What are you writing about now?

Tyelkormo the Fair said:

I'm finally publishing the last solo work I've finished. Hope you all like it if you decided to read it.

Fanfic - One Life For The Sake of The Rest

Chapter 1: The High King Marches He blinked his eyes open, the crisp air sending shivers down his poorly clad form. The scent of cypress tickled his nose. The light and misty wind caressed his skin softly. He smiled, reaching out with a hand, hoping to find his little nephew by his...

thetolkien.forum

Discussion - One Life For The Sake Of The Rest Discussion Thread

I'm Finally posting this on TTF as well. Some of you might recall me mentioning how I was starting to work on my Of Doom & Death series but changed my mind as I wrote down my idea. Well, this is what it ended up to be. This story is heavily inspired by old wives' tales and folklore regarding...

thetolkien.forum

Click to expand...

I'm in the midst of a writing/editing frenzy, but when that slows down I'll read it!

Had a fun moment over the weekend. I have a friend who has been reading my work as I get each section to first draft status.

She sat down to read the 7 bad guy backstory chapters I've written, plus a page of "editorial commentary" by the ancient and modern historians who compiled Volume One, plus Galadriel's letter and a 4th age entry into the Annals of Lorien.

Partway through the letter she set down the page and said, "Oh!"

She sat and looked at the page thoughtfully and repeated, "Oh!"

She had suddenly grasped how the new backstory pulled the entire series together. It was a good day.

Busy laying out the edited/re-organized Volume IV (Lorien in the War of the Ring) in Adobe InDesign. From there I'll use Adobe PDF software to group pages into folios and print them to be hand-bound. Yeah!

Finished the first cut of the layout and printed a test copy. Finished reviewing it. I have a couple of appendices with tabular info in them and the tables don't have the right cell margins. It's hard to read. Have to find the magic setting that creates an inside the cell margin.

I have to update the regex code to include all the new "foreign" words so they will be properly italicized, and the bold setting on the font I'm using looks great online but horridly humongous in print, so I get to change that setting and the regex expressions in about 40 files. It will take a few hours to a day before I can print another test copy to review.

Hope to hand-bind a few over the coming week.

Made the changes and am printing out a copy to make sure I got all the problems corrected.

Ready to print!

david_wendelken said:

Ready to print!

Click to expand...

Look at you, just keeping at it, persevering, and producing..! And not just in the writing, but in the full-cycle book production. What an encouragement!

As I've posted here, my Book has evolved significantly, and I'm in the midst of defining crucial terms as they fit into 'right thinking' to development of a valid Perspective, as opposed to a stunted Opinion.

The terms are critical, because we 'know them' but we do not know them as they rightly fit into proper thought processing. (Another benefit of the System and the Machine as they work to stear us away from rightly engaging with occurrences, each other, and the world.)

I've refined my "Right Thinking Cycle" now to include all steps in their proper order in the full cycle. If anyone's interested, it will be posted here. (Just please don't share it abroad widely yet, as it sits as the central focus of the book.)

This model is set in direct juxtaposition to what happens as we allow ourselves to be diverted into Opinion rather than Perspective.

Of course, a Perspective held without continuing challenge simply calcifies into an Opinion again, as we fail to continue to think.

Some who have seen even my earlier models have decried them, saying "nobody can do this." "Nobody really does this." "This is impossible." And more even less seemly replies. However - my book, and dare I say, my life, is a testimony to this one fact:

Our mind is like a muscle, and it will think exactly as we train it (or don't train it) to think. Exactly as we allow history, circumstances, conditioning, and more, to hold sway over us, rather than retaining control of our own inherent being and abilities.

So... the reason I present this 'full cycle model' so so speak, is to benefit those who want to explore it, compare it to what they do, and if desired, we can open up a channel for discussion of it to see "What the thinking behind the Model is" and "what the man behind the curtain" tries to do to keep us from getting our minds back to functioning as they should.

(Not that 'I've arrived, folks. It's kind of like a shark. As we begin to uncover the layers holding us back, we come to realize 'we need a bigger boat' - and the only one able to help us build it, is ourselves. (unless we find like-minded folks to work with along the way... not so easy to do, as ingrained as Opinion is in all of us.))

Let me know if there's interest.

And if I've failed to tell you what the new book title is, here it is:

TO GROW OR NOT TO GROW: The Slavery of Opinion, the Freedom of Perspective, and Why It All Matters.

Book One in its 3 parts is churning along. Book Two, a deeper dive into the chains and tools to overcome them, is shaping, and Book Three, spinning into the depths of the "being" of it all, stands on the sidelines scrubbing its hands in anticipation.

An ode to how much I hate spammers

🎼🎵🎶

Ent said:

Look at you, just keeping at it, persevering, and producing..! And not just in the writing, but in the full-cycle book production. What an encouragement!

Click to expand...

Thanks! Perseverance is my only true artistic talent. The rest comes from sticking to the hard work of getting the job done right.

Last folio is printing this morning.

Not quite done with the art for the folio stays, should finish that today.

Folios are folded and in the book press. The art that will be sewn into the binding isn't quite done, but it's close. Expect to finish it tonight.
It's taken several iterations to get the design and size right.

It has a hidden meaning embedded in it, too.

Sounds like it feels good to be almost done.

WatcherWraith said:

it feels good to be almost done.

Click to expand...

Being done. Sounds great, and would be nice..!
But-- do trust we're all still writing. I think about you all regularly..!

Regarding my own efforts: Developments, progress, and surprises.

Feeling my model, and the Diagram representing it, had reached its final and accurate form, I sent the Diagram - The Cycle of Growth - to 4 writers/authors along with a brief of the book's content and intent. The feedback was a bit overwhelming.

One, who declared my earlier model 'impractical,' now proclaims it 'genius.'
Another says its "Wonderful. Just Wonderful." He's intentionally running his own life and experiences against it step by step, and will provide me full feedback.

The 3rd proclaimed it 'Great Stuff.' A decent thinker, he then went on to tell me about a new project he has afoot, wondering if I can serve as writer/editor. (Sigh.)

The 4th hasn't responded,. Though surprised - I refuse to 'speculate.' A waste of mental energy--and I know eventually, he will..

That said, one of them also suggested it would be nice to have a brief "definitions key" alongside the Diagram help with understanding its terms and their fit. A great idea.
As you already know I'm carefully building Appendix A, the full Glossary of Terms, with Definition, Contextualization, and Application of the key terms of the Diagram and the core of the book. (The same Glossary will be used across all 3 books.)
So I've added this briefer "Key to Terminology." As each Glossary term is formed and completed, I'm moving a succinct, direct definition into the Key, for use by readers. It will have many uses.

"Meanwhile back at the ranch" - (what an odd phrase) - three days ago, another poem hit me by surprise while I was working. I wrote it out, It expressed how I was feeling as I continue development of this book.
Yesterday, I realized the poem, slightly altered, will be used in 4 places within the book--much like Tolkien's The Road Goes Ever On and On did in his. I had no idea. But the use and decision is clear.

Thinking on this, on the way to work this morning the entire Introduction to the book opened up to me, ending with the first version of that poem--the one already written. I rode the muse aflame, and have now written the Introduction in full. It's ready for refining.

The master diagram to Growth for the book is done, the Glossary and Key will soon be done, the Preface revised, and the Introduction refined. The Diagram reflecting our path to Opinion, juxtaposed to Perspective, will be developed showing how we are derailed from right thinking.

The rest of the book's structure is all in place, and the writing will flow done apace. This is Book I. Books II and III are yet to come - but much of this preliminary work, diagrams, definitions, etc. flow across all 3 books.

Things continue to move, and with increasing pace.

Keep at it everyone. We are beset by deceit, derailment, and disorder on every side as we work to move ahead. Our conditioning and others' Opinions will rear their heads - little voices telling us 'it can't happen. It's not possible. It's outlandish to even think such a thing." (and much, much more. )

But these aren't Truth. They're the results of all the Affective Influences ingrained and sustained since we were in the womb--quite literally as explained in the book--and beyond, seeking to drive and hold us to a conformed, compliant citizenry driven by the stagnation that is Opinion, rather than learning and knowing how to develop clean perception, and deliver proper Perspective, so we can grow.

"To Grow or Not To Grow." The choice really is ours. But 'Wide is the gate and broad is the road leading to Opinion, and many enter and follow it. Small is the gate, and narrow the road leading to Perspective, and few there are who find it."

Ent said:

Being done. Sounds great, and would be nice..!
But-- do trust we're all still writing. I think about you all regularly..!
......

"Meanwhile back at the ranch" - (what an odd phrase) - three days ago, another poem hit me by surprise while I was working. I wrote it out, It expressed how I was feeling as I continue development of this book.
.....

Click to expand...

I'd have to assume you never watched serialized Westerns on TV or any B-movie Westerns.....🙄😉

Almost done hand-binding a copy of volume IV, Lorien in the War of the Ring. Woot!

Two more threads to sew across the spine and then I'll sew the front cover on. I'm so excited!

Awesome! It must be quite the labor! Sounds impressive :]

Done!

At least until I have the enamel panel to add to the front cover...

I'll post a video in the morning.

Hopefully this is accessible. I'm not a skilled videographer (which will soon become apparent), but you can get an idea of the book's aesthetics and content.

There are two photos and 2 videos.