altered writing.py to see if open() would continue to CREATE files if I changed the string. It did.
reversed the previous change.
put the "create new file" in a function to use later; used the "append to existing file" option, but left off part of the file name, which created the new "dice_log" file.
rm dice_log, fixed dice.py so it appends to dice_log.txt, tested dice.py; I think that's all for tonight.