A return to the Moleskine and pens and writing and more…

As I’ve mentioned before, I love moleskines, the pocket sized, with lines.

But where I used to use them only as a capture device, I have finally branched out. I have sort of suddenly started using the large soft-cover moleskines for writing. By hand. Which is tricky, since within minutes my hand starts cramping and within hours I can no longer read or remember some of what I’ve written.

Yeah, sounds like a good plan, huh?

["Writing content?" you ask. "Is she finally getting around to a bit of the promised writing content? And this? Is it?"]

Oh, hush. I’m getting there.

Sometimes when the muse is playing hard to get, I find that I can go to the local Tex Mex cafe and sit with a bowl of chips and salsa and pull out my favorite fountain pen (except I have the extra fine nib) and–okay, sometimes, the iPod, too, with music that fits my story and mood–and somehow, words come there that weren’t coming at home.

Maybe because they don’t count. They’re unofficial. They aren’t even allowed to show up in the manuscript yet, not even in the rough draft. They are just messy words in ink that might even smear, that might not ever make it to prime time…

And they show up.

It’s odd how that happens.

And more often than not, those words go home with me and get typed into the manuscript and wow, they are good.  Good enough to keep in that rough draft, anyway.  Sometimes several hundred of them.

Do you realize how many years I’ve been writing? And never, ever wrote by hand? And suddenly, I’m doing it with regularity?

I guess you can teach a drinking aged Pooks new tricks, huh?  (Did you really think I was going to use the o-word there?)

And to my delight, you can now get Noodler’s Black Waterproof Fountain Pen Ink from Amazon. Free shipping (since I also have Amazon Prime, that is very cool, because I can order it and not pay shipping, which I used to have to do when I ordered it elsewhere. Plus, I’ve never bought this black before, and was actually kind of wanting Hunter’s Green, but I am pretty sure black is the only waterproof ink, and I’ve found that when I use highlighters (have I mentioned that I love highlighters?) they sometimes smear the ink and, yeah, I decided my next bottle of ink would be waterproof, because if I can’t read my own writing when it’s not smeared? Smearing is not an option.

And while we’re at it, I stumbled across another cool site that pays attention to notebooks and such.

Notebookstories.

Check it out.

Pssst. By the way, I just ordered a new Lamy fountain pen.

It’s purple.

Excuse me while I squeee.

What I’m Reading Now

Well, lots of stuff, mostly research for the novel.

But I’m also reading Flesh and Fire: Book One of The Vineart War.

 

When I preach, I remind myself that the Collegium was created for one purpose: that the world not forget Sin Washer, and how–and why–He came to us.

And thus begins the prologue in which the world is revealed, a world where Vinearts have the responsibility of tending the magical grapes and making the wine-blood that was created by Sin Washer’s blood.

Magic and wine-making, a compelling combination, and the first book that has held my interest enough to make me sit down and read it in a long time.

That’s the book du jour on planetpooks.

So, I promised posts about writing…

And I’ve been kind of busy writing.

But whilst I’m writing, I thought I’d share this post about writing, and living, and zen, and other stuff like that.

There are two problems with it.

It makes me want to buy that book.

Which isn’t a problem, because, okay, just did that.

However.

It makes me want to clean house.

Don’t worry.  I’ll get over it.

(And I think Toni might think I just used too much white space.)

I’ll get over that, too.

Time Release Drama

I bumped into trouble when I discovered that the adder bite doesn’t have an immediate reaction, which kind of kills the drama.

“SCREAM!!!!!!!”

::whistles::

:: digs toe in dirt::

::clock ticks::

::two hours later::

“Ouch! I hurt. Oh, and hey, I think I’m going to vomit, and look at that, my leg is starting to turn black….”

Bugger that.

****this is where a picture of an adder

would be if I didn’t refuse to put such a picture

on my site because it would give me nightmares****

Okay, I just gave myself nightmares looking for a picture of an adder to link to above for those of you who want to see one, and you notice there isn’t a link, right?

You’re on your own.

First, a disclaimer.

I love process.  I love reading about how other people write. I love talking about process. I love knowing habits, struggles, quirks, agonies, ecstasies, superstitions, muses.

And I also think that when one talks too much about how the sausage is made, one may ultimately remove the magic from the story.  Not for oneself, but for those who later read it. I’m glad JKR wasn’t keeping a blog the entire time she was writing the Potter series, and that each book arrived, like the magic it was, fully-formed and ready. I’m glad I didn’t know which sections she worried over, which ones she fretted might not make sense or might not fulfil her vision. I’m glad I didn’t have the author’s personality firmly imprinted on me while I was reading, and was instead, able to sink into her universe.

So my own selfish need to babble about the process is at odds with what I think benefits the book ultimately, and thus, these babblings may disappear.

That said, let the babbling begin.  Don’t expect profundity, just my mutterings as I work my way through the process of finishing the first novel I’ve written in over fifteen years, and a novel that is far more complex than anything I’ve ever tackled in my entire life.