sorry, i’ve been writing

I apologize for not posting recently. I’ve been busy … yes a lame excuse, but it’s the truth.

Work has been steady but busy and that’s fine. Big management shakeup. I miss my old manager, but very much like my new one, so I’m happy, more or less.

The real news is that I’ve started a new mystery novel and the writing is going well. It also means that I don’t have much spare time lately. I’m getting up early to write for a few hours before work and most of the weekend hours for writing as well. I’m pleased with the progress, though it’s definitely a first draft and, as they say, writing is rewriting.

very low tech

I’ve used computers for writing for over twenty years now. I also have half a drawer full of lovely mechanical pencils, my favorite being the Pentel TechniClick 0.5.

But lately, I find myself in love with wooden pencils. I recently unpacked a box and found an old, but still working well, battery-operated pencil sharpener and a single Dixon Ticonderoga 2.5 wooden pencil. And I’m finding that I much prefer the wooden pencil to  any mechanical pencils.

This fondness for pencils led to a web search and I found a couple of interesting pencil sites. The first is a pencil blog: Pencil Revolution. Lots of information and done with love and caring. The second is an online store for pencils, called Pencil Thing, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I placed an order with them yesterday. A dozen of the Dixon Ticonderoga 2.5 pencils and a dozen pencils from England that were highly rated on the Pencil Revolution.

For my technical writing, I’ll always compose on the computer. But for my fiction writing, I like slowing down the process a little bit, at least in the first draft stage. I have some time to think of words that aren’t the first words to pop up. I like that.

my mouse hand is falling off

I must admit, my work life has been pretty steady and not horribly demanding the last month or so. Until today, that is.

The product I work on has an interesting release strategy. Instead of putting out a new release every 9-18 months, we put out “builds” every 2 to 3 weeks. The most current build is a single feature that is, truth be said, a bit complicated.  For each of these “builds” I write a bulletin that explains each new feature; I also write new online help as needed. I have to say, it’s usually not rocket science.

This build has some conceptual complexities and it was decided that our users needed a lot of hand-holding, much more than I had provided in my first draft (there is a reason we have drafts). And oh by the way, we need it by Friday for a beta customer.

Thing is, it took me a couple of days of thinking to figure out exactly what to tell our customers about this new feature. I worked on my mindless tasks while I was thinking … I wasn’t completely slothful.

I got up today knowing what I needed to write and I sat down and wrote a lot. Fifteen pages worth. Concepts, procedures, examples, scenarios … the whole enchilada. Complex tables, diagrams of processing flows, lots of extras. And it looks great. But some 16 hours later, my hands really hurt. My mouse hand is especially sore.

So, the homescribe is drinking a nice glass of wine, watching the Daily Show, and plans to sleep in a little bit.

my cat, helping me work

Hazel likes to sit right by the keyboard and watch me type.

I think I should buy her some new cat toys to play with. Watching someone type must be incredibly boring.