Writing Discussion II

[Conserative Morality]

Writing by hand is a lot faster.

I mean, as a typeologist, I get frustrated when my typesetting isn't 100% on point. This means that when I want to type something literary, I usually spend an hour in LaTeX getting it to look just right, and by that time I no longer have the will to write anything.

Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, omit orphans and widows.

Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced, 0" paragraph breaks, 90% magnification. Single spaced looks so much better.

[Bezombia]

Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, omit orphans and widows.

Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced, 0" paragraph breaks, 90% magnification. Single spaced looks so much better.

And here I am with my 0pt line breaks so every line is just printed directly on top of the line before it.

That means that you can read an entire book in seconds, provided you're capable of understanding letters that are written underneath thousands of other letters.

[Bontavation]

Because the only humor comes from making edgy jokes, and you can't sustain an entire novel or an entire movie with those. Edginess is a nonrenewable resource. There's a reason why most teenagers grow out of it. It's like dead-baby jokes: they stop being funny after Middle School.

Maybe one throw-away joke about Hitler could work. But having your entire novel centered around him? That's a disaster waiting to happen.

It's like having a comedy about rape. One rape joke could be acceptable. Two hours of them is awkward, boring, and painful for everyone involved.

The Producers was a successful comedy film and continues to be a successful stage production. Now, granted, it isn't directly about Hitler, but it uses Nazi humour by proxy as it's about two people producing a musical called Springtime for Hitler.

Inglourious Basterds is considered by many to be Tarantino's masterpiece, and while it perhaps isn't an outright comedy it is far from somber.

Chaplin's The Great Dictator didn't even acknowledge Hitler's existence, but it was most certainly about Hitler.

Danger 5 is a fairly well received TV series that spoofs pulp spy fiction and features a special taskforce that tries to kill Hitler every episode.

There's many more examples, but comedy about Hitler has been done, and done well. Good comedy is often not about things that are inherently funny - it makes us look at the funny side of things that are otherwise serious. I'd say most comedy deals with pretty serious subject matter - loss, illness, dysfunctional families etc - but this does not mean the writer is seeking to offend. Rather, they engage us with the lure of humour so that we think about the tragic from a different angle.

The only one of those that had Hitler as the focus character was The Great Dictator, and it came out before the Holocaust.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

You normally write stuff by hand, then?

If you don't use exclusively a fountain pen with a leather-bound notebook then what is the point?

I often find myself rewriting certain lines/sentences several times before I'm satisfied, which is why I don't like writing on paper.

Of course, when I do write by hand I tend to do it in scrimshaw, or else with semi-precious stones inlayed in a silver-nickel alloy (with a different type of stone for each letter of the alphabet).

[Nazi Flower Power]

Do read it, but keep in mind Speer is not a 100% reliable source. He knew Hitler as well as anyone, he was a good writer, and he was mostly accurate because he didn't want people to call bullshit and stop listening to him -- but he still distorted things sometimes to make himself look like less of a douchebag.

Absolutely. He claimed to not have known about the Holocaust. And during his trial, he claimed he was planning to assassinate Hitler. God knows what else he lied about.

I actually believe the part about the assassination plot, even if he never had the nerve to follow through with it. Speer admitted he wouldn't have the guts to kill Hitler if they were face to face, and he was sort of relieved when his plot got foiled because he had already started to lose his nerve. My understanding is that he did ask around about getting the supplies for his assassination scheme. I don't think he would have had the nerve to follow through even if the ventilation shaft he wanted to use hadn't been redone to make it less accessible.

He knew about the Holocaust more than he let on, though. He was probably afraid to put his ass on the line to do anything about it, didn't know how to do anything about it without putting his ass on the line, and just didn't want to think about it. But that's not the same as not knowing it was going on.

Speer was a good source on every Nazi except himself.

Usually, but you never know what else he might have lied about. He sometimes lied about weird details that there was no obvious reason to, like the chronology of when he wrote Inside the Third Reich. Why lie about that?

Most of the other high-ranking Nazis were people that he knew personally, so he was probably biased, depending on how well he got along with them. He obviously had a personal grudge against Bormann, for example.

If you're not going for a serious tone, then you shouldn't have a story centered around Hitler.

I disagree.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Attempted Hitler-doggerel #1:

How The Devil Made Off With Adolf.

In his bunker he was preppin',
with a musket for a weapon,
but he couldn't fight the Roossian
'cause he only had one ball,

and he rather lacked volition
to attempt a martial mission
so he tried an old solution -
it was final after all!

This is really bad poetry in pretty much every way. Sorry about that.

That's so bad it's funny.

It's still bad, though.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

That's so bad it's funny.

It's still bad, though.

About 70% of the badness was deliberate.

[Trotskylvania]

Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, omit orphans and widows.

Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced, 0" paragraph breaks, 90% magnification. Single spaced looks so much better.

Courier New, 12 pt, double spaced.

Monospaced fonts are best for working drafts and editing. Double spacing makes methodical reading easier, and the typewriter style typeface helps make errors and typos stand out.

[The New World Oceania]

Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, omit orphans and widows.

More like EB Garamond, 11.7bp (because points are for plebeians) font size, 13bp line spaces, 20bp paragraph breaks, with a custom-fitted lettrine on every chapter start and a table of contents that's stylized as to make the most use of the available page space.

The look or the page space doesn't matter. Most editors won't even read work not formatted correctly, as it's indicative that the writer doesn't take the publication seriously.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced, 0" paragraph breaks, 90% magnification. Single spaced looks so much better.

Courier New, 12 pt, double spaced.

Monospaced fonts are best for working drafts and editing. Double spacing makes methodical reading easier, and the typewriter style typeface helps make errors and typos stand out.

Courier and double spacing both give me a mild headache.

[Bezombia]

Courier New, 12 pt, double spaced.

Monospaced fonts are best for working drafts and editing. Double spacing makes methodical reading easier, and the typewriter style typeface helps make errors and typos stand out.

Courier and double spacing both give me a mild headache.

Consolas is the best monospaced font. Everything else gives me a migraine to read.

[Forsher]

If you don't use exclusively a fountain pen with a leather-bound notebook then what is the point?

Writing by hand is a lot faster.

Well, it feels more real. And avoids any mucking around with layout, as you mentioned. On the other hand, I sometimes want to re-order which is difficult to say the least. This is more problematic with non fiction though.

Although, there are times when I find formatting by hand easier in the sense that I often write fairly nested lists which can get tedious in Word (my standard word processor).

When I do the likes of that for my fictional writing I fall into the planning trap with lots of outlines but no story because everything feels complete, because, in some sense, it is... there's just no final product.

Now, as to formatting documents. This does my head in but, sadly, it is the required format for my essays.

So, that's Calibri (body) size 12 font (not mandated), with line spacing of 2.0 (required) and the margin is obviously fat (again, required) at 100% zoom. The requirements are broader though. How I type these things, though, is identical to how I type my stories etc. when I do use a computer for them. Because I don't really know what I am talking about, I'll show you again.

So, as we see, Calibri (body) again but that's just because it's the default (I don't dislike it nor favour anything else enough to change) and size 11 because at 100% zoom that's pretty comfortable. I believe that particular text was originally done by hand as I swear I remember its being longer but I cannot be too sure.

That's so bad it's funny.

It's still bad, though.

About 70% of the badness was deliberate.

We need another Bulwer-Lytton Contest. Preferably run by a mod in NSG again for maximum entries (poor A&F and its limited readership).

[Bezombia]

Writing by hand is a lot faster.

Well, it feels more real. And avoids any mucking around with layout, as you mentioned. On the other hand, I sometimes want to re-order which is difficult to say the least. This is more problematic with non fiction though.

Although, there are times when I find formatting by hand easier in the sense that I often write fairly nested lists which can get tedious in Word (my standard word processor).

When I do the likes of that for my fictional writing I fall into the planning trap with lots of outlines but no story because everything feels complete, because, in some sense, it is... there's just no final product.

Now, as to formatting documents. This does my head in but, sadly, it is the required format for my essays.

So, that's Calibri (body) size 12 font (not mandated), with line spacing of 2.0 (required) and the margin is obviously fat (again, required) at 100% zoom. The requirements are broader though. How I type these things, though, is identical to how I type my stories etc. when I do use a computer for them. Because I don't really know what I am talking about, I'll show you again.

So, as we see, Calibri (body) again but that's just because it's the default (I don't dislike it nor favour anything else enough to change) and size 11 because at 100% zoom that's pretty comfortable. I believe that particular text was originally done by hand as I swear I remember its being longer but I cannot be too sure.

About 70% of the badness was deliberate.

We need another Bulwer-Lytton Contest. Preferably run by a mod in NSG again for maximum entries (poor A&F and its limited readership).

Let me show you what my formatting looks like when I'm typing it:

https://i.imgur.com/wTVN7s1.png

As you can see, it's typeset into 10pt Palatino with 1.875" margins and a whole host of other crazy formatting if you really dig into it.
Of course, I don't actually see any of that when typing, but it looks rather nice when compiled:

http://benomia.altervista.org/etc/catharsis.pdf

It takes a while to get started, but once you get to the point where you're actually writing it becomes way faster due to the semi-automated nature of the styling.

EDIT: Oh yeah and because my editor supports in-editor compiling*, I get to see the source and the compiled form at the same time, so it's easy to read (compiled) and easy to spot mistakes (source, which is always monospaced).

*Just for the record, this is what I'm actually looking at when I'm writing.

[Forsher]

Let me show you what my formatting looks like when I'm typing it:

https://i.imgur.com/wTVN7s1.png

As you can see, it's typeset into 10pt Palatino with 1.875" margins and a whole host of other crazy formatting if you really dig into it.
Of course, I don't actually see any of that when typing, but it looks rather nice when compiled:

http://benomia.altervista.org/etc/catharsis.pdf

It takes a while to get started, but once you get to the point where you're actually writing it becomes way faster due to the semi-automated nature of the styling.

EDIT: Oh yeah and because my editor supports in-editor compiling*, I get to see the source and the compiled form at the same time, so it's easy to read (compiled) and easy to spot mistakes (source, which is always monospaced).

*Just for the record, this is what I'm actually looking at when I'm writing.

That reminds me of R (well, R Studio). That's okay but I am not particularly keen on typing in it and I prefer things to be narrower so the final image is not really me either.

Interesting though.

[Bezombia]

Let me show you what my formatting looks like when I'm typing it:

https://i.imgur.com/wTVN7s1.png

As you can see, it's typeset into 10pt Palatino with 1.875" margins and a whole host of other crazy formatting if you really dig into it.
Of course, I don't actually see any of that when typing, but it looks rather nice when compiled:

http://benomia.altervista.org/etc/catharsis.pdf

It takes a while to get started, but once you get to the point where you're actually writing it becomes way faster due to the semi-automated nature of the styling.

EDIT: Oh yeah and because my editor supports in-editor compiling*, I get to see the source and the compiled form at the same time, so it's easy to read (compiled) and easy to spot mistakes (source, which is always monospaced).

*Just for the record, this is what I'm actually looking at when I'm writing.

That reminds me of R (well, R Studio). That's okay but I am not particularly keen on typing in it and I prefer things to be narrower so the final image is not really me either.

Interesting though.

LaTeX is kinda like R, but for document writing instead of stuff related to math. It can do math too, but it's primarily used for writing reports/essays/books.

It certainly isn't for everyone, but I enjoy working with it.

[The Nuclear Fist]

Wingdings, forty point font, double spacing, paragraph breaks every time I hit enter.

Truly the best way to write.

[Bezombia]

Wingdings, forty point font, double spacing, paragraph breaks every time I hit enter.

Truly the best way to write.

Windings 2 is better.
I know that because it's a higher number.

[The Nuclear Fist]

Wingdings, forty point font, double spacing, paragraph breaks every time I hit enter.

Truly the best way to write.

Windings 2 is better.
I know that because it's a higher number.

No it's not. 2 may be a big number, but it's also an even number. Even, another same old, cookie cutter number like the infinity others. But one? One is the original, it doesn't play by the rules of others, it sets its own rules. It's the standard that all others follow. Besides, do you know what kind of number 1 is? It's odd. And odd is just another word for unique.

Wingdings is a proud, unique, beautiful font, and everything afterwards is just a cheap ripoff.

[Bezombia]

Windings 2 is better.
I know that because it's a higher number.

No it's not. 2 may be a big number, but it's also an even number. Even, another same old, cookie cutter number like the infinity others. But one? One is the original, it doesn't play by the rules of others, it sets its own rules. It's the standard that all others follow. Besides, do you know what kind of number 1 is? It's odd. And odd is just another word for unique.

Wingdings is a proud, unique, beautiful font, and everything afterwards is just a cheap ripoff.

Fine then, use Wingdings 3. It's odd but still higher than 1.

[The Nuclear Fist]

No it's not. 2 may be a big number, but it's also an even number. Even, another same old, cookie cutter number like the infinity others. But one? One is the original, it doesn't play by the rules of others, it sets its own rules. It's the standard that all others follow. Besides, do you know what kind of number 1 is? It's odd. And odd is just another word for unique.

Wingdings is a proud, unique, beautiful font, and everything afterwards is just a cheap ripoff.

Fine then, use Wingdings 3. It's odd but still higher than 1.

Wingdings 3 is just a cheap carbon copy of Wingdings 1 with a few arbitrary features slapped on. Stick with the original, the beautiful, the Wingdings 1.

And use it to write your magnum opus.

[Bezombia]

Fine then, use Wingdings 3. It's odd but still higher than 1.

Wingdings 3 is just a cheap carbon copy of Wingdings 1 with a few arbitrary features slapped on. Stick with the original, the beautiful, the Wingdings 1.

And use it to write your magnum opus.

I wrote my magnum opus years ago, but I used Symbol. Should I go back and change it?

[The Nuclear Fist]

Wingdings 3 is just a cheap carbon copy of Wingdings 1 with a few arbitrary features slapped on. Stick with the original, the beautiful, the Wingdings 1.

And use it to write your magnum opus.

I wrote my magnum opus years ago, but I used Symbol. Should I go back and change it?

Rewrite it and then scorch off your fingers.

[The New World Oceania]

I wrote my magnum opus years ago, but I used Symbol. Should I go back and change it?

Rewrite it and then scorch off your fingers.

As your legal counsel I strongly advise against scorching off your fingers.

[Shaggai]

Rewrite it and then scorch off your fingers.

As your legal counsel I strongly advise against scorching off your fingers.

If you do scorch off your fingers, I even more strongly advise you to do it in the proper ritual manner such that your fingers will be sacrificed to me.

[Nazi Flower Power]

I wrote a short story that I was planning to use for the next short story contest, but it's 6700 words and I was planning to have a 6000 word maximum. The 6700 word version has already been edited for length, but I might be able to trim it down more. Most of the cuts I have made so far feel right once I saw what I was left with after the edit. If you can get the same information across with fewer words, it is almost always a good idea to do so.

There are a bunch of scenes that I was thinking of having, but decided to leave out because of length. The only thing I am not sure about is the ending. I was debating between two possible endings and I chose the one that was going to come out shorter, but I am not sure it's actually better.

It's interesting to me that there is one of the central characters who comes out a lot more likable after the edits. I didn't change any of his scenes, but the ones where his dark side came out mostly got cut. His role in the story is to serve as the protagonist's friend and confidant, so showing off his nasty side wasn't useful to advance the plot.