What are you writing about now?

Well, removing the windows update solved the InDesign problem for now. Hopefully I'll get a patch from Adobe soon.

I've reprinted my laid-out book, now I have to go thru it and figure out what layout elements were lost.

I've fixed the issues caused by the file saving issue. Just have a few graphic images to finish up.

I extracted a few pages from my book to show how the layout is going. I think it's starting to come together.

Still have more editing to do on the text and graphics, but this is representative of the look I'm going for.

david_wendelken said:

I extracted a few pages from my book to show how the layout is going. I think it's starting to come together.

Still have more editing to do on the text and graphics, but this is representative of the look I'm going for.

Click to expand...

The colourful heraldry is very eye-catching! I love looking at those kinds of things.

Server Room Gremlin said:

The colourful heraldry is very eye-catching! I love looking at those kinds of things.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Since my book is a collection of various "historical documents" written by different people, I use the graphics to aid the reader in knowing whose Point-of-View (POV) they are about to read. There are a couple of examples in the PDF.

I have the book layout as done as it will get until the final edits to the text are done. I'm refining some of the graphics, but I'm focusing on binding a copy to test out my cover design ideas. 3d printer is busy printing out the castable bits so I can verify that version 2 will do the job.

I am seriously contemplating starting a blog of Tolkien research. Are blogs even a thing still these days? I am so itchin to write down so dang much, though time is the enemy to me until I retire here in a few years.....sigh......

Backyard Professor said:

I am seriously contemplating starting a blog of Tolkien research. Are blogs even a thing still these days? I am so itchin to write down so dang much, though time is the enemy to me until I retire here in a few years.....sigh......

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I would say if it's something you feel like doing, and you think it's worth the effort, go ahead. I occasionally read things in a blog about history, so people still do engage in such things. And I sometimes run into people's blog posts when I'm researching something or other on the internet.

Will 3D print the waxes for the letters and heraldic badges that go on the cover of Book #1, A Tale of Two Tales.


I'll be making molds of them and casting them using the lost wax method. That's when I heat up the molds and melt/burn out the wax, leaving a properly shaped hole in the mold to pour molten metal into.

The blue areas are what I will be casting. The purple areas are just supports that are necessary during the 3d printing process. I'll remove them before casting.

The tabs you see on the letters and heraldry are sprues. The molten metal I pour will flow through those into the shape. After I break open the mold to remove the cast metal, I have to carefully saw away the sprues and file the saw marks away.

After casting, I'll be enamelling them. I have sockets cast into the back of each item to seat metal bolts that will enable me to fasten them to my wooden book cover.

While I wait on my editors to make their comments, I've been doing the artwork and bookbinding prep for book 1, A Tale of Two Tales.

A whole lot of the prep work is done, so a week ago I started back on book 2, Shadow War in Middle-earth.

Couldn't make any progress on writing new material. Nothing was working.

Part of it might have been physical fatigue. But a couple of good night's sleep in a row didn't do the trick.

I don't care if you disagree with my next assessment of the cause and neither does anyone else, so don't bother.

The situation is affecting my writing, and our writing is what this thread is about.

A big part of it is pure dread about the murderous fascists in my government and wondering what atrocity they'll do next. Hard to focus on Middle-earth when my fellow citizens are in danger of being summarily executed in the street, or kidnapped and disappeared, or raped by guards in detention centers, or being shipped overseas to countries they've never been to before.

Other people may have a similar writer's block from different causes - worry about jobs, marriages, general social anxiety about some upcoming get-together, sociopathic bosses on their back, etc.

So, here's what I did to break past that and get writing again:

1) I re-read multiple chapters and chapter fragments to refresh my memory of the story-to-date and its characters. (Many new human characters in this book as time has passed.)

2) Edited those chapters to get my mind familiar again with each narrator's writing style.

3) Let my subconscious noodle away on how to finish some chapters.

4) Did other tasks related to the book like artwork to get other creative parts of my brain involved in the project.

Finally moving forward again. Chapter 3 was half written and the overall next events were sketched out, but not the particulars of how they happened. I figured out a good way to assemble various threads (character traits and skills, plus geographic and cultural background info) into an action plan for a rescue.

Yeah!

There are many 'time-thieves.' ALL of them clothe themselves with the word TYRANT of some form or kind.
Your particular Tyrant is currently a thief to many.
There are many other Tyrants - they all demand you listen to them, believe them, let them do what they will with you, and to you - at all times.

Your course of action was healthy and well-managed. Something can be done about every Tyrant clamoring for your attention and demanding to be idolaized.

We must find the way to place the Tyrant in its proper position in life, so what matters more resurfaces. (And most often, the things 'mattering more' are LEGION by com;parison... the Tyrant is just loud, insistent, and pervasive.)

Well done.

Backyard Professor said:

I am seriously contemplating starting a blog of Tolkien research.

Click to expand...

What do you want this to "look like" and what do you want it to "do" ?
Are you seeking a "repository of research" of your own? Or are you seeking a place where people either also seat, or even exchange researh information?
Are you seeking a "discussion type forum"?
Are you seeking something that becomes its own "Time Drain" on you eventually, or some place to seat stuff requiring little of your own continuous attention to maintain? (referring to the above, one with potential of Tyranny over you?)

Be careful with it is my only caution. Define its purpose for you both now and into the future, lest it become something you did not want or intend, in the end.

That will also help guide your choice of online vehicle to employ for it.

Two resources that might be useful for your writing:

10/10 not only for accuracy, but for great meme positioning. They look like they're yelling at each other. XD

Still having issues focusing on my writing as the underlying issues haven't been removed.

I found a good scene quality control checklist online and read through it. The writing wasn't coming on the next scene so I started jotting down notes based on prompts from the checklist. Examples:

• Is the reader grounded (who, what, when, where, and why)
• 5 senses included: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.
• What is character's goal in scene?
• What are the stakes?
• Opening hook?
• Does it open mid-action?
• Does tension increase?
• Is there a reversal or surprise?
• Is there a climax?
• Resolution?
  
  And so on. Jotted down ideas as they came to me. Went to the next scene and started doing the same.

Very rough draft of Chapter 3 of Book 2 is written. Lots of wordsmithing needed, but the story's bones are good.

Our heroes have failed to catch up with the kidnappers, but they are (likely) on the right trail up the River Anduin, heading towards the northern vales of the Éothéod.

Now to finish the next chapter!

The letters and heraldic badges for book 1 are all 3D printed, ready to go thru the casting process. Just finished designing some dragon-harp "rivets" for the cover in case I decide to mount the letters and badges on an enameled metal plate rather than to the wood. They will be used to hold the metal plate to the wooden cover. I put "rivets" in quotes because they will actually be bolts.

These are very tiny, the harp-shaped portion is only 1.5 millimeters high in total.

New work:
I'm working up a timeline checklist for the quest in book 2. Too many moving parts to make sure all the travel times and distances add up. Not fun but essential.

Editing Existing Work:
Creating a scene list for tale #2 in Book 1. I'm concerned the tale seems to episodic in nature, I want to tighten up the causality chains between events. I'm on chapter 8 of the 32 in tale #2. It's helping me better understand what I need to add to the scenes to make the causality more apparent. I.e., This happened. Because it did, this next thing happened. Etc. Also not fun, but necessary.