap), tablet, phone? Blend of all or some and if some includes apps for phone that link with laptop? What are those options?

Soft/hardware/apps/widgets
What do you prefer and why?

For Drafting? Writing? Editing? Formatting?

What would you warn me about outside these random 300 publishing companies?

What is the best piece of advice you ever got?

My apologies if these are repeated by us newbies. Kindly tag me in the info thread please

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If all you are doing is writing and using editing apps, you don't need a high-powered system.

If you do audio recording, video editing., or a significant amount of image editing, you'll need something fairly beefy.

I generally stick with a PC system that's 16Gb of memory, at least 1 TB of disk space, and an Intel i5 or higher. And I use Office 360 which is something like $129.00 a year. I'd also get a good virus checker like Norton. Then again, I use these for video editing and audio recording.

 

[Lynae Fisher]

Just a warning, I've heard that Window 10 will not be supported much longer. When that happens, I'll be forced to go to Linux whether I want to or not, because I'm not happy with W10 as it is and am not willing to have anything to do with 11.

So your actual computer may still be fine, but may not work with the internet once they quit supporting it. That's what happened to me when they dumbed Windows 7.

 

[HopeScribed]

If all you are doing is writing and using editing apps, you don't need a high-powered system.

If you do audio recording, video editing., or a significant amount of image editing, you'll need something fairly beefy.

I generally stick with a PC system that's 16Gb of memory, at least 1 TB of disk space, and an Intel i5 or higher. And I use Office 360 which is something like $129.00 a year. I'd also get a good virus checker like Norton. Then again, I use these for video editing and audio recording.

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I also do blogging and lots with AI

 

[JayCee]

Win10 reached end-of-life in October which means no security updates November and beyond. Continuing with Win10 will be riskier than normal . I just replaced my Surface Pro of 7+ years, so I got money's worth out of it. I splurged on a higher-end HP laptop and expect it to last.

 

[HopeScribed]

Part of me wants the Surface Laptop. But I really don't want to drop 1200. Technically, I could, but this close to "Christmas," I will be making it harder on my family. I really like the Omnibook, but I don't like the keyboard on the 7. It looks small online

 

[Johne]

I was a lifelong Windows user but converted to MacOS to write on Scrivener in its native Mac-first form.

I have a M4 Pro MacBook Pro, dual monitors, and use a KVM switch to share a gaming keyboard, mouse, and webcam between Mac and Windows.

In general I suggest getting as much RAM as you can—I'm always bumping my head on RAM restrictions (mostly too many Chrome tabs open at once thanks to ADHD, heh).

 

[lynnmosher]

HopeScriber, compare the Omnibook to Dell's Ultrabook Inspiron 15 or similar.

 

[HopeScribed]

I was a lifelong Windows user but converted to MacOS to write on Scrivener in its native Mac-first form.

I have a M4 Pro MacBook Pro, dual monitors, and use a KVM switch to share a gaming keyboard, mouse, and webcam between Mac and Windows.

In general I suggest getting as much RAM as you can—I'm always bumping my head on RAM restrictions (mostly too many Chrome tabs open at once thanks to ADHD, heh).View attachment 20336

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I'm similar. tabs for days.

HopeScriber, compare the Omnibook to Dell's Ultrabook Inspiron 15 or similar.

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Ok, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[carolinamtne]

Hope, can you get by with what you have until after Christmas? Then see what you can afford?

You might look at refurbished laptops from Apple, not from Walmart. The one I bought from Apple was a MacBook Pro 2015 model, and if I hadn't dropped it on its WiFi mechanism, I wouldn't need the Windows laptop I'm writing on now. The Mac in the meantime, continues just fine, although due to its age, there are programs it won't run. But it has the MS Word that was bought and paid for. Now (after having someone hack my other computer, bought so I would have WiFi) I use it for whatever I want privately private, no internet access.