What’s wrong with Molesknes for sketching? The very uniform and predictable paper – which is either a little too heavy or a little too thin depending on the notebook. When sketching, I prefer texture in the paper, to feel the pen or pencil scraping across its surface. Moleskine papers take ink and pencil beautifully, but the experience of drawing with them lacks that tactile pleasure. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

In recent times I have been using a good quality, acid free cartridge paper, which though ideal, is more akin to finished drawings than simply something to carry around with the purpose of scribbling in.

Then, whilst doing a little research into the possibility of creating a video podcast show about sketching, I came across some very unique, hand-made sketchbooks. These leather-bound books are loaded with hand-made paper – and that was the attraction. Hand made paper is unpredictable. It adds character and expression to lines and shading, and brings the drawing experience alive.

The interesting part of these books is that they are ethically produced. The paper is made by hand with all natural products, and since they are cloth and rag papers, no chemicals are used and they will not yellow with age.

Even the leather covers are “ethical”, being, as the maker describes:

…exclusively water-buffalo hides, cow hides, and goatskins from mature animals that have come to the end of their working life. No animals are bred and slaughtered solely for the purpose of producing leather for my books

I have to admit to it being a rather odd experience. In a society where polish, finish, and precision mass manufacturing are the norm, these books are an odd yet very satisfying change. My sketchbook does not even smell like a new book! It smells like a book that has been in my hands for years. I will not lie and have to admit it will take some adjustment to fully embrace this kind of product.

Next on the list to buy? A black-stained book for watercolour sketching (I love the deckled paper edges in particular, and this would compliment to my current book which has paper not best suited to wet media), a set of delightful smaller notebooks, and these reproduction Edwardian artists sketchbooks. Yes, I could spend a lot of money on these!

I am posting work from this sketchbook on a new SketchBlog.

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How you would achieve this, I have no idea. How I am – well on the way to – achieving this is what this post is about. Some of this may work for you, or not. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

The first draft is crap – deal with it

That reality was one of the toughest ideas to overcome – understanding that it is just fine to write a first draft that you would only consider using as lavatory paper (and then only in secret just in case anyone gets even a glimpse of the text). No one will read the first draft. With my first draft, not even me! I’ll get to why in just a moment, but first another important step: I stopped editing.

Once I came to terms with the prospect of writing rubbish I began to be far more productive, but very soon fell back into the pit of over eager editing and the resulting snail’s pace in progress because I was editing too much too early.

A pen and a Moleskine

I learned writing by hand prevented editing beyond a scribbled-out paragraph or two and a scrawled note in some nearby free space. I calculated that my handwriting would squeeze around 90,000 words into a standard Moleskine lined notebook (spend money on a decent quality notebook so you are less inclined to actually use it as toilet paper later).

This process brought me to a first draft in a couple of months. The pages filled, the story unfolded, and I found myself rapidly heading to the start of the second draft.

I kept the pace of the writing moving forward as consistently as possible. When something blocked that momentum or where some scene or action could not be worked through at that point, I simply wrote “stuff happens here to get them to the station” or similar. Can’t deal with it now? Then move on and deal with it later – you’re going to have to re-write it all anyway!

Engagement

Writing by hand seemed to have the additional benefit of embedding the text deeper into memory, to the extent that, while writing the second draft, I rarely have to reference the notebook. This is good because I do not have the neatest handwriting, particularly when ideas are in full flow.

More of the right tools

The second draft had to be transferred into some electronic form. Having as much love for Microsoft Word as a Marmite encrusted stick of celery, it took some time and exploration to discover Scrivener. This tool does what I need it to, doesn’t try to teach me how to write, doesn’t get in the way when I want to write, and has just the right level of organisation and customisability to tailor it to my needs, while ensuring I do not lose endless hours messing with too many needless settings. It’s not perfect, but it’s just right for me.

I do not use post-its or cards stuck to cork boards to play with the story, but I frequently use my large whiteboard for brainstorming plot points and working through the odd character crisis. Whiteboards are essential.

The serialised audiobook

Now this stage is likely not for everyone, but starting early 2008 I committed myself to releasing the second draft of the novel as a weekly 20 minute audio book. This established a predictable regime of writing around 3,500 words per week and structuring the work to ensure the story is continually developing in order to keep the audience’s attention. It means not only I am imposing a deadline, but so are those who email me in anticipation of the next episode.

The process also forced me to read the text aloud, frequently bringing to light issues with the text, grammar errors, plot problems, and particularly highlighting poor dialogue, which could be immediately fixed. Being the second draft, the audio version is not perfect by any means, but the benefits of this part of my process far outweighs concerns over an uncorrected error here and there.

Vacations, sickness and work trips aside, this has kept me on track. It is not without its stress, of course, as I am adding several hours each week in recording, editing, mixing and publishing the audio files, plus online promotion and building an audience. I currently have well over 90,000 words under my belt. Without this self imposed routine, I am convinced this book would not be as far along as it is right now.

What’s next?

A third draft will be necessary, as will having a trusted friend or two reading the text and providing constructive criticism. The text must be edited to improve pace and flow in some areas, of that I am already aware. And certain (and irritating to me) aspects of my natural and imperfect writing style have to be polished.

There’s a lot more work to be done and since that is in the future I do not feel able to discuss a process that I have not yet personally applied – so more on this subject in other posts.

I am looking forward to starting on the second book in the series, with the knowledge and experience of the first behind me. I may find a slightly different process, or an identical one. Processes are always subject to change, but one thing of which I am absolutely certain is that its first draft will be hand written in a spanking new Moleskine.

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“Afternoon Off”

“Searching for a Tree”

“Swinger571B”

All illustrations © Neil Dixon 2008 РAll rights reserved.

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On flickr and A Unique Space

Ink line on Moleskine.

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see larger versions over at a unique space or flickr

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aUniqueSpace.co.uk

The site has no preview thumbnails, it’s a ‘journey’ through various artworks – mostly those within my main Moleskine sketchbook. I have also added some text beneath each one. These texts may give you an insight into what inspired each drawing, or are just words inspired by the drawing. Some are sensible, others quirky.

Updates will still appear here and on flickr, of course, but I now feel far more comfortable having a specific place to collect these works together.

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Ink on Moleskine

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Click the images to pop over to flickr for larger versions ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Head in a Skirt Checking for Rain – What can I say? I believe the title has all the information you need!

Clift Chairs – A drawing after a less than pleasant experience staying at the ?ºber-trendy Clift Hotel, San Francisco. There really is a giant chair in the foyer.

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Browsershots to the rescue! This is a free service which offers screen capture previewing of your web page across pretty much every browser and system in general use today. Free does come at a price, however, as when the network is busy, it can take well over half an hour to generate the screenshots. In the UK we have a time advantage. Using the service before the US web machine wakes up means generation of a single screenshot can take as little as three minutes when the network is not busy.

The time estimate given on your screenshot generation page is usually pretty accurate, but regardless of the generation estimate, your request will timeout after 30 minutes. At busy times this is nowhere near enough time. You get around this by extending the timeout by clicking a ‘extend’ button, which effectively restarts the timeout period for 30 minutes from the moment you pressed the button – your estimated screenshot generation time does not change. So if your estimate is 40 minutes, and your timeout 30 minutes, just wait 25-20 minutes, pop back to your screenshot page, and push that ‘extend’ button.

If priority screenshot generation is important for you, for 10 Euros you can have yourself the joys of priority generation for a whole month. That is significantly cheaper than Browsercam.com – though browsercam.com does offer a significantly broader range of services including VNC remote access to specifically configured machines, which would be essential for testing more than merely the interface and for accessing password-protected sites for testing privately.

You should consider that your Browsershots generated screengrabs are viewable by anyone accessing the public screenshots page. But even when the network is fairly quiet, the queue moves pretty fast.

Incidentally, the screenshots page is an interesting place to visit now and then to take a peek at what people are building.

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It was a rather trivial piece and would likely go unnoticed by most people, but it is good to know that what is a growing activity every November is gaining some attention from mainstream press – and the one thing any online gek-thing needs for growth is traditional media coverage.

There was an interesting point made by the reporter, however. Writing is traditionally seen as a very solitary activity. Hour after hour locked in a room, locked in a battle with ideas, words, and plots. Nanowrimo has not only started to change that virtually, by focusing thousands of individuals’ efforts on a synchronised goal, it seems to be bringing people together in the real world, too. Small groups of writers have been gathering together and actually writing together – not co-writing, just sitting in close proximity, working on their individual Nanowrimo projects. Who would have thought that writing could be a community activity.

The slight downside to Nanowrimo is the number of one month novels which have found their way into print – just 18. But being published is not hat Nanowrimo is all about. It is about achievement, about reaching a goal thousands of participants might not have reached without the self-imposed soft deadline of one month to write 50,000 words.

I love the idea, and hope that the future sees tens of thousands more people giving it shot each November.

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