Add Jude's interview and portrait

posts/jude.ellison.s.doyle.markdown

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+---
+title: Jude Ellison S. Doyle
+summary: Writer
+date: 2024-04-14
+categories:
+- mac
+- writer 
+---
+
+### Who are you, and what do you do?
+
+My name is [Jude Doyle](https://judedoyle.com/ "Jude's website.") ("Jude Ellison S. Doyle" if you publish me, because Google Reader tells me there are a thousand 65-year-old Irish traffic cops named "Jude Doyle" in the world) and I have, at present, two roughly parallel careers. 
+
+I started as a non-fiction writer. In that capacity, I'm a trans feminist who does reporting, opinion and culture writing, currently for [XTra Magazine](https://xtramagazine.com/ "An LGBTQ+ magazine.") -- Canada's biggest LGBTQ+ magazine -- and for my newsletter, [jude-doyle.ghost.io](https://jude-doyle.ghost.io/ "Jude's newsletter."). I've written two non-fiction books, "_Trainwreck_" and "_Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers_," and I have a third on the way. 
+
+I also write comic books, and that's my favorite thing that I do. "_The Neighbors_," which is my second limited series with Boom! Studios, came out in collected edition at the beginning of this year, and it just got nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. "_Maw_," which is my first series, just got translated into Italian through Edizioni Tlon.
+
+### What hardware do you use?
+
+My great fortune is that I don't need anything but a laptop and an iPhone to do my job. The laptop is a [MacBook Air][macbook-air], the smallest and cheapest one with the fewest frills. It's gold, because I got creative. The iPhone is several generations out of date, because I'm too cheap to replace it. It works, though.
+
+### And what software?
+
+Here's where I have opinions for you. First: I don't know how anyone has ever written a book without [Scrivener][]. It auto-saves; it gives you different pages and folders within the same document, so that you can keep drafts and outlines and research and notes all in the same place; it has templates for different types of writing. (Shamefully, all of my comic book scripts have been written using the "Comic Book Script" template.) 
+
+Second: Everything about my reporting got better when I started using [Trint][]. It's a voice-to-text transcription service that costs $60 a month. You have to go in and correct its mishearings yourself, but it's very easy to do so. Before I had Trint, I would try to record interviews on [GarageBand][] or [Voice Memos][voice-memos-ios], and transcribe the best quotes by hand, or (worse) take notes while the other person was talking. The conversation couldn't follow any kind of normal flow, because I was always asking the other person to slow down, and I was more focused on taking notes than on what they were saying. I also couldn't adequately review it afterward -- any good conversation is going to be too long for you to go through it with a fine-tooth comb when you're on deadline. 
+
+Anyway: With Trint, I just pull up GarageBand or [Zoom][zoom.2], record the conversation, and upload it. I've been able to do longer profiles, report on more sensitive stuff (you don't want to make someone rehash a trauma while you're pausing them every five seconds to take more notes) and write reported pieces that capture the ways people actually talk, which I think just makes for a better reading experience. 
+
+Finally: I don't know if newsletter platforms count as software, but I have strong opinions on those, too. Do not do business with [Substack][] if you can possibly help it -- it's the cheapest option, and it can grow your audience relatively quickly, so I understand why people start out there, but the management are the shadiest creeps I've ever had to deal with in a work setting, and they're increasingly outing themselves as Nazi sympathizers. My newsletter is currently on [Ghost][], because it's got a lot of bells and whistles, and because it's a non-profit, which makes me think it'll be more stable in the long run. Ghost is also really expensive, though, and [Beehiiv][] has most of the same extras for about half the cost, which makes me think I'll probably move there some time in the next year unless I get a big spike in paying subscriptions.
+
+### What would be your dream setup?
+
+I want the computer to spit out fresh-baked donuts and tell me I'm a good boy every time I meet a deadline, but the science is not there yet. What I have is probably fine.
+
+[beehiiv]: https://www.beehiiv.com/ "A newsletter publishing service."
+[garageband]: https://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/ "An audio recording and editing tool for the Mac."
+[ghost]: https://ghost.org/ "A web publishing service."
+[macbook-air]: https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/ "A very thin laptop."
+[scrivener]: http://web.archive.org/web/20190626125457/http://www.literatureandlatte.com:80/scrivener.php? "A Mac text editor aimed at writers."
+[substack]: https://substack.com/ "A paid newsletter service."
+[trint]: https://trint.com/ "A speech-to-text transcribing service."
+[voice-memos-ios]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS_3#Voice_Memos "An app for recording voice memos."
+[zoom.2]: https://zoom.us "Video conferencing software."