. . . and I’m still trying to find a voice for my detective story. A plot would be nice as well, but for now I will settle for something that sounds like a detective story. A few people were interested in my Test Sample No. 1, and that’s nice; we’ll see where I go with that, if not for NaNoWriMo, shortly after.
There are a couple of variants, or types, of detectives stories. I read that somewhere, but I don’t want to look them up. I’m going to do this based on what I think is a detective story.
Before I continue, let me take a short detour. A few months ago I wrote the author Mary Robinette Kowal. And I mean physically wrote her, as in a handwritten letter. I did it because I was intrigued by her “Contact” information.
She said that if someone writes her, she will answer in kind, with a physical letter.
I wrote, she responded, and I just mailed off the reply to her response. That’s where it will stop, as I don’t know the lady personally, and as she is an established author, I’m sure she gets lots of ‘friends’ requests from people wanting to break into the field.
It kind of sucks because almost anyone I would actually be interested in having a conversation with has to rightly be concerned with the motive behind anyone wanting to converse. I assume it’s the same thing for the stinking (or, if you prefer, filthy) rich. They can probably never be sure of the sincerity of “friends” unless the friends are also filthy rich. I imagine that is one reasons why authors have other authors as friends.
But, the detour I spoke of is not about that. The detour is about my writing . . . I used to get compliments whenever anyone used to read anything I wrote longhand. I had skillz, or so I was told, in the calligraphy department. Here’s an examples of a world-building worksheet from way back when.
Now, I say I got compliments, but I never thought my handwriting as notworthy . . . but I could write without making mistakes, and fairly uniformly. That writing was put down without a concern for penmanship or the thought that anyone would ever read it . . . that was for me, and written without being aware of the process itself.
That worksheet is from the late 80s . . . I just found it in a notebook, along with lots of other stories ideas, all written at a time when I owned a business and had no time to actually write stories. I outlined, but did not write. Now I write, but don’t outline.
My penmanship was still passable in 2011; I have proof, in the form of three handwritten posts spanning the time from February through August:
Three years later, and my writing is uneven, stilted, I struggle with writing letters clearly, and I make a lot of mistakes (wrong letters, missing letters, etc.)
I think in part it’s because I can type much faster than write longhand, and my brain has become accustomed to a certain speed of transcribing thoughts into words. Thus, when I write longhand, my brain is a few words ahead of what I am actually writing.
So, what does that have to do with NaNoWriMo?
No, I’m not writing the whole thing longhand, but I did write the NaNoWriMo Test Sample No 2 out in longhand.
Yes, I need to practice writing more, and I aim to do just that, but mostly stream of consciousness stuff.
Just out of curiosity, could everyone read that? Yes, I’m asking the two or three people who actually clicked on the link.
Oh, by the way . . . that is what my raw story output looks like, even when typed on a keyboard. There are a few sentences I would reword, a couple of words I would swap, but for the most part, not too bad. Not too bad, that is, in my opinion and possibly the opinion of someone who can also read it. I mean, I can read it, but I’m not a doctor or a lawyer; I can read my own handwriting.
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. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
Disperser Tracks 
I’ve had to read a lot of handwritten (cursive and printed) pages in my life as a teacher…so I’m pretty good at it…I can even most doctor’s chicken-scratch. So, your writing was easy to read and a joy to read! You have a good flow and VERY attractive penmanship! 🙂
I write my adult kids at least one handwritten letter every year (plus snail-mail cards all year round). I want them to have some things written by me. I think we’ve lost something in that most everything has been typed for decades now.
I find the same thing you do. Having typed for soooooooooooooo long now….I find myself moving too quickly when I write with pen or pencil….and I leave out letters, etc. Oh well! 🙂
That’s so cool about you writing that author and that she wrote back to you! 🙂
I read an author’s first book a few years ago and she had her e-mail address in the back of the book, so I wrote her an e-mail. We exchanged e-mails for about a year before one of us finally slacked off. I learned a lot from her. And she said I encouraged her. 🙂
HUGS!!! 🙂
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Maybe a number of years ago, but now so so much (but thanks for saying so) . . . I’ll work to get it back.
Yeah, it’s nice that she wrote back except that now I don’t have much to say since I won’t be reading her books.
But, it was interesting while it lasted.
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The men in my life have really bad handwriting. So your handwriting (even now) is so much better than the handwriting I have to decipher! 😀
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. . . ask them to print . . .
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Your handwritten downloads are a case for familiarity breeds “content” . . . reminds me of wonderful days gone by. Yours has always been the best handwriting of us “kids” and I will always treasure those long letters we got from mother when she resided in Italy, she has such a great undulating penmanship.
As for the Test Sample No. 2, I like it!
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I probably wrote much more than the rest of you guys . . . you could all talk.
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