Typecast: A desk of one's own

Pauletti Papers

This typecast was written with my Hermes 3000.

Cleanin' up

So, I am fooling around with where and how my images are hosted, so for awhile some images will be missing from the site-- which, in the case of the typecasting arts, means entire posts.

Note: I tried to include an ironic retro 1990's-era animated under construction gif in the spirit of retro-aesthetics, but Blogger doesn't appear to accept animated gifs as image files. Which is, for the record, lame.

When office supplies attack (your wallet)

I live in a geographical area that includes a big old lake. On one side of the lake is a hip city. On the other side are some boring suburbs and horse farms. I live in the boring part, unfortunately. However, sometimes I'm brought to the cool side of town for some reason or another, as was the case tonight. Someone I know was giving a book reading, and so I was wandering around in the art department of the UW bookstore before it started.

Mistake. Having recently declared an end to all frivolous spending, I should have known better than to place myself in proximity with writing implements of any sort. Unfortunately for my poor impulse control, the UW Bookstore is an obscene treasure trove of woodcase pencils, erasers, fountain pens, and endless stacks of notebooks, index cards, and other paper items you pretty much can't find anywhere in the boring part of town.

Rats. my Flickr page will tell you all you need to know about what happened in there.

A novel idea

I'd like to take this time to offer my regrets for the visual assault that was yesterday's collage. Some viewers reported headaches; one even complained of vertigo. I have learned my lesson and shall be more restrained and tasteful in future paper pursuits.

That out of the way, it's time to address a controversy lurking in certain unlit corners of the typosphere (actually, I am pretty sure that lighting hasn't been installed in any corner of the typosphere, due to low population density) and that is the controversy of Whether or Not Nanowrimo Is For Loser Hacks And Should Be Frowned Upon By Real Writers. Let me be clear as to where I stand: Nanowrimo drafts are written the same way as was Crime and Punishment: one word at a time ("I put my pants on just like the rest of you -- one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records.").

What's more, the bitter truth is, it's likely that there is a Nano draft out there, written in 30 days, better than anything you or I could produce in all the days of our lives. Talent, she's a bitch.

I concede that 30 days does not a finished product make, but it's a start, and really it's a writer's talent or lack thereof that makes a work of art. Countless writers of genre fiction turn out published manuscripts probably no better, on average, than your typical steaming Nano pile of 50,000 words come December 1st.

Writers, let the audience be your judge-- not, god forbid, your fellow writers.

Collagecast: I've got nothin'

Entirely unrelated ramble: One bit of advice for the new typecaster is this: figure out your image management strategy right off. You see, I have images scattered across four repositories, some of which I want to retire. Cleaning up this mess would require a lot of scrub-brushes and Comet. Someone put this note in the typecaster's handbook, please.

Election day ramble

This really should be a typecast, but let's be frank: no one is reading Strikethru today. It's a momentous election day, in addition to the fourth day of National Novel Writing Month. In truth, I could say whatever I want! Prepare for some crazy statements, no one.

Thoughts:

• It is true that I have shamefully already crashed and burned on Nano wordcount, and have no hope of reaching 50,000 words in 30 days. However: do losing candidates just step off the campaign trail as soon as the polls head South? No sir. They keep pouring donor funds into their lost cause right up until the last ballot is (re)counted. In that spirit, I will keep pecking away at my feeble tale until 50,000 is reached, possibly not anytime before 2009. (Do you hear that, quitter sibling? Join me in my fruitless quest).
• I donated to Nanowrimo this year, since it's clear they need some financial help with their server situation.
• There has been an industrial fan blowing ABOUT THIS LOUD in our kitchen since Halloween, pointed at a ragged hole in the ceiling, beneath a leaking toilet.
• I need another Rhodia pencil!
• In my botched nano attempt this year, I started two stories: one about a kid living in a drastically de-populated colony years after the eco-collapse of modern civilization, and the other about a kid who lives in a house with her mom, who has filled every corner of the home with waterstained boxes of magazines and dusty Hummel figurines and hoarded empty cans. Both stories were terrible. Which one should I keep writing?
• If you're doing Nano, in one sentence, what is your story about?
• Happy election.

November 1st