Comments on: Scene Setting: Capturing the details

By: Recommended reading for writers - March 2009 | Write for Your Life

Recommended reading for writers - March 2009 | Write for Your Life — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:27:00 +0000

[...] Scene Setting: Capturing the details | Editor Unleashed The advice is to get a budget video camera to record potential settings and the like. This is something I’m planning on doing in the next couple of months, though I’m going for the highly portable and popular Flip Mino. [...]

By: Alegra Clarke

Alegra Clarke — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:22:56 +0000

I have been considering writing software with my ‘allotted’ research allowance – the problem is finding the time to go through all the steps to get this. I might write the department today.

Ha, I would put money on me being able to “Alegra-ize” just about anything put in my path!

By: Adam Reid

Adam Reid — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:57:29 +0000

Very clever!! Now I need to find a legitimate reason to use a fun gadget for my thesis!! the most exciting thing I’m suspecting I’ll need for my thesis is a few hundred dollars worth of programming software, which is fun, but will require classes to learn it…. I would be interested to hear how much you Alegra-ize place you caught on camera.

By: Debbi

Debbi — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:57:34 +0000

Heh, mine are the clicker pens that fit perfectly into my uniform’s pen-holders. It’s not hard to make them last. I’m pretty much the only one who uses my type so I have no qualms about making people return them. Granted I bought around 100 pens so it’s really no surprise they lasted that long. Like I said, they can be hard to find so I really stock up. They have grips so they don’t work well in my hair, but I have been known to stick a wooden number two in to hold the hair back!

By: Alegra Clarke

Alegra Clarke — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:27:39 +0000

Four years?! You are better woman than I am. I’m notorious for losing pens and using them (when I had longer hair) to keep my hair up out of my face – this usually resulted in me forgetting that an uncapped pen was in my hair so I had way of leaving ‘marks’ all over the place when I leaned up against anything.

Once my hair is grown back out I will once again resume this practice – it means that no matter what I have a pen on me at all times.

I liked your description of using a pencil – that is what it comes down to, the sensation of writing and all that is involved with it. I choose notebooks for the most part in the same way, by how the paper feels, how the notebook weights in my hand, etc. Although, sometimes I simply get entranced by something pretty and can’t resist.

:o)

By: Debbi

Debbi — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:19:55 +0000

It’s weird, but I like the scratchy-roughness of the wooden pencils. I don’t even mind that they leave a callous on my finger because it’s the same creased callous that crocheting leaves. Mechanical pencils have lead that squeaks and that’s never sounded right to me. I’m also particular about my pens. I’m not fond of gel-writers because they cut out at the oddest moments, making me go back and retrace my words and it distracts me from what I was writing. I can’t leave a word with cutouts from a faulty pen. I finally found more of the style I like when I was down to my last two and panicing that they may have been discontinued. I bought three boxes of the pens. Last time I bought them my stash lasted about four years. We’ll see how long this supply lasts.

By: Alegra Clarke

Alegra Clarke — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:38:46 +0000

Debbi

That is what I love about this particular camcorder is that it is so easy to operate because at the end of the day I often don’t have the mental energy or patience.

I love the story about your nephew – it sounds like something my daughter would do!

I have to admit that pencils, unless they are the soft lead type, give me the heeby-jeebies. I am an instant devotee of any writing tool that glides effortlessly across the page – so I love a pencil that writes with a soft touch, there is something very comfortable and familiar about it. And, I love the ability to erase and edit ;o)

By: Debbi

Debbi — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:28:14 +0000

I’ve thought about doing the digital recorder thing, and the video camera thing. I think the main problem is that I’ve been so brain-dead by the time I get off work I don’t want to do or write anything.

Speaking of work though, I love my highlighters, paperclips, weird metal clamp things that came with my desk, and I always have a sharpened #2 wooden pencil sitting on my keyboard between the function and the number rows. It has to be wood, not too fond of the mechanical pencils.

I think my favorite thing camera-wise was giving my old one to my nephew. I want to see life through his perspective. Heh, his perspective included washing the camera after the dog licked it. Makes sense, he has to wash his hands after they’re licked… Let’s just say he got a lesson on how some things aren’t cleaned by massive amounts of water. Camera came away undamaged so I still get to see his perspective!

By: Asoldier

Asoldier — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:14:34 +0000

Deborah K. Clark, don’t underestimate those “whims of the mind.” Study marketing techniques and attend workshops till the cows come home and you could (probably) never think to produce a YouTube channel like Fred. With an average of FOUR MILLION viewers per episode, who has time figuring out how he does it? And does anyone want to learn how and then to copy this “Fred” technique?

To act juvenile and acquire such a following. Marketing only T-shirts at the present time, ….

By: Alegra Clarke

Alegra Clarke — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:33:01 +0000

That is definitely the potential trap with writer ‘tools’, all of the organizing and planning can put off the actual writing. It is probably safest to get a good chunk of material down and take a trip to the store as a reward. But hey, I firmly believe in the underestimated power of procrastination – I think all kinds of productivity can come from it.

Thanks PJ.