What are you writing about now?

Halasían said:

It's a collaborative-writing project/roleplay, but Elora and I started on a story that focuses on the part of the history of Gondor from 1226 III to 1430 III. Named canon characters that will receive some development are Kings Narmacil I; Carmacil; Minaltar becoming regent and basically ruling Gondor in their stead' Minaltar's alliance with the Northmen in their war with the Balchoth; Minaltar becoming King Rómendacil II; Valacar becoming Gondor's ambassador to Rhovanion; Vidumavi and Valacar getting married, and their return to Gondor. Looking forward to this!

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Great!!!

Made good progress on loading my book into InDesign. The front pages, title page, a table of contents placeholder, the prefaces, and the first chapter.

The import from MS Word process is still a pain, it screws up the text formatting. It's easy but tedious to fix it. I have a few more things to try tomorrow that (hopefully!!!) will help.

I have 11 chapters plus the prefaces the booksy stuff one puts at the front of a book loaded into InDesign. (Except for the table of contents.)

Just a bit under halfway loaded.

I found out I have to convert the MS Word .docx file to an .rtf file before loading it into InDesign. Jeesh. It looks good but loses a lot of the "style" assignments.

I'll get it all loaded, then print it out and look for stuff that didn't format properly, etc.

I got the entire book into Adobe InDesign. Now to print it out and verify completeness, correctness, fonts, character colour and size, etc.

After that, I'll add in the illustration placeholders.

Plus, I found some line drawings of bees I can use as inspiration for my own illustrations. Yeah!

Bees are cool

WatcherWraith said:

Bees are cool

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I have pondered much on bees.
Mostly because they seem to have an unhealthy fascination for me - I've never been able to determine why.
Not that I'm a paranoid Ent, but it does seem like if there's a bee anywhere in the vicinity, it WLL seek me out.

Some day, I'll tell you about my most facinating experience with a butterfly on one of my many fishing trips in my youth. (Yes, I was young once.)
I enjoyed the butterfly far more than the bees.

david_wendelken said:

After that, I'll add in the illustration placeholders.

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Sounds like you continue to progress well.

As to my own writing project and its progress, I'm still revising and expanding Chapter 1 as necessary to 'set the table' for the rest of the book.
Meanwhile, Chapter 2 is being written in my heartwood, as I move toward it.

We will take up Tolkien's Creation, the "elements of religion and morality" it unveils and sets afoot, and how it is similar to yet very different from the 'Catholic/Christian' background most say he 'was unable to avoid' infusing into his works. (Not that he WANTED to avoid it - nay rather, he intentionally infused it. But I don't see many (make that any) writing about how he also intentionally departed from that same background and worldview.)

After we deal with his Creation and how it sets the stage for all the rest, we'll move to dealing specifically with the elements of religion and the elements of morality separately, letting the text inductively show how Tolkien both contained (absorbed) and reflected (mirrored back), in solution,* his elements for the reader's discernment and extraction. He said the elements must be in any work of fantasy/mythology. Our business then, is to ferret them out and see what he included, and how he did so.

* - these three points, 'contain,' 'reflect,' and 'in solution' being points taken directly from his leter 131 of 1951 to Milt Waldman. No word he used was dropped lightly.

We will not so much address the 'why'. Others have spoken to their opinions of the 'why' ad nauseum...and many take him much farther down roads he did not tread than he himself itended (in my opinion). We will leave much of the 'why' to others... and at the end of the day, I expect the 'why' is entirely wrapped up in the actual recipient of the work itself to begin with... only the reader coming to know 'why' Tolkien did what he did IN THEIR PARTICULAR CASE.

Tolkien's work is a very "individual" work. Much of it is common to all. Some of it is specific to each individual absorber of the work.
It is difficult to write a "why" when a work does not (and is not intended to) resonate in the same way for all.

Got the files re-loaded where I had done some stuff wrong. Or Adobe InDesign messed them up afterwards. I'm not yet clear one way or the other.

Was able to print a draft version of my book. Now I need to go thru it and make whatever adjustments are needed.

I suspect I'll need to repeat this process a couple more times.

Fought with Adobe InDesign today. The printed book is looking better. I decided to stick with printing a PDF file for the next dozen tries until I get the overall layout correct.

Not happy with the look of the book and chapter labels and page numbers in the margins. Not sure what I want to do about it yet.

Each chapter starts with the chapter title and a dateline. I think I'm going to add some small seasonal icons next to the date if I can come up with some. Mallorns complicate the obvious choice, that of leaves in the four seasons. Hmmm.... Any ideas?

Page numbers are still mucked up, they start over with each file instead of increment throughout the book. I know it can do this and thought I had the settings correct, but obviously they aren't correct yet.

I think I figured out how to increase the gap between the first footnote and the bottom of the text. It's too close. Ditto with multiple footnotes on the same page. (I use footnotes mostly to translate the elvish and dwarvish words that were left in the translated text or the modern commentary. The rest would be to explain about Anor and Arien, Ithil and what's his name (it's very late as I write this), or why a reference to a specific Valar would be made in the context of the conversation.)

Once I get this done and verify the chapters start on odd-numbered pages, I can switch from PDF to a printed copy for the more detailed, word-by-word and letter-by-letter formatting checks.

If I remember right, aren't mallorns gold all year round? I may be wrong...
I wonder if flowers would work. Seasonal flowers which grow in different times of the year. Depending on your sources, you could probably find some....Actually! There's a book called Flora of Middle Earth: Plants of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but if you find it for free online, perhaps it can help. :]

Got the paging right, but not the page numbers. They are just plumb cray-cray. I just don't see a pattern to what they are doing.

Spacing between footnotes is now good, spacing between the body text and the top footnote on the page is better but not right. Progress!

I have an idea for the book and chapter name text that's on each page spread. I'll test that out later today.

If I knew this program already this would be a much easier task than it is at the moment! So book 1 and book 3 in the series should be much, much easier to lay out!

Finally figured out how to fix the page numbering problem. I even have an idea of how it got gummed up so badly, but I'm not going to bother with setting up a test to prove it. If I'm right, it's because the user-interface is best defined by terms mannerly folk might object to, and if I'm wrong, more strongly worded terms would apply that mannerly folk would definitely object to.

Right now, I'm going thru the book changing en-dashes to em-dashes (where appropriate, of course!) What's the difference, you ask? I suspect they are called that because an em-dash is as wide as an M and an en-dash is as wide as an N (or the lowercase versions thereof.) An en-dash is used to connect words together, such as Middle-earth. An em-dash is used to denote a break in speech and thought, such as "Ok! You go to — no, you stay here!"

I'm also looking for words in the wrong font, or missing quotation marks, or stuff that needs to be justified or unjustified text, etc.

I'm making a pass thru every file. Tomorrow I'll print out a copy and then do a pass thru the printed version. I've found that some of the subtle font choice mistakes are easier to spot in print.

I also added my dragon-harp/mallorn leave asterism to the file in all(?) the places it is needed. I replaced all the embedded versions of it with a linked version to an external file. That way, if I need to change the colors a bit once I pick the paper to print on (as it will also have a color), I'll only have to change it in one place.

I'm pretty sure I'll have the layout done by the end of next week. Sooner, if I quickly nail down the illustrations I'm going to do, as I have to add placeholders for them in the file. As soon as I do that I can start bookbinding a sample copy.

Progress!

Your work sounds like it's going to look beautiful when it's all finished. I wish you all the best progress and refreshment.

WatcherWraith said:

Your work sounds like it's going to look beautiful when it's all finished. I wish you all the best progress and refreshment.

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Thanks! I'm doing my best! As I've told other folks, I don't know whether other folks will find it a good read, but my arthouse copies will be the world's most glorious doorstop.

Pulled this excerpt out to share with you. It's from an agent of our hero's nemesis, who is reporting back to his evil boss. The agent accompanied several of Sauron's armies when they attacked Lorien. He's escaped and travelled from Lorien thru Rohan and then on to Eriador where his boss is, in order to make this report. At this point, he's reporting news he heard on his travels back to Eriador.

Imagine how you would respond if a trusted agent reported these events to you...

Those who survived ran for their lives. So did I. The few Variag who managed to stay ahorse escaped for the most part. I only survived because I was lucky and encountered a riderless horse returning to camp.

As I travelled through Rohan and Dunland to make my way back to you, I heard many stories. I had to travel slowly once I was well within Rohan, for they were a nation at war and not friendly to strangers. Some were clearly the wild sort of rumours one hears whenever war ravages a land. But others were official pronouncements by the heralds of Rohan.

They claimed walking trees drove Saruman from Isengard and destroyed his army of man-orcs. Gondor captured the Corsair fleet of Umbar with an army of the dead, then destroyed Sauron’s armies before Minas Tirith, including the Witch King of Angmar! A new king of Gondor took up the kingship. And on the morning of the twenty-fifth, the same day the battle of the Ford of Celebrant ended, two half-sized men destroyed Sauron and his Nazgûl. The Towers of the Teeth and the mighty Fortress of Barad-dûr fell and were no more!

I do not know whether all this is true – it all sounds crazy-wild! But I do know the Rohirrim believed it.

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Finished my first pass of layout and editing in Adobe InDesign. It's on the printer now!

I'll have to go through it from front to back and look for any errors that slipped through and fix them.

Then, I need to add the place-holder pages for the illustrations.

After that, I'll print out a copy and try book-binding it. And start drawing illustrations!

At last, I have my theme! I wish I had done certain things sooner, but all the time I spent on this has not been wasted at all, so perhaps there is nothing to regret.

"Is preserving your moral integrity more important than your life or the lives of those you love?"

There are many answers to this question, and I myself don't necessarily know the real answer, or answers, yet. All my characters will have their own beliefs which may or may not change during the story, though I already know Amandil's will evolve.
I mean to make him the kind of hero who fails his own principles and then uses his failure to learn. His mistakes will guide him towards a better understanding of morality, and his decisions will not necessarily be either popular or comprehensive to his companions or his enemies. Someone who is more relatable and interesting than the hero who changes very little from their initial beliefs, or than the hero who goes through trials and emerges with a totally new set of beliefs.

I've received so much help through my process already. I wouldn't have come as far as I have without that help, and now I must continue(after work). On to the plot-theme and then the plot itself. Of course, over time, everything will receive tweaks and tinkerings...I haven't hit the final draft by a long shot in any case. But I have my theme, at long last, and I am very happy. Now for a small Reese's to celebrate :]

Hope you guys' projects are faring well!

david_wendelken said:

Pulled this excerpt out to share with you. It's from an agent of our hero's nemesis, who is reporting back to his evil boss. The agent accompanied several of Sauron's armies when they attacked Lorien. He's escaped and travelled from Lorien thru Rohan and then on to Eriador where his boss is, in order to make this report. At this point, he's reporting news he heard on his travels back to Eriador.

Imagine how you would respond if a trusted agent reported these events to you...

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I gotta admit, I had not realized your story spanned such a length of time! From Amroth to Aragorn; such an eventful life...makes me eager to see the story once you're fully done with it!

david_wendelken said:

Finished my first pass of layout and editing in Adobe InDesign. It's on the printer now!

I'll have to go through it from front to back and look for any errors that slipped through and fix them.

Then, I need to add the place-holder pages for the illustrations.

After that, I'll print out a copy and try book-binding it. And start drawing illustrations!

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Are you self-publishing? I ask because, while I am stunned and impressed with how much you're doing to make your book both accurate and beautiful, it also sounds like a lot of work and I hope you're doing alright. I've heard self-publishing is hard.