A bunch of older pencils have reached stubby stage at once. Hard to tell without a full-sized pencil for scale, but all of these are within a sharpening or two of being retired to the shorty pile: pencil pasture.
So we're just over a week into this year's mad venture. How is everyone doing?
- I've finished off about 75 comp book pages (hopefully more by this evening).
- I'm again enjoying scribbling with pencils, finding myself most appreciative of the middle-of-the-roaders which are dark enough for easy legibility but still hold a good point: Forest Choice, possibly first in line. Ticonderogas. The older Golden Bears. Staedtler Noricas. Cedar Pointes (though these are a *little* on the too hard and not-as-smooth side) and the new Field Notes pencils.
- I have a story, which wasn't the case a week ago, and I've already been through several ups and downs on the roller coaster:
"This story rocks! It's the best thing I've ever written! Almost like real writing!"
"This is a bunch of pathetic, overwrought, repetitive garbage. Why do I do this to myself year after year?"
In other words, same old NaNo.
I also haven't made it to the gym in rather awhile because I've mostly been writing in the mornings and transcribing at night. Other excuse: I spent part of the week with a cold. Also spent another part of the week wondering if my character was queasy because I was really, truly queasy, or if I was queasy because my character was queasy. (Half the office had a stomach bug, so I did have valid reasons to wonder.) Writerly chicken or egg.
I also have to be careful not to write work e-mails and memos in my protagonist's style. Seems like this post devolved that way.
How about you? How have things been going?
10 comments:
Those pencils have gotten stubby quite quickly.
Gym? What's that? I gave up and started running and weight lifting at home. I increased my biking from 3 miles to about 5 daily and as much over that as I can on week ends, and I have a $10.00 NordicTrak from Habitat ReStore. Much cheaper than a gym.
These didn't wear down in a week's time...they're pencils I've been using for awhile, but all getting to the final stage at about the same time.
My gym is pretty cheap, and since I live in a little tiny house with no place for indoor equipment and it's dark and cold outside by the time I get off work, it is what I have.
Yep, same old Nano. Things are going well on my sixth attempt this year. There are passages that I get stuck in the middle of, doubting that I should finish them because what are the odds they will make the final draft? Then there are pages that fly off the typewriter. It's life in microcosm.
Simon
The hardest for me are a) scenes I've fallen in love with in my head but which come out horrible and clunky in the first draft, b) scenes which, as you mention, I wade into and realize this isn't going to work, but can't really just abandon, and c) scenes which are sort of required for tension or what-have-you but which make me at *least* as uncomfortable as the character I'm inflicting them on. Whew.
Last few days I've been a little bogged down, but I'm not quite behind, so...onward through the mire!
The more I use the Forest Choice, the more I like it. It feels dandy in the hand, silky smooth like no other pencil. The wood is coated with what appears to be parrafin. The one I'm using has an imperfection in the wood between the slats where some of the coating has congealed. The lead, besides being pleasantly but not very dark, is slightly more waxy feeling than a Ticonderoga. The Tike isn't crumbly, it seems drier. But the Forest Choice blows away the Ticonderoga in the looks department. Poor Tike has really let herself go since she moved offshore. I love Forest Choice's rustic appeal, it's beautiful woodgrain and green ferrule. Forest Choice is a whale of a budget pencil.
I have a tendency to bear down more than I should, and occasionally break Ticonderoga leads. The FC is a different consistency--waxier, as you put it--and seems to handle this treatment better. and if you buy a giant bulk box of them (as I did about a year ago), they're actually quite a bit cheaper than the Ticonderogas, at least as they are locally. I'm working my way through them (just sharpened a new one today!) but should be set for awhile!
A gross of Forest Choice should see you through your next five trilogies :>}. Pencils.com charges $30 a gross, so that's $2.50 a dozen (less shipping), just on the high side of true budget pencils like the Dixon Oriole and Blick's branded office pencils which run $1.40 to $1.80 per pack online. I've been tempted by Blick's cheapos because the imprint is crisp, if uninspired, and they're made from real cheddar...errrr cedar, right here in the USA. I can't warm up to the Orioles, however. They strike me as a rock bottom commodity dumped on our shores at a cutthroat price. I don't think I can buy Ticonderogas locally for less than $3.50 to $4.00 a dozen, but Amazon sells some grades for $2.50 a pack as an add-on purchase. Funny to think twelve dozen of the nearly great Forest Choice can be had for just a few dollars more than a single dozen of the world-class Japanese pencils purveyed by Jetpens.
As I recall, when I got them there was a sale going on, so the whole gross was just over twenty dollars, shipped. Which is why I couldn't resist.
As an added bonus, they smell more cedar-y than much about anything else out there. I have to stop myself from pencil snorting during work meetings....
'Pencil snorter', now that makes me laugh--I'm an artgum eraser snorter myself, since gradeschool!
I love those Forest Choices! I've been using my only one, quite literally, to the ferrule.
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