Handwritten.

I was thinking about writing the next thing I write with a pen and paper. This is a massively inefficient habit I have struggled to break over my life (hence the obsession with nifty organizational word processors like Scrivener). When I was younger, the stuff I would write was neat for a twerp (ah to be 17 and grammatically correct) but I just wouldn't ever put it down to word processor. The pages would permanently occupy a three-ring binder in their sloppy entirety. One of my teachers (art teacher, though he had much more faith in my written work than paintings... and he was right, as it turns out) always asked why I never bothered to type things up. Since my handwriting was so bad, he would never read it unless I typed it up. So, anyway, the point is that this is, perhaps, a backwards step for me but I want to give it a try. Something about the pacing of handwriting that could maybe allow thoughts to form more fully in the space of a sentence.

I have decent notebooks, I have a nice pen (I'm a big fan of Lamy fountain pens)... it's probably worth a shot. So many writers I respect do things in this method, after all. And, there's a possibly unintended benefit: In the transcription process, taking the sloppily written hash from pad to screen I tend to do a little self editing to correct the flow and pace and terminology. In that way, the first draft that lives in a computer tends to be a bit more polished, which is nice.

Some strategies to make the handwriting thing work out:
- Must must MUST break things into planned chapter spacing, ie determining what will happen within the space of a chapter and restricting myself to those topics (otherwise it could get out of hand and out of control).
- Must keep things well organized
- Must do my best to spell and write not-sloppy... because sometimes even I can't decipher my "chicken scratch."

Article on JPG Magazine site.

I wrote an article to submit to the JPG Magazine site. Not sure if it'll make it to publication in the actual magazine, but if you want to read it anyway, here's a link:

http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/585

On our recent holiday, Lesley shot most of the pictures with a few "Toy" cameras. In the process of doing so we saw a number of advantages to using them and thought it'd be a good topic for an article of this nature. I've been picking away at between other projects. Anyway, it's there to be read. Enjoy. Also, if you're a jpgmagazine.com member, you can vote on it (I'm not sure if positive votes means its more likely to make it to print, but right on). Thanks if you are/do.

In other news, every time someone has asked me how my leg is I've been answering "still broken." Is that mean? I hope not, I think it's kind of funny.

Challenges! Rar!

It has been a most challenging few weeks for me. After our trip overseas, the film festival the next week and a busy work and school schedule, amidst an especially busy week of training, I had my leg broken for me. I would say, had the circumstances been different that I "broke my leg," but the way it happened I feel the only accurate description is that it was broken for me. How? Sloppy, clumsy tackle against me on the football (soccer) pitch. Am I bitter? Trying hard not to be. Positive vibes help so much in the process. Am I in pain? Yep, especially when I get into a negative mood, which has been a little more frequently as the days restricted as to what I can do drag on. I've given up on TV, finished the book I was reading, so all that is left is internet multiplayer Mah Jong or Chess and simply doing my best to get some writing projects looked at and touched up.

Between the meds, pain and stationary limitations, I've been pretty out of sorts but I have managed to plunk a new draft of an article together (one more draft tomorrow morning and it should be in it's final phase), get a sizable chunk of a chapter in my book written, and feel pretty confident about where other projects were headed. The chapter was especially important because I've been in a pretty big stall with that story for quite some time now, so much so that I took some time off to work on other things (the short I finished a bit ago). How I got through the sticky part was with a liberal smearing of weird. That's the best way to defuse any tough plot point in anything, let the strangeness of your own mind guide you through the perhaps unlikely yet compellingly strange plot devices you dream/imagine between dozing/waking. Thanks subconscious! I own ya' another one.