Writing
Today I just got my first Moleskine® sketchbook.
Moleskine is the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin.This trusty, pocket-size travel companion held sketches, notes, stories and ideas before they were turned into famous images or pages of beloved books.
Not sure how "legendary" my works would be, but I got pushed over the edge after reading Thord's entry about "analog writing".
As much as my other blogs and this one records my stray thoughs, I am not online most of the time. And the ideas just never stop popping into my head, and even if I do not wish, I do forget to get those ideas into writing somewhere.
I have been intending on getting a notebook for myself so that I write notes and draw sketches whenever I feel like and am not restricted to times when I have access to a computer or internet.
I got the Moleskine® sketchbook one because I would be doodling a lot as much as I would be writing, and the heavy acid-free 80 pages book seems to have good "tooth" for sketching.
Now, I just need to see for how long I can stick to the routine of recording the ideas as they pop into my head, and also how I can catalog it and use it in my works.
Photography: Arun Sasidharan © 2007
I had written quite a bit on a realm - Chaos And Order which was developed by a friend, a cousin and me. And there were some more writeups I did for last years NaNoWriMo participation.
I have edited few of them a bit and uploaded here - it may get used in some other projects.
- Fabric Of The Realm
- Genesis Of Naras And Firmans
- Kala - The Time
- History Of Pipurim
- Magic, Tantara And Other Skills
There might be more updates on this in near future. But that is about it for today.
I had this talk with a friend yesterday. I was working on some articles, (based on a jolt I had from past), and I wanted his review to see that I had got all the facts right.
So, he went through it, and told me to read 'some digital circuits' book. I was a bit perplexed and asked him if there was anything I had written that was grossly wrong. He summed up saying that, 'it shows you are a software engineer'. That followed by, 'the terminology is different'.
I was offended. Grossly offended. How dare he say I am just a software engineer. Hell, I was the best solderer of circuits in our project group - may be topped only by Sushil. I had done my share of hard-core engineering when it came to me. How dare he say I was just a 'soft'ware engineer!
I guess, I will stop the rant and get to the point. The reason I did not use the specific words used in digital circuit text books while writing those articles were because I was not writing it for electronic engineers. There was no point in writing it for eletronic engineers - because they would be already knowing what I was writing about. They would know much more than what I am capable of writing on the subject for now.
On the other hand, there would be some computer savvy people, who out of interest or my threats may end up reading the article. Getting educated as an Electronics engineer and then working in the IT industry has given me a perspective, that lets me tell something that would generally not be told to software people.
So, since I got the chance, I thought I will explain them the intricacies of the electronics world, in their language - the way they would understand.
In short, before you write something, know who your readers are, and choose the lingo that is best suited for them.
PS: Venkatesh Acharya is a nice guy. No, really. He is. He did not bribe me for this. (He is the guy who I verbally abused in this post). He just happened to be the guinea pig for my rant. :) Venkatesh is very well versend in the field that I was writing about, and naturally, I asked his help. :)
