| I will also take this opportunity to name my two Pimp the League Contest winners, chosen by the totally scientific method of counting comments to my post, assigning everyone a number in order, and having my six-year-old daughter pick two numbers. It's scientific, I promise. Really. Edison worked that way. So, Wendy (sassyjinx) and Melissa (mela-lyn), come on DOOOOWN! You've both won "The Yezer Made Me Do It" magnets. Email me--you can click the linkies to the left, my name then "Email me", and give me your street adresses so I can (BTW, remember when you were a kid and you got to do that magnet lesson in school with those big black magnets? And you'd spend ages magnetizing, like, a safety pin because it seemed like it would be such a cool thing to have? I love magnets. Anyway.) So, my wierd needs and pet peeves. Um... Honestly, I'm pretty normal when it comes to the writing. I just need a keyboard (well, one that's connected to something, obviously, otherwise I'd be like Jingle Dell just imagining I'm making my lunch.) I like to have noise in the background. Sometimes I use my iPod, sometimes I don't. Mostly I don't because I like to have it up loud and I need to be able to hear if one of my girls decides to try and kill the other one. But I don't need absolute silence, I don't need to be able to concentrate--honestly, I can concentrate no matter what's going on around me if the story is flowing, and I tend to write in bursts anyway. I do hate when I'm interrupted, though. Especially when I've been sitting in silence for several minutes, then the minute I start typing again somebody needs something. I need to take a break before I start writing. I check my email or whatever, then I take five minutes to read or have a snack, then I start. I write all of my story ideas in longhand, not typed. My very loose synopses (I'm not much of a plotter), lines of dialogue that come to me, scene sketches, all that stuff goes in a notebook in longhand. I like black ink, not blue, but it's hard to find a really good dark, thick, black. So much of it comes out sort of grayish. Unless you get those ones where the ink is really liquidy but I don't like those because they tend to spread. I prefer to type in Courier because it's a little bigger, but lately I've not been bothering to switch from TNR. I like my laptop because the keys are quieter and less effort to hit, which is good because the fingers, they do get sore after a while. Pet peeves? Trash in an ashtray, especially gum. I hate that. Oh, writing pet peeves? I have a tendency to re-use good lines from book to book, and I must ruthlessly tamp down on that. I get very irritated with myself when I do it and have to go have a drink to calm myself down before I say something to me I'll regret. Wow, I had no idea I was so bland. I need to go cultivate some eccentricities right away. "I must write in a silky negligee, and I must have a perfectly mixed martini on the elephant-foot table, and if my toenails are not painted correctly I can't write a word..." |
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wow.. were you looking at my secret list of eccentricities at the end there?
Get outta my head, woman!
*throws martini*
*throws elephant-leg table*
But are you wearing a silky negligee, Anton? Because if so, um, I'd like pictures.
All that is kept at my separate blog, my dear...
It's interesting to see how people write. Most of the time, I write in Courier font but I have it zoomed in 300% or higher. Just enough for about a paragraph of text on the screen at the same time.
I mainly use music and/or movies in the background to cover up the sounds of my wife on the front room TV, the puppy pacing around, or the vibrations from the furnace. :)
Though, I can't consider writing anything out in longhand. I write 10 wpm by hand (and it hurts) or 80 wpm by keyboard (and it doesn't hurt). So, guess which one I pick? :)
http://www.naughtyanton'strout.com
It's one of those pay sites Stace, he's spammin' you.
Since I installed office 2007 on my work laptop, I've been addicted to Calibri b/c it's pretty and simple, but since I learned about pages counts and such, I've moved back to NTR. And I work best with soundtracks like Lord of the Rings-instrumental, without words, and tends to create moods. Yes, I'm a nerd.
And WOOT!! I can't wait to get my giftie! *happy dance*
Anton, you're such a tease.
See, d., my cp writes with the zoom in but I get freaked out with those big letters staring at me. It makes the doc feel too important or something and I freeze up (although with vision as poor as mine I should really work on that.)
Oh I could never write an entire draft longhand. Only notes. And I notice my handwriting is deteriorating as time goes on because I'm not used to it anymore. :-)
I feel used, Mark.
I love instrumentals to write to, Melissa, and we have all three LOTR soundtracks! You should try the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, if you can find it. There's a little spoken-word stuff here and there, but it's muy atmospheric.
Oo- I'll have to find that. I actually have Red Sonia on VHS. I love that movie. :) Another two good soundtracks are the newest Narnia that Disney put out and The Princess Bride. I used to have a few tracks from the first XMen movie, but I can't find them any more.
Anton- your site is down... not that I tried it. Really, I swear!
Oh- and don't forget Jurrasic Park and Seven Years in Tibet. Jurrasic for cheesy and 7 years for amazing violin. Very moving.
Little Buddha has an awesome soundtrack.
Lisa Gerrard is great writing music both solo and in Dead Can Dance (she's the voice behind Gladiator and The Insider)
I totally agree with you; I prefer typing on my laptop because the keys are quieter, like right now I'm using my parents desktop PC and I have to make more of an effort to type.
And thank your daughter for picking my number! WOO! thanks!
I write in Arial 11, on my laptop. Can't write longhand for the life of me, and if I did, I couldn't read the result. :)
I listen to opera, which makes me a bit eccentric, I suppose. And I absolutley need a glass with something to drink near - tea, coffee, water, at night it's often wine or whisky, sometimes beer.
At least I get the three litres we're supposed to drink every day that way. :)
When writing, I like to listen to either really new music that is still fresh and excites something in me (The Bird and The Bee, thanks to Mark, currently is in heavy rotation) or familiar favorites that I know by heart (10000 Maniacs, Tragically Hip).
I prefer to write longhand, as I feel stifled by the layout of my home office, but efficiency often means I'm typing since there are only so many hours to spend writing.
I'll have to give the 7 Years soundtrack a try, Melissa!
I'm writing all of these down.
You're welcome, Wendy!
I like opera, Gabriele. Don't listen to it much because opera CDs are expensive as heck, but I do like it.
I hardly hear whatever I'm listening to, anyway, tm. A lot of the time I'll look up and realize five or six songs have played while I worked and I don't remember them at all.
...opera CDs are expensive as heck...
Tell me. And DVDs are even worse. I spend a fortune on that stuff.
If I don't have music, then it's either the Lion King or Lethal Weapon 1-4 (in order straight through). IT's what my sister and I studied to in college. It's like we know exactly when to look up b/c we've probably seen them 100 times plus each. Literally.
I got to see Carmen once, Gabriele, at the Miami Opera (I think it's called.) It was awesome.
Lol Melissa, I have DVDs like that too!
Pimped: http://tezmilleroz.livejournal.com http://blog.myspace.com/tezmilleroz http://tezmilleroz.blogspot.com
Have a lovely day! :-)