What are you writing about now?

Besides the RPs and works I have mentioned before, I have three more WIP at the moment.

One centers the remaining Fëanorian brothers after the sack of Menegroth as they cope with their grief.
The other, which I've wrote one short chapter about, concerns Celegorm and my own OC, his romantic interest in Valinor, and has a much lighter air around it.
The other which has us return to Beleriand, is my own backstory of a very famous yet unknown character from Tolkien's works. I'd have talked more about it, but I don't want to spoil it for a certain someone who is waiting for it.(Looking at you, @Fingon_Findekáno 👀)

That's all with me.

Tyelkormo the Fair said:

I'd have talked more about it, but I don't want to spoil it for a certain someone who is waiting for it.(Looking at you, @Fingon_Findekáno 👀)

Click to expand...

Well now you’ve got me all intrigued! My mind is blanking out on what it could be. 😂

Fingon_Findekáno said:

Well now you’ve got me all intrigued! My mind is blanking out on what it could be. 😂

Click to expand...

You might get your answer soon as I have just the right scene in my mind for its opening.👀

Made my first attempt at drawing the lady in my planned illustration. It was pretty awful. I figure it will take another dozen to hundred attempts to learn how.

Persistence is a super-power.

david_wendelken said:

Made my first attempt at drawing the lady in my planned illustration. It was pretty awful. I figure it will take another dozen to hundred attempts to learn how.

Persistence is a super-power.

Click to expand...

You'll get there! I recommend looking up techniques on YouTube :] Seeing people's work in action may help.

david_wendelken said:

Made my first attempt at drawing the lady in my planned illustration. It was pretty awful. I figure it will take another dozen to hundred attempts to learn how.

Persistence is a super-power.

Click to expand...

I recently saw this post from a Silm artist and she was sharing a few tips about how to improve your figure drawing skills. She said she used her own body as a model for hands and such.

Tyelkormo the Fair said:

I recently saw this post from a Silm artist and she was sharing a few tips about how to improve your figure drawing skills. She said she used her own body as a model for hands and such.

Click to expand...

I do use my own hands and body as a reference when I need to and when it's convenient (like just for getting the basic angles right), but given that I draw a lot of tall, muscular male Elves, needless to say I definitely rely on photo references too. 😂

I was looking at the NW Middle-earth map that comes with the LOTR as part of the prep for making my own map and panicked a bit. The scale on the map shows that the distance from the Mirrormere to the falls of Nimrodel is about 50 miles, and the distance from the falls to Caras Galadhon would be another 50 miles. Not what I expected!

Turns out the text of the book says it's 5 leagues and another mile from the Mirrormere to the Nimrodel. So, about 16 miles if a league is 3 miles. It was a two day walk from Nimrodel to Caras Galadhon, so 50 miles is workable, particularly if one includes the sense of rejuvenation one would feel in the Naith.

So, gladly, the text of my book matches Tolkien's on the travel times!

Whew!

Now, for the fun part! I realized that material I put into the prequel book matches the type of events alluded to in the Lothlorien chapter. Nice to know my instincts were right!

Having fun at my printing/bookbinding workshop. Started making my first box to hold a book.

Tested out a print I designed last year. This won't be in the book but it's representative of the style I'm going for in a number of the illustrations.

Today I learned the parts about the book-binding process that I had not been able to puzzle out. When I get home, I'll be able to start binding my first book copy!

Oh, forgot to mention! I finished the first draft of another chapter in book 1, where the main character and her current husband met and fell in love.

I've started to fill in a chapter about the main character's travels in eastern Middle-earth. This part of the story has been hanging fire for 30 years. I think I may finish it in a couple more weeks!

That was the good news. Bad news is I think I started this chapter from the wrong POV (Point-of-View). I think I need to switch it from 3rd person omniscient to first person. Good news is that's not so hard. Will only take a day or two.

What progress have you all made recently?

Are you stuck on something and need advice?

Enquiring minds want to know!

My book folios are in the book press to compress them. I'll guillotine the edges to make them flush in the morning. I've marked the front and back wooden covers to cut in the morning, too. (I don't like to use dangerous tools when I'm tired! Bad juju!)

I got some good advice in one of the bookbinding books I picked up this weekend at the Penland craft school. If you are going to tip in prints like I am, put blank placeholders in the folios so the hard book spine you cut will have enough room for them! So, I have to cut about 30 pieces of glassine (a thin, transparent paper that I'll be using to protect the book pages from any ink that comes off the hand-printed images and slip them into the folios, then cut some blank sheets the right size to represent the tipped in illustrations. I'll start sewing the folios together tomorrow. So excited!!!

PS - My keyboard has some crud in it that's causing the p to double up like this pp. I need to buy some compressed air in the hopes I can fix it without having to call Dell. (Definitely DO NOT want to attempt to remove the key, clean it, and replace it. Not a good idea with this keyboard design!)

david_wendelken said:

What progress have you all made recently?

Click to expand...

Not much, unfortunately, simply because of lack of time. I hope I can make time for my book soon, but life has been a whirlwind lately.

david_wendelken said:

What progress have you all made recently?

Click to expand...

Umnhhhh... my own progress is also at the 'not much' level. (Actually, less.)
Since our last dr. visit, I'm needing to make significant changes to the Entwife's diet (and my own), so am investing a good deal of time in researching the needs.

Writing on the book adds a good deal of time and stress to the cycles and the physical/mental system, so it's tabled until a more appropriate time.

Meanwhile, I just dapple in the character studies I'm currently having a bit of fun with, which some know about. Slowly gathering notes and links in case I decide to do an actual essay on one of the characters particularly - Severus Snape of Rowling creation to be clear. A most fascinating character.

I started the work I told you about earlier, and two other solo works. One, I intend to be long and the most interesting of my solo WIP's. I might post the prologue at some point, but the rest will have to wait until I'm somewhat finished with it.

david_wendelken said:

What progress have you all made recently?

Are you stuck on something and need advice?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Click to expand...

I finished writing the stated and unstated beliefs of all Amandil's crew! Now I will be moving on to the inhabitants of the lands Amandil will be visiting, as well as to the bad guys, for their perspective must be given as well :]
Not stuck on anything yet, but there's my progress.

WatcherWraith said:

I finished writing the stated and unstated beliefs of all Amandil's crew! Now I will be moving on to the inhabitants of the lands Amandil will be visiting, as well as to the bad guys, for their perspective must be given as well :]
Not stuck on anything yet, but there's my progress.

Click to expand...

Knowing **who** you are writing your story about is a big deal!

As I mentioned before, I will be adding to my book (over the next year) 31 full page illustrations that were drawn and printed by hand. I'll be gluing in the illustration along its top onto the placeholder page that's reserved for it. This process is called "tipping in" the illustration. You can see it in old art books before digital printing became the norm. (The caption for the illustration is already printed on the book page.)

I've just cut glassine sheets (thin, transparent paper) to insert between the tipped in prints and the facing page. That will protect the book page from any ink that comes off the tipped in print. Since the tipped in print will be a separate piece of paper that's raised up above the book page underneath it, it will be subjected to a lot more friction. The glassine sheets will be sewn into the binding of the folio just like the regular pages.

I'm now cutting the print inserts. Half are done. More accurately, I'm tearing them with a tear bar. It produces what's called "a deckle edge" and is a clear indication that the print on that paper is probably hand-printed. Even though I don't have prints on them, I need to use them as placeholders. They take up space and I need to know how much in order to make the wood for the spine thick enough. Plus, when I sew together the folios, there will be room in the stitching for me to put the prints in place later. (Or, at least, that's the theory.)

Back to tearing! If it doesn't work, I'll be tearing it out and tearing up.