What are you writing about now?

[Ent]

Hope you guys' projects are faring well!

Honesty is the best pollicy....
My project has not progressed, as I've added a couple more books I need to read thoroughly, before I proceed.

Not because they're covering the same territory in the way I intend to. But they do cover some of 'the same territory' even in terms of some of the passages I intend to use inductively vs. deductively. Plus, what's being said is insightful, even if somewhat overdone.

I only continue to 'write' in my head at this point.
But the time will have its impact and results on my work, so is also not 'wasted' time.

 

[WatcherWraith]

Honesty is the best pollicy....
My project has not progressed, as I've added a couple more books I need to read thoroughly, before I proceed.

Not because they're covering the same territory in the way I intend to. But they do cover some of 'the same territory' even in terms of some of the passages I intend to use inductively vs. deductively. Plus, what's being said is insightful, even if somewhat overdone.

I only continue to 'write' in my head at this point.
But the time will have its impact and results on my work, so is also not 'wasted' time.

Part of what I have learned during the past month deals with my perspective on progress. I don't know what your perspective is, and I don't presume to teach you, only to offer an idea I have found which helped me greatly. Someone I respect, and who has proven very knowledgeable on more occasions than I can count, pointed out progress does not have to be of only a certain kind-for example, straightforward. In your case, you have been making progress this whole time, for your work continues to flesh out and develop your writing whether that writing goes in the book or only affects its style or subtlety.

I had been looking at my search for a theme with a certain idea of what progress meant, and was frustrated by my lack of it. Now I see I was making progress the whole time, even when I was stuck, for all manner of attributes go into the making of a book, from patience to writing capability. And all this is practiced when one does any kind of story-work, from research to actually writing the thing.

I hope this is either encouraging or thought-provoking and gives some help. I wish you all the best!

 

[Ent]

Someone I respect, and who has proven very knowledgeable on more occasions than I can count, pointed out progress does not have to be of only a certain kind-for example, straightforward. In your case, you have been making progress this whole time, for your work continues to flesh out and develop your writing whether that writing goes in the book or only affects its style or subtlety.

Indeed, it's good to have such people in our spheres. We need to be sure we listen..!

And indeed, this breezing and browsing of many books, and deeper reading of others, has been worthwile in several ways, some entirely unexpected.

Among them are helping me refine the framing of the whole work, and showing me what I want to avoid as I write it.

The other good news is I'm all the more convinced no one has approached the subject in the same way I intend to, and it may prove useful to a few people. (Or be a great doorstop, vieing for space in that market with our @david_wendelken's work.)

I do not rue the time being spent. In fact, I rather consider it essential on more levels now than I did at the beginning of the projecvt, having started the reading part with a rather narrow purpose in mind, the purpose now expanded dramatically.

(Plus, I'll have a whole bunch more stuff I can citwe in my work - both positively and perhaps on occassion negatively - which in a 'research and presentation' type work such as this will be, is quite useful as well.)

The really stellar good news: I don't need any more books by others. (In fact, I'm not sure there are any more out there I don't already have. But I'm making a determination if there are, they aren't necessary additions. I'll let the Tolkien Fandom shred me if I fail to cite someone of importance who has written some thing of importance, which I'm certain the fandom will be prompt to do. Tolkien himself will be my primary source however. The rest, if cited, will just be for perspective.)

 

[david_wendelken]

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!

Vol 1 spans from 3a 1389 to circa 3a 2132, at which point our heroine has been beaten down hard by events, and Galadriel invents reasons to keep her in Lorien to recover.

Vol 2 covers 1 year during 3a 3018-3019, the War of the Ring

Vol 3 covers events about 20 years ago.

 

[david_wendelken]

Adjusted the mallorn leaf color to be more golden and less yellow, to better match with the intended paper colour.

I think the text and graphic colours really look good on the ivory paper.

 

[david_wendelken]

Attended an all-day virtual conference on creating long documents in InDesign. It was awesome! I learned a whole lot of ways to make better use of the product. I've reformatted almost the entire book in a day making use of what I learned. It has a number of features that, now that I can properly use them, make it much easier to get the layout I want auto-magically. Yeah!

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

Adjusted the mallorn leaf color to be more golden and less yellow, to better match with the intended paper colour.

I think the text and graphic colours really look good on the ivory paper.

I really like the design! You did a great job with the tiny details and color for it.

Attended an all-day virtual conference on creating long documents in InDesign. It was awesome! I learned a whole lot of ways to make better use of the product. I've reformatted almost the entire book in a day making use of what I learned. It has a number of features that, now that I can properly use them, make it much easier to get the layout I want auto-magically. Yeah!

Awesome! I’m glad the conference proved very beneficial for you and your purposes with your book. Always wonderful to learn tips-and-tricks for such things!

 

[david_wendelken]

It took 2 days to totally change the styles I was using to manipulate the text and re-apply them. I'm much happier with the way it's set up (in technical terms). It will be much easier to have the other two books in the series match the styles, plus it automagically makes capital letters in the "translated" text red.

It's on the printer now, I'll wake up in the morning and see what it looks like. I've probably messed up the page numbering again, but that should be easily fixed. Tomorrow I'll try to finalize the location of the illustrations and catch any layout boo-boos. I've got one problem where text isn't going to the bottom of the page in one chapter, so I'm wasting about an inch of space at the bottom of many pages. Not a big thing but it's a bit annoying and makes more orphans than I like. (Orphaned lines are the last in a paragraph and all by themselves on the next page

 

[WatcherWraith]

Poor orphans :')

 

[david_wendelken]

Poor orphans :')

Must be because of the recent War of the Rings. Maybe our heroine needs to start another orphanage...

 

[david_wendelken]

A couple of features of Adobe Indesign that I found very helpful for me in automating layout.

I have two "translation fonts", i.e., used for the text that purports to be translated from the original "historical source documents". I want capital letters to be in a specific shade of red. It was easy to create a character-style that just changed the font colour (I called it redcap!) and assign a regular expression to paragraph styles that used those translation fonts. Bob's your uncle, the red was automagically applied as I typed!

I want words that aren't 'English' (i.e., Sindarin, Quenya, Dwarvish, Kuduk, etc.) to be italicized. I had already included an index of such words in an appendix, so it was easy to take that list, do a bit of googling to find a regex expression pattern to modify, and create a rule that would look for non-italicized words in that list and fix it. Rules have to be run once per file, they're like macros in MS Word or Excel. But that's ok, it only took a few minutes to go thru the ~35 files and fix everything.

Got the page numbering problem fixed and I'm printing out a (hopefully) final review copy. I'll read it cover to cover looking for any typos or transcription errors from MS Word to Adobe Indesign.

 

[Ent]

Well, much to my surprise, the Statement of Faith for my book Mankind, Life, and The Religion Of Opinion just poured out of me.
And it has occurred to me, this must LEAD the book rather than be Appendix A. Nothing explains better what the book is all about.

So now it will be on to the Doctrine and Covenants of The Religion Of Opinion.
(Does this mean I'm abandoning Middle-earth: Its Religious and Moral Elements - What J.R.R. Tolkien's Texts Unveil.. ??
Nope. It just means I had a few moments of Inspiration I couldn't allow to escape me.

 

[Ent]

much easier to get the layout I want auto-magically.

Yes indeed, it is most inconvenient when we employ manual-magics. Often very untidy.

I sometimes wonder what tools the professionals use, when we submit our work(s) to them for twisting into book-like form. I've never probed this arena. Perhaps time for some queries.

 

[david_wendelken]

Yes indeed, it is most inconvenient when we employ manual-magics. Often very untidy.

I sometimes wonder what tools the professionals use, when we submit our work(s) to them for twisting into book-like form. I've never probed this arena. Perhaps time for some queries.

Adobe InDesign was the tool I was pointed to by a knowledgeable friend. It seems to be pretty capable and it's way easier to use than Adobe Photoshop.

 

[Ent]

it's way easier to use than Adobe Photoshop.

Yes sir, I'll look into it along with others I may hear about. (Just general knowledge.. I doubt I'll actually use the tools, but who knows.)

As to Adobe Photoshop, I fear I only know Phothshop from of old. it was a beast then - as fun to work with as a gaggle of Balrogs (though I do know they don't have wings, so a gaggle is a little difficult in their case.)

 

[Halasían]

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!

We got a good start on this. Of course there is a lot of blanks that have to be filled in as far as life events and personality and such. We whittled down the scope some, and wrote an overview of the scene up until the end of the war with the defeat of the Balchoth by the Gondorian and Rhovanion armies. The focus will be Valacar's time in Rhovanion for the first half, and their going and residing in Osgiliath for the 2nd half. If our past collaborations are anything to go by, we'll probably be at this for years.

 

[The Witch-king Of Angmar]

I'm currently working on a little ficlet for a friend's upcoming birthday and I'm even more anxious than usual because I'm scared she'll hate what I wrote (even though it features a pairing/setting she likes). I know it's irrational to think like this, but yeah, tell that to my anxiety... 🫠

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

A LOT, that I can tell you.

I'm currently active in 5 private RPs and 1 public RP, and almost finished with a solo fanfiction I've been working on since October? I'm not sure.

Excited to publish them all at some point though!

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

I'm currently working on a little ficlet for a friend's upcoming birthday and I'm even more anxious than usual because I'm scared she'll hate what I wrote (even though it features a pairing/setting she likes). I know it's irrational to think like this, but yeah, tell that to my anxiety... 🫠

Awesome!! I’m sure she will love it. Even if the story doesn’t come out quite how you want it to be, it’s special enough that you are choosing to take the time and write this specifically just for her. A story that comes from the heart always means a great deal more.

@Tyelkormo the Fair does the same for her friends here in our Youth Group as well, writing little one-shot stories for us personally. It always touches my heart and gives me the warm and fuzzies to read them and know she loves us enough to write a personal story to celebrate our birthdays or Christmas or whatever. ☺️

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

I'm currently working on a little ficlet for a friend's upcoming birthday and I'm even more anxious than usual because I'm scared she'll hate what I wrote (even though it features a pairing/setting she likes). I know it's irrational to think like this, but yeah, tell that to my anxiety... 🫠

Personally, I'll leave it for the last couple of days. The anxiety adds a nice flavor to the final piece.👌🏼

Awesome!! I’m sure she will love it. Even if the story doesn’t come out quite how you want it to be, it’s special enough that you are choosing to take the time and write this specifically just for her. A story that comes from the heart always means a great deal more.

@Tyelkormo the Fair does the same for her friends here in our Youth Group as well, writing little one-shot stories for us personally. It always touches my heart and gives me the warm and fuzzies to read them and know she loves us enough to write a personal story to celebrate our birthdays or Christmas or whatever. ☺️

Agreed!

And aww.🥺 It almost made me want to not put snakes in your pillow anymore, Finno.