Jilli's drabble makes me t heart her even more than I did before, and that's saying something.

Karl, your piece is powerful regardless of its "truth" in reality. Yes, of course it helps me to know you better--I believe that stories are the only way we really ever learn each other.

In meme news, I know I haven't been posting drabbles in months despite some kick ass topics. I've felt...just...blocked lately. I guess it shouldn't be surprising given the overwhelming changes in my life this year, but it's frustrating. Is there a master list of all the drabble topics? Eventually I want to go back through and do a drabble for all of the ones I missed.

Writers, do any of you use the Master Document feature in Word to create chapters, or do you just keep writing straight through without separating chapters?

I've always used a separate document for each chapter while writing. Not sure why. Just seems easier to me.

Of course, not a pro, so not sure how much my methods really matter.

Master Document is notoriously buggy.

Of course, long docs in Word are also notoriously buggy.

Suggestions, Dana? Or do I just weep?

Definitely avoid Master Document. I've never heard anything good about it. I like the idea of keeping chapters in separate documents. You might also have an easier time with long documents (100 pages or more) if you don't have a lot of formatting. The stuff I work with usually has lots of numbered lists and the like, and they have a bad tendency to reset themselves or change numbers spontaneously.

Edit: And, of course, save constantly and back up obsessively.

I never use Master Document and I work with 100+ page docs all the time. With my largest doc (300+ pages) I keep it in separate chapters when in draft and then put it in one document at the end and add the table of contents and that's worked out pretty well. I never, ever use automatic numbering (except for page numbers in the footers). That's a recipe for fuckedupedness.

I can't believe there isn't a program like what screenplay writers use.

I like Master Document when I can remember how to use it.

Of course, long docs in Word are also notoriously buggy.

I've been lucky, but then, there's no graphics or tricky formatting or anything for straight fiction submission format; it's my Word doc default and it's yet to mess with me.

I imagine that a document with graphics, imported text, bullets, footnotes etc would have the potential to be buggy as hell.