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Transcript
It's been a little different in terms of writing, but.
She gently fondled the notebooks.
She gently stroked the COVID of the notebook.
Hello, and welcome to episode 108 of the erasable podcast. This episode is sponsored by Indefensive Paper, once again making high quality notebooks sourced and manufactured in the US visit indefensive paper.com erasable to check them out and use coupon code erasable to save $5 off your purchase. I'm Andy Welfle, signing in from the last week of National Novel Writing Month. Tonight I'm broadcasting with my steadfastly noveling co host, Johnny Gamber. We are joined by somebody who is a good friend of the show. No doubt you'd know, Les Harper from the RSVP podcast, who, may I just say has already completed her 50,000 words a week ahead of schedule, well before the end of November. No. Les. Hey, Les. How are you doing?
I'm good. How are you guys doing?
Very good. Congratulations.
Thank you.
I bow to you.
Jonny, where are you at?
I am like a day's words. I mean, one day's worth of words ahead. Okay. So this week I can start taking it easy.
So you're kind of like, you know, following up close behind.
Yeah, I'll probably hit 45 tonight if I write a little more.
Very cool. So we're going to dig into that later. I have a lot of kind of like, interesting process questions for D. Sorry, not D. Less. Different RSVP host who. I have no idea what I just did there. Less. I have a lot of interesting process questions for you just because you've been so good about posting your word count and using the community to hold you accountable for doing that, which is interesting. So, yeah, we're going to get there. But first, let's jump into some of the tools of the trade. Les, what are you consuming and what are you writing with? And on.
So I am currently consuming a decaf chai and I didn't add any milk to it. And I'm kind of kicking myself for that right now because it's not that creamy chai taste, but the spice is just right. It's a nice winter warming kind of tea. And I'm still ashamed to admit that I am watching the newly rebooted Charmed on the cw.
After your raving review of Charmed on the latest rsvp, I'm like, well.
But I also pointed out that it was crappy.
Yeah, exactly.
It was so bad. So bad. But I can't help it. Like, it's like, witches and magic and all, like, drama. So I can't help it.
I love that there are, like, women of color. Like, they're all women of color, right?
Yes. And one of them is a lesbian. I'm totally queer baited into watching it, so I'm digging that. And I am writing with a blue black uni ball signo DX 0.38, and a story supply company morning Notebook. Have you guys seen those?
Oh, yeah. Those are pretty.
Yeah, Vito sent us some.
I think so. Gorgeous. He sent me a pack, and I can't, like, I can't stop fondling them. Like, they feel so good.
Yeah.
This is an After Dark episode. Is it?
We're just gonna go straight after dark. Fondling Notebooks. That's our title of the show.
What about you, Johnny?
So it being National Novel Writing Month, the only thing I'm consuming is Poldark and more coffee than I will admit to.
Is this, like, your second time through with Poldark? Because I feel like you've watched a lot of Poldark.
Yeah, we started over, and then now we're binging season four, which means we're gonna have to watch it again next year. Because, like, I mean, there were plot lines and characters and babies and, like, whoa. I'm glad I watched this. I didn't remember any of this.
Yeah.
And, you know, that's the kind of show where you got to kind of have in your head the difference between the old wigged white guys to, like, keep one from the other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I finally got over my. What is it called? The putrid throat or what is that?
So Dwight Ennis, AKA Shaved Tim. We talked about that last year. I think he looks like Tim. Modest beard.
We did.
In fact, there's that one episode where there's a few episodes where he has a beard when he's a French prisoner. Spoiler alert. Where he really looks like Tim. Like, oh, my God. But his voice isn't as deep. Were silky.
Nobody's is.
Yeah. And so someone he used to be in our Facebook group named Josiah Keene in Utah sent me a message the other day asking if I wanted to purchase half a dozen of the blue dipped palomino hbs. To which the answer is hell yes. So they came today. And that's. I'm writing with one of those, which is super fragrant. And I write notepads and company Keats on autumn book that I'll talk about more later. Yeah. How about you, Andy?
I am currently consuming because I'm a dirty hipster a lemon Lacroix. Although I'm not so hipster as to say Lacroix. It's from La Croix, Wisconsin, people.
Yeah, La Croix, yeah.
Right. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's super ubiquitous in tech company offices and I'm holed up in a conference room at work. So this was the flavor that I went for today. And we just finished over the Thanksgiving weekend. Have either of you watched or heard of the Romanovsky?
I've heard of it. Haven't watched it.
Yeah, it's really. So Matthew Weiner, who is the creator of Mad Men, made a six. No, eight part miniseries for Amazon Prime Video that's basically about. They're disjointed stories that are just unified by the idea that like one of the characters or some of the characters are descended from the Russian royal family, the Romanovski. And they play varying levels of importance in each of the stories, but they're just these little vignettes and really it felt like Matthew Weiner just wanted like an excuse to produce like eight short films because each of them are an hour and a half long and they're really good. They have a lot of the characters that you know and love from television. Both the people who played Roger Sterling and Joan from Mad Men are in different stories and just a, just a bunch of people, they're really, they're all really good.
And two people who played Hemingway, Jack Huston and Corey Stahl.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're. It's really good. They're. They connect very loosely to each other, but they're. And you, you learn a little bit of history too. Like, you learn about like how in fact, like there are lots of descendants nowadays that are descended from the Romanovsky. You learn a little bit of like, you know, their story, how they were kind of rounded up by the Bolsheviks and just all killed and learned about Rasputin and just like, you know, fascinating in general. But it's a, it's a good series. Yeah. So other than that, we've been just. Yeah. Watching random pieces of television. We finished the Durls and Corfu, which we talked about last episode, I think.
Yeah.
And I am writing because I'm ill prepared. I'm writing with a Blackwing pencil on one of those like 3 by 5 post its that have lines on it, which is my favorite post it.
Those are the best post its ever.
Wait, no. So good.
You just said Blackwing. What? Blackwing.
Oh, the. Just a, just a 602 that I have in my, in my hand. Yeah.
Why just a 602? Like 10 years ago, I'd be like, just a 602.
I know this is, this is my like stationary privilege talking, but, you know, just a basic black wearing. I'm, I'm over it. Whatever.
I'm like, are you like riding with a 211 and you don't want to
say, yeah, I have my secret, secret hoard of two 11's that I break out.
Break out.
No, this I do. This is my, my 602 that I, I put on the 530 feral on to make it look like a, you know, pre 1950s Blackwing that I just keep with my, my confidant all the time. I. Yeah, I just wrote on a blackwing because I started scribbling some show notes there and I just started to, or just decided to keep on keeping timestamps there. All right, should we jump into freshpoints? Les, do you want to go over some of your fresh points?
Sure. Yeah. So I don't know if you guys are into bullet journaling or not or if you've heard about this. Brian McCarroll. Yeah, writer Carol came out with the bullet journal method and I. So I'm sure you guys have listened to the last couple of episodes of rsvp. I am a huge user of my local library network.
Yeah. Oh. I've been following your trials and tribulations of my librarian.
But the really good thing is that my local library, if you have a card to your local library, you also have a card that works electronically. So for ebooks with a lot of the other library networks in the state of Massachusetts. So there are eight networks that I can network into. Oh, wow. It's very complicated. So. But that means that there are literally, I think 50 or 60 libraries that I have access to via my one card, which is amazing. And using Libby to access all of that, if you get into nerdy library apps, Libby is fabulous at being able to find all the stuff.
It took me forever to understand how to use Libby because it has a very opaque ui, but once I did, I just use it all the time.
Same.
Yeah.
I had signed up to get the bullet journal method from one of the local libraries. Only one of them had it in ebook for format and I was like the 60th person on the list. And then there are three libraries local had it in hardback format and it was a six month wait. So I, you know, posted a picture of my six month wait in Libby and Harry Marks of covered said, well, what are you. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a paper copy for six months or an ebook copy? And I said, either or. And he said, sent me the gift of reading for Christmas.
Nice.
Which was fabulous. So very awesome gift. But I've been digging deep into this book and if either of you get a chance to read it, it's so good.
How much of this may be a loaded question. How much of Ryder Carroll's personality is in this book?
Well, I don't know. I've only listened to a couple of podcasts with him in it, so I don't. I don't think I know enough about him. The book itself is very concise. He has a very spare writing style that I like. It does come across in some spots as a little self helpy, so that might turn some people off. It also is, you can see a lot of getting things done within the bullet journal method, if that makes sense.
Yeah, that was actually my next question is, had you read David Allen's book Getting Things Done, which clearly you have.
Oh, yeah, I did a blow by blow readout of it on the RSVP Facebook page.
Oh, yes, yes. I remember that.
It included a lot of my rage at being the dude bro ness of it. And actually Dee and I, in the next episode that's coming out this Wednesday of rsvp, I got my wife to read it. So my wife has adhd. And I was thinking, well, you know, maybe getting things done would help you get organized because definitely it's something that's helped me be organized despite the tone of the book. And I'll let people listen to RSVP because I talk about it a little bit. My wife's like, I don't think I like this guy about getting things done because he narrates his own version of it. And it's a very over the top. She's like, it's like listening to my dad read a book to me and that's uncomfortable. Yeah.
I originally asked about the bullet journal method. Like, I first time I like, heard something with writer Carol, it felt very, very GTD to me. Just because he, you know, it's not just like this productivity method. It's like. And like, you can just like take over your life and it can be like, to really get into it, you should just like jump in and he just like goes into it just so deep. And I prefer to like, organize my, like, like with gtd, I like to organize my bullet journaling. And just a very kind of like loose, personalized way that works for me that like, would make somebody like him mad.
So, yeah, I think what I like about the book is that it does leave it open for that. Like, it does suggest, say, start with this. Start with the basics and then pick and choose what you like.
Okay, cool.
So it's definitely. It's a good read, particularly if you need, like a little kick in the seat of the pants to get you motivated in doing something organizational.
Yeah.
So I do. I do like it. I'm planning on doing a full review of it at some point. So it's definitely something people. If you're interested in getting things done or organizational stuff, people should definitely pick it up.
I have a copy for when NaNoWriMo's done. Yeah, I totally bought the one that comes with the stealth version of the bullet. Journal.
Journal, too. Is it a Leuchtturmur?
Because I'm that guy. Yeah, it's a Leuchtturm that has, like, black gilding on the edges of the pages, which sounds kind of like meh. But when you see it, you're like, oh, yeah.
So the other thing is, what did you guys think of the Bear and Fig blackout bags and everything coming in black now?
I. Yeah, that. I'm. I'm glad we're talking about that. I like the thing that interests me, which is like, almost all the time. What interests me about Baron Fig is the black confidant. I'm so glad that exists. It's been something I've been wanting for a long time. And the rest of the stuff, like the blackout bag is like, pretty cool, but, like, the rest of it's like, cool. It's in black now. That's awesome.
But yeah, no black pencil. I want a black pencil.
No, no black pencil.
Yeah, it'll still look really nice with the original archers, just because I think those grays will go very. Will go very well. But yeah, I think. I think Hagen said it best in some group or another that like, like we have a feeling that they like, you know, the archers aren't like super high sellers and they probably had to order such big minimums that it's going to be a while before they run out of. Of these archers. Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I'm, I'm. I love that black. Confident. I'm probably going to get one pretty soon because I definitely don't have enough confidants.
The other thing that I thought that was really interesting that they kind of rolled out at the same time and kind of quietly is that their bags are waterproof now. And it seems like a really strange thing to roll out super quietly.
Especially like, I feel like I've been sort of like shouting into the sky about this for a long time. Like, that was the main reason why I don't use my slimline backpack is because, you know, it's not. Doesn't rain a lot in San Francisco, but when it rains, it rains. And I can't have it like soaking through and getting everything wet. And I appreciate that. Yeah. That it is waterproof. And when I said something in the bear and fig group, Joey was like, oh, hey, take a look at this. I was like, great. This should have been like your title feature for these new bags. Right? Like.
I agree.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm. I've been thinking about like that, that new slimline backpack and I can't remember. Did we talk about last episode about the satchel?
No.
Yeah. Les, what do you think of that satchel?
I.
You know, I'm not a big. You mean the little tiny mini backpack thing?
Meh, Yeah.
I don't really have a lot of thoughts on it because it's too tiny. It looks like a purse to me. And I have other bags that fit that sort of spot, if you will. I have man purses that fulfill that. And I don't like crossbody bags that sit in that way. It just. I know. Okay, first I'm just gonna say it. It's not. It's probably not gonna fit a fat person and I'm a fat person and it's probably gonna look ridiculous sitting on my fat back. So.
Yeah, Yeah, I, I feel like I would have been real into it if it was like a messenger style bag. And. Have you seen the satchel, Johnny?
No, I missed it somehow.
It's their, it's their new form factor of a bag and it has enough room to fit like, you know, a notebook and like a tablet and some like, basically like a day, like a city day bag kind of a. Kind of a deal. Couldn't really put like a laptop in there probably, but enough to.
No, they've. They've said flat out it won't fit a laptop.
Yeah.
Oh, that's cute. Yeah, it's cute.
Yeah, the, the size. I really like the size because I, I have a. I have a bag that I'm kind of looking to replace that's. Of that, like that size. But I definitely like really want a messenger style bag rather than that crossbody thing. Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, I have, I have five Timbuk 2 bags. I have a clear preference and I like waterproofing.
Johnny, you need to Come out here and come to the factory.
That would be awesome. Two of mine came from there.
Yeah.
I'm still in diaper bag mode, so. Tied up. But I have Timbuktu diaper bag.
Nice. Yeah. So, yeah, big fan of that. Of Baron fig bags.
Yeah. That's cool.
Yeah.
So my last fresh point is the RSVP sticker sale, and I just wanted to thank you guys for mentioning it on your show. We're doing really well. We are. So I have, I think, 80 sets left, and Lenore has a bunch squirreled away. We're planning on sending some people out to some packages from Lenore's place, But, yeah, you know, like, people have been buying them up, and I'm so surprised at how large the orders have been. Like, I expected people to order, like, one package or two packages, but. And I threw the 10 pack up there just as kind of a joke, and people have been ordering it. So, yeah, that's been pretty awesome.
I ordered stickers.
Yeah, I ordered eight of them. And I really love that you didn't just, like, you know, whip something up in, like, Photoshop and send it off to Sticker Mule. Like, you, like, had these designs and, like, letterpressed them. So I love how you.
Yeah, that's all Lenore.
Yeah. Yeah. Good job, Lenore. These are awesome.
Yeah. I was telling Lenore my kids took a lot of them and stuck them places.
My computer took a crap on me, and I'm using a loaner computer right now from work. And once I get mine back, I'm gonna find a good spot for that.
Nice.
Yeah, I think the B1 is my favorite.
That's what a lot of people are saying. I really enjoy the Inkwell. Yeah, that's one of my favorites. But the bee in orange or there is this, like, deep, dark navy blue that almost looked like black. Yeah.
Yeah.
So good.
Yeah. And it's knocked it out of the park.
It's going to a good cause. I understand you have placed some microphone orders.
We have, yeah. We've got. We've got some microphones on order, and I think it's going to improve the sound quality. It's certainly. At least you won't. You won't hear my neighbors as much anymore. I swear the minute I turn on my microphone, my neighbors, like, gun their engines and do laps around the block. And one dude will stand out on his front stoop smoking a cigarette, talking on his phone. Blankety blank, blank, blank.
See, I find it, like, just an extra. Just, like, good subplot of rsvp.
Rsvp. Hey, guys, we gotta stop for my neighbors. They're having a conversation outside my window again.
Neighbor update.
Get some water balloons or a Nerf gun.
Oh, hey, I'm pretty sure my neighbors are selling oxy out there.
Great.
Be right back. Gonna make a purchase.
Oh, God, no. I wouldn't be able to function. You wouldn't see me for days.
Cool.
Anyhow, Gionny, what about you? What are your fresh points?
Let's talk about oxycon, Johnny.
Well, Johnny and I think our neighbors might be interchangeable. They're all dealing ox anyway.
Oh my God. When I was in Hamden, my. My neighbor bragged. He was like, I smoke marijuana every day. Damn proud of it. Like, nobody that smokes it every day calls it marijuana. No, you're uptight. You don't smoke that. But neighbor does every day.
Well, now it's recreational there.
Yeah, it's. It's legal here.
Yeah, we had.
There's a big. There's big. I know it made national news in a couple of places, but they opened a dispensary somewhere not far from me and they had a 2,000 person waiting line. Actually, it was longer than that. They had to turn people away. They sold like $240,000 of recreational weed in a couple of hours.
Wow.
Wow.
You had to close down the shop.
Yeah, no, California.
We.
We went recreational in earlier this year and it was like that too. It was just like lines and lines and lines. Yeah. Not that I would know, I'm told.
Yeah, well, it's perfectly legal. Go ahead.
Yeah, it's true, right? Yeah. Anyhow, Johnny,
so my fresh points are on notebooks. Related Write Notepads had a. It wasn't a seasonal release, but it was a set of notebooks dedicated to John Keats, Ode to Autumn. But they came out like last week. Was it last week or two weeks ago?
Just at the end of autumn.
Yeah. So I'm using them now the best I can before December starts. But they're off the website. They sold out really, really fast like the Thorough books did. But these have the perfect. Help me. Saddle stitching. Yeah. And graph paper like Sakura. So, like, you know, inside their functional, beautiful notebook, outside there's a gold leaf leaf. And it says to autumn. And a piece. A picture of Keats in the back. So that's. Those are really freaking cool. These are the coolest autumn book anyone's put out since Shenandoah. No offense, Ms. Janandoa Giudiani.
Do you think that Chris is ever going to go back to The Perfect Bound notebooks.
I don't know, because people seem to really like these staples.
Yeah.
I wonder if it's cheaper. Like I, I like it. If I had to pick, I'd like the staples better.
Yeah.
And I like the form factor of these because they're, you know, the pages are wider because they were doing the perfect bound and they kept that dimension, but now it's stable bounds and you open it up, you're like, wow, that's a lot of room.
Yeah. See, see, to me, I think that, I think I really like the, the pure bound, but just because like, like they served a different purpose. Like if you want something that will just was indestructible and just like wouldn't like, you know, fall apart, you had the right notepads. And then if you wanted something that was a little bit more flexible and a little bit like lighter weight or whatever, you have field notes or Baron fig or notebooks made by less. But now like everybody is saddle stitched and. Yeah, it's fine. He still makes really beautiful notebooks. Those, those Keats notebooks are really, really nice looking.
Yeah, I got like. I knew that they didn't make a lot of them, so I didn't buy a lot and now I really wish I did. Yeah, they just had a big sale for, you know, Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. I didn't buy anything. I was a good boy because I just bought a bunch of.
Their sales were amazing.
Yeah. Yeah.
It was like, buy one, get one free for limited editions. That's sick. And so. Oh yeah. My other notebook, freshpoint, is related to blackwing. They sort of quietly put out their series of notebooks in gray to match the 602 and the summit and the Slate have a pink bookmark which is super dead sexy.
Yeah.
I saw one at Bob Slate when I was up there last month and Bob Slate really marked it up. It was like, okay, I know that this thing isn't 25 or $26 or whatever they were charging for it.
Yeah. Kind of expensive on occasion.
Also, I sort of asked Nick at Blackwing if he could just send them to me and he did. So I didn't have to pay for them at all, which is awesome.
So all you listeners out there, just email Nick and I'll just send you one.
So he let me pick the insides. So I got the clutch, which you're supposed to use sideways, which I often do in lined. And have you guys seen what they look like inside, how they have that center line? That's really interesting. I didn't know they had that. Hmm. It's. When you open it up, it sort of looks like a steno pad.
Oh, that's interesting. I guess I didn't see that.
Yeah, I haven't seen that.
And like, so I keep thinking these are expensive because when these came out, they were $15 for a set. And that was back when field notes and write notepads were 10. I was like, wow, that's a really big price jump. And then I forgot that everything's 13 now, so 15 is not that much more. But these notebooks are like really freaking nice. The quality control is good. The paper is amazing. The binding is nice. I don't know why I don't use these more often. But now I have three new ones, so that's awesome.
Thanks, Nick.
And you know, the other thing is, you know, the black ones are really cool and the white ones were cool, but them being soft and using graphite, they get really dirty. The gray has like a really interesting depth to it. They're kind of shark looking. It's really cool.
See, which is my favorite, which is cool because, like, you know, the 602s have that shark look to it. And in the pictures that I've seen of those grade notebooks, like, at least to me or the pictures I've seen, they look super flat. And so I was like, these don't feel like they would match at all. But yeah, when hearing you describe it makes it sound way closer looking to the pencil than I was expecting.
Yeah. The texture of whatever this polyurethane is really comes out in the gray. Like, these are really freaking sweet. I kind of feel like a jerk for not buying them, but I'll use them up, buy some more. It'll work out.
Yeah.
And also I think you've got some too. The pins. Those are super cute.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
They're like the little enamel pins. Have you seen those?
I haven't seen. I've seen pictures of them. Lenore was having some serious FOMO over them.
Yeah, they have them at CW also. I don't think they're going to go anywhere.
Last thing I need is more pins. There's so many out there. But. But they are really. They're really cute. I just put one on my safari jacket.
Yeah, I had these for my kids because Charlotte really likes the pearl. But I think they're gonna get them for him for Christmas. Henry likes a 602 and I'll take the extra MMX, so that'll work out. And also in black Notebooks, field notes came out with their Winter Edition.
Yeah.
So I don't know, do you want to talk about that or save it for a Winter Edition episode? Although we may or may not ever get around to that with the holidays.
Yeah, we'll see. We usually skip a cycle for the holidays, which is a whole month. So I don't know. Yeah, well, let's, let's save it and if for some reason we don't get back to it, we'll just talk about it like later after everybody's already experienced it. But yeah. Yeah. I mean they never are going to go wrong with selling a black notebook. Like that's just sort of like an instant like seller for them. And this one just has a fun, fun theme.
Yeah. And if you live under a rock and don't know that they came out early, like go check them out. They're freaking sweet. And the video was really cool.
Yeah.
As the last few have been. Yeah. Yeah. So those are my very paperish points. What do you got, sir?
All right, well the first, the first one, all I typed in the doc was in all caps, Silly Putty. So I don't know about you two. Well actually I know for a fact Johnny is, but like I don't know less. Are you a fidgeter?
I am indeed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I am definitely a fidgeter and I have done things like I backed that fidget cube when it came out, which I regret because it's, it's like, it's fine. It's just like, is a very prescriptive fidgeting method. I fidgeted with the, with the spinners because like you know, 2017 was 2017, it was all the rage. They were the popsockets of 2017. I fidgeted with pencils mostly. Like that's kind of why I started keeping it just on my desk. Even when I wouldn't use it for a while. If I was just at my computer, I'd fidget with a pencil. However, sometimes you find yourself accidentally stabbing yourself when you fidget with a pencil.
Come to the territory.
Yeah. So a long time ago in college, I used to fidget with Silly Putty and it's. Silly Putty is such a great, like just a really good material. Like I played with it when I was a kid. I used to love doing like imprints from newspapers and like the, the comics on Silly Putty. And it's just this like this kind of like gummy, non sticky plasticky thing that you can like, like push into shapes and kind of Mold around and play with. And I. I loved it, like, when I was doing a lot of reading especially, and I just realized, oh, hey, like, I'm an adult. Like, Silly Putty doesn't cost that much. So I put. I bought a 10 pack of multicolored Silly Putty on Amazon for like, like, 12 bucks.
Did you get the crazy errands?
The crazy. Wait, the crazy what?
Crazy errands. Thinking Putty.
Oh, no, I got Silly Putty brand
Silly Putty, but this is like millennial Silly Putty.
Yeah, I need to get.
I got hipster s Silly Putty in a little tin that I can carry around, and mine is called Oil Slick, and it looks like an oil slick.
Oh, wow.
My kids bought some at Black Ink last time we were there.
Yeah, I think that's. No, I got mine at another hipster store in Cambridge.
I'm, like, marginally aware of thinking putty, and I've definitely seen, like, the magnetic thinking putty when people put, like, metal things on it and it just sort of, like, envelops it like a. Like a amoeba or something. I think that's probably my next step. I think this is, like, the gateway to some thinking putty. But I. Yeah, I just love it. Like, I just. Like, I'm actually playing with it right now. And tip for those of you who may record podcasts and like to fiddle with things. Johnny Gamber, it's silent when you fiddle with it. So I may send you some Silly buddy to fiddle with instead of you sharpening your pencil during the show.
Maybe I need to send something.
That's right. Anyhow, it's fun. It's a good kind of, like, analog thing, I just realized. So Katie's family has a white elephant gift exchange for, like, it's always under. Like, you want to do it under $10. And they always. Some people come up, have a contest to see, like, what really wacky things they can come up with. I just found out you can buy a pound of Silly Putty that comes in this giant oversized egg on Amazon. No, like, the Silly Putty egg. You know, it comes in, like, an egg shaped container.
Oh. They used to have pantyhose eggs that were, like, the size of an Oscar egg.
Yeah, yeah.
Grandmother would add them around.
Oh, yeah. This is closer to that size, but it's a pound of Silly Putty, which is, I want to say, is like six or eight times the size of regular Silly Putty. So very excited.
You could kill somebody with that.
Just bounce it off their head.
How did Daddy die.
Death by silly buddy man. Yeah.
So one way to go.
That's fun. Yeah. Met an erasable listener and really great Plumbago contributor, Dan Lilly. He goes by Daniel Lilly in Plumbago. He's a, he's a writer. He wrote a really great thing about like his personal account of his dad who worked at IBM and sort of the respect that IBM had it for pencils and for like stationary. He's writing a really great. I can probably spoil it. He's writing a really great piece this, this time around. Collecting Schwinn bicycles. Schwinn is a. Yeah, very collectible bicycle. And he just talks a lot about that. He's a really interesting guy. He was in San Francisco for Thanksgiving and we met up and had coffee and just talked and yeah, he's a, he's a cool guy. So whenever I, whenever I meet an erasable listener, I like to just. To just talk about it here. So if ever you have a chance in the group or elsewhere to talk to Dan Lilly, be sure to do that because he's super interesting. Last thing I'll mention is we spent our day after Thanksgiving just organizing and cleaning and doing some like, you know, pre2019 like organization. And one of my big challenges was to take all of my stationery collection and go through it and try to reorganize it and keep it together and weed out stuff I didn't want. So I decided to really weed out my advertising souvenir pencil collection, which I had. I probably had like four or five big cigar boxes full of them. And I kept some of the ones that like, had to do with Fort Wayne or had to do with like things that were close to me. But the rest of them, I decided I'm gonna put them in a flat rate box and send them to Chris Jones to pick through and find ones that he wants to write about for Graphite Confidential and then have him donate the rest of them to CW Pencils. Like vending machine. So you know, they have that, like, that like vintage pencil, like vending machine. But man, I have so much junk, it's not even funny. I got rid of, I got rid of some notebooks. I sent them to a teacher friend of mine and I, I just realized how many duplicates of things I have. And I also realized that so often what I don't do, and I've heard Brad Dowdy talk about this with his pension, is often when somebody like sends me stuff, I don't do any sort of like processing of them. So yeah, I have so much stuff that I went through, but also still have. So, yeah, if anybody has an idea for, like. And that's a topic I want to, like, have for the future, how one organizes their pencil collections. Like. Like, do you organize it by manufacturer? Like, these are all my German pencils. These are all my Japanese pencils. Les, you have a lot of. A lot of different kinds of stuff, but do you have enough stuff of one kind that you organize it in such a way?
Well, I have. So I created a couple of rules for myself to keep things down to a minimum, because I have an entire studio that I could pack full of crap if I really wanted to. But for pencils, I have it so that I can only have these two small drawers, which actually will hold dozens and dozens and dozens of pencils in the box. And once that gets full, I donate anything that doesn't fit. But in terms of organizing it, there's not really a right. Like, I have all of my, like, shtetler together. I have all of the, like, European brands in one box, and then all the Japanese and Asian brands in another drawer. So it's sort of. Sort of by country and brand within those two drawers. And then I have random cups of things that have been sharpened.
Yeah.
That I should probably start using.
Oh, man. The random cups of things I found around my house, like, at some point. And I don't know when I took two random mugs of pencils and put them in a, like, storage box, just, like, mug and all. Like, what was. I don't know what I was thinking.
There you go. Yeah. I'm thinking I'm gonna end up taking some to work and just leaving them on a desk. Because stuff just disappears at work.
Yeah.
Either by staff or clients. So eventually, pencils will just disappear.
Yeah.
So that's. And then pens and things. I have just cups of pens.
Yeah.
But I don't. I don't seem to amass as many of those as I do pencils.
Yeah. I realized I. I had way more pens than I thought. Like, I sort of, like, subconsciously collect them. But I sort of realized that for years, I have been stealing. So at restaurants, I've been like, if they have, like, their brand, the restaurant brand on a bit, click, I'll take it. And what I usually do is, if I had a good relationship with the server, I usually tack on an extra $5 to the tip and have a little note that says, because I stole your pen. So I realized that. Yeah, I have probably, like, almost a dozen bitclicks that have restaurant brands on them.
Some of them are really cool, though. Get a good combo.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you all have Buca di Beppo's? Do you know what that is?
The what?
No.
Buca di Beppo. It's like an Italian chain. No, we don't have them around here, but my sister has them in Orlando, and they had a pen with their brand with their name on it. That was a Skillcraft pen, like the kind used by the US Government.
Nice.
Yeah. And when I saw it, I was in Orlando visiting my sister, and we went to go pick up some food, and I signed with my. Signed my credit card slip, and I was so excited. Like, this is a Skillcraft pen. You never see this. This is the pen used by the US Government. I got the same look that I think your librarian gave you. Less like, okay, freak, weirdo. Yeah. Luckily, they were just like, you can have it if you want. I was like, okay. So enthusiastic. Katie was just like, shut up. Oh, what is this link you're sending me, Johnny?
So in Baltimore, there's a thing called Big Boys Bail bonds. They're these really garish pens. They're like a knockoff of Bic clip, and they're yellow with pink accents. And they're like such a big thing. People would dress up as them for Halloween. Or like, there's a car that the company drives around that's designed after their pens, and they were selling them because they're so popular and they're really nice. They have a fine blue refill. Yeah.
I like how the entire website is to order pens. And I click on order free pens, and it says, due to the overwhelming demand for our pens, we're no longer accepting online orders at this time.
I might have sent you some. I think they come tomorrow. I'll send you some too, Les, if you're interested. They're really cool pens. I was at an event and I got, like, 20 of them.
I'll never say no to free pens.
They're like, surprisingly good pens.
Part of my problem.
Yeah, I was going to say, that'll be your downfall.
The clips break off, but they're so ugly and they write so well. You're like, ooh, this is all I need.
That's hilarious.
All right, so I think that wraps up for fresh points. Before we jump into the main topic, I'm going to just talk about our sponsor a little bit. So. Yeah. This episode is sponsored for the third time by the Good people In defense of paper. They make really high quality notebooks that are sourced and manufactured in the U.S. each notebook contains 200 pages of high quality paper with a really high quality vellum finish that, you know, usually vellum is not great on pencil, but this has been tried and tested by us and pencil looks great on it, especially a darker pencil. The notebooks are available with either a ruled or a dot grid page and every page is blank on one side of it. So some people really hate using the other side of a notebook page. I myself actually like using that blank side as more of a freeform side. Like a few other notebooks that are out there. The Blackwing slate, for example, they have an exposed elastic spine that really makes it lay flat really well. It won't fight against you as you write in it. This is super lay flat, I would say even more so than a Baron fig confidant. It just sort of like instantly starts off that way. And the COVID is available in three different colors. I really love the, the gray color, which is called the slate. In fact, Johnny and I both, both got the slate colors ourselves because it's so good looking. But they also come in ember, which is a, well, ember color with like a kind of a burnt orange with a, with a bright pink spine and then also granite, which is a black cover and a kind of like off white light gray spine. So yeah, great colorways on these things. And they're fabric brown, which is one of my very favorite things in notebooks. That's one reason I love the confidant so much is it's fabric brown. And this is what really attracted me to the indefensibility paper notebook. And as Johnny said, it has a really cool little imprint on it which is like a. What would you call that, Johnny? Like a geometric line drawing of a bird.
Yeah, it's sort of like, I don't know, it looks like if someone was doing a beginning like 3D animation class.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks really cool. Like a wireframe of a bird.
Yeah, I always say it would be a cool tattoo. Yeah, I stick by that.
Absolutely. So they've been really kind and they're offering erasable listeners a $5 discount off a purchase just in time for Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever gift giving holiday you celebrate. Just head over to indefensivepaper.com erasable to check those out. And if you're interested in buying, use the offer code erasable to save that $5. Now remember, erasable is spelled E R A S A B L E. We encourage you to at least go check them out and show the support for these notebooks and for our podcast by that going to that link indefensofpaper.com erasable and again, use the offer code erasable to purchase and save $5 on your purchase. So thank you so much to in Defensive paper for sponsoring the Erasable podcast. So yeah, let's jump into our main topic. So every year, thousands of people around the world sign up for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. I think we've talked about it here every time November hits. Yep. And they agree to throw out their regular hobbies, sleep, caffeine limits, and even basic hygiene. Johnny to pound on a novel. And I haven't shaved in a while in 30 days. So just on the cusp of last week of the last week of November of NaNoWriMo, we want to talk a little bit about how this year has gone for Johnny and for our guest and what we might be able to put into practice to improve the experience results next year. So while we don't have to get into plot secrets and character spoilers unless you want to, let's talk a little bit about the process. So I will disclaim and say that I We were talking about this earlier. I just don't have. My brain doesn't work in the right way to write a novel. Maybe someday I'll maybe try to write some other really long form thing this way, but for the moment, like, I just can't, like plot out a novel and then like I can barely write a short story or a poem. But someday. So as we talked about before, Les is done, she did it. I don't know. We'll see if you keep going or not, but Johnny's almost there. Why do you. Why do you both participate in such a really challenging endeavor for each November? And you can take it in whatever order you want, but if less. If you want to start, I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Sure. So for years I learned about NaNoWriMo really early on when I was first starting to blog and I really wanted to participate, but I really let my inner critic take control and talk me out of it. Three years ago I did my first nano with pencil in composition notebooks and it went way better than I expected. It was not easy. It's actually really, really hard to write 1667 words by hand every day. But I found that I really liked it. I enjoyed the process of writing a novel and I totally pantsed it that first year. I had no idea what I was doing. I was like, I'm gonna write this story about, I think it was like elves and witches and stuff, and it was crap. I mean, utter garbage. But I had so much fun doing it that I was like, I'm going to have to do this next year.
Yeah, that's really cool. So quick, quick bragging point on my, on my end. I actually have met Chris Beatty a few times. The founder of NaNoWriMo. He, he works, he does the type of thing that I do professionally at Dropbox and he.
Awesome.
Yeah, he's really cool. I just sort of like found out by coincidence that that was him. I was like, oh, my God, you're the NaNoWriMo guy. He's like, yeah, we talked a lot about Alpha Smarts.
Nice.
Johnny, why do you. Why do you do. Why do you nano?
So I don't know if we talked about this on the podcast before, but I went to Goucher College because there was an undergraduate there who got like a. This was in the 90s, a quarter of a million dollar book deal. So they had a really good writing program and so far as I know, they still do. And I went to college to learn how to be a writer and when I got there, so did lots of other kids. So I chickened out competition and majored in philosophy because, you know, that's easy. And this is my throwback to what I would much rather have done with my late teens and all of my 20s. And also I hate myself.
So it's never too late to go back to another degree. Johnny.
Oh man. Be that guy.
Yeah.
What did you major in? Get the hell out of here.
So talking a little bit about the process of actually drafting the novel, let's start with you, Johnny. How did you work on it this year?
So in the past I was using composition books because I really liked the sort of big canvas. And this year I picked up some decomposition books because those things are cute or sexy, depending which one you get. But so this year I found a book in my stash of notebooks that my mom gave me for Christmas this year of Hogwarts, which was like an A5 Moleskine style notebook. So I've been using that and I started with some burgundy and brown gel pens which match the book, which is brown, and it's, you know, November and quickly was like, nah. So then I was using pencils and I've sort of been jumping around between different pencils and different pens because, you know, if you use the same thing for too long, your hand hurts and you'll switch to a slightly fatter pencil and you're good. Then you're like, nah, I'm gonna use a ballpoint pen for a while. So I'm using one book and many things to write with.
And Johnny, this is one of those situations where, like, you become much more like. Like, what do I. What do I say? Like, pen. You become much more inky. Right. Like, you. You've done NaNoWriMo with gel pens before, right?
Yeah, I think in 2014, I used all gel pens. In 2016, I only used pencil, which was fun. Last year, I was using the dime novel books from Field Notes, which is. That's a little rough for pencils. So I was switching around a lot last year. And like, I. I find, you know, if you sit down, you're like, oh, this feels good. You're more likely to write a couple hundred words with it.
Yeah. And why gel pens?
I don't know. I just like gel pens. But I've been. I think most of it has been ballpoint pen. I know, like, dirty words. I mean, tonight I was using or today Zebra F402, which is their steel pen with the rubber grip. Cause the end of the month and my hand just like, hurts like hell all the time.
Yeah. And Les, how about you? What is your process for writing?
So I start with a composition book and pen and pencil with just ideas. I jot down lot of information or ideas about the characters. And then I do a quick series of writing out what I think I want to have happen in the novel and kind of write out a loose outline in that composition book. In the composition book. I end up calling it my novel bible. I carry it with me everywhere while I'm. While I'm writing and working on that novel. And then I move into Jotterpad and I create a much looser outline within Jotterpad because I can open it up on my phone. And so I don't. I don't know if I've talked about this on any of the podcasts yet, but when I get to work, if I arrive more than seven minutes early, I can't punch in yet. And I'm one of those neurotic people that I show up 20 minutes or 15 minutes early for everything, including work. So I have usually like 15 to 20 minutes that I have to burn before I can punch in. So I'll open up jotterpad on my phone and I'll work on one of those outlines and sitting next to the time clock while I wait for my time to punch in. So jotterpet has been really, really good for me. To be able to open it up and just punch ideas in about characters and the outline. Then I take that and I work on it a little more. Like, I tighten it up a little bit. I print that in advance and work between Jotterpad and Dropbox as I type things up. I don't write with pen and pencil the entire novel anymore. It's. I've developed some pretty severe carpal tunnel in my right hand, and I just can't do it. It doesn't bother me when I use a keyboard, but when I use a pen or pencil and a mouse at the end of the day at work, my hand is like a claw. And basically everyone complains because everything is illegible. Like, I can't. Like, it turns from chicken scratch into chicken droppings. It's just terrible. So that's my process, the basic process.
Yeah. And so what. What I'm really interested in, Les, is you. You've been, at least noticeably this year, you've been doing something really interesting to kind of like, hold yourself accountable to the daily goals kind of throughout, like various stationary communities. Do you. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you've been doing this year?
So one of the things that I did, and I didn't start manuscripting pod for NaNoWriMo, but manuscripting pod has been basically, I do this. This weekly check in with myself, and I take between, you know, eight and 15 minutes and kind of explore whatever is going on with my writing and what's going on in my head and put it out there. So it's kind of a neurotic little exploration of my procrastination tendencies and low motivation.
Yeah.
And apparently some people like it because I've got people who follow it and listen and comment and send me notes to say that they've been listening. But in terms of word limits, what I realized very quickly, and this goes into some of your future questions, is that the word limit is less important to me than the amount of time. So I found that I can actually, with the combination of an outline and those character studies that I do, I can churn out an astonishing amount of words in 25 minutes.
Yeah.
Because I know the characters well enough. I know that, you know, if character A says something to character B, character B is going to say something very specific back to that other character.
Yeah.
I also know what's going to happen. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's something that I've always been a little bit confused with with NaNoWriMo, is it seems like. Like it's so focused on the actual like, you know, writing of the, like of this, the novel itself. And like it didn't really seem like it focused on like the, like the strategy and the plotting and the character development and all the like, other writing, like I guess I would call it like strategy of the novel before you even get there. Is that something that typically they expect to be done beforehand and then the actual November month is like just used doing writing or do they account for that as well?
About. At least in my area. So every, well, I should say every area, but a lot of locations have regional teams that will sponsor like prep events. And Also on the NaNoWriMo website there are prep events that you can join in on. And the whole idea of those prep events are for people who do outline and prepare in advance. You can take part in those events and there are some pretty cool. Not prizes, but like things you can cash in on bonuses and software and apps and things that help get. Help you with the preparation in advance. But yeah, typically all of that prep happens in advance because you don't count your outline towards your word count during the month. Although you suppose you could break the rules and you can do whatever you want. There is an option for you to do whatever you want during NaNoWriMo.
Yeah, that's cool. And, and Johnny, how do you, how do you motivate yourself? You know, you don't. You keep it pretty quiet online, I guess, but you do. You just set time for yourself like during the day to do it or how do you do it?
I shoot for the daily limit or the daily target. And then like this year I didn't get to write at all on the first day, so I started off behind. So I just try to keep myself at where I should be or ahead of where I am because I figured out that if I'm like, you know, 400 words ahead, I'll write 400 words more every day and just like build it up. Yeah, and then there'll be that one day I fall asleep after dinner and don't write at night. Yeah, but really, like, I don't know, like 12 years of Catholic school, like self guilt. Like I should be writing. So November is the month where I don't do anything at all. Like I don't read, I don't watch movies. It's like this sleep and like children.
The sleeping children.
Yeah. So like Friday night I'm going out to dinner.
So I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I really like how you know less. You have kind of the manuscripting pod community and There's a couple other like, little writing communities out there kind of in addition to something like rsvp, which is, you know, that, that kind of falls under the and so much more category. Um, yeah, but you have. It seems like there's a lot of encouragement from a lot of people in those communities to just like, you know, keep yourself honest and like, if you, you know, didn't. Didn't accomplish your goal for one day, you. You kind of like, have to kind of explain why and. Yeah, I just think that's fascinating. It's been really interesting watching you like, kind of like write in public this year.
Yeah, that's been an interesting thing that I. So I've never done that before for quite as much as I have this year. This year, like every morning. And I've actually been doing this consistently before NaNoWriMo, where I post that photo of my word count and the post it note with the word count and that like, you know, then I add the hashtags on and it lets people kind of give you support. Like there's the writers of Instagram writers community. And it's surprising at how many people will actually like, like your photo and or say something nice when they haven't before. Like someone totally out of the blue that you, you have no idea who they are will all of a sudden like one of your photos and say something nice.
That's cool.
It's been really cool.
Yeah.
And yes, speaking of speaking of that a little bit, you know, Les, what part of your process has gone, gone really well this year?
The outline. The really like the other thing is also like the consistency of writing and using timed sprints. I am a huge fan of the Pomodoro method, whether or not that's 25 minute sprint or 10 minute sprint, 15, whatever it is that you do. What has been really amazing to me is how much I actually get done in 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 20 minutes or 25. It's really amazing how much how many words you can pour out if you do that and you're racing against the clock and you kind of have an idea of where you're going with that. So the outline and then those time sprints has just been really, really helpful at moving my novel forward.
That's really cool. And Johnny, how about you?
So the best thing this year has been the notebook I was using because the last two years what I used was not so lap friendly. And this year I'm finding myself just chilling in bed or sitting on the couch writing and not having to Sit at a table. Because doing this by hand for a month, anything that'll take some strain off your neck or off your hand is copacetic and awesome. But, yeah, my biggest improvement has just been the book. And it was, like, random. I saw it sitting there, and I was like, I don't know what else I'm going to use that for.
Yeah. And I guess I didn't ask you this before. Johnny, how much sort of like prep work or strategy work do you do before you just start writing? Or do you kind of like, launch into it and let it develop as you go?
So in past years, I've started with an idea and at least a few characters and some idea of where I wanted it to go. Because one year when I did plot it out and spent a lot of time on that, I threw it all out and realized that I wasted a lot of time. But this is speaking to the next question. Like, this year, I didn't outline. I just had an idea, and that made it really hard to get going this year. But it's working out.
That's cool.
It picked up. Yeah.
So, yeah, that next question, which is, what would you do differently next year? And so Johnny would outline more next year when he was floundering. But, Les, how about you?
I think I would work on my characters a little bit more in advance. Like, one of my characters starts out in marketing, and then I realized that doesn't work with the novel, so I would map that out a little bit better in advance of actually getting the writing done. Because now when I do my edits, I've got to go back in that first couple of chapters where she's talking about marketing. It doesn't make a lot of sense, so I'm gonna have to rework that a lot.
Yeah. Yeah. So if this is something you don't want to talk about, we certainly don't have to. But in as much as you can or want to say, the plot and the characters, like, how much does the finished product reflect what you started off with? And if you, like, are they, like, with marketing, are they the same characters? Is it the same plot that you sort of, like, sort of planned on at the beginning? Les, do you want to start?
Sure. So I decided to go off label, if you will. In terms of what I'm writing, I usually stick to urban fantasy or suburban fantasy, and this year, I'm writing a romance novel. Yeah. So it's been a little different in
terms of writing, but she gently fondled the notebooks.
She gently stroked the COVID of the notebook. Oh, jeez, you guys. I'm going to get laughing and I'm not going to be able to stop.
Sorry.
So, yeah, so anyway, so what's been really interesting is that I don't know if either of you have ever read romance novels, but they follow a very specific series of like, this happens, this happens, this happens, this happens.
Yeah.
And it can be a little formulaic, but you can take that formula and you can twist it a little bit. So I think that what I've done with my. I've twisted it a little bit. There's a lot more depth to the characters I think that I'm going for. So it's a little more literary, but it's still a romance. But I think that I've really like, those characters are still the same characters. I just realized that marketing wasn't going to fit for the story.
I'm trying to think of a good marketing, like, she finished the editorial calendar. Her eyes fluttered.
Yeah, that just. It didn't work. So anyway, it's like, it definitely stayed with the ideas that I had in terms of like, this is what the characters like and this is how I'm going to push them forward. Here's how like the wedge that's going to be driven between them to make the final push towards the end where they figure out that they're in love and they're gonna get their happily ever after. Because if you do a romance novel without a happily ever after, you will get like, romance readers are one star. Savage. They are.
Oh, I bet. Yeah.
Savage reviewers, there's no happily ever after here. This isn't a romance novel. And this is. I do, I do. Really. This is like going to be my first foray into self publishing. So it's going to be really interesting to like. Part of what I want to do with manuscripting POD is explore the self publishing journey with the listeners and sort of say, so this is what happens now. This is where I am with the novel, so on and so forth. So it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the future.
I'd be really interested in like, you know, as you explore that, you know, checking in every now and then with somebody like Harry Marks who like very intentionally is holding out for like going the more traditional published route. I. Yeah, I think that'll be a really interesting like point, counterpoint kind of a thing. But for sure, like I, I read a lot of like genre science fiction and like, just as if the romance novel doesn't, doesn't end like With a happy ending. The sci fi novel, if it like, you know, has like, inconsistencies or like factual inaccuracies when it comes to like some kinds of science, you get like, you definitely get the. Well, actually, dude, bros coming out of the closet to like tell you. Well, actually, in this particular case, faster than light travel wouldn't. Yeah, just like shut up.
Just enjoy the book. Damn it.
Yeah. Johnny, how about you? If you don't want to talk about your plot or your characters, that's fine. But I would love to know. Yeah. The finished product.
So this is my first attempt at science fiction. I reset that. So I was writing or reading. Writing. Oh my God. Watching the film that was on Netflix. Apparently it flopped. Called the Discovery. With Robert Redford.
Yeah.
And Josh Siegel. Did you guys see that?
I didn't, but I heard a lot about it.
But I have heard about it.
I mean, everybody said it sucked. I thought it was really good. So the movie is not about time travel, but it got me thinking about time travel. So I started out with a plot wherein time travel was a new thing and everybody could do it once. And then I realized that wasn't working for the story. So then they're like weird little subplots I didn't think were going to pop up. Like there's a lot of anti religious sentiment to the narrative and a lot of gender issues which were interesting to write about. And I hope I didn't butcher being a white man.
Maybe there's some sensitivity readers you can find to help you. Beta, I'm available.
I'm going to hit you up. Yeah, I mean, so while I was floundering, I was sort of working on some like background exposition pieces that would sort of be narrated in later. And I came up with a set of characters that didn't really fit well for where I wanted it to go, but I made myself stick with it. So now the story is way different than I intended it to be, but I hope more interesting and definitely a lot more violent and dark. Like every time I write something, it winds up being really dark. So about the futility of human existence and how we ruin everything.
Okay, philosophy major.
Welcome to 2018.
Yeah, reflection of our times. Yeah.
So when the 2004 election happened, I had a non pencil blog and I was predicting that existential was going to take back off. But it didn't. So maybe we can help now.
It's a straight.
Sartre was right.
What's now like nihilism, but nihilism mixed with anarchism just burn it all down. It doesn't matter.
Yeah, I mean, the older I get, the more I realize that Nietzsche and Sartre were pretty much right about everything. Cool. So I've been introducing my kids to Nietzsche a little bit, not even joking.
So related to the last question. So within the actual process of writing, what are some various surprises that you've encountered? And Johnny, if you want to start.
Sure. So I co host a pencil podcast and have a pencil blog. So I was surprised by. There was a time, I guess it was like last weekend I was sitting in a coffee shop and it was one of those days where I just didn't feel like being there. And I was having some trouble getting started and I brought a few black wings and like a gel pen or with me. The whole time I'm writing, I'm like, this is not working. I really want a freaking bit crystal. So I went home, pulled out a bit crystal and wrote with it for like four or five days until my hand told me, no more bit crystal for a while. And like took out a large. Like, you can really write a lot with one bit crystal.
Yeah.
Like, if you didn't lose them, a pack of those would totally last you a school year.
Absolutely.
But, yeah, I found that surprising. I mean, I know that I like bit crystals, but it doesn't strike you as a right fast and legibly comfortably pen?
Yeah, that's.
And it was for quite a while.
Yeah. Les, how about you?
I was really surprised at the amount of words that I could get done in a short writing session. It really only like to get the 1667 words that I needed per day. It took about an hour.
Wow.
Yeah, that's fast. That's interesting.
But I think it's having that outline and the structure because I know exactly like, okay, this section of the story has to lead to this and what I write during this session has to end up at a certain point.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't know. It's like, I wasn't expecting that. But also, I think the other side of it is also leading up to NaNoWriMo. I started to write every day for 25 minutes and wake up in the morning, make my morning coffee, sit down and type for 25 minutes on my novel.
That's cool. And what is your primary typing? What do you type into this?
So I use a Kindle Fire, so it's the smaller size.
Are you telling me you didn't buy a freewrite?
Don't get me started. No. So I use that with an Amazon Basics Bluetooth keyboard It pairs seamlessly. And then at the same time, I have it paired up to a Bluetooth speaker. So I got some tunes going, I got the keyboard going, and I just sit down with my morning cup of coffee. I have a couple cups of. I actually put my coffee into a thermos so that I don't break my flow, and I, you know, drink out of my Fire King jadeite cup. And I have this little ritual 25 minutes every morning.
I love that.
And it's good.
Yeah. And you use. You mentioned it earlier, but you use jotterpad, which. That's like that, like, kind of like minimalistic, like markdown editor. Right? That's a.
It is.
Well, it does. You can do markdown into it, but you can also. They have a couple of other. I think Journey is their app. Their other app. But it's really clean. It's really simple. It's very easy to use. But what I really like about it is that it has typewriter mode, so I can only see about three lines of text clearly. And then the rest of it is grayed out so that you can. If you squint at it, you can see it, but it's not really in your face.
Yeah.
So I really like that. So that way I'm not. It also shuts off all of the Looking, like the spell check and all the errors.
Yeah.
So it shuts all of that down. So you're just clean typing into this app.
That's awesome. Yeah. I use a couple various apps for the Apple ecosystem that are a lot like that. It's so funny to me how, like, you know, just like, we. We have to, like, get back to basics of this writing. Like, I can. I cannot write into Microsoft Word anymore. Like, I just can't. I just can't do it. So, like, too much stuff happening. So I usually have to, like. Even Google Docs is like. There's just so much going on. I usually have to start in. I use one called Ulysses, which is very similar to that. And I have to, like, type into Ulysses and then copy paste it into. Into something else.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The problem that I do have with jotterpad or even Google Docs, once you get to a certain length document, it starts to get really laggy.
Just a lot.
Yeah. Like around 15,000 words. So I have actually, with this novel, I'm now at my, like, doc four for it. So basically I hit around 15,000, 16,000 words, finish that chapter, and then open up another document and start working into that. I keep doing that until I'm finished with the novel. Then what I do is I compile it all into one big fat Google Doc, which Google Docs does not like. And then I also compile it into Word doc, which just has no issues with. At all.
Yeah, but it's interesting. And Johnny, you. You have no. In no time does this like touch digital, right? Like you're just doing this straight into a notebook.
Yeah, and I realized the one that I did last year that I kind of liked, I lost, so.
Oh no, there's no.
I mean, it's somewhere, but. But I don't know where it is. But at least it's in pencil, so if it gets wet, it'll be okay. I mean, if there are some ninjas with erasers, I'm in trouble, but haven't seen those around here lately.
I guess that brings me to my last point, which is Johnny, what's next? Like what, what do you want to do? You want to keep it in notebook or do you want to like turn it into something you can publish or. What's up?
So every year I tell myself I'm going to kick it in December and then in the new year, type it up, you know, see if it's any good or just, you know, for the exercise of doing it. But something always comes up. Somebody gets sick or, you know, I have another kid. But this year I'm gonna start bullet journaling and like start holding my, myself accountable. So I'm gonna type this son of a bitch up. If I have to go buy a Chromebook that is only for this thing, that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm. I'm telling you, get a free write
and they'll send us one to review.
Yeah. Oh man. I've actually reached out to what's his name, Adam Lieb, like a couple times and just never hear back. I'm just, I'm sure. Not that I like, like I'm like morbidly curious about them. Like I really want to do like a side by side with an Alpha Smart. But yeah, speaking of, I mean you could totally just do that, right, Johnny? Like you could just get a. Oh yeah, she's. Get an Alpha smart. Get an 18 like Alpha Smart plus and just like type that and then beam it over WI fi to your computer.
You know what? Every time I go on there and look at them, I want the clear one, but I realize that's not the newest one and then I don't buy one.
Yeah, nice. You talked a little bit about self publishing, but what's Next with your draft.
So I need probably another 10 to 15,000 words to finish it to completely cap off the novel. And then I mentioned this in the, like the most recent episode of Manupod. But self edits. So I use a couple of different online artificial intelligence editors. I use Hemingway and God, I'm blanking on the other one, but whatever. You can listen to the eight minute episode of Manuscripting Pod if you really want to know. And it gives me kind of a good idea of where I am, like, having trouble with my writing. It also highlights like the longest sentences and things that are confusing. So that gives me like a good place of figuring out where I need to go with my self edits. Then I go through, I print it all off and I get my red, blue colored pencils and my fancy fountain pens and I start marking it up and thinking about where like, all right, so you know, my character is in marketing in the beginning and then she needs to be in coding by chapter three. So I need to fix that. Making those kinds of notes on it and then typing it, going back into the novel and fixing things. Then I'll send it off to a professional for edits.
Nice. Do you do. Oh, what am I thinking of, like beta readers or anything like that?
I will be. So I belong to a. What's the name of the
group?
So Les Fic community on Slack. And so there'll be a bunch of people who will beta read for me in there and give me some ideas. I've had a couple of people offer to beta read. So, you know, and my wife will beta read as well. But of course she's probably just gonna say nice things, although she is a brutal editor. Brutal. And I think it's just because she's an attorney. So I expect a lot of red ink on it. So it'll be. So definitely going to have some beta readers probably before I even send it off to a professional for edits. Because you want to get that beta reading in before you pay for editing if there's a big problem with the novel. So this reader community that I belong to, it's readers and writers, romance readers are brutal. And they will say, you know what, you need to add this into your second act. And by the third act, you need to have this going on.
Yeah. Oh, wow. That is brutal. Yeah. Yeah, I. I see you sometimes, like, you know, have tyro tirades on Twitter about the Lesfit community.
Yeah.
Which is. Which I think is. Is really interesting. Do you find their like, you know, like regular, like like broad genre romance readers to be like more brutal, less brutal than Lesvic readers or do you find that like. Yeah, about the same.
I think it's about the same, but there's a little bit of difference. Like I think that within the lesfic community, people. Because we're so underrepresented.
Yeah.
I'm stuttering that because we're so underrepresented in traditional publishing that people are much more gentle on. On what's already published. People don't want to say bad things about other authors and we're generally very, very supportive of. But when you ask someone to beta read.
Yeah.
All bets are off because you're asking them. I want you to be a little mean. I want you to tell me what's wrong with my novel.
Yeah.
And so I think the gloves come off in that case. But even then it's still kind and supportive. It's a very, very close knit community and it's cool.
Yeah, that's awesome. I remember we talked a little bit about some drama that was happening when I was a guest on rsvp.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Cocky gate.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
That's actually been resolved. So the lawsuit went through and the Romance Writers of America won. It wasn't so much they, the greater community, I think won the lawsuit and the person who had filed for the trademark on Cocky dropped it. So they let it go and they're no longer harassing other authors. And so, yeah, you know, I feel bad for that poor woman. Like it was, it was a misguided thing that she was doing and I think it's really damaged her career sadly. But she made a bet. She made a pretty silly mistake there, but it's been resolved and now like you could follow bots on Twitter to explore like different things that have been like trademarks people, like spurious, silly trademarks people are going after.
That's interesting.
Someone tried to trademark Space Marine.
Space Marine, Yeah.
Which you can't really do.
Yeah, yeah.
That's a whole genre in and of itself.
That sure is. That's funny. Space Marine. Johnny, do you have plans post, like do you have plans for self publishing or looking for real publishers or is that way putting the cart in front of the horse?
Yeah, I mean that would be pretty far off.
Yeah.
I'm going to try to shape it up a little bit and see if it's even worth a lot of editing work.
Yeah. Cool. All right, so before we sign off, is there anything about this topic that anybody wants to talk about that I just completely missed.
No, I think we've hit it all.
Yeah.
Oh. So one question. How do you stay. I don't want to throw the word sane around, but how do you stay sane during National Novel Writing Month? Because I have a little trouble.
You think this is sane?
Do I really sound sane, Johnny?
Yeah, I think so.
I think in part, like, I like you, I give up a lot of things during NaNoWriMo and I'm realizing now how much stuff I have to get back to. Like, I schedule blog posts way in advance. That's all written way in advance. But yeah, like, basically, like, I stay sane by giving up a few things and knowing this is going to be a little nutty.
How do you stay sane, Johnny?
I don't know that I do, but if so, only just, you know, knowing that there's an end in sight. That, like, no matter how bad it gets November 30th is it, then it's back to being able to shave,
I guess. I have a follow up question for you, Johnny. Do you look at writing as a form of self care?
Not this kind of writing, but in general, yes, that's probably my main self care. But this is torture sometimes. Like, oh my God, my hand hurts. Like, my eyes are crossed and like, why am I doing this? But it's fun. And when you're done, you're like, holy crap, that was 2,000 words. Yeah, but this is sort of like the opposite of self care because then I start drinking too much coffee, which I know is not good for me. I'm getting some flack for that. Like, you know, how much coffee do you drink is if you don't answer the question, that's not good.
I don't know anymore.
I don't remember changing the subject. So. Do you guys hear that? No.
That's funny. Cool. Well, Les, thank you so much for joining us. This has been a lot of fun.
I've had a great time.
Yeah. And where else can people find your stuff on the Internet?
Well, you can find me on Instagram and Twitter OriginAllCharper. You can find me on Facebook in the Erasables and RSVP and Manuscripting podcast group.
A lot of places.
A lot of places. Basically, I'm all over the Internet. Just follow the links.
Yeah, yeah, we'll have lots of links in show notes, but for sure, check out the RSVP podcast. It's really great. And I really feel like a lot of people listen to Erasable for the conversation and for the chemistry between us. Co hosts and 100% that's what it is with RSVP. And they really do go a lot deeper on things that aren't just pencils. Sometimes we do. Like, I guess today we went deep on something that isn't specifically pencils. But one of my very favorite RSVP episodes remains the one about chalk. Just because like people have strong opinions about chalk.
They really do.
Yeah. Lenore, like most of all. So yeah, really great podcast. Link in show Notes. So, yeah, awesome. How about you Johnny? Where can people find you on the Internet?
You could find me@pencilrevolution.com and on social media ensolution.
Awesome. And I'm on Twitter and Instagram as wellfley and you can find my website@andy.wtf or woodclinch.com so this has been the Erasable podcast. We are on the web at Erasable Us. You can find show notes for this episode and the recording at erasable US108. Already 108 episodes so far. If you want to come take part in our community on Facebook, come to facebook.comgroups erasable. From there you can find links to stuff like the RSVP community, which is also really amazing. Les is an intrepid moderator of both communities. In fact, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, raceablepodcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, we would love a review that helps us, helps us be seen and helps us be discovered by other people looking for good podcasts. Our thanks again to Indefensite Paper for sponsoring this episode. They make high quality notebooks sourced and manufactured in the US. If you visit indefensive paper.com erasable you can check them out and if you want to save $5 off your purchase, you can use the coupon code Erasable. Thanks again Les. It's been a blast and we will see you all next time. The intro music for the Erasable podcast
is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music at www.thismountainband.com.