Book Progress!

I latched onto the phrase "taking a constitutional" as a wee lad who read all of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. Long walks really do flush all of the cruft out of one's mind and grease the gears of creativity. But the idea of specifically taking walks through places I've never been has never occurred to me. Neat.

Andy Ihnatko

I'm fiddling with a little comic about dérives, passeggiatas (Italian after-meal walks, which my family is fond of), and daydreaming. Enjoy those aimless walks when you take them! They're not good for nothing!

Danielle Corsetto

Thank you for introducing the word "dérives" into my vocabulary. I've often felt as if a walk through an unfamiliar place was twisting the valves feeding into my brain in an unusual and positive way. Now I know there's a word for it. And I'm inspired to take dérives nearby...not just when I'm traveling!

Andy Ihnatko

The iOS license is well worth the dough once you've gotten into the swing of Scrivener. Syncing your project between your phone and your desktop is frictionless. Being able to jot down stuff the moment a thought occurs to you is a huge win for your creativity, as is the ability to just take an idle tour of the project at a time and place when your brain hasn't locked itself into "work" mode...lots of insights will hit you while waiting for a train.

Andy Ihnatko

I've been a fan and a user for ages. Just last night I was adding a couple of new scraps of data to the Scrivener workbook that holds all of my research on that mysterious Parisian model from the 1890s. It was little more than a piece of trivia about where models hung out. But Scrivener is exceptional at keeping these puzzle pieces organized until one day I look at them and finally see something. Pre-Scrivener I used a pile of OmniOutliner docs, which was like trying to keep a tower of Jello from collapsing.

Andy Ihnatko

Yeah, a lot of it is just feeling trapped into one part of the house. In the evening I want to be downstairs, not locked away in the same room I spent all day. Maybe I'll get the app first, and if I find it's just way too hard to work on the ipad long term, I can get the desktop version. Since I feel like I'd be more likely to at least TRY to work on it if I could do it curled up in the living room, rather than convincing myself to go sit back in my office.

Sheri Spangenberg

I just looked at the $20 iOS app and it doesn't look like there's a way to transfer the license, but I didn't do any deep digging. I hope there's a way for you to make that work, because I know all too well the feeling of "this is for work / this is for play" and how hard it can be to convince yourself that there are other ways of looking at it!

Danielle Corsetto

let me know what you find out, if you think about it! I kind of want to get for ios, just because part of the reason I keep failing to work on my novel, and my kid's book, is that I don't want to be in my office after I'm done doing my day job. Perils of working from home, don't want to be in the same room of your house beyond the 8 hours you're there already. But i don't know if I want to be locked into ipad 100%, since it IS more ergonomic to be on a desktop set up

Sheri Spangenberg

Oohh I don't know the answer to this! I haven't tried opening Scrivener on my iPad yet. Maybe I'll try that today...

Danielle Corsetto

I have a general Scrivener question, I hadn't heard of it before. It looks like there's an IOS version and an OS version. Can you get them both, or do you need two separate licenses? I saw you cant' do both OS and Windows, which makes sense, but I couldn't really see a definitive answer in the faq about whether you could work across ios and os. I have both an Ipad and an Imac, it'd be more convenient to be able to use either when I felt like it, rather than having to choose one and that's it. Or shell out for two licenses, especially if they don't easily work together.

Sheri Spangenberg

And I'm gonna need more of this good co-working shit when I get home, so yes!! <3

Danielle Corsetto

fer sure!!! Hit me up when you get back. I need to get out of the house more often. bleeeeehehhhhhhhh

Ooh that's a good way to put it! I didn't know you were using it, too. :)

Danielle Corsetto

Sheri, you're a gem. <3 (I feel the same way about the creators I support!)

Danielle Corsetto

(I know we mused about finding a place halfwayish, in Frederick, but we really could start setting up work-dates at the library there! I've worked there so many times and they have a lot of great spaces to quietly chill & draw/write!)

Danielle Corsetto

We just need to hang out more often, buddy. <3

Danielle Corsetto

Thanks for saying this, because it means a lot coming from you! Your long posts are some of the only ones I read, I love your voice so much. <3

Danielle Corsetto

Scrivener is an incredible tool. I find it liberating. When I used to write books in Word, I felt an internal pressure to really write "something" every time I sat down. Scrivener encourages me to capture ideas and information, which fills the pantry. Later I'm surprised by how much of this huge project I've already written, just from adding bits and details to things that began as just a quick one-sentence thought. A+++

Andy Ihnatko

It's cool that you found unexpected money to fund a trip! When I back artists on patreon, it's so they can live their lives how they want and do what they love. Not so they become some sort of art slave, being only able to work because it's "my" money funding them. Even if you were using your patreon funds to do this trip, I'd have still been cool with it and thought it was awesome you had enough patreons to help support that sort of artistic journey! Even if it was just a standard vacation, that's what patreon is for, to let you live your life as an artist with regular support.

Sheri Spangenberg

This sounds like an awesome experience to kick your creativity into high gear! I often think about trying to find a similar place around here to just soak up the inspiration and creative drive amongst peers. Bahhh, something to set up if I ever get egregious amounts of money.

I know we were just talking about finding the Best Format for Patreon updates, and that shorter comics might be where it’s at, but I really did love reading this. (And also that we get to talk about this stuff and then also read each other’s Patreon updates about it when one or other of us is out of the house.)

Lucy Bellwood

I was thinking this but you said it better than I ever could. ❤ (Alix)

YES

Corintha Hull

This is exactly why I back people on Patreon, too. <3 I was talking to Luke last night about doing more little autobio comics (nervous that I can't post anything new until The Book is finished, y'know?), and he reminded me that people who like my work are going to, y'know, like my work. ;) So I should let them read the little in-between comics that come to me along the way. It feels like cheating sometimes, because they're one-off strips that have nothing to do with The Project I'm Supposed To Be Writing All The Time, but you're right, it's all part of the process. I'm particularly glad that this helps other creators, in whatever way that it can! Thanks for saying something. :)

Danielle Corsetto

I am!! It's such a brilliant tool. I love that I can put the files in the order I choose (and re-order them), instead of having to game the system by adding numbers to the beginnings of filenames so they show up in alphanumerical order when I look at them. :p

Danielle Corsetto

Oh that is such a good way to put all of this! Every time I come up with something on the bus or on a walk, two days after I was working on that very page, I realize that the best writing takes place after you've written it, in your head. It's like a constant state of "Oooh I wish I would've said THIS" except instead of a conversation that's ancient history now, it's something you can go back and re-write or embellish. I can't tell you how many times I wished I'd written "this instead of that" in GWS, after the strip had already been (hurriedly) posted.

Danielle Corsetto

I don't know about others, but this kind of creative journey is exactly why I support artists on Patreon. Not only will the book be better for your having taken this journey, but you also took time to reach out to patrons and fans of your work on the way. We helped Kickstart your previous trip and gladly would have done so again, because experiences and new scenery and having thinking room outside the norm can be a huge help toward the mental part of the creative process! We contribute so artists can hopefully have whatever they need to continue the work that has so enriched our own lives. You are doing a HUGE amount of mental work right now, and we're excited to see any part of the outcome of this work. And heck, process stuff like this helps the other writers and creators in your audience, Danielle... 😉

NJGR

Ooh, I hope you are enjoying Scrivener! I love it so much.

Corintha Hull

Yeah, unless you're writing whole excerpts at a time and posting them daily or whatever, book writing/editing is invisible work that other people just have to trust you that you're doing. Hard to just post a filler sketch like with a web comic. Also why it really bothers me when people complain that an author is "stalling" on writing the next book, like... a book is a HUGE collection of ideas that must be coherent first. Pulling that whole cloth out of the ether isn't easy, or the market would be FLOODED with (actually good) books left and right.

Minzoku Bokumetsu