FoME's Tome · 12:00pm May 30th, 2016
As the tags indicate, this is a sentimental blog. I'm giving a sendoff to a helper and friend that has been with me for years, but with which I must now part ways.
I am referring to this:
This stalwart little notebook has seen years of horsewords.
This is the first draft of the first chapter of The Implicit Neighs, complete with a little doodle of Pinkie's cutie mark in the top margin. My apologies for my handwriting.
And I burned this candle at both ends, because the back served as a Magic card idea repository.
This page contains the first ideas I jotted down after watching "Princess Twilight Sparkle," in preparation for the first Friendship is Card Games blog. (Also a Moonfolk Ninja and a Homestuck card.)
And here is where the prose and cards have met. On the left are some scenes for story idea set in the Oversaturated World. On the right, my notes for "Applejack's 'Day' Off," using my usual double-ended format. There's still a little room left, but not terribly much. So I bid my dear notebook farewell, and prepare to crack open another one. Especially since I have a story waiting for the final coat of polish before putting it up on the site.
You have nice handwriting.
Good lord, if I tried to write that much by hand, my hands would be a mess of cramps and pain. I've long since forsaken paper and ink; I only use them for grocery lists and quick notes-to-self nowadays.
Of course, my handwriting is so bad I can't even read it, so...
Wow, you write your stories by hand too? I do that most of the time, but sometimes if I get writer's block I'll switch to typing to try to give myself a different perspective.
I suppose it's the arts-and-crafts side of me that likes to hold a physical pen or pencil. The words tend to flow more easily. Then when I type what I've hand-written, I can go into self-edit mode.
Oh man, I remember mine. It was one of those small square standardized paperback notebooks, about half the size of A4. I wrote a ton in it. All of it was terrible, but it was what made me the writer I am now. When I finished the first one, and found I still needed to write, I'd staple a new one to it, back-to-front, and that gave it a sort of weightiness that I felt unduly proud of. I managed up to three before the bulkiness of it tugged at the staples too much, tearing it open.
Now, those books are all in a drawer. I take them out and look at them exactly once every time I visit home. I cringe, then smile, then try to forget the experience altogether.
...What is this "paper" you speak of?
I'm afraid I don't recognize the UI, can you tell me what operating system you use?
......But seriously, I could not write horse-words on paper, I'd constantly be trying to find space to add multiple alternate lines for the same scene, and cross out everything and squeeze in new lines in between, and then use color-markers to highlight things I'd still need to fix later, and then how would I even erase the colors? And that's NOT accounting for spell-checking.
Not to mention, I REALLY REALLY don't wanna type it all back into a PC afterwards. Copy-paste is my friend!
Heck, I used to unconsciously make "CTRL+S" finger-gestures in school --- on paper.
Oh, also, fun-fact - I only became a comic-artist when I discovered how easy it was to draw in Flash 8.... with a mouse.
No kidding, for ~2 years, I drew and animated everything with a mouse. Got a tablet after that, couldn't go back now.
Heck, I even had an "arts course" in university that made me turn on even trying to pick up a pencil again for over a year, because it was utterly infuriating to draw without CTRL+Z, Copy/Paste, and backup-copies.
I did eventually give pen & paper another shot, and found my groove when I realized that I could just scan, print, edit, and re-scan my drawings, so I could have the "instantaneous-ness" of pen&paper, without loosing the benefits of drawing on the computer.
But writing stories? On paper? Nope nope nope.
At least not for me.
I wish I could use a notebook. Ironically, I usually get my best story ideas while in the shower, so I basically have to commit them to memory on the spot.
It has served you well, Fan, and may now be retired to an honored spot on the book shelf.
I either use an old pad of old-timey printer paper to take random notes like lists, very rough outlines of stuff or quick calculations, or a huge sketchbook from back in college for when I want to sketch out more visual stuff.
The cheap pad of paper tends to just find its filled pages torn away and thrown out, but the sketchbook is starting to be pretty much the same caliber of relic as your sacred tome. Thankfully, the day it gets filled to the brim is still far away.
Here's to more beautiful years of sketches, and one cheer for all your past, present and future notebooks!
Also I love how obviously used the cover looks. It's clearly a long-lived, cherished item.
Oh notebook thine notebook! Your fearful trip is done!
Looks remarkably like the interior to my own notebooks
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I don't write all my stories, or all the parts of the stories that I do. My latest one never saw paper, for example, and I have several floating around in .txt files and unpublished Fimfiction chapters. But a physical notebook lets me jot down ideas and scenes almost anywhere without fumbling with a touchpad keyboard, and I can do it without the distractions of the Internet lingering a click away. Plus, as 3983171 noted, transcribing handwritten stuff offers a great opportunity to start the editing process.
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I have several slimmer notebooks that preceded this one, but I haven't yet improved to the point where I cringe upon looking at them.
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Oh, I recite entire scenes in the shower, complete with voices. Brushing my teeth can get frustrating, since I can't make sure the dialogue's flowing as naturally as I hope it does. And yes, there is some loss in fidelity between thinking of the scene and getting it down in a more permanent manner.
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Heh. Now I'm imagining the notebook becoming the central relic of a monastery a la A Canticle for Leibowitz. Long would the monks ponder the trials of the equine saints and the Voynichian script filling the back half of the codex.
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The pages weather'd every stroke, the prize I sought was fun.
The site is here, alerts I hear, the readers all exulting.
While follow eyes the pony prose, the comments, few insulting.
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the feeling terrible.
Where on the desk my notebook lies
Markéd gray and full.
That's a neat little notebook. :o
Farewell little notebook! You did good son.
You did good.
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Your handwriting looks *exactly* like my brother's. But he says he does not share my Bronyness. Hmmm. Now I'm suspicious! ;)
I was scared you spoke of a dying human friend.
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Given that my sister not only knows about my broniness (bronyness? bronocity?) but has watched the show with me, I can confirm that barring soap opera-style shenanigans, I am not your brother.
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No, that's specifically why I used "that" and "which" rather than "who" and "whom" in the teaser.
3987058 Yeah, that's what they all say. :P
3987058 Pretty sure most of what I recite in the shower is either metal lyrics or memes or the hummed tune to memetic non-metal songs or brilliant intros to papers that I'll never write.
I'm pretty sure I made up a whole backstory in the shower a couple days ago. Speaking of which...