I use wordperfect for my personal writing and it handles large docs effortlessly. Haven’t had a crash since moving to their x3 version. But I use Word at work, my girlfriend and her hubby use word Mac for their professional writing and it ain’t any prettier on that side of the fence.

Might I suggest, if you feel like you need to stick with word, you look into the latest version? It is hell on learning curve (so don’t even think about it now … is that a deadline I see before me?) because they’ve changed just about every thing about it, but the file format is much better, smaller, and more manageable for the computer (less choking on big files) and once you get used to it the new layout is pretty good. I do not know, however, if it is any better with long docs. Cause, you know. Word sucks.

Open Office is a good Word-alike but no idea what it like for large docs either. Scrivener looks good but complicated and just how good is the export to Word feature?

As a non-author/writer I find it fascinating to read how different authors approach their craft and what tools they use (and how).

MS is just … *screams*

I saw on Libba Bray’s blog that you are also having nasty flu aside from homicidal thoughts about that stupid paperclip! I hope you feel better soon!

Or – you know how they say if you just think about exercising for 20 minutes, it’s as good as actually exercising, maybe if you just think about lying in the sunshine for 20 minutes (there has to be some music you can use to evoke sunny thoughts) you will actually get some vitamin d.

I sent my novel off last night, and I can now vouch for the fact that if you just keep turning up and hacking at the thing, you eventually get to the end.

Write like the cyclone (but not tracy)!

hahahahahahaha! at the video. that is hilarious. perhaps you could change the paper clip to the cat? it won’t really improve the situation, but i find that a cat asking me if i’m writing a letter is far less aggravating than a moronic little paperclip, for some reason….