Escape Artists
The Lounge at the End of the Universe => The Writing Forum => Progress Reports => Topic started by: SFEley on January 04, 2007, 07:31:41 AM
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As I discussed in my intro to EP087. This is my zeroth draft for the next novel project. Feel free to jump all over me if I don't keep updating this thread.
The book I received from Don at Dreaming Mind (http://www.dreamingmind.com):
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/120882384-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/120882384)
That cover's made from goatskin and mohair. I meant it: these are seriously nice books.
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January 1 & 2:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/120882572-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/120882572)
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It's actually a pretty neat book - I wish real books would come out like that, but usually it's just paperbacks. Well I for one like my books to look nice when they're all standing in line around my room.
Anyhow, you can be sure that I'll be jumping you for updates, just because you've given me permission.
Oh, and by the way, nice handwriting. It's actually readable (as opposed to my own, which even I cannot read)..
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Oh, and by the way, nice handwriting. It's actually readable
It is? Huh.
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January 3 & 4:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/120955714-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/120955714)
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Yeah. I mean, I can read it. You should see my ogrish-style of handwriting. I'll take a picture of it at some point - it's scary.
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I can read the handwriting reasonably well...
"Okay, start of my writing exercise for the book. Perhaps having to do this every day will improve my handwriting... Anyway, need to write in here about my writing. Lots of things that would be (illegible). What to do first. Well, there's the..."
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January 5 & 6:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/121398075-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/121398075)
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Oh, and by the way, nice handwriting. It's actually readable
It is? Huh.
HA!
you shuld see mine
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i can read some of it... i personally think its pretty illegible.
heh.. im gonna try to deduce more of it!
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The working title for the novel, by the way, is Diadem: A Revenge.
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Diadem: A Revenge.
I like it. I'm big on revenge.
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January 7 & 8:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/122571075-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/122571075)
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January 9 & 10:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/122571216-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/122571216)
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January 9 & 10:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/122571216-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/122571216)
Good god, longhand! A whole novel that way? Wow!
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Good god, longhand! A whole novel that way? Wow!
Well, not exactly. It's really the Zeroth Draft of the novel, which loosely means "a bunch of notes converging upon an extended outline, with variable levels of detail."
So far I've been jotting notes down upon human history in this future; the ecology, sociology, and energy economy of the planet; a few pages about the culture and 'magic system' of the AIs; a page about the POV character (who is not the protagonist); and a page about the primary villain. Plot has barely been touched upon. It probably won't be for a while, unless I feel like hitting it for a day or two, then jumping back up to the big picture.
Doing this in pen means I can't hit the Delete key and spend hours mulling over getting each detail "right." I write something down, then I move on. Once it's written down it can't be taken back easily; it can only be built upon.
This has been very productive for me. So far each page is taking about half an hour. And there's already a lot of stuff in here. This is going to be a fairly complex storyline, and this is the best way I could think of to break out of my habit of stalling and/or skipping the planning stage. By the time I sit down in Emacs for the first draft, I'll have a world, characters, and an entire plot. I might diverge wildly from them as I fill in the prose, but they'll be there to come back to. I won't get lost in the middle.
And it's surprisingly fun. I'm enjoying every page I write, despite the sore fingers. (My handwriting probably shows, too, that I'm not used to writing with a pen.)
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Okay, it is now time for us to suggest various kinds of specialty comfort-grip pens that will ease Steve's suffering.
I'm going to toss out there those lovely little soft plastic triangular cylinders that the pen goes through.
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Okay, it is now time for us to suggest various kinds of specialty comfort-grip pens that will ease Steve's suffering.
Oh, it's not the pen. I'm just way out of practice.
For most of these pages I'm using the Pilot G-2 gel pen (http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Pilot_G-2_gel_pens), which I earnestly believe is the best cheap pen ever invented in the history of humankind. Some of them were written with a Cross Ion (http://www.cross.com/catalog/pendetail.aspx?cat_name=Ion+Pens), which is always with me out of the house because it fits on my keychain.
In both cases the ink is smooth, permanent, and very black. I love gel ink. I know writers who are addicted to fountain pens, but they'd be wasted on me. Unless you're doing calligraphy (I can't), gel is far superior.
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oh yes, the pilot is the BEST pen ever. Im quite picky when it comes to m' pens, and i go for either the pilot g2 or sarasa (same)
right now, my weapon of choice happens to be a pilot.
i HATE normal, cheap bic pens now.
what mostly makes me love them is the profound black that cannot be matched. puttin the two types side by side just makes ya even more proud of the amazing black quality of the gel.
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Good god, longhand! A whole novel that way? Wow!
Well, not exactly. It's really the Zeroth Draft of the novel, which loosely means "a bunch of notes converging upon an extended outline, with variable levels of detail."
So far I've been jotting notes down upon human history in this future; the ecology, sociology, and energy economy of the planet; a few pages about the culture and 'magic system' of the AIs; a page about the POV character (who is not the protagonist); and a page about the primary villain. Plot has barely been touched upon. It probably won't be for a while, unless I feel like hitting it for a day or two, then jumping back up to the big picture.
Doing this in pen means I can't hit the Delete key and spend hours mulling over getting each detail "right." I write something down, then I move on. Once it's written down it can't be taken back easily; it can only be built upon.
This has been very productive for me. So far each page is taking about half an hour. And there's already a lot of stuff in here. This is going to be a fairly complex storyline, and this is the best way I could think of to break out of my habit of stalling and/or skipping the planning stage. By the time I sit down in Emacs for the first draft, I'll have a world, characters, and an entire plot. I might diverge wildly from them as I fill in the prose, but they'll be there to come back to. I won't get lost in the middle.
And it's surprisingly fun. I'm enjoying every page I write, despite the sore fingers. (My handwriting probably shows, too, that I'm not used to writing with a pen.)
Ahh, backgrounding in longhand then. I very rarely use longhand for anything but jotting notes and I keep a little wirebound 5.5/3.5 notebook with me at all times in case a sentence or scene strikes me. I used to be a pen snob, I admit it, and only wrote with either of my Waterman fountain pens, but when the nibs broke after three years of service I said to hell with it and just started using whatever was around.
When I wrote the first draft of Cleanup in Aisle Five I used a little note pad and a generic ball point stick pen, both I purchased at the St. Lukes Hospital store the day my dad had a stroke. I scrawled out most of the story while he was getting an MRI.
I still have the notebook and pen stored away.
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what mostly makes me love them is the profound black that cannot be matched.
Agreed. Though the other colors are nearly as deep. I first discovered the G2 when I was editing my first novel, and was in the "print out the next-to-last draft and redline it for grammar and style nits" stage. I'd been using red Bic pens, and then I took home a red G2 from the office. (Hey, I don't work there any more, the statute of limitations on pen theft is over.) >8->
When you edit with a red G2, you cannot miss the corrections on the page. It's almost as striking as a felt tip or a Sharpie, but less messy. I was a convert from then on.
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I know writers who are addicted to fountain pens, but they'd be wasted on me. Unless you're doing calligraphy (I can't), gel is far superior.
Depends on the ink. A lot of big name pen inks have really lousy blacks. You can get permenant "none more black" inks for fountain pens. It's not a huge issue for me. Also depends on the pen. I can't believe I lost my Lamy!
The gels write smooth, but they feel sloppy to me, like at any second the ink will come rushing out. Which is ironic as I suspect that's what most other people think about fountain pens.
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January 11 & 12:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/122793982-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/1/122793982)
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In my dealings with pens, I always look for 3 essential aspects.
1. How it feels in my hand.
2. How sloppy or neat the out-put is.
3. And most importantly, how quickly it dries.
For many people, the last wouldn't be that big of an issue, but seeing as I'm a left handed-chicken scratch-speed writer, whenever I get too enthusiastic, the ink ends up marking my hand and making my handwriting more illegible than before. This explains my propensity for using a type writer or word processor.
As for handwriting legibility, Steve's seems pretty good. That, and I am certain that if there was ever an illegible handwriting contest, I would win hands down ;)
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As for handwriting legibility, Steve's seems pretty good. That, and I am certain that if there was ever an illegible handwriting contest, I would win hands down ;)
Handwriting contest??
That could be fun. I'm in.
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I'll beat all three of you. My handwriting has been compared to a labrador retriever with a sharpie in its mouth.
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I gotta chime in here and say I never write in anything BUT longhand (although I throw all handwritten pages away when I'm done.) I find that this gives me a free revision when I type it into the computer, and any extra edits are a good thing. My handwriting is terrible though, it's been referred to as the writing of a serial killer more than once.
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As I discussed in my intro to EP087. This is my zeroth draft for the next novel project. Feel free to jump all over me if I don't keep updating this thread.
What, no ass-kicking?
Hmph. Guess I'll have to kick my own ass.
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January 13 & 14:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/125093447-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/2/125093447)
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January 15 & 16:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/125093666-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/2/125093666)
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January 17 & 18:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/125093296-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/2/125093296)
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January 19 & 20:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/125094364-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/2/125094364)
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January 21 & 22:
(http://eley.smugmug.com/photos/125094008-S.jpg) (http://eley.smugmug.com/gallery/2312558/2/125094008)
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Look at those pretty margins and organized paragraphs... Shame on you. Next pages I see had better be on bar napkins.
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Look at those pretty margins and organized paragraphs... Shame on you. Next pages I see had better be on bar napkins.
Can't be. He has that pretty book from Dreaming Minds.
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Doing your outline like this seems like a GREAT idea. I'll have to give it a shot on my next novel.
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My hand hurts just looking at these pictures.
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Go Steve Go! :D
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So where are the 23rd through the present? This is the 10th days you've missed. The least you could do is give us a reason.
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So where are the 23rd through the present? This is the 10th days you've missed. The least you could do is give us a reason.
I'd hazard a guess that admin on the story contest is taking more time than he anticipated. Still, if we let him have this excuse it'll just be one thing after another, and he did say that we were to nag...
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Should we give you points for penmanship?
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Er, when I was about to post something quoting the ass-kicking comment I got this:
Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.
So, er, yeah. Story contest is over.