Comments | altivo: Writing, hay, and more writing

altivo

Writing, hay, and more writing

Nov 22, 2009 21:53

Slow but steady progress. The loose ends are now visible rather than being just in my head. Had to make a timeline, using the Chatton calendar. Dates like 18 Bear 347 CY and 29 II Wolf 348 CY don't help, but I insist that they be correct ( Read more... )

writing, farm, nanowrimo

Comments 7

avon_deer November 23 2009, 08:09:21 UTC

I had the same dates problem with my long story. I found that I had to keep track of the timeline on paper.

altivo November 23 2009, 15:53:28 UTC

I'm writing on an old Tandy WP-3 portable word processor. It's pretty good, no distractions from the internet and such, just write. It has a feature that lets you pop up an appointment calendar and/or a phone contact list. I've constructed my weird lunar calendar in the appointment book so I can add events to it as needed, and I'm using the contact list to keep track of characters. ;p

I find I really like this thing. I got it for $15 off EBay. It has a full sized keyboard and an 8x80 LCD display, runs on 4 AA batteries for something like 20-25 hours continuous use, and only weighs about a pound. For a while I couldn't figure out why the spelling checker thought "organize" was spelled wrong, but it turns out that this one is the Canadian version they marketed. It also expects "colour" and "centre." XD

avon_deer November 23 2009, 16:08:21 UTC

I had no idea the Canadians used Commonwealth spelling. I suppose it stands to reason though. Now that I am thinking about it.

hellmutt November 23 2009, 11:52:42 UTC

I made a timeline for my story too, during the planning stages. The plot is fairly linear but involves several characters who aren't always in the same place at the same time, so I find it helpful.

I'm behind on my target and won't make it to 50k unless I'm extraordinarily un-lazy, but I'll be at 30k soon and have the second section of the book completed. Woopwoop!

altivo November 23 2009, 15:55:27 UTC

You can still make the 50K then. I'm only at 25K and think I still have a good chance. I only need 3200 words a day, you need less than that.

mondhasen November 23 2009, 13:06:32 UTC

Had to make a timeline, using the Chatton calendar....but I insist that they be correct.

You just know someone would nit-pick you otherwise!

altivo November 23 2009, 15:59:53 UTC

Probably no one but me would nit-pick it. Since the book never lays out the calendar entire, no one would be able to second guess me from a handful of dates separated by 120 years. Furthermore, there was a calendar reform during that time that changed the way leap days were calculated and applied. To satisfy myself, though, I had to work out at least the rough definitions. I'd have to make a substantial spreadsheet or a computer program to really check these dates. It all has to do with keeping the winter solstice full moon and the solstice itself both inside the same month every year.