Because, Yeah, I Write Software…

 
Back in 2004 or so when I started blogging, I finally shook off the last of what I called my "typewriter habits". The first typewriter habit I ditched after college (because, yes, I'm old enough that I used a typewriter to type my reports in college) was the urge to hit the spacebar twice after full stops (periods). In 2004, I stopped indenting my paragraphs with the tab key.
 
Shocking, I know. 21st century and all, and there I was, typing journal entries with indented paragraphs. Journal entries. That no one would ever see. Laid out and formatted like I was typing up term papers.
 
Once I started blogging, though, I changed. No more indented paragraphs, and a blank line between each paragraph. I adopted that format for all my writing.
 
Which was great, right up until I started releasing ebooks.
 
I *like* writing with no indents and a blank line to separate paragraphs. It's very … laid back. And blocky. It looks good in my entries. And in my stories in The Journal.
 
But you don't format fiction that way. Not in print, not in ebooks.
 
Converting from that format into something useful for an ebook or printed book had become a problem-prone chore. I wasn't looking forward to doing it over and over.
 
I saw two choices:

I change back. Not for the blogs or journaling. But for the fiction. Because changing my habits is so easy.
I write a software tool that does the work for me.

 
I went for the second choice.
 
Because, yeah, I write software.
 
It's a very simple tool. I save out the entry from The Journal into a proprietary format. The tool loads that file and runs it through a few conversions steps. All empty paragraphs are removed, all left-aligned paragraphs are indented, and the default font and point size are set to something generic. This is then saved out as an RTF (rich text format) file that can be opened in MS Word and easily manipulated.
 
It took me less than 3 hours to write the tool. The tool will save me a more time than that in January alone. And I'll probably improve it as I go along.
 
Some days, I *like* being a software geek.
 
-David